Bawlmerese for Enjoy Your Meal
So remember how I gushed about the people I met at the Big Summer Potluck, how warm and welcoming they were, how genuine and down to earth everyone was? None of that has changed. They are all lovely people. What I didn’t realize going into the event was exactly WHO some of these folks were. At the risk of having BAH shut down by the food blog police for gross ignorance, I am oblivious to the vast majority of the food world. Continue reading “Abby Dodge’s S’mores Bars”
Do you ever have the kind of day where you don’t know if you’re coming or going? Where you can’t tell up from down? Or whether it’s time for breakfast or dessert? I can’t exactly help you cope with the first two things on that list. But the third, I’ve got covered thanks to Three Baking Sheets To The Wind.
She posted about this Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffin that immediately got me to wondering…well, which is it – a pancake or a muffin? Curiosity piqued as it was, I didn’t fool around letting this question, or recipe, linger. My brain, and my recipe folders, are too congested to let burning questions such as this go unanswered, just bouncing around. What follows is the official transcript of the conversation I had with myself after these had been mixed, baked, cooled, and consumed. Continue reading “Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins”
While I’m away on my imaginary vacation, I’m leaving the pantry stocked with posts from Exit 51 that would have been part of the Flashback Friday series. The following originally appeared on 7/3/09 at Exit 51.
On Call
The moment I picked those berries, the clock started ticking. One reason the strawberries you buy at the grocery store taste so blah is because they’ve been in suspended animation. They get cold stored which prolongs their shelf life. Fresh picked berries, however, have essentially been removed from their life support system. The morning after harvest, the berries I had set aside from the mega batch of jam were already starting to dry out and wither. Their once shiny exteriors were flat and dull. I needed to get these berries into the kitchen stat. Luckily, the recipe on call that day was Strawberry Frozen Yogurt. I was asked to assist. Continue reading “On Call”
While I’m away on my imaginary vacation, I’m leaving the pantry stocked with posts from Exit 51 that would have been part of the Flashback Friday series. The following originally appeared on 6/19/09 at Exit 51.
Berry Good
The notion of eating fresh relies heavily on eating what’s in season. Those strawberries you see at the market in the dead of winter…not so much in season. But the ones I just picked at Baugher’s Farm? Most definitely so.
What do you think a strawberry is supposed to taste like? After eating so many of the mass produced, genetically enhanced, grocery store giants, I had forgotten the beauty of a fresh strawberry. Right from the plant, it is warm from the morning sun. The skin is vibrant; bright, and shining red and the flesh is firm but gently yielding. Bite into a mega farm berry and you get a little sweet, a lot of bland with the texture of cardboard. Bite into a just picked berry and it’s an explosion of freshness. Sweet and bright all at the same time and then the flesh just sort of melts away in your mouth. Continue reading “Berry Good”
So what does one take to a potluck hosted and attended by food bloggers? With enough forethought, I imagine that I could have pushed my creative boundaries to come up with something more original than cookies. But I had to keep in mind that whatever I chose to make had to transport easily and not require refrigeration or reheating. Oh, and it needed to be simple enough to work into a weeknight that was filled with the likes of Mad Men, The Closer, and Real Housewives New Jersey. Because when I jump on board the crazy train that is RHNJ, my attention for anything that does not involve hair pulling, table flipping, or botox parties stays behind at the station.
So I pulled out my “dessert” binder and looked for inspiration. I mean I have a ridiculous collection of recipes that I’ve made and liked enough to photograph, develop a story about, post for your use, and print for mine. But nothing was really calling to me. It wasn’t until I stumbled across a post on Plain Chicken that I got inspired. By Butterfinger. You know, the chocolate and peanut butter candy bar. I can only say that the Universe meant for us to be together. How else would you explain me finding a recipe (on a site that I had never been to before) that called for 5 king size Butterfinger candy bars on the same day that I happened to stop at 7-11 for a Diet Coke and saw a ginormous display of Butterfinger with…wait for it…coupons? Continue reading “Peanut Butterfinger Cookies”
While I’m away on my imaginary vacation, I’m leaving the pantry stocked with posts from Exit 51 that would have been part of the Flashback Friday series. The following originally appeared on 7/20/09 at Exit 51.
Don’t Judge A Book By The Cover
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Not only is that some commercial tag line, it’s also the God’s honest truth. Sometimes, bad first impressions can’t be overcome. Other times, if you look past them, you find that you were totally wrong. Like that time in middle school when both Kristen Heher and I thought each other was trouble, with a capital T. Maybe we were, but after we got to know each other, we were best friends for two years. As hard as it is for me to admit when I am wrong, it’s even harder not to share with you something so ugly it’s good. Continue reading “Don’t Judge a Book By the Cover”
While I’m away on my imaginary vacation, I’m leaving the pantry stocked with posts from Exit 51 that would have been part of the Flashback Friday series. The following originally appeared on 7/24/09 at Exit 51.
Waste Management
Buying items just because they are on sale is only a bargain if you use them. Otherwise they’re a huge waste of money. Impulse grocery shopping usually comes back and bites me in the butt. My most recent example? Those cherries on sale at The Fresh Market were a great price. I was expecting cherries as delicious as the ones I got direct from the farm at Baugher’s. What I got instead was a heaping serving of disappointment. Continue reading “Waste Management”
The following originally appeared on 6/2/08 at Exit 51
Know When To Say When
I have a handful of recipes that try and create homemade versions of popular treats – Thin Mints, Peppermint Patties, and most recently, Oreos. I adore the idea of a diy approach to a classic. Really, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have Thin Mints anytime they wanted? Nothing to get in the way of enjoying minty thin goodness on a whim.
But here’s the thing that nobody says. It’s a lot of freaking work. I read over the recipe and think ’sure, I can do that’. But it doesn’t occur to me that this undertaking will consume hours of my life. Hours that I can never get back. And why? All because I had to see if I could do it. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Know When To Say When”
Have you met Shutterboo? Well you should. She takes incredible pictures and is disciplined enough to complete one photo assignment each week. She also did that fantastic tutorial on how to make a light box which led me to make my own. She’s got a wicked sharp sense of humor and the warmest heart. The girl has one flaw, I could not get her to send me a Food Memory. Continue reading “Food Memories – Aunt Nellie’s Candy”
I am bad with numbers. Really, my SAT Math scores were dismal. For example, my math skills are so bad that when a cake recipe calls for 8 inch or 10 inch pans (and I only have 9 inch pans) I will either decide not to make the recipe or forget about pan size altogether and make cupcakes. My brain does not calculate volume. That’s how The Mistah and I started out with a recipe for Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake but ended up with cupcakes instead. Continue reading “Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes”
Bon Appetit Hon by Wendi Mosteiko is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Bon Appetit Hon 