310 entries tagged with baking/sweets.
One Year Old + Almost Three (May 23, 2013)
Update time! Lots to catch up on…
At 47 weeks old, Felix started giving us nose kisses (awww!), and we visited Jon, Katie, and baby Greta (who is three weeks younger than Felix) in Seattle! Felix a...
Early April Update (April 5, 2013)
Oh, spring. Yay, yay, yay!
We have had a string of beautiful, sunny days lately, and I've been spending as much time as possible outside (or just on the porch steps with the door cracked, if on...
Wrapping Up February (February 28, 2013)
Time for another update, huh? Somehow I've got a backlog of six weekly Felix pictures to share. The weeks just keep passing, whether I write about them or not!
At 36 weeks old (way back in mid-Janu...
Christmas and the New Year (January 17, 2013)
A somewhat belated Happy New Year! My wish for us in 2013: More sleep! Otherwise, things are pretty great already.
When we last talked, Felix was 31 weeks old. A day after my last post, his first t...
Thanksgiving + Early December (December 17, 2012)
We've been hugging our boys extra close these past few days, preoccupied with the horrible shootings that happened this week, both close to home and in Connecticut. My heart goes out to the families a...
August Recap (September 6, 2012)
Happy September! Here is Felix at 13-16 weeks old, making pretty much the same face every time (I swear, he smiles a lot too!).
And here's his sweet little almost-bald head at three month...
Summer Update (August 3, 2012)
Wow, lots to write about! I guess that's what happens when I only write one post per month.
Here we have Felix at 8-12 weeks old. He's pretty good about hanging out in the orange chair while I take...
Kitty Cozy, Cherry Desserts (July 10, 2012)
All is well here. Last week, with a little baby-holding help from Patrick, I finished the sewing project I mentioned in my last entry--a kitty cozy for our couch.
When we got our new couch, Pat...
Road Trip, Beef Share (July 2, 2012)
Hmm, time seems to be going by awfully quickly. I have three more weeks' worth of orange chair pictures to post--here is Felix at 5, 6, and 7 weeks:
Poor little brother!
In the past few ...
Twenty-Two Months Old, Part Two (April 14, 2012)
Here are a couple of Arlo's 22-month orange chair pictures, as promised in my last post. He was in kind of a grumpy mood, having just gotten up from his nap, but the tape measure cheered him up.
...
Twenty-Two Months Old, Cabin Trip (March 31, 2012)
What a crazy week! My sister Lianna came to visit at the beginning of the week, and unfortunately, Patrick and I came down with a cold almost as soon as she got here. Luckily, she was still able to ge...
Twenty-One Months Old (March 8, 2012)
Wow, it's March already! Arlo turned 21 months old last week.
As you can see in the pictures, his hair has been getting pretty crazy, so a few days ago, I decided to try cutting it myself, ra...
Twenty Months Old (February 15, 2012)
Hmm, somehow it's already the middle of February. We've just finished getting over a nasty stomach bug. Luckily, it only seemed to affect Arlo for a couple hours, and it didn't hit Patrick too hard, b...
Holiday Recap (January 11, 2012)
We spent the holidays in Portland this year--our first time since we moved here. I missed seeing my family, but it was nice being able to relax at home instead of traveling with a toddler. We got a li...
Seventeen Months Old (November 9, 2011)
Hmm, apparently it has been a month since I posted. Arlo is seventeen months old now. He's so great; he just gets more and more awesome every month!
In the past month, he has gotten really in...
Sixteen Months Old + Home Improvements (October 10, 2011)
Arlo turned 16 months old a little over a week ago. He's getting so big!
In the past month, he's gotten really good at climbing down from things on his tummy, feet first. He can climb down fr...
Food Roundup (September 1, 2011)
I have lots to share--since I last wrote, we drove to Montana, saw the Decemberists perform, and observed Arlo's 15-month birthday! But since it's summer and I'm feeling lazy, all I've got for you ton...
Approaching 14 Months Old (July 27, 2011)
Wow, it has been almost a month since I wrote a substantial post! Here's what's new:
Arlo is very interested in all of the bikes, cars, trucks, and buses that pass by our house. He's particular...
Thirteen Months Old (July 3, 2011)
Arlo turned 13 months old on Thursday! He wasn't too interested in sitting for his orange chair picture; he preferred to look at books.
Two days ago (on his 13-month birthday), Arlo figured out...
Arlo's First Birthday Party (June 3, 2011)
As of Monday, Arlo is one year old. Wowza!
We had a nice, small birthday party on Sunday. The overcast weather kept us inside (the curse of having a Memorial Day birthday in Portland), but we s...
Forty-Nine and Fifty Weeks Old (May 21, 2011)
Oh, this sweet baby! How'd I get so lucky?
Here he is at 49 and 50 weeks old. He was still dealing with his cold during the 49-week photo shoot, so he's pretty teary-eyed in most of the picture...
Forty-Seven and Forty-Eight Weeks Old (May 12, 2011)
Hmm, it has been a little while since I last wrote!
We've got a wonderful, crawling 11-month-old on our hands. His increased mobility has led to an increased number of head bonks (including a...
Forty-Five and Forty-Six Weeks Old (April 23, 2011)
Here's Arlo at 45 and 46 weeks. Only a week left until he's 11 months old!
He has picked up all sorts of fun new skills over the past few weeks--pointing at things, clicking his tongue and st...
Forty-Two, Three, and Four Weeks Old (April 6, 2011)
Hmm, somehow it has been three weeks since I last posted. Arlo turned 10 months old on Friday! I have lots to share, including three weeks' worth of orange chair pictures:
First, the State ...
Forty and Forty-One Weeks Old (March 20, 2011)
Here's Mr. Arlo sharing some wonderful toothy grins! (Tooth #5 showed up a couple days ago, much to our surprise!)
He had his 9-month checkup a few weeks ago, and it went just fine. Patri...
Thirty-Seven and Thirty-Eight Weeks Old (February 26, 2011)
Arlo pictures! Here he is at 37 and 38 weeks.
And here he is showing how well he can stand (with a little help, of course).
As indicated by the tears welling in his eyes in some of the...
Thirty-Five and Thirty-Six Weeks Old (February 12, 2011)
Oh my, who knew that sewing a shirt could take so much time? I've been following along with the Negroni sew-along for the past 10 days, and it has left little time in the evenings for anything else. B...
Thirty-Three and Thirty-Four Weeks Old (January 26, 2011)
Here's Arlo at 33 and 34 weeks old--only a few days away from being eight months old. I know I keep saying it every time he hits a new month, but my, how time flies!
Arlo's still not crawling...
Thirty-Two Weeks Old (January 15, 2011)
Here's Arlo at 32 weeks old, in a styling track suit from his Great Aunt Linda!
I think I say this every week, but Arlo is such a joy these days. He's happy and smiling most of the time, and ...
Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight Weeks Old (December 15, 2010)
Here's Mister Arlo at twenty-seven weeks (we love it when he makes that "O" face!):
And at twenty-eight weeks, at rest and in a happy blur:
Arlo's doing great and is so much fun (I f...
Twenty-Six Weeks Old (December 4, 2010)
Here's Arlo at twenty-six weeks, wearing the sweet corduroy overalls that I bought before he was born. I love the crooked baby smile :)
We had a nice Thanksgiving at Patrick's Aunt Lorraine's...
Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five Weeks (November 22, 2010)
This will be an extra-long post, since I didn't get around to writing one last week. To start off, here are two weeks' worth of orange chair pictures--Arlo at 24 and 25 weeks!
And here are ...
Twenty-Three Weeks Old (November 12, 2010)
Here's our little 23-week-old chubby boy!
And here he is demonstrating the maneuver I mentioned last week where he goes from sitting up to being on his tummy on the arm of the chair (followed...
Twenty-Two Weeks Old (November 7, 2010)
Here are Arlo's twenty-two-week chair pictures. He was feeling a little sensitive during our photo session, thus the quivery lower lip in the second picture.
Arlo's first Halloween went well....
Twenty-One Weeks Old (October 30, 2010)
Arlo is five months old today--what a big kid! Here he is posing for his 21-week picture last Sunday.
He just gets more and more entertaining and fun to be around every week. He can be grumpy a...
Nineteen Weeks Old (October 16, 2010)
Here are Arlo's nineteen-week pictures, from last Sunday. The lip-sucking thing he's doing in the second one is apparently related to teething. I think it's pretty cute.
And here's a bonus pi...
Eighteen Weeks Old (October 6, 2010)
Here is Arlo at eighteen weeks old, wearing his cool shark onesie!
Here he is hanging out with Patches (they're still not sure what to think of each other).
Arlo had his four-month c...
Finicky Cheesecake Cookies (September 10, 2010)
I made these mini cheesecakes for new parents' group this week, because it was Gracie's last week hosting the group for a while. Gracie doesn't eat wheat, so I used gluten-free cinnamon cookies instea...
Twelve Weeks Old (August 26, 2010)
Arlo is twelve weeks old!
