food

As much as I love cupcakes, pies, cookies, and other delicious confections, when it comes to sweets I am completely infatuated with brownies. They are one of the few desserts that have a high chance of completely vanishing within twenty-four hours after baking them. Being a complete chocoholic, they just always seem to hit the spot. When I was vegan a couple of years ago, I made it my goal to create desserts that tasted the same (if not sometimes better) than their non-vegan counterparts. I was constantly in the kitchen experimenting, discovering new methods, and trying out dozens of egg/dairy-free recipes from a variety of sources. For some reason, though, I could never find a brownie recipe that really had the chewiness and fudginess of the traditional one. That is until I found this one, which has never failed to produce a sinfully rich and chewy brownie. Enjoy. The Best Vegan Brownies Ever Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup water 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup granulated sugar 1/...

To tell you the truth, I never really liked pizza. I remember every one of my friends as a kid labeling pizza as their number one favorite food (right before cereal and ice cream), but I just never really understood the appeal. I didn't eat meat, hated melted cheese, and wasn't the biggest fan of vegetables, so it never really struck my interest. It wasn't until I decided to finally start making it myself, my way , that I finally understood just how great it could be. There is definitely a major difference between homemade and take-out pizza: it just can't compare. The process of kneading the dough, rolling it out, covering it in delicious items, and then having the whole house filled with the smell of fresh-baked pizza- it's just something I absolutely adore. Another great thing about pizza is that it is one of those foods that is great to make for dinner when you have food that is about to go bad and you have no idea what to do with it. I tend to just clean out th...

It's the brief season for wild garlic (aka ramsons or bear's garlic, Allium ursinum ), and I'm excited. I only discovered wild garlic a year ago (see post here ), and have been looking forward to them again. There's a plentiful supply of wild garlic near our house, and early last week I picked some* to make some wild garlic recipes I had spotted elsewhere or 'created' myself. So far I've made the same cucumber and wild garlic salad mentioned last year; a delicious cold tzatziki sauce (wild garlic, cucumber, sour cream, salt); one cold sauce to accompany simple boiled potatoes (wild garlic, cornichons, kefir milk); and this delicious pesto recipe. The idea behind the pesto is simple. If your usual Pesto Genovese is basil + garlic + parmesan cheese + pine nuts, then instead of basil and garlic I decided to use mild-tasting wild garlic instead. It was a very successful substitution indeed, and I'll be certainly making it again next year. Have you tried wil...

Is it tacky to make 2 consecutive posts? Oh well. I just wanted to let you all know that it's not all about huge loaves of white bread, crumbly cakes, or pastas with sausage. This afternoon for lunch, I snacked on a tasty plate of lightly sauteed broccoli seasoned with black pepper, a handful of garlic, (duh!) and a tiny splash of soy sauce. Today I made white jasmine rice, though I have to admit- even though I've always loathed brown rice, the Trader Joe's brown jasmine rice has really been growing on me. I think it's just that short-grain rice tends to have a texture I don't like, and it's even worse when eating brown rice. Add a wee pat of butter to your rice (don't laugh, I like it that way), a wedge of lemon for flavor. I like a light lunch, most days. And listen- I could eat broccoli in damn near anything. I love it steamed (the only reason I didn't steam it today is that I was baking bread in my sauce pot that connects to my steam basket,...

For Christmas last year, I received a breadmaker from my mother. Now, I live in a pretty cramped two-bedroom apartment with my husband and toddler, so while I appreciated the sentiment (kitchen gadgets!), my cupboard space would not cooperate. For the first time I can recall, I RETURNED A CHRISTMAS GIFT (Normally, I'd be much too lazy to bother, but I had to get rid of the damn thing- I literally had nowhere to put it!) But, despite the fact that I chose not to keep it, the inspiration remained. I decided to bake some bread from scratch for the first time. I used a recipe for baguettes that I found online and I was mildly impressed, but not overwhelmed. The loaves were dense, and not very chewy. My next attempt, inspired by the flickr photo stream of Stephanie Congdon-Barnes, I baked a batch of pita bread. It came out better, but I managed to burn my hand pretty bad and the pitas didn't puff up into the pockets I'd hoped for. When my friend Claire Evans insisted...

