Homemade Cheese Crackers

I have a serious weakness for Cheez-its. Even if I managed to cut all other processed foods out of my diet, I could never give up Cheez-its. I once ate an entire box by myself in one sitting. I probably shouldn’t admit that, huh? Anyway, when I saw a recipe for homemade cheese crackers on the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Banter blog I knew I had to make them. I immediately went online and bought their Vermont Cheese Powder and when I finally had some free time I headed straight to the kitchen to bake up some (perhaps a little bit healthier) cheese crackers.

Sneak Peeks: Baking to come!

I have a full day of baking ahead of me, one of my favorite ways to spend a day off. I thought I’d give you all a little sneak peek, to tempt you about the exciting things that will be posted here soon!

I promise dinner will be ready shortly

Oh lord, where has the time gone? Thanksgiving now seems like some kind of faraway, hazy dream of an actual event, and I’m frankly embarrassed that it has taken me so darned long to write anything, even this sad excuse of a blog post. I do have pictures and recipes to share from Thanksgiving, and I’m consoling myself that most foods cooked on Thanksgiving are awfully similar to those cooked for Christmas, so they might still prove useful to someone. I’m also consoling myself with the fact that I’m almost, almost, almost on break, and then I only have one more semester until I’m DONE and GRADUATED and no longer have to do the dreaded homework. And then I might actually have time to do things like update my blog. And cook.

While I am officially done with fall semester, I can’t quite relax yet because of a very important job interview next week, for which I am flying across the country, wearing a suit, and giving a presentation. Most of my time right now is taken up in preparations for completely wow-ing the search committee and getting myself hired.

You might notice, however, that I found time to update the color scheme and do a little custom CSS designing here. This was actually part of an assignment and therefore it can’t be considered wasting time and messing around and procrastinating. I hope you find it visually appealing. I suspect you would probably find pictures of food MORE visually appealing, so I do promise that they will appear soon.

In the meantime, I thought I would take a trip through the archives to share with you some of my favorite cookie recipes, what with it being cookie baking season and all. Enjoy!

Dorie Greenspan’s Midnight Crackles—Chocolately, slightly spicy, decadent.
Russian Teacakes—my all time favorite holiday cookie. I’m trying them this year with dried cherries mixed in. I’m wild like that.
Gingersnaps—for those who like that kind of thing.
Cranberry, Orange, and Chocolate Chip Cookies—These are quickly making their way onto my favored cookies list. I made them this week for my class and they were a hit.
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies—I’ll definitely have to make these again this year.

Sun-dried Tomato and Caramelized Onion Scones

There is a little bakery across the street that consistently makes the Jamaica Plain’s Best list as the best local bakery, and frankly, I have no idea why. Sure, they make vegan cupcakes, and JP is just the sort of neighborhood where people will swoon for a vegan cupcake. And yes, there is a shortage of places to get a cup of decent, non-Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. But nothing, I tell you nothing about this bakery has ever impressed me. The pastries and pies look sloppy: I could frankly do a better job in my own kitchen. The croissants are not proper croissants, but more like bread dough shaped to masquerade as croissants. I ordered a sandwich once and the bread on which it was served was stale. At a bakery! And I won’t even get into the abysmal service.

For reasons unknown to me, however, I still occasionally visit this bakery, as though somewhere I can’t give up hope that my previous bad experiences were flukes, each and every one. I can’t account for my actions sometimes. What is they say about crazy people? On my last visit (the visit of the stale sandwich), I noticed some roasted red pepper, spinach, and caramelized onion scones in the display case, and the hamster wheels in my little brain immediately started spinning. “What a brilliant idea!” I thought. But I was not about to buy one of their scones (vegan, of course) only to be disappointed. No, I decided to go home and make my own.

Parmesan Shortbread? Oh hells yeah.

Bon Appetit’s December issue included a beautifully laid out article featuring easy to make Christmas gifts from the kitchen (and man, those photos were enticing). I wanted to make everything: the spice rubs, the coconut dulce du leche, but most especially the parmesan shortbread, the perfect gift, they said, for cheese lovers. Which both Mr. X and I, as well as pretty much everyone I know, are. Before I flew out to San Diego, I made up a batch and brought them down to the JJ as a gift for my favorite bartenders, as well as wrapping up a few for the boy. I only ate one before giving them all away, and man did I regret it. So much so that I had to make another batch as soon as I got to San Diego.

I do have to admit that this particular recipe is perfectly flavored, but the texture needs a little bit of work. They are just a little too buttery (and you thought that wasn’t possible). They don’t have the density that I really love in shortbread, and I suspect that if you added just a little more flour, they would reach cheesy perfection.

Study Break Coffee-Break Muffins

The other night, after I finished writing up my portion of a group paper (who the heck invented the group paper, anyway? Can I torture him?), I decided it was time to get out the mixing bowls, turn on the oven, and cook something from my brand new cookbook: Baking: From My Home to Yours. Yes, I finally got my little hands on Dorie Greenspan’s beautiful book, the book Brilynn over at Jumbo Empanadas has been talking up forever. And I am so glad I did. This enormous tome is full of delicious looking things, but the first thing that caught my eye were these Coffee-Break Muffins.

Homemade Tortilla Chips and a Smoky Kitchen

Last night was a little bit of a stove top disaster zone. I have been perpetually jet lagged since returning from San Francisco, and hence my thinking hasn’t been so clear. At the market after work I bought salsa, but no chips, and didn’t exactly plan out a dinner very well. And in my fuzzy headedness I thought it would be a great idea to make my own tortilla chips. We had a bag of corn tortillas in the refrigerator that no one was going to use, and I’ve never really done it before, so hey! Why not pick a time when I can barely think? Hoorah!

I created the most smokiest kitchen I’ve ever been in in my life.

Avocado Baby

One thing I miss the most about California is ripe, delicious avocados. Sure, you can get avocados here in Massachussetts, but they are invariably rock hard, stringy, and tasteless. When you do find the occasional good looking avocado, it’s insanely expensive. I’ve resigned myself to a lack of avocados in my life, which has been sad, because one of my favorite snacks in the world is avocado with soy sauce.