The most exciting news this week is that we weighed him on Monday, and he's gained 13 ounces in the past week! It looks like our lots-of-milk plan is working. I'm so...
Eleven Weeks Old (August 16, 2010)
Arlo is eleven weeks old! We're having more and more luck each Sunday catching him when he's bright-eyed and in a good mood.
With the hot weather we've been having for the last few days, he has...
Ten Weeks Old (August 10, 2010)
Arlo is ten weeks old! We celebrated with a picnic in Piccolo Park and waffles with Andrew, who was in town for the weekend (yay!).
Arlo is doing well. Of course, after finding out that h...
Eight Weeks Old (July 29, 2010)
Arlo is eight weeks old and coming up on his 2-month birthday on Friday!
Within the last week, he has discovered his feet (which he finds especially interesting when they're inside his new st...
Arlo Cuteness and Adventures (July 24, 2010)
We've got baby smiles! So great :)
Arlo has become alert for longer stretches of time in the last few weeks, which is so fun! There's still plenty of crying, but at least it's balanced out by l...
Week 37 Recap, Part 2 (May 24, 2010)
Thirty-eight (and a half) weeks! Sorry to keep you in suspense by being quiet for so long. The baby is still in the belly, though he did drop last night when I was getting ready for bed. I felt some b...
Week 37 Recap (May 18, 2010)
Hello! Not quite time yet for a belly picture this week, but I figured I might want to do more frequent posts now, since the baby could come at any time, and I'm sure I won't feel like writing a post ...
Week 35 Recap (May 7, 2010)
Thirty-six weeks! I'm in my ninth month of pregnancy now, and strangers are not shy about commenting on how pregnant I am (which I have no problem with--I think it's kind of cool!). Surprisingly, I ha...
Week 34 Recap (April 29, 2010)
Thirty-five weeks! As Patrick pointed out, the expiration date on his yogurt is now after our baby's due date. Not much longer now...
Our pre-baby education continues. This weekend, we went...
Week 33 Recap (April 24, 2010)
Thirty-four weeks! We are definitely shifting into baby panic mode at this point, working hard to get everything ready before he shows up. We're making progress, which is satisfying.
Regard...
Baby Shower (April 20, 2010)
We had a great weekend! Tree came up for a visit, and we lucked out and had really beautiful weather. On Saturday, we walked up to Jam for breakfast, then walked down Hawthorne, stopping at Cool Cotto...
Week 32 Recap (April 16, 2010)
Thirty-three weeks! Can you tell I was tired when I took this picture? I'm not too tired in general; this was just during a post-lunch slump. I took a quick walk in the sunshine a little later (with f...
Week 29 Recap (March 27, 2010)
Wow, 30 weeks! Three-quarters of the way there. I'm definitely starting to feel a little unwieldy, but it's not too bad.
I've been feeling fewer sharp kicks recently, which is consistent wi...
Week 28 Recap (March 19, 2010)
Twenty-nine weeks! This belly means business.
I wasn't sure if I should mention this, because it might move me from the "slightly unorthodox pregnant lady" category to the "crazy new age pr...
Week 27 Recap (March 13, 2010)
Twenty-eight weeks! We've made it to the third trimester. Good job, baby! Here's a bonus family portrait to celebrate (we tried to get Patches in there too, but she wasn't interested).
We had...
Banana-Date Muffins and Apricot-Almond Granola Bars (March 6, 2010)
As I mentioned earlier, I'm trying to cut out white sugar and white flour as much as possible while I'm pregnant, which has led me to look for recipes for healthy baked goods that taste reasonably goo...
Week 25 Recap (February 26, 2010)
Twenty-six weeks! Assuming all is going according to plan in there, the baby weighs about 2 pounds, and he can open his eyes. Good job, baby!
Hypnobirthing classes continue to go well. We've be...
Week 23 Recap (February 13, 2010)
Twenty-four weeks! Can there really be only a few more weeks left in the second trimester? I'll be sad to see it go--it has been so fun! Increased energy and appetite, and tangible proof that there's ...
Week 22 Recap (February 7, 2010)
So, like I said, I was in California for work last week, so I had to find a substitute mirror for my weekly photo. Luckily, there's one in the womens locker room at work that did the job just fine.
...
Week 21 Recap (January 29, 2010)
Week 22! All is well.
The baby book says the baby can hear at this point, and to celebrate, we took him to a Builders and the Butchers show at The Woods. Okay, so the timing was just a coinci...
Week 20 Recap (January 22, 2010)
Twenty-one weeks--the baby is allegedly as long as a (large) banana. That seems about right. His kicks are getting stronger, which is exciting! We can count on him to put on a little kicking show righ...
Week 19 Recap + Big Deal Ultrasound Results (January 14, 2010)
Twenty weeks--the halfway point (give or take)! The big news this week is that we had our 20-week ultrasound this morning, and it's a boy! Whoa!
We actually had a little false start related to the ...
Week 18 Recap (January 7, 2010)
Today marks the start of week 19! Highlights for the coming week include the baby reaching 6 inches in length and the start of vernix production. Oh, and we find out if it's a boy or a girl on Wednesd...
2009 Highlights + Big News! (January 1, 2010)
This past year has definitely had its ups and downs for friends and family and for the world in general, but we were lucky enough to have a pretty good year. Some highlights:
We made new friends ...
Christmas Crafting and Recent Baking (January 1, 2010)
We kept our Christmas gifts pretty low-key this year. We took advantage of our cabinet full of jams from this summer and gave those as presents, along with felt trivets. The trivets, based on directio...
Thanksgiving 2009 (January 1, 2010)
Happy 2010! I plan to write a post about the year as a whole, but first continuing with the catching up, here's a rundown of our Thanksgiving dinner. It was our one big holiday cooking event of 2009--...
Green Tomatoes, Muffins, Knitting, Cyclocross (November 20, 2009)
Hoo boy, I've been quiet for too long! Here are a bunch of things I meant to mention at the time but never got around to writing about. Still to come: Ladies Rock Camp and our recent trip to Canada!
...
Busy in the Kitchen + Roller Derby and Oregon! Oregon! (September 9, 2009)
Phew! August was a frenzy of preserving and trying to keep up with our garden and CSA. Things seem to be slowing down now, which is kind of a relief.
We were lucky enough to be overrun with tom...
Portland Pie-Off, Mail Slot Cozy (August 17, 2009)
Baking
We went to a fun barbecue at Susan's on Friday, in honor of Linda and Paul, who were in town for Linda's book signing. It was great meeting them! My contribution to the barbecue was a shiro ...
Preserving Frenzy: Two Jams and Icicle Pickles (August 17, 2009)
Wow, August is going by so quickly! We're so busy enjoying that summer that I don't have time to write about it. That's probably a good thing. Let's see, what have I been up to? I'll divide this into ...
Lemon Blueberry Buckle + Pickle Adventure (August 7, 2009)
I went a little crazy at the farmers' market on Wednesday and bought 10 pounds of blueberries. I froze most of them (mixed with a little sugar, which is supposed to preserve their texture better than ...
Enjoying the Summer (Mostly) (August 3, 2009)
Man, I meant to write about last weekend sooner, but it got so hot this past week, and I couldn't bear to have my laptop on my lap. But now, with the sun down and the fan aimed at me, I think I can ma...
Best Ketchup, Tour de Coops, and Pie-Off (July 21, 2009)
Note to self: Bread and Ink has totally awesome ketchup!
We went there for pre-trivia dinner about a month ago, and I was totally impressed by their ketchup (I think I said, "Is this what ketchup u...
Seattle to Portland 2009 (July 21, 2009)
We made a quick trip to Seattle the weekend before last so that Patrick could do the Seattle to Portland bike ride for the third time, along with Andrew and Jon. I came along to help get the car back ...
Fourth of July Baking, Garden Pictures (July 8, 2009)
Patrick's family was in town this past weekend, so on the fourth of July we hosted a barbecue and then went to see the fireworks on the SE waterfront (it was very crowded, so next year we'll probably ...
New Neighborhood Restaurant, Recent Cooking (June 8, 2009)
Due to our lack of menu planning, we had some nice meals around SE Portland this weekend. We ate lunch at Broder on Saturday. Man, I love that place! We're so lucky to live nearby. This time I had the...
Rhubarb Extravaganza (May 19, 2009)
It has been a rhubarb party around here lately! In addition to the rhubarb cake, strawberry-rhubarb cobbler, and pig's bum that I've already told you about, I've made the following items in the past f...
More Rhubarb Baking, Flower Photos (April 29, 2009)
I ate ice cream three times today, but I also ran for 16 minutes this morning (Couch to 5k Week 5!). I'm hoping the two balance each other out. They were small scoops of ice cream, at least.
You se...
Rhubarb Cake, Food Cart Fest, Bee Class Part Deux (April 20, 2009)
I'm loving the spring produce lately! I bought two big armfuls of rhubarb at the farmers' market on Wednesday (first of the season!), and after much consideration, I made Nigella Lawson's Irish tarte ...
