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Tastiest Book Posts

Stovetop Fusilli with Spinach, Peas, and Gruyere

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As promised by the intro to Dinner: Changing the Game, this stovetop fusilli with spinach comes together in no time, especially if the first thing you do when you walk in the door is start heating the water for the pasta.

I'm not really sure why, but my expectation for this recipe was something like mac and cheese. That's not what this is. Melissa Clark's stovetop fusilli with spinach is not overly cheesy or laden with a heavy cream sauce; we aren't making a bechamel sauce here. Instead, we're making a quick and easy meal of pasta and veggies in a thin coating of cheesy cream sauce.

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Shakshuka Focaccia - Individual Rounds

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Don't let the ridiculously long instructions scare you off from making these shakshuka focaccia rounds by Uri Scheft, founder of Breads Bakery. The instructions are long because they involve dough, plus the tomato-based matbucha topping for the dough, but the actual effort required (as you can see from the prep time) is really quite minimal. Just read the instructions thoroughly before you start and if you have any questions or find some part unclear, don't hesitate to ask!

Before we go any further, perhaps we should clarify what shakshuka is, in case you've been living under a rock or not in a major US city, where shakshuka appeared overnight in the last few years on what felt like 70% of all brunch menus. There are many, many recipes out there for shakshuka, but it can be essentially summarized as a (breakfast) dish of eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce, historically originating in either the Ottoman Empire or Yemen, recently popularized in the US by chefs like Claudia Roden and Yotam Ottolenghi.

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Maple Cherry Pistachio Bars

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I'm not the most strategic grocery shopper. I tend to buy way more than I need for any sensible length of time, in part because there are one hundred recipes I'm thinking about making at any given time, and most of them call for something I don't "normally" keep around the house. In this way, I wind up with a jam-packed pantry, duplicates hidden in the chaos, and lots of partially-used containers, which makes me feel guilty and annoys my other half, who would strongly prefer a sparsely stocked pantry and regular rotation of the best recipes.

So there I was, staring down ½ a half-gallon of heavy cream (yes, I typed that right), two open bags of dried cherries (one tart montmorency cherries, one dark sweet cherries, both from Trader Joe's), ¾ of a liter of maple syrup, four containers of citrus zest in the freezer, and an assortment of nuts in five different containers in my pantry. On a whim, I picked up Baked: New Frontiers in Baking to see if any of the upcoming recipes on the Baked Sunday Mornings schedule might help me with my overcrowding problem. The Honeycomb Bars aren't currently on our schedule, but the recipe leapt out at me; replace the honey with maple syrup, use zest in place of candied peel, and replace the sliced almonds with a nut I liked better, and voila: maple cherry pistachio bars plus more pantry space.

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Smoky Broccoli with Blue Cheese Dressing and Spiced Krispies

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This smoky broccoli with blue cheese dressing and spiced krispies marks the third recipe I've tried from Gather and Graze. This cookbook has earned a permanent place on my bookshelf and even though I tend not to cook the same thing twice, Stephanie's recipes have found their way into my cooking "rotation". Everything I've made from Stephanie Izard's latest cookbook has been outstanding.

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Chocolate Cookies and Cream Icebox Towers

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My first encounter with icebox towers was at our friend Amelia's house last summer, when it was way too hot for baking anything. She had been eyeing (or previously made and wanted to repeat, I can't remember) the icebox tower from Smitten Kitchen, so she picked up some brownie brittle and local strawberries, I whipped some heavy cream, and eight hours later we had a glorious dessert. A few weeks ago, she made a chocolate peanut butter icebox cake (also from Smitten Kitchen) for her husband's birthday, and it was similarly delicious. My first solo foray into the world of icebox desserts was with these chocolate cookies and cream icebox towers from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking (the recipe for which I could not for the life of me find in the book).

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Ideas Post 72: Vote for a Recipe

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We've definitely entered the "it's too hot to cook" part of summer, when all I really want to eat is fresh fruit and cold salads (and ice cream).

Fortunately, I've run across a ton of interesting salad recipes recently, so there are plenty of options. I was going to pick a range of salads from different cookbooks, but then I picked up Favorite Recipes from Melissa Clark's Kitchen and so many things looked appealing and easy I decided to focus on her cookbook only. Let me know what you'd like to see me make & post!

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Kohlrabi Salad with Ginger-Maple Dressing

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The original request for this salad came from ME because she planted two different varieties of kohlrabi in her garden this year. However, I guess we got ahead of ourselves a little when we made it in late April; it wasn't quite kohlrabi season and there was none to be found in any supermarket. We determined we would use a green apple and half a head of red cabbage in place of the kohlrabi and red leaf lettuce, since young kohlrabi is crunchy and tart like a Granny Smith and red cabbage is also crunchy but slightly sweeter than its green cousins (I couldn't find any nice heads of lettuce at the time either).

