I know that I’m a day late, but for all of those readers who are observing the Passover holiday, and eating only non-leavened bread products– you have an entire week to eat plenty of matzos. One whole week with nary a slice of bread to be seen. Truth be told, it’s been several years since I have been an observant Jew. But I remember in elementary school, my mother packing my lunch for me. I would open my lunch box only to find a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on not homemade white bread, not bread at all– but matzos.
Those were some dry sandwiches! At first, having matzos to snack on seemed special. Like being a member of some secret society. I would pull the brittle pieces out of a sandwich bag, and my non-Jewish schoolmates would ask a slew of questions. [...]

I was at the heath food store recently, perusing through the many bags of Bob’s Red Mill products when I spotted a bag of graham flour. Graham flour? Graham crackers, I thought. So, I grabbed a bag and went home.
Some may think of graham crackers as a childish food. And I suppose they are. I remember sitting around diminutive work tables in elementary school, with a Dixie cup full of apple juice and a teacher’s assistant placing graham crackers on the paper napkin in front of me. I loved the snack then, and I love the snack now. Graham crackers are still one of my go-to snacks when nothing else sounds good. Slathered with peanut butter, they can’t be beat. And I only could imagine that they would be superlative when homemade.
I went home, and did a quick Google search for [...]

Did everyone have a splendid Thanksgiving? Was it filled with turkey, pie, and maybe a little bit of booze? Was there enough food? That is a silly question. If your Thanksgiving is anything like mine, it is all about abundance. Abundance is great; but after the turkey is packed up, the sides are nestled in their Tupperwares, the brussels sprouts two ways (yes, you read that correctly) are chilling in the refrigerator, and each guest has his or her own care package to take home, and you still find yourself looking at a bowlful of homemade cranberry sauce, what are you to do?
Make scones, of course!
For the past two years one of our guests has made the most delicious cranberry sauce, based on this recipe. The cranberries are tart yet sweet, flavored with just a hint of orange, and blooming with those warm spices of [...]

Maybe you have seen them sitting in the glass case at a Mexican Panaderia, a sweet roll, with a sugar crust, that is often brightly colored. If you’re anything like me, you may have been turned off by the neon hues, and ordered something else. Well, I didn’t know what I was missing. I should have said, “One concha, please!” My mornings would have been a lot brighter.
Conchas are named for their resemblance to a conch shell, and for those of you who have yet to try them, they are a soft, sweetened roll that is topped with a crumbly, flaky, sugar-based shell. Take one bite, and bits of the sugar shell come off, gently spilling down your shirt– what a delicious mess to eat! The roll is very similar in taste to brioche bread, and it is made rich with the addition of [...]

Well, autumn is definitely arriving. I can almost see the pots percolating on the stove, and smell the braising meats in the oven. Yes, I can tolerate having the oven on for more than a few moments, and to me this means the baking of bread will resume. In order to christen the process, I baked up a batch of Batter Dinner Rolls from an out-of-print cookbook called The Complete Bread Cookbook.
Very similar to a Parker House Roll, the batter was loose and pliable, while the inclusion of milk made the rolls taste rich and homey. With the house smelling warm and yeasty, I’d say they were an excellent way to say goodbye to the summer and to usher in the fall.
from Nosheteria

So I think this is going to be a quick one today. Why? You might be asking. Well, Brian and I are moving again, just across town, but still, we are on the move again. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, moving is a royal pain. It’s like a blister that just popped on your heel when you still have a mile to walk. (That’s how much I like it!) This year I can blame all of the difficulties on James Beard and Craig Claiborne. Let me make that statement a bit more explicit, I blame it on their books.
In Niantic, Connecticut there is a funky, used book store, in a ramshackle house and several out-houses, called The Book Barn. It may not be the best book store ever, but it is one of the most charming. I [...]

I was a latch-key kid. But please, don’t feel sorry for me– I loved the time alone. There was something so settling about a quiet house to come to, with no one pestering me about schoolwork that had yet to be completed. The school bus would drop me off just houses away from where I lived, and I would trudge home, appropriately exhausted. After dumping all of my books, and stacks of handouts, in a basket near the front door, I would make a bee-line for the pantry.
If the pantry were the refrigerator, surely my mother would have reprimanded me for standing in front, letting all of the cold air out. I gazed at the various packages of food for what seemed like hours. Sometimes I would have some cereal, a replay of my morning meal. At times a can of [...]

When I started this blog way back in January of 2005, I wasn’t much of a baker, so this wasn’t much of a baking blog. I wrote about chickpeas, zucchini, quickly frying fish, or sautéing vegetables. Standing, perched over my cast-iron skillet, or waiting impatiently while a roast chicken fragranced the entire house with its subtle aromas of lemon and thyme was all par for the course.
But as time went on, for the sake of everyone’s interest, both the diligent reader and the refreshed writer, I expanded my horizon. Occasionally a cookie, a cupcake, or even a pie or two crept its sugary way onto the Internet in the form of a Nosheteria post. I found that baked goods were nothing to be feared, but rather, they were to be relished. Yes, the long-time dessert lover, was becoming a baker as well.
This summer, when Brian [...]