Hot Cross Buns, Cold Frames (April 12, 2009)
Happy Easter!
I made hot cross buns again this year, with a few tweaks. Instead of using storebought candied citron, I candied some lemon peels and then used the resulting syrup to glaze the fi...
Button Cookies and Crafts, Spice Labels (March 16, 2009)
My second attempt at making button cookies worked better than my first. I used the glazed butter cookie recipe from Cook's Illustrated, and the dough was much easier to work with than the first dough ...
Happy Birthday, Patrick! (March 12, 2009)
Today is Patrick's birthday--yay!! We had lunch at Little T, and we're going to have dinner at Clyde Common. I also made mini birthday cupcakes to take to trivia at Zach's Shack yesterday.
I ma...
Soup, Brioche Rolls, Failed Button Cookies (March 4, 2009)
I've made a few batches of ham and bean soup this winter. I'm always impressed that you can throw a bunch of ingredients together, and a few hours later you have soup! We keep a few ham hocks in the f...
Brioche Extravaganza (and Lentils) (February 20, 2009)
I decided to do a fun baking project over the long weekend and tried my hand at making brioche. I used the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking (it's funny--even though I have a better track record with...
First Signs of Spring + Waffles (February 8, 2009)
It has been a very nice weekend so far. Yesterday, Patrick and I walked down to Genie's Cafe for lunch. I had a yummy vegetarian eggs benedict, and he had biscuits and gravy. The walk there was a litt...
Miscellany (February 5, 2009)
I'm not feeling too wordy tonight, so I'll do this in bullet form:
A couple weekends ago, Patrick planted trees in the Woodstock neighborhood (did I tell you he's a Friends of Trees assistant cre...
Haircut, Trivia, Wheat Germ! (January 24, 2009)
I went to Nicola at 220 Salon for a much-needed haircut last week (at Susan's recommendation), and I was really happy with the results. I asked her to cut it like Miranda July's hair, and she did! For...
Happy Pie Day! (January 23, 2009)
Happy Pie Day! Such a nice feeling to wake up in the morning and know there's pie waiting in the kitchen.
(I used my go-to apple pie recipe--Damn Fine Apple Pie from In The Sweet Kitchen)...
New Year's Eve, Vacation Cooking (January 7, 2009)
Hmm, it appears that I haven't written in a while, based on my backlog of food photos. Let's see...
We had a nice, low-key New Year's Eve. We went to Bar Avignon (a cozy bistro/wine bar) for dinner...
Holiday Cooking (December 31, 2008)
We're back in Portland! The snow was pretty much melted by the time we got home, which was kind of a relief (no need to run out and buy a snow shovel and salt). Patches was happy to see us and didn't ...
Snow in Portland, Christmas in California (December 25, 2008)
I haven't written in a while! When I last wrote, Tree and Andrew had just arrived in Portland for a visit. Soon after, the snow started. It kind of put a damper on our fun Portland activities, but it ...
Wul Comforter, Lincoln, Lemon Bars (December 13, 2008)
Since Portland is moving into winter, Patrick and I decided it was time to invest in a good comforter. We chose a Wul comforter, which I had read about in Sunset a few years ago. We also got a nice du...
Thanksgiving Pies (November 28, 2008)
Happy Thanksgiving! We were lucky enough to be invited to Patrick's aunt's house (in SW Portland) for dinner, which allowed me to focus my energy solely on dessert. I made the latest Cook's Illustrate...
Shower Caddy, Fall Food, and Cookies! (November 24, 2008)
We had a good weekend! Yesterday, Patrick attended training to become a Friends of Trees crew leader, and I went shopping on Alberta Street (that's how it always seems to happen--Patrick does the manu...
New Clothes, House Work, Apple-Quince Tart (November 17, 2008)
I bought some nice fall/winter clothes yesterday! My original plan was to stop by Pin Me to buy some Orla Kiely rain boots at 25% off (there seemed to be lots of big sales this weekend), but the boots...
Vintage Dress, Halloween, Fall Food (November 4, 2008)
We had a good time in California last week. The main reason for the visit was my monthly work trip, but Patrick came along too (so much nicer than being alone for a week!), and we visited my mom, step...
Screenprinting, Pie, Harvestfest, Silver Falls (October 21, 2008)
Another good (and busy!) weekend in Portland. On Saturday, we went to the Screenprinting for Change party that I mentioned earlier, and we had a great time! I need to get more involved in the Portland...
Music Fest Northwest Recap (September 7, 2008)
We spent the last four nights at live music performances as part of Music Fest Northwest, and I am exhausted! It was great though. We did it in order to familiarize ourselves with the Portland music s...
Photos: Office, Dahlias, Cookies (August 31, 2008)
Some of my coworkers wanted to know what my home office looks like, so I put a few pictures on Flickr (click the picture below for a couple more). It's pretty basic, but it works. I am especially exci...
Garage: Mysterious No More! (July 23, 2008)
Well, Robbie finally gained admission to the mysterious detached garage at our new house, and it turned out that it was just a normal garage--no pot plants, no freezers full of dead bodies, nothing at...
House Appraisal Issues + Biscuits and Apricots (July 10, 2008)
Home-buying update: We made it out of the inspection period and came to a good compromise on the two things that we want fixed right away (properly supporting the basement door and fixing the retainin...
House Blogs and Food Update (No Pictures) (July 3, 2008)
We're about halfway through the home-buying process at the moment. We're getting to the end of the inspection period, though we're still going through some negotiations on the retaining wall repair. N...
Miscellany (June 22, 2008)
We're still buying the Portland house, as far as we know. For the past few days, we've been working on gathering the financial documents required by our lender, and Patrick is going to fly back out to...
Ginger Ale, Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, Unwelcome Auto Tenants (June 1, 2008)
So much to write about (we went to Oregon last weekend to see a concert!), but first a few tidbits from before our Oregon trip.
A couple weeks ago, we had a farmers' market dinner of grilled halibu...
Early Summer Abundance (May 18, 2008)
I like that artichokes can serve as food in one stage of development, and decoration later. I got this excellent specimen at our farmers' market this morning. I remember the first time I saw flowering...
Feels Like Summer (May 16, 2008)
Man, it has been hot this week! That means the mornings are great for biking to work, but the afternoons aren't so pleasant. On Tuesday, I biked in, and then after work I biked down (streamers flying)...
Pulled Pork Outcome (May 5, 2008)
Our first foray into the world of pulled pork went pretty well. We invited Tree, Andrew, Jacob, and Amanda over for a dinner of pulled pork sandwiches (or Tofurky sausages, in Amanda's case). Here's w...
All Food, All the Time (May 3, 2008)
I was thinking--it's a little odd that when I look back on this time, I'll just have a record of what we ate. But there's just not much else to tell right now--life is good. We have a routine for the ...
Banana Ice Cream, Butterscotch Pudding, Spring Meals (April 14, 2008)
We get free lunch at my work (a very nice perk), and a few weeks ago there were a lot of bruised, ugly bananas leftover from sandwich day, in danger of being thrown out because nobody wanted to eat th...
Weekend in the Garden (April 13, 2008)
This has been an enjoyable weekend with awesome weather! On Friday, it was supposed to get up to 85F, so Patrick and I both took half days off of work and met up after lunch to enjoy the sun together....
Pork Buns and Lemon Meringue Pie (March 30, 2008)
Food post! Most of these dishes were made before our Mammoth and DC trips; I just never got around to posting about them.
1. In order to use up the last of the frozen cherry tomatoes from last summ...
Mammoth Weekend (March 23, 2008)
Man, it has been a busy couple of weeks! Two weekends ago, we went to Mammoth with some of my coworkers. Most of them were there to ski or snowboard, but after my unpleasant snowboarding experience la...
Food Post, Including Ham, Coffee Cake, and Malted Waffles (March 6, 2008)
I appear to be almost a month behind in writing about our meals! I doubt these posts are of interest to anybody other than me, but I have a dream of someday writing a recipe database that summarizes a...
Superbowl Food, Gingerbread (February 10, 2008)
The weather was beautiful this weekend! We managed to spend a decent amount of time outdoors, but we also watched two submarine movies (Das Boot and The Hunt for Red October), which seems kind of at o...
Weekends, Rock Band, and Winter Meals (January 18, 2008)
We've been trying to take things easy this month and have been enjoying some nice quiet weekends sitting around the apartment. Patrick got an Xbox a few weeks ago, but it hasn't prevented him from hel...
New Year's Eve (January 1, 2008)
We had a nice, relaxed New Year's Eve at Tree and Andrew's place. We decided that it would be fun to try fondue, so we bought a Swissmar fondue set and some swiss fire gel (exciting!) and took everyth...
Christmas in Colorado (January 1, 2008)
We spent last weekend in Fort Collins with my family, celebrating Christmas a little belatedly. It snowed right before we got there, and it was below freezing pretty much the whole time, but at least ...
Holiday Baking Roundup (December 28, 2007)
Now the sweet things...