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Grilled Chicken Thighs with Sesame-Horseradish Mayo

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I am blessed with great friends. When Caleb and I were visiting New Jersey in late April, ME let me make dinner based on whatever cookbook I was currently focused on testing. [And John asked for beef Wellington. Don't fret, I haven't forgotten.] The cookbook of that moment was Gather & Graze, and based on the recipe vote results, I needed to make the kohlrabi salad. Delicious as it is, kohlrabi salad couldn't be the only dinner course, as we put our heads together as I paged through the book and ME spotted the grilled duck hearts with sesame-horseradish mayo. Thinking they would complement the grilled broccoli with smoky blue cheese and the kohlrabi salad, she suggested swapping out the duck hearts for much more easily sourced chicken thighs.

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Cauliflower Ragu with Fusilli and Parmesan

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I have mixed feelings about Six Seasons. It's won a ton of awards and people rave about how original and unique (yet approachable) Joshua's recipes are. However, I've made my planned three recipes from Six Seasons and none of them were 100% successful. Each one required some tinkering and adaptation before I (or anyone else) was happy with the dish. I feel like Joshua's recipes provide intriguing starting points, but I wouldn't feel confident recommending his cookbook to someone who doesn't like to experiment a little as they cook.

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Pistachio Cherry Biscotti

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These pistachio and dried cherry biscotti were another item on the Baked: New Frontiers in Baking recipe schedule that I waffled on making. I just don’t really like biscotti, because in my opinion, they’re basically an overcooked cookie. I realize they’re meant to be dunked in coffee, which softens them up, but then you get crumbs in your coffee and honestly, it’s a really inefficient way to eat a cookie....

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Ideas Post 71: Vote for a Recipe

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I have a stack of 10 cookbooks sitting by the door ready to be donated and I moved another 20 to my "decide within the month or donate" shelf. I guess in the scheme of things, that's not that big of a dent, but it feels like progress. My goal is for my bookshelves to only hold books I've actually cooked from. Forcing myself to answer whether I'm holding on because A) I paid for it, B) I aspire to be a genius cookie decorator in all of my spare time, or C) I could actually see myself making something from it within the next week and having it be well-received has been a useful process. Now for my clothing and shoes!

I made Caleb go through a four-page list of possible recipes, so it's your turn to decide!

A) Sauteed Halibut with Thai Red Curry from Arrows Cookbook

B) Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce from Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express

C) Chinese Corn Velvet Soup from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

D) Salmon with Corn Relish and Basil Mayo from Vintner's Table Cookbook

Kohlrabi Salad with Pecans, Lime, Paprika, and Marjoram

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There's something about arranging recipes by season that makes sense in principle, but in practice, I struggle with using cookbooks organized that way. I know, seasonality in cooking is the thing, but I appreciate the structure of a cookbook organized by "{breakfast}, starters/snacks, vegetables/salads, mains, {dessert}".  Otherwise, interesting, approachable recipes get lost (to me) between pages of "a little too chef-y" recipes. I've owned Broad Fork for years, but this is the first recipe I've ever "cooked" from it.

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New Deli Crumb Cake

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The third crumb cake! ... well, technically this is a coffee cake because there nuts in the topping? Coffee cake or crumb cake, the "New Deli" crumb cake from Zingerman's Bakehouse was well-liked at the crumb cake bake-off, it just wasn't the favorite (or even the second favorite).

Please don't assume that means it's not worth making. It is absolutely worth it! Zingerman's New Deli crumb cake is so named because the bakers drew their crumb flavor inspiration from Delhi: cardamom, ginger, cloves, pistachios, and sweet coconut. The result is delicious and way more interesting than a basic crumb cake. The cake itself is really tender and the crumb is perfectly spiced.

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New York-Style Crumb Cake

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Growing up, I didn't have much exposure to crumb cake outside of supermarket Entenmann's. I've eaten a lot of bites of bad crumb cake, but I hadn't encountered great crumb cake until I moved to New Jersey. Track 5 coffee had my very favorite cappuccinos, amazing bear claws, stellar mini quiches, as well as a fantastic vanilla crumb cake. Caleb raved about how much he liked it and commented that A) I'd never made him crumb cake and B) it would be nigh impossible to beat Track 5's crumb cake.

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Peanut Butter-Nutella Coffee Cake

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We had a crumb cake bake-off at work last week, with the three "contestants" being the NY-style crumb cake from Baked, this peanut butter-Nutella coffee cake, and the New "Deli" crumb cake from Zingerman's Bakehouse. The NY-style crumb cake is Caleb's current favorite, and it won the crumb cake bake-off by a giant margin, but people were pretty passionate about this PB-Nutella coffee cake too.

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Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie

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I love slightly underdone, ultra-chocolate-y cookies and I like good pecan pie, so I was reasonably optimistic about this week's baking project, the Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie, from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. On the other hand, I've never really understood the point of a cookie pie. One of the great things about chocolate chip cookies is that they can be whipped up and ready to serve in under an hour. Even a giant chocolate chip skillet cookie falls into the no forethought required, fast and easy dessert category. A pie can be fast and easy, but not one using an all-butter crust that needs to be gently made, chilled, rolled, then chilled again. Could waiting at least five hours or longer for my cookie, just so it could have a butter pie shell, really be worthwhile?

