Thanksgiving Wrap Up

Thanksgiving this year differed greatly from last year's Spanish extravaganza in that we went "normal" and had turkey and all the fixings. I also did not get to have my family down to visit or get to go home to be with them, which was a bummer, but luckily our friends took us in and we prepared quite the feast.

Easy Roast Beef

It was a busy Sunday in our little house while I prepped all that I could for our Turkey Day potluck at Chris and Stacey's. I managed to fit in a warm Sunday dinner for us and testing out a recipe (not pictured) for Cook's Illustrated (yes, I'm that cool...ok, it's open to anyone, but I still feel cool). I used a bottom round

Best French Onion Soup

Fall is finally here in Portland. The leaves have changed, but we've had less rain than usual, so we have been enjoying the colors for much longer than usual (no complaints). The rain is starting up again and with that, the need for more comfort food. I made this French onion soup years ago when Cook's Illustrated first published it in January of 2008. We were so blown away, I knew I'd make it again. Why I waited this long? I'm not sure. But fortunately for me, gruyere and baguettes went on sale, so it seemed natural to finally make it again.

Light(ish) Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

The other night I was bored. Shawn had gone off to write (his usual post-dinner routine), and although I had just made a delicious chili dinner, I still had some kitchen time left in me. When I get this baking kick on a random night, I normally don't have all the ingredients I need to make anything. I'm either missing chocolate chips, or oatmeal, or whatever...but this time I checked and had just enough to make oatmeal cookies from the Best Light Recipe cookbook from America's Test Kitchen. So I thought. 

New York Travels

I have been a little quiet around here since last week we had an amazing vacation to New York--both the city and upstate, to see my in-laws. Obviously, we ate well in NYC:

Mediterranean Feast

This post is going to be short and sweet. We are 4 days from leaving for New York (both the city and upstate), and my time is a little limited. I wanted to share some pictures and recipes from my most recent experiment. My favorite guinea pig Michael and his partner came over for a long-awaited Sunday dinner. They are nice enough to be watching our kitties while we're away, so I wanted to make something worth their while.

The Saga of the Cookie Monster Cupcakes

I'm never working with blue frosting again. At least not with a piping bag. Below is a picture of the prototype of my sister's 40th birthday Cookie Monster cupcakes. She saw them on Facebook months ago and asked if I could make them. "Sure!" I said with so much naive enthusiasm. After consulting with some fellow bakers on Twitter, I decided to go with a buttercream frosting. I had never made buttercream, but how hard could it be?