1. Lemon-buttermilk pudding cake. Recipe from my latest acquisition, the Tartine cookbook (my new approach to buying cookbooks is to get them at the library first, to make s...
Mariquita Challenge #2 (December 1, 2007)
We got a second Mariquita mystery box a couple of Thursdays ago (the same night we went to Piccino). This time, we got the last tomatoes of the season (with pretty gold and pink stripes), green and ye...
Thanksgiving Desserts (November 22, 2007)
Happy Thanksgiving! Like I said before, I opted not to make dinner this year, but I volunteered to bring dessert to Patrick's family gathering. I brought pumpkin cheesecake and apple-persimmon pie wit...
Long Overdue Food Roundup (November 21, 2007)
Food roundup!
1. Granola Revisited from Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way. Another installment in my ongoing search for the perfect granola. This was very good. Not quite perfect, but I'd make it a...
Whole Grain Breads (Reinhart) (November 13, 2007)
I bought Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads a little over a month ago, and I have tried a new recipe from it every Sunday since then. (This is an ambitious pace, and I doubt I'll be able to stick wit...
Saturday Relaxing and Recent Restaurant Visits (November 4, 2007)
We have enjoyed a string of nice, relaxed weekends recently. I love it! Last Saturday was especially nice. I made us a breakfast of Blueberry-Yogurt Waffles (from Dorie Greenspan's Waffles from Mornin...
Halloween 2007 (October 31, 2007)
Happy Halloween! This year, I was the Morton salt girl (thanks, Metafilter!). I found the dress (I added side ties so that it didn't look like I was wearing a sack), shoes, and tights via EmilyStyle, ...
Meal Roundup (October 28, 2007)
Some recent meals (not very recent at this point, since I have quite a backlog of things to write about at the moment!):
1. Curried rice noodles sprinkled with peanuts, from Moosewood Low Fat Favor...
End-of-Summer Barbeque (September 15, 2007)
Last weekend, we hosted a barbecue because two of our college friends, Chrissy and Gunny (those are their college nicknames; if you ask them, my husband's name is Patty), were visiting from Southern C...
Musicals, Food, New Domain Name (September 9, 2007)
Catching up, in list form:
We have harvested two Crane melons from our garden so far. They're small, but they taste like melons all right! The flavor is similar to a cantaloupe, but with a hi...
Recent Meals, Flat Tires, and Durian (August 22, 2007)
Recent meals:
These past few weeks my main goal when planning dinner has been to clean out our cupboards and freezer. It's satisfying to use things that have been sitting around for a long time!
...
5-day Weekend, Including a Day in SF (July 10, 2007)
Since the 4th of July fell mid-week, I took Thursday and Friday off and enjoyed a nice long 5-day weekend. I did a little relaxing, got some stuff done, and even made it up to the city for a day. It...
Yummy Summer Meals (including some famous pork chops!) (July 2, 2007)
We started the week with two simple meals. First up was Gingery Shrimp and Couscous with leftover grilled vegetables and strawberries for dessert. It was easy enough, but nothing special.
Nex...
Pride and Prejudice Tea Party, Healthy Summer Grilling (June 25, 2007)
Yesterday, we drove over to the East Bay and had brunch at Citron. We were seated by the window with a good view of Rockridge residents walking their mid-sized dogs and chatting on the sidewalk. Roc...
Recent Food Exploits + New Mandoline (June 24, 2007)
Last weekend, I got it in my head that I wanted to make something involving homemade tortillas. I decided to make Chicken Fajitas (from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook), topped with avocad...
Gianduja Gelato! (and some other stuff) (June 9, 2007)
Earlier this week, I made Skillet Chicken and Rice with Peas and Scallions (from Cook's Illustrated) using fresh peas and torpedo onions from the farmers' market. It ended up being a frustrating expe...
Recent Meals
1. We needed a quick egg-centric dinner (they were about to expire!) prior to our Colorado trip, so Patrick made a Crispy Prosciutto and Scallion Frittata with arugula and goat cheese ...
Granola #5 (June 4, 2007)
Granola #5
See this journal entry for my
comments on this recipe.
Ingredients:
2 c Bob's five-grain rolled cereal w/ flax seeds
1/2 c crisp rice cereal (I found this in the gluten-free se...
Two Meals Out
1. Last Friday, we biked to Palo Alto and had dinner for the first time at St. Michael's Alley. It's on a side street that I don't go down very often, so I kept forgetting it existed...
I have been working on being a better hippie by trying to find the perfect granola and yogurt recipes. I still have some work ahead of me.
Yogurt
I made my first batch of homemade yogurt in our...
Granola #4 (Dud) (May 17, 2007)
Granola #4
See this journal entry for my
comments on this recipe.
Ingredients:
4 c (1 lb) Bob's five-grain rolled cereal w/ flax seeds
1/2 c crisp rice cereal (I found this in the gluten-...
Recent dinners:
1. Chicken Thighs with Roasted Apples and Garlic, Farro with Portobellos and Thyme from Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way. The farro dish reminded me of Moosewood's Mushroom Wheatb...
Birthday Adventures (Mostly Culinary) (May 11, 2007)
I had a good birthday weekend. We headed to the East Bay on Saturday, stopping by Romolo's Spumoni and Cannoli Factory to pick up some cannoli for our picnic with Tree and Andrew. I read about Romol...
Tracy Granola and Boring Stir-Fry (May 8, 2007)
Although my recent granola attempt turned out well, I wanted to try something less sweet, so I made a batch of Tracy Granola. I didn't have enough Quaker oats, so I supplemented with McCann's Quick-C...
Summer Garden, Chicken Dinners, Granola (April 23, 2007)
I planted our summer garden today (pictures here). This summer, we'll have three new kinds of tomatoes (Supersweet 100s, Black Zebra, and Stupice), Crane melons, beets, and a bunch of herbs (basil, c...
Three Dinners, Savory Snacks, Pavlovas, and Mitchell's Ice Cream (April 19, 2007)
First, a few recent meals:
1. Buttermilk-Brined Pork Chops, Millet with Buttermilk and Chives from Lorna Sass's Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way, and steamed peas. The pork chops were good, as us...
Hot Cross Buns! (April 7, 2007)
I made hot cross buns for the first time today. I had noticed a recipe for them in the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook when we first got it, and I decided to make them at Easter-time. Conveni...
Second Annual Pie Bake-Off (April 7, 2007)
Yesterday was the second annual pie bake-off at my place of employment. I organized it this year, and I chose to hold it on the same date as last year's. This was a poor choice, as it turns out, sin...
Catch-up: Recent Dinners, English Muffins, Oliveto (April 7, 2007)
Oh man, I've let things pile up, and now I have a bunch of stuff to write about. Let's see...
Recent meals:
I made a batch of Smoky Beef and Bacon Chili from Sunset a week or two ago. It was g...
Slow-Cooked Dinner + More Brownies (March 27, 2007)
We had a slow-cooked dinner yesterday: Spring Lamb and Flageolet Beans, Beer-Rye Bread, Hashed Brussels Sprouts with Poppy Seeds and Lemon, and Baked Spelt Pudding.
The lamb and beans took abou...
Yum, Yum, Fruit Cake! (March 25, 2007)
Patrick's off in Tahoe again this weekend (this time with his coworkers instead of mine), so I took this chance to sample the fruit cake that I won at my company's white elephant party in December. Y...
Weekend in Tahoe (March 20, 2007)
We went on our first ski trip this past weekend. I am bruised and sore, but I enjoyed myself overall.
We left work early on Thursday and drove up to Tahoe. We ran into some nasty traffic in the E...
Waffles, Round 3 (March 14, 2007)
Okay, this is the last round of waffles for awhile, I swear! Patrick thinks I've gone a little crazy, making so many waffles. But I had buttermilk and sour cream to use up before the weekend, an...
Beautiful Dutch Oven, Waffles Part Deux, Poppies (March 12, 2007)
I went a little crazy two weekends ago and decided it was finally time to buy a (very) nice Dutch oven. I didn't have a very good excuse for it, though it will be good to replace the peeling non-stic...
Buttermilk and Yeasted Waffles, Shrimp Fra Diavolo (March 5, 2007)
We've been preparing for a ski trip we'll be going on in a few weeks with some coworkers of mine. Neither of us has ever been skiing or snowboarding, so this will be interesting. Patrick's in charge...
Basic Dutch Baby Recipe (March 2, 2007)
We had our second Dutch baby face-off (sorry I insist on calling them Dutch babies instead of puff pancakes, Tracy!). We compared the 2-egg recipe (left) with the 4-egg recipe (right), and both of us...
Recent Meal Roundup (March 2, 2007)
Recent meal roundup:
Farro Minestrone with Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash, and Chestnuts with Buttermilk-Dill Rolls from the freezer. The soup was pretty good, though a little strange. I love...
Superbowl Snacks, Monochromatic Dinner (February 6, 2007)
We had a tie in our first Dutch baby face-off. I made a batter using 1/2 c milk, 1/2 c flour, 1 T sugar, 1/8 t salt, 1/8 t vanilla, and a pinch of cinnamon. I split this in half. To one half I adde...
