London Calling - Lamb Shepherd's Pie

My good friend was in town staying with us, and I told him that if he came up with the idea for supper, I would cook it.  He quickly (I always have the hardest time coming up with the idea) suggested a shepherd's pie. This seemed quite fitting given that we became friends when we were both living in England. It felt like a good nostalgia-dish. I started poking around and eventually found my muse, care of Bon Appétit – a Greek-inspired shepherd's pie with lamb. The original recipe called for Kasseri (a hard sheep's milk cheese), and, despite making a special trip to Rainbow Grocery (the name says it all), I didn't come up with Kasseri. I decided that the pie was rich enough without the addition of cheese, but I finished my servings of pie with a sprinkling of feta to give it a little extra cream.

Lemon Cake Off, Part Two

I have been hard at work (eating loads of cake) and so, as promised, here is part two of my little meyer lemon cake competition. While I enjoyed both of these cakes, one definitely was the standout, take your guesses, make your bets and continue on to find out which. . . 

The de Young Museum

Now, the first lemon cake had significantly more butter and a nice addition of a juicy tart fruit - the butter alone would generally indicate that it was the better of the two, but NO! Ina's version was definitely my favorite - moist with a wonderful lemon flavor.

Fried Egg Sandwich - a breakfast interlude

A little interlude in between my little meyer lemon cake-off - a quick and dirty breakfast. Without realizing I had a cholesterol test the following day (whoops) - I threw together a simple sandwich with a solid foundation: eggs and bacon, breakfast requisites. I will say that this sandwich was delish, but was also helped by the addition of some exquisite bread - Tartine's country loaf. For the rest, see below . . .

Japanese Tea Garden - for Janny

P.S. I like to use some good sharp cheddar.

Meyer Lemon Cake-Off: Lemon Cranberry Cake

Meyer lemons are here, and I made two very different cake recipes, neither healthy, each vying for the higher butter quotient. They were both tasty, but I definitely have a favorite. Here is the first in my two part series of the 'cake-off'–this one a meyer lemon cake with cranberries. I love having bites of soft, tart fruit mixed in to my dense buttery cakes, so that was a plus for me. And, I can say from experience, this goes well after an incredibly rich meal and also has been known to soften the blow after a loss by your home football team (and comfort the stomach's of grieving fans - RIP 49ers' season).

P.S. This is supposed to be a bundt cake, but I only have one type of pan so all of my "bundt" cakes become loaf cakes! What's in a shape?

The lovely letterpress recipe card can be purchased on Etsy from E Becker - a local of SF. Click here if you would like to buy some for yourself.

This recipe is courtesy of the Food Network kitchen and can be found in its entirety here.

Baingan Bharta

Happy New Year.

I had a relaxing holiday and a busy return to work, and have finally managed to get my first post of 2012 ready to go. It has been unseasonably warm in the city, but it still gets cool at night - leading to my craving for some spicy Indian food. 

Normally, I don't bother making Indian food because I get frustrated by how much better take out is . . . BUT, in an effort to challenge myself, I decided to make Baingan Bharta (Eggplant with Onions) and Butter Chicken - I think I added enough spice and heat to make them taste relatively authentic and pretty darn delicious. See below for my recipe and attempt at Baingan Bharta.

The Clown in Venice Beach

Roasted Corn and Bacon Gougères

We had friends in town this weekend and decided to get the holidays started early with a crab feast! Normally, we gorge ourselves so excessively on the crab that we don't eat anything else besides a salad. I wanted something to accompany the crab so I decided to make something equally excessive - gougères with bacon and roasted corn. I tweaked the recipe that I found in an old Gourmet - leaving out the chives and substituting in some chopped jalapeños (if you feel like it). They were scrumptious! Added bonus: the recipe makes so many puffs that I put the leftover batter (is it batter or dough?) in the fridge and made the rest the following evening and they were just as good. 

The recipe card featured above was made by the Kirtland House Press.

My Favorite Meal - Bread and Butter

I didn't know what to cook, and was trying to think of something fun for the blog (or just fun to make), and ended up reverting back to my tried and true method–I asked myself the question, "what do I want to eat?" The answer: bread and butter. So I searched for an extremely simple, 'no-wait' bread recipe that I could make with what I had on hand (i.e. no milk and relatively little flour). I found this nice, simple recipe on 101 Cookbook's blog that was shared from Gran's Kitchen by Natalie Oldfield.

The yeast going to work

The bread was dense, hearty loaf but tasty and definitely well-suited to usher melty butter into hungry people.