From the kitchen of a semi-vegetarian with a serious sweet tooth
In my opinion, the hardest part of making this cheesecake is waiting three or more hours for it to chill properly in the refrigerator before serving. It’s worth the wait, though, and believe me, I have been waiting quite a while for this cheesecake. Several weeks, in fact. ...
When I was really young, my family had a Klutz Kids Cooking book. The only thing I remember from this book was a recipe for “Happle Bagel Sandwiches”: a bagel topped with apple slices, cheddar cheese, and cinnamon. I’m not sure why we stopped making these over time, but I only remember eating them as a small child (probably 5 or younger). When thumbing through Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen ...
I’ll start with a warning: store these muffins in the fridge! The first time I made muffins with cream cheese centers was during my senior year of college, when I was living with three other girls. As it turns out, the average fridge is not designed with enough space to accommodate the different food preferences of four people, so it was like a never-ending game of tetris to find a place for a ...
If I had to pick one Thanksgiving food as my favorite, it would be stuffing. I like mashed potatoes well enough, pumpkin pie can be quite tasty, and I’ve made my peace with green beans (as a child, I would only eat them if they came from a can). I could live without cranberry sauce, and I’m still pretty lukewarm about the turkey itself – if ever I’m somehow left in charge of obtaining and ...
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a recipe for tater tot pizza. When I made that pizza, I doubled the recipe for the dough and froze half to use later, since it’s really not any more work to make a bigger batch of dough. Today, all I had to do for a scrumptious homemade pizza dinner was thaw the dough, prepare the toppings, and bake! If you’re using dough from the freezer, you’ll want to take it out ...
I first made this feta and dill orzo salad a few weeks after I returned from studying abroad in Greece one summer in college. By the end of my stay, I thought I had eaten enough tomatoes and feta to last me a lifetime, but soon enough I found myself missing the flavors of Greece. This recipe brings back fond memories of leisurely meals at carefree and balmy tavernas, and the best part is that ...
I go through phases of what I like to eat for breakfast. Back in high school, after my yogurt and Cheerios phase ran its course, my mom showed me how to make oatmeal from scratch and that became my breakfast of choice for the next year and a half until college. By senior year of college, I was back to oatmeal, then off again the two years after graduation. Then there was my first semester in grad ...
Last week was the first particularly chilly one we’ve had here this fall. In previous weeks, I’ve still been able to get away with going to campus in sweaters and cardigans, but when there was frost on the ground and ice on the cars, I knew it was time to get out a coat. I didn’t even own a coat for most of the time that I lived in California, and I only remember having the heater on for perhaps ...
Towards the end of the summer, my uncle sent me a jar of his homemade elderberry jam. Without any clear memory of having tried it before, I was a little unsure when he told me that elderberries have a distinctive flavor and that it’s not for everyone. I really like it, though! The jam isn’t overpoweringly sweet like many store-bought fruit jams, and it has a nice sort of wholesomeness that ...
You might be thinking, “Tater tots? On pizza?! Why would you put tater tots on pizza?” Well, tater tots are tasty and pizza is tasty, so why not put the two together? (I realize this logic does not hold up in many cases. For instance, bacon and chocolate has become a fairly mainstream combination, but I, for one, believe that bacon has no business being anywhere near my chocolate.) ...