Dutch Babies (Round 5), Kingfish Dinner, Three Recent Meals (January 30, 2007)
First, it appears I forgot to mention that I planted some succulents (from Wegmans) in a large bowl a while back (idea and bowl from Anthropologie). I know nothing about growing succulents, and I was...
Food Roundup: June Taylor Marmalade Class, Fourth Street, Redwood City (January 23, 2007)
First, a picture of the granola I made a while ago with some dried blueberries (yum!) and milk. Not bad, but not amazing. Much healthier than commercial granola though.
Our garden seems to ha...
Garden Stuff + Brisket + Granola (January 16, 2007)
I put up a few pictures of our latest garden setup. Click the daisies!
As anticipated, the temperature has fallen below freezing at night for the past few days. The first night it happened, I...
Pan-Seared Salmon, Buttermilk-Dill Rolls, Gingered Fennel + NPR (January 11, 2007)
I very much enjoyed our dinner tonight. We had Pan-Seared Wild Coho Salmon (recipe from The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook, which I'm liking so far), Buttermilk-Dill Rolls, and Gingered Fennel with Garli...
Good Lentil Soup, Dutch Baby Attempt #2 (January 7, 2007)
Patrick made some good soup for dinner last week--Lentil Soup with Balsamic-Roasted Winter Vegetables from Cooking Light. I made a salad of Belgian endive and radicchio with an orange vinaigrette to ...
New Year's Day thoughts + food traditions (January 1, 2007)
Happy New Year! We were champs and stayed awake past midnight last night, but we ended up skipping the champagne, as neither of us felt like drinking it (we were too full from dinner!).
As I said ...
New Year's Eve Pajamas and Hors d' Oeuvres, Year 2 (January 1, 2007)
We received some exciting presents last week, including a pretty cherry red Le Creuset tea kettle. It boils water and whistles and has a pretty black-and-white speckled interior. It makes me happy :...
Christmas Dinner 2006 (December 28, 2006)
We are back from our Christmas visit to my family in Colorado! We had minimal travel issues, which was lucky given the blizzards bookending Christmas in the Front Range (one last week and one today a...
Spritz, Gingerbread (December 23, 2006)
As mentioned in my last entry, I made Christmas cookies a few days ago, primarily to bring to my company's winter solstice/white elephant party. It was a good excuse to use both my cookie press and A...
Cooking Classes, Another SF Visit, East Bay Adventures (December 20, 2006)
Last Thursday was a busy day. In the evening, I took a Oaxacan cooking class at the new Whole Foods, taught by the husband and wife who own Oaxacan Foods (they also sell food at local farmers' market...
Good Times in SF (December 5, 2006)
We've done all sorts of good stuff lately! On Friday, we met up with Tree and Andrew and went to Zibibbo for dinner. Last time we both ordered from the prix fixe menu, so we were surprised to find ...
Nog! (November 30, 2006)
Mmm, Straus egg nog. It has a very short list of ingredients: milk, sugar, egg yolks and nutmeg (all organic). It was a little overly nugmegged for my tastes (I probably shouldn't have shaken it...
Lots of Pie + No-Knead Bread (November 26, 2006)
This tree near our apartment is turning all sorts of pretty colors and is laden with little berries. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but I like seeing it every morning. So autumnal!
Las...
Pretty New Pie Plate (November 21, 2006)
I realized last night that we have only one pie plate, and I'm going to be making two pies for Thanksgiving. I got around that problem last year by using disposable foil pie plates for the pumpkin pi...
Shuna's Famous Gingerbread (November 19, 2006)
While Patrick was celebrating Wii Day today in Oakland, I spent a good amount of time in our kitchen. I made a batch of split pea soup with our hambone, and it turned out well. And then I made a Bun...
Autumnal Meals, Shorter Hair, Whole Foods Finds (November 19, 2006)
I've enjoyed the autumnal dinners we've had recently. Maybe I have a beta-carotene deficiency, because I can't get enough winter squash and sweet potatoes lately.
At the beginning of the week, we ...
Char Siu Pork and Fall Harvest (November 9, 2006)
We had a good crock pot meal these past few nights--Slow Cooker Char Siu Pork Roast from Cooking Light. It was easy to make and pretty tasty. The first two nights we ate it with brown rice and baby ...
Halloween Costume and Cupcakes, Latest Food Adventures (November 5, 2006)
I dressed up as Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween (the original; not the new one--capri pants and flip flops, pshaw!). Since they only sell slutty Strawberry Shortcake costumes online, I ended up ma...
Tidbits! (October 22, 2006)
I have a bunch of tidbits I've been meaning to mention for the past week...
Appearance
I haven't gotten my hair highlighted since right before our wedding, and last time I got it cut, the la...
Anniversary Weekend, Part 3: Everything Else (October 14, 2006)
Anniversary Weekend, Part 3: Everything Else
After checking out of Olema Druids Hall last Friday morning, we spent a long time looking around their affiliated store, Vita Collage. We ended up buyi...
Pork Chops, Apples, Corn Bread, and Cabbage (September 18, 2006)
We had a yummy dinner tonight, courtesy of the Cooking Light website: Buttermilk-Brined Pork Chops, Cinnamon Stewed Apples, Chipotle-Bacon Corn Bread, and Curried Cabbage.
The cabbage was a lit...
Meal Roundup, Taxidermy Potential Squelched (September 14, 2006)
We went to Straits (in Palo Alto) for the first time last weekend. It's Singaporean food heavily influenced by other Asian cuisines. Everything on the menu looked really good!
We started by shari...
Cookies, Social Outings, Shopping (September 2, 2006)
Nat and Sara left for Chicago on Thursday. Patrick took the morning off work to help them load up their moving truck. I did not accompany him, but I did make cookies for them to take on their trip!
...
Exciting Trip Plans + Yummy Autumnal Dinner (August 28, 2006)
Last night, my need to use vacation time on a fun trip got the best of me, and we bought plane tickets to go visit Fort Collins in late September. It's going to be a great (though short) visit! In a...
Pancakes, Letterpress, Tomatoes, and Biscuits (August 19, 2006)
A few nights ago, Patrick made us breakfast for dinner: Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes, grapefruit, and Tomato and Chard Frittata (from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites).
I thought the frittata was ki...
Chorus Line + Gumbo! (July 29, 2006)
Two things, neither of which is very exciting, but I wanted to document them before I forget:
We went to see A Chorus Line at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco on Wednesday night. There wasn't...
Sweet and Sour Lentils, Olallieberry Cobbler! (July 9, 2006)
Courtesy of Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites, we had a tasty but unusual dinner tonight. We had Five-Spice Brown Rice topped with Sweet and Sour Lentils, with Japanese Sesame Spinach on the side. Inciden...
Chocolate Cocoa Cake Verdict (July 5, 2006)
Dinner was good (Patrick's hamburgers were yummier than my veggie burger, unsurprisingly). Patrick had cheddar and grilled onions on his burgers. We had leftover macaroni salad and cabbage salad on ...
Beans, Pudding, Gooseberries and Bundt Cake (July 4, 2006)
I did lots of cooking (for fun) yesterday while Patrick was at work. For dinner we had Christmas lima beans with leeks and andouille sausage, Creamy Macaroni Salad, and Cabbage Salad (the latter two ...
Memorial Day Barbecue (June 3, 2006)
First, a picture of some Sweet Williams we got at the farmer's market a few weeks ago. I'd never known what they were before. They're cute, and they lasted for almost 2 weeks!
Last Monday, we...
Cinnamon Rolls, Head to Head (May 21, 2006)
We had two types of cinnamon rolls for breakfast this morning. I'm still trying to lose weight (or at least eat better), so I wanted to try the Sticky Buns recipe from Moosewood Low-fat Favorites. P...
Chili Burgers on Whole Wheat Buns (April 30, 2006)
Good weather is here! We went out to Woodside and rode our bikes today during Bicycle Sunday. We stopped at the Water Temple during our ride and had a picnic, which was a nice break. Filoli is appa...
Easter Round-up (April 16, 2006)
Yesterday, I got my hair cut at Juut. Nothing remarkable. I've found a length I like, and I'm sticking with it for now. None of the hair pictures we took turned out great, but here are two if you'd...
First Annual Pie Bake-Off (April 6, 2006)
My company had its first annual pie bake-off today. I made Banana Cream Pie with Chocolate Lining as my entry (I've made it before with good results). The layers are (from the bottom): graham cracke...
Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (March 21, 2006)
Yum, pizza! It's whole wheat pizza dough with a little flaxseed meal added; pizza sauce with garlic and basil; mozzarella; roast eggplant, garlic, onion and tomato; wilted spinach and parmesan.
I ...
Lemony Birthday Cake (March 11, 2006)
Patrick's birthday is this weekend, so I made him a birthday cake. He requested something lemony. After looking at a bunch of recipes, I came up with this (I contemplated frosting the sides too, but...
