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 [...]

Do you know of Helen Corbitt? Well, I hadn’t until just over a week ago. Brian and I had taken a few days in Philadelphia. I had never seen the Liberty Bell, or Independence Hall, or had eaten at Reading Terminal Market (amazing!). While we were strolling through Old City, we stopped in a used book store. It smelled musty, with creaky floorboards, and bookshelves that were so tall and crammed so tightly with books, the Californian in me was immediately made wary of earthquakes. I love a good used bookstore, and New Haven, although it is ultimately a college town, has a paucity of them. So I made a beeline for the cookbook section in this particular store, and there I stumbled across Helen Corbitt’s Cookbook.
I love vintage cookbooks, they tell stories of times past, what foods were in fashion, and what [...]

Comfort food soothes– hence the name. For the last week I have been glued to the television set, waiting for one talking head to convince me, to quell my nerves, to, for lack of a better word, soothe me. When I realized that the news could never do this for me, there was only one thing left to do. Go to the kitchen. I flipped through cookbooks, opened cabinets, sifted through drawers full of gadgets, and finally arrived at quick and delicious recipe I had yet to try in this book.
I do not come from the South, so biscuits for me usually came out of a cardboard tube. And as much as that pop, followed by a sigh, that came from opening up the container thrilled me, I realize now, after making the real thing, just how much I was missing out upon. These [...]

At my birthday dinner a clean, white plate was presented at the dinner table. It housed a circular configuration of tiny gougères, still warm from the oven. An amuse bouche, if you will, something salty and savory to start the meal off right. They were thoroughly enjoyed, not a crumb left in sight. And I thought to myself, I should make those, emboldened by my baking adventures as of late.
Then I received Alice Waters’ latest cookbook The Art of Simple Food, as birthday present. It looked lovely. Clear and concise, it appeared to be less of a cookbook by a noted chef, and more of a wonderful resource for the home cook. I glanced through it quickly that night, but had to wait a few days until my birthday guests left, and I settled in nicely to my new round (meaning 30!) year. [...]

It all started with this bread. I know, I know, could I be any later to the game? I read about it, heard about, saw it posted on YouTube, but I had never made it. It almost seemed too de riguer; I can be funny that way. But late this past summer, nearly two years from the original publication date, I broke out the yeast, and gave it a try. And this created a monster.
The no-knead bread was more than adequate. A beautiful crunchy loaf with corn meal along the crust, but let’s be honest, while this bread is super in a pinch, it lacks real taste. It also lacks something that I have come to love– the knead. (You think I would have gotten that from the name.) There is just something so satisfying about plunging your fist into [...]

Have you ever had one of those moments, maybe you were cleaning out your closet, and discovered that old blue sweater in the back recesses that you never really wore when you bought, but trying it on now, years later, it fits beautifully, and is warm and soft– precisely what you have been looking for. Or maybe you have finally found the ideal ball point pen, just narrow enough to make a serious stroke yet fluid enough so that it has a bit of caché. Well that’s sort of how I feel about my latest discovery.
Branston Pickle Relish is hardly a new product to any Brit out there. But for me, an American with more of a, shall we say, austere palate– it was a revelation. It all started a few months ago, as I was getting ready to leave New York. I had dinner in [...]

I love a coffee cake for breakfast. Or a piece of pie. And if there are any homemade cookies in the house, I can’t think of anything better to have with my morning cup of coffee. (If these cookies happen to be oatmeal, all the better. I rationalize it away as eating a breakfast grain first thing in the morning.)
Growing up my mom would occasionally make a coffee cake from the back of the box of Bisquick. I would wake up to the warm smell of cinnamon wafting through the air. Rolling out of bed, I sleepily made my way down the hall. On a cooling rack my breakfast would sit, its craggy streusel topping with lumps of shredded coconut peeking out. This is what probably gave me my very first sweet tooth in the morning.
As I was looking through [...]

Perhaps this month you have been inspired to make breakfast a thing of beauty. Perhaps you are exhausted by my regaling you about the wonders of grilled bread, fluffy waffles, or oatmeal, a new way. Perhaps you are asking yourself: All of these recipes are nice and all, but does Adrienne really eat like this every day? And the answer, my friends is…of course not.
I, like many people, get fixated on foods. And it seems that the one area where this is most apparent is breakfast. For the quick, grab-it-and-go, sort of breakfast I have my standards: a sourdough English muffin with butter and just a smattering of raspberry jam; thinly sliced, German brown bread with hazelnuts and five grains, that stays with you well past lunch time; a bowl of Rice Krispies with cold milk splashed in and sliced strawberries. These are [...]

I would not, could not, in a box. I could not, would not, with a fox. I will not eat them with a mouse. I will not eat them in a house. I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere. I do not eat green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
Perhaps Sam’s curmudgeonly friend had not tried these green eggs and ham:
You can pile just about anything on top of grilled, rustic style bread, and it would be good. I don’t know about having rodents as your dining companion, but a delicious breakfast can be made. I glided on a bit of bright green pesto that acted as the glue for a morning-time, open-faced sandwich. Next, some thinly sliced, still-summery tomatoes, then a beautiful poached egg simply awaiting a puncture.
The piece de resistance, the ham, or in this [...]

Donuts and a cuppa joe. As American as apple pie, a juicy hamburger, or a skinny hot dog. Glazed, chocolate frosted, jelly-filled, raised or cake, have your pick. Some people dunk ‘em in their breakfast-time coffee, then quickly take a bite, careful not to allow the donut to get too soggy in their hot morning brew. Other people are purists, munching on the gooey sweetness anytime of the day, but completely unsullied.
On Saturday mornings, when I was young, my dad used to take me fishing off of the pier in Half Moon Bay, CA. Dad was a not an outdoors man. He was not even an organized sports man. He was a business man. Not the suit-and-tie sort, but still the sort that awoke at the crack of dawn to get to the office early before anyone else had really [...]