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Ideas Post 70: Vote for a Recipe

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Happy Saturday (and Memorial Day weekend)! We're sitting in traffic in LA (as you do) and I've already run through all the yelp reviews of places we might want to eat lunch. Now I'm just hungry and impatient with LA...

Want to see one of these recipes featured on the blog? Let me know in the comments what looks good to you!...

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Chipotle Cheddar Biscuits

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I baked a few of these right before dashing out to a class I was taking Monday night, took one for myself, and left the rest for Caleb to try. His next text read, "OMG biscuits". Do you need to know more?

The truth is there is basically nothing I love more than bread, except bread and melted cheese. That might come as a surprise to some people. Maybe my heroic levels of dessert consumption have suggested otherwise. Maybe you've never met me in person or you haven't spent much time poking around on this site. The truth is, in the battle of chocolate cake versus cheesy bacon monkey bread, I'd much rather eat the latter. (Not that the former isn't delicious.)

Knowing what you know about me now, imagine my delight when I saw these chipotle cheddar biscuits on the Baked: New Frontiers in Baking recipe schedule for Baked Sunday Mornings. Fresh from a cooking class that included some spectacularly lofty biscuits, I felt like I was ready to take these on and apply my new secrets... until I realized these cheddar biscuits are the drop variety rather than the cut variety of biscuit. Oh well. I'll just make a separate batch of "regular" buttermilk biscuits soon.

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Ideas Post 69: Vote for a Recipe

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It's been quiet here for a while, but I have been cooking my way through the recent recipe vote winners.

I had zero expectations for Stephanie Izard's cookbook, yet everything I've made from Gather & Graze has been delicious and easily accessible for the average home cook. By contrast, I had really high expectations for French Patisserie and I've found myself seriously let down. I haven't published a post detailing complete cookbook failures, although I have a few drafted, but i think this enormous tome could be the one that motivates me to write one.

For now, let's focus on intriguing salads, because it's May and May is salad month!

A) Kohlrabi Salad with Pecans, Lime, Paprika, and Marjoram from Broad Fork

B) Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower with Raisins, Vin Cotto, Capers, and Parsley from Broad Fork

C) Arugula Salad with Poached and Pulled Chicken, Buttermilk Dressing, Fried Bread, and Olives from Broad Fork

D) My Big Fat Greek Chicken Salad from Everyday Cook by Alton Brown

Let me know which of these you'd like to see!

Curry Noodles with Chicken

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Victory is mine! This is the first Thai dish I've made that Caleb has approved of. Since he's a huge connoisseur of Thai food, this is no small feat; there have been quite a few rejected Thai noodle dishes over the years. Finally, Simple Thai Food has succeeded where so many others have failed. Now the pressure is on for STF's pad Thai and pad see ew, but for the moment, let's talk about these curry noodles with chicken.

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Whole Loaf Cheesy Garlic Bread

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Looking for an easy appetizer/party dish? This whole loaf cheesy garlic bread from Tartine All Day is a great choice. Yes, there are thousands of cheesy garlic bread recipes out there, and yes, they all basically call for a similar set of ingredients, and yes, most of them are probably less complicated than this one... but this version from one of the masterminds behind Tartine is not your average run-of-the-mill cheesy garlic bread. Mostly, this is because you're using fresher ingredients and better bread than those other recipes. All you need is a loaf of good bread, garlic, butter, herbs (parsley at least), and a couple high-quality melting cheeses, like gruyere and fontina.

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Soft S'mores Cookies

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These s'mores cookies from Cookies & Cups are another recipe I've unforgivably not posted for months. I first made them in July/August last year, and I've been making a batch at least once a month since then. Why has it taken me so long to introduce you to these delightful and delicious cookies? Partially because I've done a little tinkering, but mostly because every time I make them they are eaten before I can photograph the final cookies.

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Tahini Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

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Tahini is everywhere now, so it stands to reason that it would find its way into a Cooking Light version of banana bread. This is definitely a trend I am on board with; tahini takes your run-of-the-mill banana bread and makes it so much better. ...

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Grasshopper Cake from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

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I've never had a grasshopper cocktail (equal parts crème de menthe, crème de cacao (white), and heavy cream)... mostly because I stay away from creamy cocktails as a general rule. However, I fully support Matt and Renato's transformation of the neon-green minty cocktail into a cake. Mint desserts often stray over the line into too sweet or too minty territory, but thankfully, the Baked duo are incredibly skilled in the art of flavor balancing. Mint chocolate is one of my favorite dessert flavors and this grasshopper cake is a perfect balance of dark chocolate cake, minty dark chocolate ganache, and minty ermine buttercream. It's like the ultimate peppermint patty, transformed into a refreshing cake.

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