Bran and Lentils - Delicious! (March 5, 2006)
I made Apple Walnut Bran Muffins today, to bring to work when I get all hungry at 3:00. We sampled one right out of the oven, along with some tea. They're pretty tasty, though they definitely taste ...
Loaves and Fishes (February 26, 2006)
I made Whole Wheat Bread with Crystallized Ginger today, to get rid of some buttermilk. It's good! It doesn't even taste like whole wheat, and the bulgur gives it a nice crunch (I'd never used bulgu...
Valentine's Cupcakes (February 12, 2006)
Fun with my Valentine's day sprinkle assortment (these cupcakes are the same recipe mentioned here).
Life is good! Summer (or spring, at least) is coming. I love that the days are getting l...
New Year's Feasting (January 2, 2006)
We've eaten well the past few days. We decided to stay in for New Year's Eve, since most of our friends were out of town, and it was rainy, so going up to San Francisco didn't seem too appealing. I ...
Coffee Cake and Fish in Crazy Water! (December 28, 2005)
We had a good Christmas with Patrick's family. Lots of sleeping in and being warm inside while it was raining outside. I'm glad we have another long weekend coming up!
I managed to fit a few of m...
Jewish Sour Cream Coffee Cake Recipe (December 27, 2005)
Jewish Sour Cream Coffee Cake
This is my mom's recipe. We have it with Christmas breakfast every
year.
Ingredients:
Batter:
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
...
Italian Wedding Soup and Gingerbread Dinosaurs (December 6, 2005)
I seem to be writing about what I made for dinner a lot recently. Not to worry; there's a knitting entry coming soon (and I haven't forgotten about those honeymoon entries; there's just so much else ...
Thanksgiving 2005 (November 25, 2005)
We had a nice Thanksgiving. We spent it with Patrick's family (it's so convenient having them only a few miles away!). I guess I can call them my in-laws now. Ha! We still get a kick out of the fa...
Split Pea Soup and Pumpkin Pie (November 14, 2005)
I made my mom's split pea soup for dinner tonight. When I was a kid, I didn't like it, but now I think it's yummy. And pretty healthy too!
Here's the recipe (hope it's okay to share, Mom):
...
Punk Rock Cupcakes (November 12, 2005)
We're going to a housewarming party tonight, so I made cupcakes (yellow with chocolate frosting) to bring with us. After the fact, I realized I used the recipe from The Best Recipe instead of Baking ...
Apple Crisp (November 9, 2005)
I made Apple Crisp a few nights ago. We always get apples in our box, but we're rarely excited to eat them as is. This wasn't exactly the healthiest way to use our apples, but it tasted good, and it...
Applesauce with Calvados (September 30, 2005)
I wanted to make a note that this applesauce recipe is really good, except it has a little too much sugar in it. That could also be because I used old fruit. We had 9 apples stockpiled from weeks of...
Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting (September 18, 2005)
I decided that instead of making bread bowls or cornbread for our chili get-together last night, I would leave the bread-making to Safeway and make cupcakes instead. We haven't had enough cupcakes re...
Sesame-Encrusted Roughy with Bok Choy and Mashed Potatoes (September 3, 2005)
We made a good dinner tonight. It was based on an article I read in Natural Health while getting my hair highlighted at Juut this morning (originally I was going to get it all done last week, but the...
Emotive Brunch (July 31, 2005)
That's one surprised plate of food! We had a good brunch today--cinnamon rolls and potatoes with bacon and onions. Good stuff, but not good for us! We've agreed to take a bacon hiatus after tod...
Picture Time! (May 22, 2005)
Today we had an afternoon snack of fresh-squeezed orange juice (I found a cheapo citrus juicer on clearance at Cost Plus this morning--just what I was looking for!) and grapefruit halves, both using f...
Curtains and French Toast (March 27, 2005)
Happy spring and everything else!
We're not doing anything Easter-related today, but I think we're going to hang some curtains. I've been wanting to put up curtains since we moved in, but it j...
Wedding Dress, Round 1 (February 26, 2005)
I was going through our recent pictures, and here are a few pictures of the cornbread and chili we had a few nights ago. Patrick thought the cornbread looked like Pacman. I agree.
I know, ove...
Cinnamon Buns for Breakfast (February 13, 2005)
It's been a good weekend. Yesterday, we went out for breakfast to Ann's Coffee Shop, an old restaurant in downtown Menlo Park. We'd always just walked by it, but the only other breakfast place withi...
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Cream-Cheese Frosting (January 17, 2005)
I made Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Cream-Cheese Frosting just now. Pretty tasty!
I was going to take them to work with me, but they're not perfect, plus I'm worried about the cream cheese ...
Happiness, vanity, productivity (January 16, 2005)
Nothing of much importance to say, but I'll say it anyway. Life is good right now. I was thinking the other day that it finally feels like my life is back on track, and that this is where I'm suppos...
Haircut! (January 9, 2005)
I enjoyed today greatly; it was my first real weekend day in a while (now that I'm done with my retail job, I get my weekends back!). We were good little spenders.
We used various giftcards to get...
Christmas in Colorado (December 29, 2004)
We had a really nice visit to Colorado. I wish it had been longer, but we made the most of our time there. We had the usual Christmas morning brunch with my mom, stepdad, stepdad's ex-wife, stepbrot...
Gingersnaps, Take 2 (December 22, 2004)
I made gingersnaps again, this time for my company holiday party. I haven't tried any yet because I'm full, but Patrick tried one, and he said it was good. I hope so! I want people at work to like ...
Sweet Potatoes and Gingerbread Waffles (November 21, 2004)
Last night, we made our first sweet potato recipe (we're trying out a few recipes prior to Thanksgiving). Strangely enough, the sweet potatoes we got at Safeway are yellow instead of orange, and they...
Nigella (November 20, 2004)
I went to see Nigella Lawson at Kepler's tonight. There were way more people than at McGee's talk, and they were more annoying, unfortunately. But Nigella herself was great. She just seemed really ...
Gingerbread Caramels, Attempt 1 (November 17, 2004)
Last week at my retail job, we got a shipment of candies from Sweden (sold by Kalastyle). They're in triangular paper packages, and they're meant to be put in Christmas stockings. There were a few f...
Day of Food (November 11, 2004)
I forgot to mention that when my mom was here on Sunday, we went out to eat at The Fish Market (which it turns out she had been to when we lived in Mountain View in the early 80's). I had linguine wi...
Quality Camping Food (October 8, 2004)
We're getting ready for our weekend camping trip in Napa (the main reason we're there is for Tree and Erin's triathlon, but we don't have to prepare for that at all). I think it'll be fun, and it'll ...
Pie and Cost Plus (September 19, 2004)
Last night, we had a hankering for ribs, so we went to Austin's for dinner. It's not awesome food, but I liked it better this time around than last time. I had a combo plate of St. Louis ribs and br...
Cute Skirt (August 19, 2004)
Note to self: remember to make something similar to this skirt. As I just commented over at JenB's, I can never bring myself to buy cute crafty stuff because I always say "I could make that myself an...
Steak, green beans, potatoes, and some tasty cake! (August 15, 2004)
Good dinner tonight. We had flank steak, oven roasted potatoes, and green beans. And for dessert...pineapple upside-down cake! Cast iron is the best :)
Patrick was in charge of the steak. ...
Sad Lemon Blueberry Muffins (August 10, 2004)
I made Lemon Blueberry Muffins just now. They look good and smell good, but they don't taste so good. Not nearly sweet enough. Maybe iVillage and I just don't agree on how sweet a muffin should...
Aquatic Park (August 3, 2004)
So I can't really remember what we did yesterday. I know I cleaned the cottage some in the morning, and then I guess we just sat around in the afternoon and felt guilty for not doing work. Oh, we to...
Food, Food, Food (July 29, 2004)
This morning, we made French Toast with Bananas for breakfast. Here's a picture (picture of french toast); it didn't turn out very prettily, so I relegated it to a pop up window. Maybe a sprinkling ...
Recap (July 7, 2004)
I should write an entry before I forget what we did today and yesterday! I should also work on my thesis, but I spent most of today doing that, so it can wait a little longer.
Let's see...yesterda...
Barbecue (July 5, 2004)
Picture time! Here are a few pictures from around the cottage:
»
Light coming in through the bedroom curtains in the morning
» Mama laptop and baby laptop, with the Tour de France in the backgro...
Fruit Kabobs (July 3, 2004)
Another recipe I'd like to try (we're going to be making the Cosmo potato salad tomorrow, I think):
MAPLE FRUIT KABOBS
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon ground c...
Jam + Cookies = Good! (June 5, 2004)
I just finished making jam cookies. You know what that means (or at least I do)--Patrick's coming to visit! He'll get here late tonight, and he's staying through Wednesday morning. I can't wait :)
...
Banana Nut Muffins, Take 3 (June 3, 2004)
Yesterday, I decided to use up all the frozen bananas in my freezer ("all" being 3), so today I bought some vanilla yogurt and made some more banana nut muffins.
