May 19th, 2012 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Nuanced Nuts, Succulent Spices
Every year around Christmas I make spiced nuts. LOTS of spiced nuts. Everyone gets a jar — family, friends, co-workers, third cousins three times removed… For about a week in December every flat surface in my apartment is covered with cooling spiced nuts. I make lots of different varieties — some sweet, some fiery hot, […]
October 18th, 2010 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Honorable Herbs, Tomatoes
I lack self control when it comes to buying vegetables from Mariquita Farms. In no way, shape, or form did I need twelve pounds of early girl tomatoes. But something — my vision of delicious ripe tomatoes paired with a lack of
July 12th, 2010 | by Jen | published in All, Cheese, Delectable Dairy, DIY Food Projects, Weekend Projects
Ricotta, ricotta, ricotta. So versatile, so simple, so delicious when done well, and so awful when done wrong. For most of my life I hated ricotta, thinking it too rubbery and tasteless. That is, until I tried (quote unquote) REAL ricotta. Not the stuff from the grocery store, but the artisan cheese that is traditionally […]
March 15th, 2010 | by Jen | published in All, Cheese, Delectable Dairy, DIY Food Projects, Fantastic Fruits, Honorable Herbs, Lemon, Thyme
There is no cheese that I enjoy more than high quality, handmade ricotta. For years I poo-poo’d it because all I had ever tasted was the shelf stable, strangely homogeneous, fairly tasteless, mass-produced grocery store variety. And then a few years ago…
June 9th, 2009 | by Jen | published in All, Around the World, DIY Food Projects, Farming, Gardening, & Food Preservation, Most Popular, Weekend Projects
When I try to explain what tempeh is to a person who isn’t familiar with it, it never ends up sounding very appetizing… well, it’s cooked, hulled soybeans that have been mixed with a special mold spore and incubated for about 24 hours until a thick layer of white mold grows throughout the beans…
April 15th, 2009 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Fennel, Garlic, Honorable Herbs, Meats and Sausages, Sausages, Meats, Succulent Spices, Thyme, Tomatoes, Veritable Vegetables
Sometimes you find an ingredient that just inspires you. Usually for me it’s not something that’s exotic or expensive, but rather something that is of such high quality or is so fresh…
March 31st, 2009 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Most Popular, Succulent Spices, Weekend Projects
Hands down, my favorite breakfast is two soft boiled eggs, a touch of butter, a piece or two of good ham or salami, a nice warm crusty roll or some dense wheat bread, and a cup of strong coffee with real cream…
March 24th, 2009 | by Jen | published in All, Around the World, DIY Food Projects, Most Popular, Succulent Spices
The range of culinary emotions I’ve experienced living here in Germany for the past three months span the whole gamut: rage that I cannot find dried ancho chiles, miso, or beef other than stew meat or flank…
December 2nd, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, Around the World, Dill, DIY Food Projects, Farming, Gardening, & Food Preservation, Honorable Herbs, Most Popular, Sausages, Meats, Weekend Projects
I can’t believe how easy it is to make gravlax. Or let me rephrase that statement — I can’t believe it’s so easy to make gravlax, and it’s taken me until now to try it!
November 28th, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Farming, Gardening, & Food Preservation, Honorable Herbs, Meats and Sausages, Parsley, Sausages, Meats, Veritable Vegetables, Weekend Projects
Somehow I ended up with a large turkey carcass in my refrigerator at the close of yesterday evening. Funny, since Thanksgiving was not at my house, and I was not in charge of cooking the turkey…
I daydream a lot about cooking during the week, especially when I’m on the train. Its rhythmic...
Yesterday I inaugurated my new canning equipment -- a huge 12 quart stockpot, a canning funnel, a ma...
I read cookbooks to relax. There is no better way for me to unwind than to read a recipe, imagine t...
I have been craving some serious American food as of late. A week ago I had the overwhelming urge ...
A few weeks ago on the same France trip that introduced me to Feves au Lard Fume, Steven and I met u...
When I try to explain what tempeh is to a person who isn't familiar with it, it never ends up soundi...
I had a quiche epiphany the first time I tasted the quiche from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. Th...
Besides the expected potatoes and cabbage, green garlic is one item that I have been coming across w...
Hands down, my favorite breakfast is two soft boiled eggs, a touch of butter, a piece or two of good...
The range of culinary emotions I've experienced living here in Germany for the past three months spa...
Long time no see! The recent Modern Beet silence has been due to the fact that I made an internatio...
I can't believe how easy it is to make gravlax. Or let me rephrase that statement -- I can't belie...
I was looking out my apartment window the other day when my gaze came to rest on a tree about fiftee...
Oh. My. God. This is the best pie crust I have ever tasted! So flaky. So moist. And oh the hin...
These past few weeks have been particularly busy and challenging for me. I changed jobs, spent two ...
Wilkommen nach Deutschland! Ok, full-disclosure time: I haven't yet made this myself, but I watche...
A while back, I got the idea in my head that I wanted to make my own sausage. Why? first and forem...
I was walking back from lunch the other day with my coworker Fritz, and he (very) jokingly proclaime...
Perhaps you would have chuckled if you saw me leaping into the air, grabbing at bunches of elderberr...
The annual zucchini proliferation is upon us! Last week alone I was given six large zucchini, which...