[72] Baked Potatoes

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

You guys, I have to be honest with you here. The first photo for this recipe was, apparently, taken at 10:42 pm CST on the day before Thanksgiving. That means I was tired and stressed out, but also desperately seeking yet another recipe to be executed.

You see, Thanksgiving was not the glut of recipes I expected it to be. Largely, this is because I had to keep the feasting down to a reasonable amount for four people. As you can imagine, this was hard to do. When I thought we might have between eight and ten, I was thinking maybe four or five pies and several sides and a monster turkey and so on. When it finally came to just four people, I had to 1) reign in my instincts quite a bit and 2) give myself permission to make things I’d been drooling over for days, even though they didn’t apply to the challenge.… Continue reading →

[71] Steak, Mushroom and Ale Pie

Cover of Farmer's Market Cookbook by Ysanne Spevack

I recently went to Elephant and Castle in Chicago with Grace.

Oh, wow. “Recently” wasn’t that recently at all. I just realized this would have been the week before Halloween. Huh.

Well, anyway, the point is that we went to Elephant and Castle after going to the farmers’ market. Grace wanted something that was not terribly expensive, but with plenty of space to sit down. I don’t know the area as well as I’d like, and the places that aren’t E&C I know down there are all basically fast food.

Once we got there, we settled in to order. What I got was clearly not very memorable, because I don’t remember it. Grace, however, got the steak and ale pie. When it came out, I couldn’t help but marvel at how pretty this miniature pie was, and how tasty it looked, especially with a nice green salad next to it.… Continue reading →

[70] Grandma Ella’s Banana Nut Bread

Once upon a time, I was going to ask the family of a friend of mine to take care of my cat for while. I don’t recall how long or why. I think it was during a holiday from school when almost no one would be around. I didn’t have a lot of money, so paying in cash wasn’t doable. So I asked my friend if payment in baked goods would work. I was advised that yes, and banana bread was the right answer.

I hate banana bread.

Thus, I didn’t have a recipe for it and was completely unwilling to taste test a bunch of recipes. So, I did what any sane college student would do: I asked my great-grandmother for her recipe. She was a fabulous baker (at least by the time I came around), and so I knew whatever I got from her would be delicious.… Continue reading →

[56] Chocolate Sheet Cake

Cover of The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond

Finally, the last of the recipes from Bill’s birthday. Man, that guy had a lot going on that day, didn’t he? And he didn’t really do any of it. Slacker!

Nah, I’m just yanking his chain. Bill actually managed to help me corral our friends into showing up (though not as early as we’d hoped), went to work, and helped with the dishes. Both when he got home and after everyone left (around 1:00 am).

“This cake”:http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/the_best_chocol/ was a last minute addition to the menu; I think we decided on it the day before. I know we had to make a baking chocolate run, so I couldn’t have decided to make it on the spur of the moment. Also that we bought pecans for the frosting at the same time.… Continue reading →

The Complete Book of Cookies

The Complete Book of Cookies, edited by Deborah Grey

This is the other book in the set of two given to me by Kevin, Suzie and their children. I also love this book, mostly due to the family that gifted it to me, but partially also because it feeds what Angelique calls my “hereditary cookie madness.”

See, I know I’ve mentioned before that my sister recently got married. What I only touched on, though, was the cookie baking this entails. And I’m not going to go into much depth here, but suffice it to say that weddings in my family generally include a LOT of cookies. See, our Grandmother B. is Italian, and there’s a tradition of having a cookie cake at Italian weddings. Or at least at that set of Italian weddings. So we get cookies too.… Continue reading →