This time, I made normal-sized ...
All about Donuts (May 20, 2004)
A labmate of mine has brought in Dunkin' Donuts (leftover from the breakfast he has to buy for his undergrads during finals week, since he's something like an RA) for the past two days. For some reas...
Pies to Make (May 12, 2004)
I think it's about time to start making pies again! If only it were easier to take them on the plane with me. Anyway, here are some summery contenders from the Williams-Sonoma Pie & Tart cookbook:
...
SF Bakeries (May 8, 2004)
Yay! Joanne Chang (owner of Flour) replied to my query about good bakeries in San Francisco. Her favorites are (with the caveat that she hasn't been to SF in awhile):
Citizen Cake
Bay Breads
...
Sewing, Jam, Cookies (May 3, 2004)
Dammit! Super eggplant's latest sewing project makes me want to sew myself a skirt! I could totally make something that would go for $100 at J. Crew (I just happened to get a J. Crew catalog in the ...
Assortment (April 29, 2004)
The weather was beautiful today. I put on real clothes, and we went on a very slow walk to the post office and grocery store and sat in the park for a little while. It made my back sore to stand up ...
Banana Nut Mini-Muffins (March 29, 2004)
So this afternoon I found the recipe for Flour's banana nut bread (yay!), but I only had two ripe bananas, so I had to quarter the recipe, and I felt like using my mini-muffin tins, so I did!
I...
Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup (March 26, 2004)
I had a good dinner tonight. I made lentil and sweet potato soup, cornbread muffins, and some salad so my dinner wasn't entirely yellow.
The soup was a combination of Clotilde's recipe and Mak...
Mini Citrus Chiffon Pies (March 19, 2004)
So I made my mini-pies last night, and they turned out really well! I used the Citrus Chiffon Pie recipe, but with a mixture of lemon and ruby red grapefruit juice (instead of just plain lemon juice)...
Major Screw-Up (March 15, 2004)
So I did my taxes last night like a responsible adult, using the H&R Block online form. It certainly was easy, but unfortunately, I made a big mistake and didn't realize it until I'd already submitte...
Tarragon-Grapefruit Roast Chicken (March 12, 2004)
First of all, happy birthday to Patrick! I wish I were there to celebrate with you.
So last night while at the store, I noticed that they finally had fresh tarragon (I check the herb section every...
Bread-making stuff is expensive! (March 9, 2004)
Ooh, I want all of these bread-making supplies! I think the kneading mat would be especially useful, since it sucks having to scrub my table after kneading bread or making a pie crust. That would be...
Citrus Chiffon Pie (March 4, 2004)
Patrick's here, which means this entry is about food! First of all, I made a Citrus Chiffon Pie for his visit (recipe from the Williams-Sonoma Pie and Tart cookbook, of course). I wanted something n...
Blackberry Pockets (February 25, 2004)
Tonight I made some Blackberry Pockets (from the Williams-Sonoma Pie and Tart cookbook, of course) because baking relaxes me, plus Seema's visiting tomorrow, and it'd be nice to have a good snack if w...
Life Is Good (February 15, 2004)
I've been having a good day today. It was beautiful this morning, so we ate part of our breakfast outside. And then we drove to the movie theater, and there were so many trees in bloom. And the sun...
Food, Food, and Food (February 14, 2004)
Well, our dinner last night at Austin's was good, but the ribs weren't the kind I was craving. These ribs were very meaty, with the meat falling off the bone, and they were dry, with sauce on the sid...
Brunch (January 31, 2004)
Here's what we had for brunch today:
That's white grapefruit, strawberry-grapefruit juice, and cinnamon rolls. Last time I made them, they bubbled over and left burnt stuff in my oven, but thi...
Chocolate Pudding Pie (January 30, 2004)
Patrick's here! Here's the secret treat I made him: a Chocolate Pudding Pie from the Williams-Sonoma Pie & Tart book.
It has a chocolate cookie crumb crust (made with chocolate Teddy Grahams...
Sourdough (January 25, 2004)
I spent some time today reading more about making your own sourdough bread. It sounds exciting to have your own starter--like having a pet! Except instead of being entertaining and lovable, it just ...
Ricotta Hotcakes (January 24, 2004)
Today I made Ricotta Hotcakes for brunch (but none of that honeycomb butter--way too much work when I'm only cooking for myself; instead I just put honey on top of them). They turned out nice and flu...
Ah, California (January 17, 2004)
We've had a good day so far. We slept in, then went to Joanie's for brunch. Very tasty, but it made us both sluggish the rest of the day. Then we did some errands, and then I had a craving for home...
Cookie Report (December 18, 2003)
Oh yeah, and my cookies turned out okay. The Maraschino cherries are kind of strange (the dried cherries called for in the recipe might have been better, but Star Market doesn't have anything as exot...
Cookies! (December 17, 2003)
Tonight I'm going to make Cherry Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies to take on the bus to New York this weekend. I'm using the Schrafft's Oatmeal Cookie Recipe, but instead of raisins and nuts, I'm addi...
Fall Dinner (October 25, 2003)
My complicated fall dinner didn't turn out very well. But I haven't tried the sweet potato pie yet, so it could still be good (it has to be good--it's pie!). Here's what I had for dinner:
* Gorgo...
Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Streusel (October 25, 2003)
Pie's done! It's the Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Streusel from, where else, the Williams-Sonoma Pie and Tart book.
I think I'll cut back on the pie-making now. I don't want to get in the habi...
Bay Area Bakeries (October 23, 2003)
I've finally found a list of bakeries in Palo Alto (guess I wasn't looking hard enough before). It is now my goal to visit all of the bakeries on this list before next summer, to see if any of them l...
Applesauce Outcome (October 18, 2003)
The applesauce turned out yummy. I used this recipe. Oh, and the pie tastes good too, although the apple filling wasn't tender enough in my opinion. So I feel that Macouns are good for eating plain...
Cinnamon Apple Crumb Pie (October 16, 2003)
Pie is done! It's the Cinnamon Apple Crumb Pie from the Williams Sonoma Pie and Tart book (can you tell I don't have many cookbooks?). It smells good! I wish Patrick were here to eat it with me...
Macouns (October 15, 2003)
I bought some Macoun apples to make pie with. They were on sale, but I had to buy a 5 lb. bag of them, so I'll have lots leftover. I think I'll make applesauce with the extra ones! Plus I found som...
Extra Cream (October 9, 2003)
I brought my laptop to work with me for the first time today. And it didn't get stolen (I mean, it was all locked up, but I was still unnecessarily worried about it). Yay!
I have some heavy cream...
Erin sent me an email that reminded me about something I wanted to write about. I bought Patrick's 5th dating anniversary present today (his present to me is my iPod--lucky for him I got a $200 rebat...
Rice Pudding (September 25, 2003)
Mmm...I just made rice pudding with this recipe (minus the raisins--I don't like raisins). It's good...makes my sore throat happy. I also had oatmeal for breakfast and chicken noodle soup for lunch,...
Cinnamon Buns (September 12, 2003)
Well, I baked the cinnamon buns this morning. They turned out really tasty BUT the gooey topping bubbled over and burnt all over the bottom of my oven and made my whole apartment smoky. Yuck. But t...
Safe Arrival (September 4, 2003)
Whew! It's been a busy day. I'm trying to finish up all my work obligations so I can enjoy this weekend with Patrick, but I'm not there yet. Anyway...
Patrick got here safely last night. He bro...
Getting Ready (September 3, 2003)
I worked all hard today on research, and then I broke part of my filtration apparatus (apparently my muscles are too big for the puny nitrogen gas regulator!). We'll be able to replace it by next wee...
Honey (September 2, 2003)
Mmmm, honey (a week's worth of dinner recipes involving honey). I've been enjoying my bread drizzled with honey, but it's almost gone (which is good, since it's getting stale fast). Maybe I'll try t...
Honey Oatmeal Bread (August 30, 2003)
I made my bread (it's Honey Oatmeal Bread). It was as good as last time, although I forgot that I had to add 2 more cups of flour than it says to. At first, the dough was sticking to my hands and ta...
Baking Plans (August 28, 2003)
Last night's sunset was pretty--the sun was pink! I'm lucky to have such a nice view from my apartment (I need to remind myself about the things I like about being at MIT sometimes).
I've deci...
Biscuits (August 24, 2003)
I didn't do anything too interesting today. Even though it was beautiful out, I stayed inside all day, coding and watching TV. Kind of sad, I know. I just feel less motivated to go out and do thing...
First Fig (August 22, 2003)
I just ate my first fresh fig! I saw them at the store today, and I figured that since they're pretty hard to get fresh, I should take advantage of the opportunity. It was a Calimyrna fig, and it wa...
Experimental Cookies (August 5, 2003)
Tonight is the Sidney-Pacific house meeting, and I get to unveil the new site. The whole unveiling thing isn't as exciting as it sounds. Anyway, there are still some small changes that need to be ma...
