I’ve never cared much for chicken noodle soup but can’t really explain why. I like chicken, I like noodles, I like chicken and rice soup just fine, but there’s something about chicken noodle soup that just doesn’t do it for me. This Chinese soup, however, I remember eating as a child and I’ve always loved it. It’s sometimes called egg flower soup, from the way the egg flowers throughout the soup ...
dairy-free
Vegetarian Fried Rice
Fried rice was pretty much a given whenever my family would eat out at Chinese restaurants when I was growing up, not necessarily because it was part of the cuisine’s standard fare, but because it was practically the only dish my parents could be guaranteed that I would eat. ...
Jalapeño-Lime Chicken Fajita Bowls
Fajitas have always been a tricky food for me, since I typically try to cram the tortillas with far more than their actual capacity. Half of the contents then spill out the back end of the tortilla, leaving behind a delicious mess that, as I gobble it down with a fork, proclaims to everyone at the table that my eyes were larger than my stomach tortilla. So, I figure, why not just skip the extra ...
Raspberry Lemon Tartlets
For a lot of people, Valentine’s Day means chocolate. Not surprisingly, Valentine’s Day is responsible for a spike in chocolate sales each year, although Easter and Halloween bring even higher figures. Still, 50-60 million pounds of Valentine’s Day chocolate is nothing to scoff at! While I love chocolate as much as the next person, I felt that St. Valentine and Cupid might like a change of pace – ...
Chicken Kapama
Chicken kapama (pronounced kah-pah-MAH) is a tomato-based Greek stew, often flavored with red wine and cinnamon. I first had this dish when I was on an excavation in Greece one summer during college. We were staying in a very small town with only about four hundred residents, and we ate lunch at the same restaurant every day. As you can imagine, eating from the same menu every day for six weeks ...
Rosemary Wheat Crackers
I have to admit that when my parents first told me they had made homemade crackers, I rolled my eyes. I find store-bought crackers perfectly satisfactory, so I couldn’t imagine wanting to make my own, since I prefer to spend my time in the kitchen cooking and baking things that are significant improvements upon store-bought varieties, like homemade chocolate chip cookies. Over the holidays, ...
Mexican Tamales Part II: Additional Notes
While I was at home in California over the holidays, where it was a balmy sixty degrees or so and there was none of this polar vortex business going on (thanks for the fifteen below/thirty below with wind chill welcome back, Michigan!), where I could go to the grocery store and not find that everyone got there before I did and had already cleared out the store's supply of, well, pretty much ...
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cranberry Streusel
Today I baked these cupcakes to give away to some of my parents’ neighbors, and because filling the house with the fragrant scent of gingerbread seemed like a great way to get more into the holiday spirit – I only finished my work for the semester yesterday, and it’s always difficult for me to be fully in holiday mode while I’m still writing papers and such. ...
Mexican Tamales with Guajillo-Pineapple Sauce
We recently took another cooking class – a tamale workshop at Sur La Table! It was a lot of fun (and the food was phenomenal!), but I had no idea how long it takes to make tamales. It’s definitely more of an activity to be shared and enjoyed with other people, rather than just a recipe to make for a meal. Because of the two-hour class schedule, the instructor had done a few of the steps ahead of ...
Stuffing “Salad” with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Tart Apples
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 ...