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 [...]

But it tasted kind of awful. Recently I picked up Donna Hay’s Simple Essentials Fruit, and as I was glancing through the pictures (because they really are the best part of her books) a Plum and Chocolate Clafoutis bounced off the page at me. It looked delicious, and made me think why hadn’t I thought of that? Well, I will tell you why– it’s gross! How could something so simple, with well-loved ingredients come out so wrong? So here is picture of my failed, too-dense, overly chocolaty, flat, mess of a dessert. Oh well, you win some, and clearly, you lose some.

from Nosheteria

I used to dislike lemon desserts; they just seemed like a giant waste of time. If I wanted something sweet, I would go for chocolate, smooth and creamy, every time. But as I got older, my palate as well as my appetite grew. I learned to appreciate the delicacy, the brightness, that puckery twang of a good lemon dessert. And now, many years later, I even crave a little bit of lemon zest in my sweets. Chocolate may be tried and true, but lemon is clean and lustrous.
When glancing at a recipe, there are some that read only like a list of ingredients. Nothing about it calls out to you, beckoning from the stove. Then there are the recipes that are utterly enticing. You make your ways through the basics: a bit of sugar (got it), some flour (yes?), buttermilk (mmm), lots [...]

Last weekend brought my very first clafoutis. Cherry and blueberry, eggy and deee-licious! A well-trod recipe requiring just a handful of ingredients, and a pile of fruit, clafoutis is easier to make than a pie (my other summertime favorite), yet equally as delectable. I even included a copy of my recipe in the book. Have a lovely long weekend folks!

from Nosheteria

I think that rhubarb is really one of those vegetables that is best served as a fruit– like a tomato in reverse. That is not to say that I have never been swayed to try out rhubarb as a savory component to my meals. If I remember correctly, several years ago, I tried out a pork tenderloin dish with roasted rhubarb and sage. It was bad. Needless to say, as I was ingesting the relaxed, roasted rhubarb, all I was thinking was that I wished I had stewed the rhubarb in sugar, and forgotten about the pork entirely. But you have to give things a shot to determine their worth.
Rhubarb is an odd vegetable/fruit. It can range in color from a gentle celadon to a shocking pink, all in the same stalk, making it look like celery’s racier cousin. I am always [...]

February 10th will forever be a birthday of sorts. The birthday of my book. What does one do in celebration? Surely it will be different than birthday parties of yore, with the meal of my choosing, a round of duck-duck-goose, and an angel food birthday cake heaped with clouds of loosely whipped cream. A birthday party seems a bit premature. But a little birthday cake—a cupcake—was just the right thing with which say, I’m thrilled.

There is a settling immediacy to blogging. One writes, posts, and puts it out there, for all of the world to see. But it is different with a book. With a book you write, send it in, and then you wait. Wait for comments from your editor, who shows it to her team of people. You edit, she edits, you read, and reread, write some more, [...]

There are times when you make something so odd you simply have to share. This weekend I had one of those moments. Recently I have become a bit obsessed—with fat. Butter, schmaltz, duck fat, and who can forget the king of all fats—lard. I have become fascinated with the nuances of fat and this book has only encouraged my curiosities.
For years I had heard that there is no better medium for making pie crust than lard. Supposedly, it would make the dough roll out like a smooth, elastic dream, and the crust would be flaky and crumbly. And then cookbook author Jennifer McLagan confirmed the talk in her book, with a recipe for leaf lard pie dough. Fast forward to last weekend, a blustery Saturday morning, when I walked down to the bi-monthly, winter farmer’s market, and stumbled (well, trudged through the snow) upon [...]

“Yum. These are amazing. Really good. Scrumptious even,” Brian exclaimed over dessert last week. When we met (way too long ago), my husband didn’t have much of a sweet tooth. In fact, I don’t even remember there being a box of cookies, or the lone candy wrapper blowing around like a tumbleweed in his apartment the first time I visited his abode. This was not the case for me. I always had a little sweet treat squirreled away. Who knew when that bar of chocolate I was saving for a rainy day would have come in handy? And it always did whenever I would start jonesing too hard.
But as the years progressed, sugar, and I, with our very own close personal relationship, began to wear him down. Brian still does not lap up pools of chocolate sauce, or partake of enormous [...]

Now I know that you all are getting ready for your festivities this Christmas, and I, as a lapsed Jew, am getting ready for my festivities– gathering with my people at the movie theater (any suggestions?) followed by some Chinese food. But I have to leave you with just one more recipe before the year is through. It’s a good one. And those of you who are feeling especially ambitious this holiday season, might even mix up a batch to eat Christmas Eve.
Popcorn-Peanut Brittle– the name is a lesson in onomatopoeic alliteration. My mom was telling me about her newest travails in candy making with this recipe. Although she burned the sugar syrup the first time around, the second time worked like a crispy, sugary dream. I am always up for a project, so while heeding her warnings, I dove right in to [...]

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 [...]