Pittsburgh Adventures (August 4, 2003)
I'm back! We had a great weekend. Luckily, I get to spend almost a week with Patrick starting next Tuesday (we're taking a few extra days of vacation in California before Tree and Andrew's wedding)....
Pineapple Brown Sugar Galette (July 31, 2003)
The finished Pineapple Brown Sugar Galette (recipe was from Williams-Sonoma Pie and Tart book, if you hadn't guessed). Unfortunately, it leaked pineapple juice, which got all burned to the cookie she...
Pineapple! (July 30, 2003)
Look! I bought a pineapple. It smells good. I bought it because I'm going to make a Pineapple-Brown Sugar Galette (like a rustic tart) to take to Pittsburgh on Friday (yep, back for one last we...
New Plants (July 18, 2003)
Last post before I leave for the weekend! Here's a picture I took yesterday. My desk has plants now:
See, the same visiting professor who left behind the springform pan and pie server also le...
Working Late (July 17, 2003)
Dude, I'm going to be at work late tonight (well, late for me, not for a normal grad student). The XPS is misbehaving, so I'm 3 hours behind schedule. Oh well, at least it doesn't happen every day.
...
Boston Adventures (July 12, 2003)
I was sitting in my room, feeling mopey and unproductive this morning, and I decided I should get outside and enjoy the nice weather while I could. So I did! I took the T downtown and went to DSW (t...
Mmm, Butter (July 9, 2003)
I don't think I have much new or interesting to say today. I did research, and now I'm doing Sidney-Pacific stuff (it never ends, I swear--but I like being in control of the website despite all the w...
Pie! (July 8, 2003)
Making pies makes me happy (there's an apple pie in my oven right now; I'm going to try and make all the recipes in my Williams Sonoma Pie and Tart book--except maybe not the Mock Mincemeat Pie).
A...
Boston Adventures (July 7, 2003)
Okie doke...all pictures are pop ups. Look out, this entry is looong! If you just want to look at the pictures, they're in my Boston photo album.
Friday: We had breakfast at Miracle of Science, a...
First Tart (July 3, 2003)
Look at my tart!
The recipe was from my Williams Sonoma Pie & Tart book. It tastes pretty good, but the pastry cream has a pudding-like consistency; I was expecting it to be firmer. Overall, ...
Undie Head! (July 2, 2003)
I got the best surprise in the mail today! My Auntie Nance sent me this picture, matted and framed (but the one she sent me is better quality):
That's one of my favorite pictures of little Cai...
Pretty Tart (June 27, 2003)
At group meeting today, we had cake and a tart (because two of our visiting researchers are going back to Turkey next week). The tart was awesome--it was all artistically composed (tastewise, it was ...
Strawberry Bread (June 25, 2003)
Strawberries were on sale at Star Market yesterday, so I bought 2 pounds of them. I decided to make this strawberry bread (a loaf and 12 muffins), since I'd be hard-pressed to eat 2 pounds of fresh s...
Pie Security (June 20, 2003)
I'm going to leave for Pittsburgh soon! Even though the flight is only 2 hours long, I still have to leave for the airport 3 hours in advance (an hour to get there, and 2 hours to wait at the airport...
XPS Advancement (June 19, 2003)
I'm now allowed to use the XPS all by myself! It's a complicated instrument, which is why it took me 4 months to get trained on it.
Time to make some pie to take to Pittsburgh! I'm going to make ...
Pie Verdict (June 16, 2003)
Pie Verdict:
Well, the crust is pretty awesome, at least compared to Pillsbury crust. It tasted better (probably due to the 2 sticks of butter in it), and it maintained structural integrity during...
Apricot-Ginger Pie (June 15, 2003)
The pie is done! I won't know how it tastes until tomorrow, since it's too late to eat pie, in my opinion. It smells good though, and it doesn't look too bad either.
Those are its before ...
Homemade Pie Crust (June 15, 2003)
I just made my very own pie crust! I think I've done that once or twice before, but normally I just use the Pillsbury crusts. See, I felt like making a pie today, but I'm also making one Thursday t...
Mall Trip (May 27, 2003)
Well, I passed both of my classes, so that's good. I'm a little sad because I did pretty poorly in my biosystems class. But I rationalize my poor performance with the fact that I'd never taken a che...
End of Visit (May 19, 2003)
Well, Patrick's gone. But we had a good visit. Oh, first of all, here's a picture of the strawberry pie I made for Patrick's visit (he looooves pie). All the other pictures are on Patrick's camera,...
Cinnamon Rolls (April 29, 2003)
Mmm....I'm baking cinnamon rolls, and they smell good! Maybe I'll take some to work, or else to California. There's no way I can eat 2 dozen by Thursday night!
I spilled a packet of yeast all ove...
Irish Soda Bread (April 27, 2003)
I need to use up my buttermilk before alumni weekend, so today I made Irish Soda Bread. I have no idea what it's supposed to look or taste like, but I think it's pretty good! It tastes kind of like ...
End of Visit (April 20, 2003)
Well, Patrick's at the airport, waiting for his flight home. I miss him already. But let's see--what did we do yesterday and today...
Yesterday, we took the T into Boston and had lunch at Flour. ...
Bagels (March 20, 2003)
I made bagels tonight! I've had the recipe lying around in my cookbook forever, so I finally decided to try it out. I'm not sure where it came from (I think I transcribed it from a paper cookbook at...
Little Desserts (February 24, 2003)
Today was pretty blah. The highlight of the day was the WOMS (Women of Materials Science) lunch meeting. It was catered by Rebecca's Cafe, and we had a platter of cute little desserts, which is alwa...
Sugared Tea Cookies (February 13, 2003)
I've made these cookies a few times in the past, and Patrick liked them, so I thought I'd make special heart-shaped ones for Valentine's Day (with my fancy heart-shaped cookie cutters!). But they bur...
New Alarm Clock (February 6, 2003)
I got my order from Amazon today. But my super-fancy radio-controlled alarm clock is taking forever to set itself using the radio signal from Colorado. It's still way better than my $5 hostel alarm ...
Cooking Classes (February 2, 2003)
So I happened to turn on the TV today (what a shock!), and our local public TV station was having a pledge drive. They had a local chef on, and apparently, earlier today, they had Joanne Chang, the o...
Cookies (January 28, 2003)
I'm feeling stressed out tonight, so instead of working on the journal article I'm writing for Prof. Baker (my undergraduate advisor), I'm going to make cookies (I made them before, and they were good...
Charlotte (January 23, 2003)
I've decided that someday, when I'm feeling ambitious, I'm going to try to make a charlotte (a cake that is molded in a bowl lined with lady fingers, genoise, or bread) like the one I had today. It'l...
Cohousing Dinner (December 27, 2002)
I just got back from a community dinner. For those of you not in the know, my mom and stepdad live in a cohousing community. Every Friday, a few people volunteer to cook/clean, and others who want d...
Mmm, Gingerbread (October 6, 2002)
I'm in the middle of making gingerbread cookies. They smell really good, like molasses! The rest of the molasses are probably going to sit in my cupboard indefinitely, because what else would I make ...
Pumpkin Muffins (October 5, 2002)
Mmm...I made these pumpkin muffins today (using canned pumpkin instead of the real thing). They would've been much more satisfying yesterday, when it was cold and rainy (as compared to today, which w...
Cookies (September 25, 2002)
The cookies turned out tasty, and no burnt bottoms (here's the recipe, which I modified a little). Warm cookies right out of the oven are so good. I made too many, so I put the extras out in front o...
Auntie Nance Brownies (September 8, 2002)
I'm having a very relaxed weekend. I haven't left my room much, which is fine with me. I hope people don't think I'm depressed or something; I just like having time to myself. I do miss Patrick tho...
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (July 9, 2002)
In happier news, I made strawberry rhubarb pie for the first time last night, and it turned out really nicely. Patrick was wary of the rhubarb, but he decided he liked the pie despite that. I made i...
Grad School Worries (June 29, 2002)
Uh oh...freaking out about grad school again. I don't want to make new friends! What if I'm not smart enough? Actually, I probably have the capacity to do well, but not the knowledge that other peop...
Apple Peeler/Corer (June 16, 2002)
Making the apple pie last night reminded me that I want an apple peeler/corer/slicer at some point in my domestic career. Patrick took care of the apple preparing duties last night, but it would be f...
New Hair Color (June 16, 2002)
I dyed my hair tonight. If you recall, at the beginning of May I tried dyeing it brown with sucky results. This time, I tried a darker shade, and my hair is actually brown. I think I like it...Patr...
Bread and Dyeing (June 4, 2002)
I didn't tell you what I did yesterday yet! Oh, but even before that, on Sunday, I made Honey Oatmeal Bread. It turned out really well. Nice and sweet and not too yeasty (I think I kneaded it more ...
Handyman (May 27, 2002)
Ahh...today was very nice. I was productive, but it was also relaxing. Hard to believe we only moved in yesterday. The apartment looks great; plenty of space, and it already feels like home. Today...