Monthly Archives

January 2015

Dinner, Lunch, Sides

Hasselback Potato Skillet Bake

Comfort food — this time in the form of garlicy, cheesy potatoes. Nothing Better than this Hasselback Potato Skillet Bake. While intended as a side dish, this also would work great as an alternative to hashbrowns for breakfast (though you might want to cut back on the garlic early in the morning … or maybe add some bacon!) or add chili, or salsa and jalepenos, and monterey jack cheese for some game day potato nachos. These are seriously delicious, even though I think that the neighbors will be mad at me for the extreme garlic smell for a little while!
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18. January 2015
Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
with Bourbon Smoked Sea Salt

I am given unique ingredients as presents and this Christmas was no different as I was gifted a tin of Bourbon Smoked Sea Salt. It is great as a finishing salt on meats and such, but in my constant search for adding more depth of flavor to my baking, I decided to add some to these cookies. They didn’t turn out particularly “smokey” or “boozy” or even “salty”, but they did add a nice flavor.
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16. January 2015
Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Meyer Lemon and Raspberry Tea Cake

With the abundance of Meyer Lemons this time of year, I thought that I would indulge in some more citrus to perk up January. The trick to this Tea Cake was to make small “dollops” of both lemon curd and raspberry jam by freezing them overnight. That means that the flavor drops stayed intact when I put them in the batter. Little pockets of goodness!
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14. January 2015
Breads, Breakfast/Brunch

Cook’s Country Multigrain Dakota Bread

I don’t bake bread all that often. I love bread — don’t get me wrong, I LOVE bread — but as a singleton, a loaf of bread sometimes will take me more than a week to eat, and after a couple of days, homemade bread isn’t all that fresh anymore. With all of that said, Rainer called me the other day, raving about a recipe that he had seen on Cook’s Country, of a multigrain bread (which is always a favorite). So I had to try it. And it turned out wonderfully yummy. The one thing that I would likely do when making this again is to make two oblong loaves instead of one boule.
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10. January 2015
General Reference/Tutorial

Spice Pear Preserves

I always wonder what to do with pears. They were on sale this week, being a typical winter fruit with a long(er) shelf-life, but then I ponder on what to do with them. This time I pondered nearly too long, so they were getting a little soft, which … turns out … is actually quite ideal for making preserves. Small batch.
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9. January 2015