With bees in the backyard, and concerns about high fructose corn syrup and other easily refined sugars in processed food items, I have been considering how to move towards healthier sweeteners in our home. Easy enough when adding syrup to waffles or honey to yogurt, but a little trickier when thinking about baked goods. Fortunately, [...]
Two times in the last few weeks I have been asked to bring a breakfast treat for an event the family was attending. Both times I brought Almond Brioche, created from a recipe in my favorite Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book. Both times I received rave reviews, which I shook off since [...]
Growing up the Bay Area, it feels like I have been surrounded by good food all my life. But that is not exactly true. Or, if it is true, then I definitely did not notice it until I was a teenager. As a teen, I remember taking the bus to Stanford Shopping Center, just to [...]
Coach’s gifts for soccer were easy this year – the team name was the Whoopie Pies and once I saw the new Whoopie Pies: Dozens of Mix ‘em, Match ‘em, Eat ‘em up recipes by Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwell, I had my plan in place. A copy of the book for each coach, along [...]
From La Petite Soiree, hosted by Kristen of Dine & Dish, Stephania of Clever Girls Collective, Jane from This Week for Dinner, and Helene of Tartelette, I picked up the new cookbook from Three Many Cooks, Perfect One Dish Dinners by Pam Anderson. The cookbook was a generous gift, but at the moment, I am [...]
Last week I was invited to attend a cooking demonstration with Chef Tal Ronnen at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Chef Tal was on a book tour, promoting the conscious cook, a full color vegan cookbook published in October 2009. Chef Tal prepared vegan meals for Oprah’s 21-day vegan cleanse in the spring [...]
December is really the time to break out the cookies – between cookie exchanges, neighborhood gifts, and tables loaded down with favorites lining every hallway in offices around the country, now is the time to make an effort to bring a tasty cookie. Fortunately, I have three books that I turn too when I am [...]
Once we started getting an organic, local vegetable box each week, I decided I had to be more knowledgeable about ways to use all these (sometimes) unique vegetables. Julia, in writing up the Ladybug Newsletter, often included recipes inspired by the Victory Garden Cookbook, which all worked out well, so I thought this would be [...]
When my friends Christy and Tim gave me Hello, Cupcake! for my birthday, I was surprised. I am not that much into cupcake making, although I have been known to make a cupcake cake or two. Also, while I like to decorate my kid’s birthday cakes, some of these books have a way of being [...]
For some reason, the pickling bug hit me hard this summer! Every fruit and vegetable that came through my kitchen was eligible for pickling, and most of that is because of my new pickling book, Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich. The book starts out with a Pickle Primer, going over many of the basics [...]
Hardly a new book, Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, by Lorna Sass, is still a great resource for the home cook, whether you are a vegetarian or not. I have had this book for a few weeks now and have the opportunity to try several recipes, and would definitely recommend the book to others. Like [...]
It is hard to be in my presence for more than a few moments without me mentioning my new favorite cookbook, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Written by Jeff Hertzberger and Zoe Francois, who met when their children were together in the same music class, this book removes much of the mystery around baking crusty, [...]
