Since summertime 2014, most Tuesday dinners involved some items or spices typically associated with Mexican food and were called, in a name widely used elsewhere, Taco Tuesdays. It seldom involved tacos, but often involved the leanest ground beef with taco seasoning. (I could write a mini-book with those recipes; maybe I will someday.) My daughter’s … More Stuffed Eggplant
To diffuse some leftover adrenaline from fighting off an attempt by someone with a knife to get in my door in the middle of the afternoon last Thursday, I did one of the things that I find comforting. Bake something. Get in the kitchen, measure things, put ingredients together in a certain manner, take care … More Baking Experiments as Therapy, Example 1: Chocolate Chip Bourbon Cookies
There is esprit de corps or playoff fever in the Pacific Northwest with the Seahawks fighting for another big trip and the 12s going all blue and green. Some folks are immune, but they keep their heads down. For the rest of us, two words end conversations. My pre-game preparation began here, with the easiest recipe … More I’m In with Cranberry Orange Scones in Seattle Colors
Today is my adorable downstairs neighbor Hannah’s third birthday. I like to make their birthday cakes and asked what type of cake she might like. She’s seen only chocolate (spoken in a whisper?) and angel food with strawberries in one form or another, so when offered the choice between the two, she chose STRAWBERRIES! It is my … More Winter Birthday, Strawberry Well Cake
In Santa Monica, not far from McCabe’s Guitar Shop where I was taking a class, there was a small chocolate shop with the best chocolate cookie that I’d ever had in my life. As a sincere believer that chocolate is a food group, I made sure to have them often enough to sustain life. The … More juliyya’s Chocolate Joneses, truly a Star
My daughter asks for these every year as a selection in the Christmas cookie mix. She used to make them, too, as her contribution to the holiday baking. I don’t prefer to put them in the gift boxes because they are big. It’s impossible to make them small or all you get is a few … More Haystacks. Someone thinks they’re a star
Christmas cookie platters on display in stores and on lovely tables all over the world include some variation of this classic cookie with a cake name. When I was growing up, we called them Russian Tea Cakes and they were made with chopped raw walnuts. They are also commonly called Snowballs and Mexican Wedding Cakes. … More Mini Tea Cakes, Star of the Day
There is always leftover turkey after the next-day leftover Thanksgiving dinner and possibly a turkey sandwich, so I usually make real McCoy turkey enchiladas. Well, more like real Garcia turkey enchiladas since I learned how to make them in a lesson just for me by the Mexican-native mother of the teenager who babysat my daughter … More Chutney Baby, One More Time
In the summer and autumn of 2014, while spending part of every week at my mother’s house and having an abundance of fresh fruits from the garden, trees and eastern Washington, I learned how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker or rock salt. It began with a recipe for rhubarb ice cream … More Raspberries and Cranberries, Already Great, Made Great Again
Last night, as dinner was on the stove and with an accompaniment in the oven, I mixed a batch of cookie dough for another experiment in fillings, in high hopes that the result would be the third offering of a peppermint-related cookie trio. There are already two unique and well-proven members of that trio, typically … More Peppermint Cream Snicks, Maybe
Ms Chef in Seattle 