Mac N' Cheese

In keeping with my cravings for unhealthy, hearty food, I decided to make some mac and cheese. I justified this by telling myself that our friend was in town and he would eat a lot of it . . . I ended up making so much that we ate mac and cheese for about nine days straight. 

Anyway, I stumbled upon Martha Stewart's 'perfect' mac and cheese. As a firm believer in the mantra, 'everything is better with bacon,' I amped up Martha's recipe with a few tweaks and the addition of bacon. It turned out to be really yummy, although I do recommend serving it with a light salad just to keep those arteries flowing.

*Addendum: I chopped up two thick slices of bacon and sauteed them in the skillet before making the roux. I took out the bacon but let the roux cook in the bacon fat and then added the bacon back in along with the cheese and pasta.

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