Lately I have been waking up in the morning wanting something sweet right out of bed. Perhaps it is because I am used to Alice and I frequently walking to Stumptown early in the day for a chocolate chip cookie and a cup of coffee, or maybe it is due to the fact that desserts have been sneaking into my dreams at night. All I know is that I think about baking something before I even think about breakfast. This morning I woke up with the craving for something spicy and sweet. I decided to go for a search through one of my favorite estate sale finds: a Better Homes and Gardens binder cookbook that is stuffed to the brim with the previous owners handwritten and cut-out recipes from the 1930's. I came across a "Cut Out and Save" recipe from an unknown source for Spicy Crumb Cake, which sounded just perfect. So I cleared a spot in my messy kitchen and set to work on this easy recipe. It turned out delicious , even in my broken sixties oven that needs to be replaced. The strong...

And so here we are. The idea of starting a food blog has crossed my mind many times, but I have, for one reason or another, never managed to get around to doing it. So when my good friend Alice, a food photographer and fellow foodie, had the idea of doing one together, I finally decided to just go for it. There are very few things in life that I can go on and on about more than my love of food. I was raised in an Italian household where food was always a huge deal when it came to being together as a family. There were usually always weekly get-togethers with all of the family with ingredients from the local Italian market and yes, a whole lotta pasta. After I became vegetarian at age eight (following the death of my rabbit), my grandmother would create all the classic Italian dishes with foods like homemade squash meatballs and faux ham. Oh, how I appreciated her openness for experimentation. Of all the members of my family, my grandmother and I were the sugar addicts. A meal was no...

Woo hoo, an introduction! Summer and I started this food blog. Look forward to daily (actually, between the two of us, it'll probably end up being a few times a day) posts with recipes, photographs, links to stuff we like, and more. But hey, on to the good stuff! Let me preface this by saying that my husband Jason does most of the cooking in our house. He has a culinary degree, and most of the fancy food stuff I know, I learned from him. He's always offering me helpful advice, like my favorite answer to the often-asked question, "How long should I cook ____?" "'Til it's done!" Thanks, dude. Anyway, tonight for dinner we had what he called "Junk Pasta," a collection of tasty ingredients, somewhat dumped together to create a fairly delicious end result. I have to admit, my husband and I have slightly different ideas about Italian food. With all his restaurant experience, he doesn't have much of an Italian background, whereas the...

First of all, thank you for all your kind wishes on my birthday - you're too sweet! And what a lovely birthday I had. On Thursday (the actual b-day), K. and I had a yet another fantastic meal at Stenhus in Tallinn. On Friday I had some 20 friends (incl. few kids) for a birthday party at our home, and today our families came for Sunday lunch. Friday's party was Spanish-themed, today I served a number of typical Estonian party snacks, and I'll tell you more about them in due course. But I wanted to share this happy and bright photo with you. I suspect you all know about this particular party piece consisting of boiled eggs and halved scooped tomatoes? Yes? No? It's in a classic Estonian children's cookbook published in mid-1980s, so most 'kids' of my age are familiar with this. But I knew it would be even better in mini format, so I tried this version. Instead of regular chicken eggs and medium-sized tomatoes, I chose quail eggs and cherry vine tomatoes. My n...

Usually I would have this cake today . But as we're not having a party until tomorrow and tonight we're having dinner in this favourite restaurant of ours , we gave the cake a miss today. K. made me these yummy pancakes for breakfast instead, which we enjoyed with a delicious wild strawberry jam sent over to me by his mum (she keeps a jar for every birthday, you see). Wish you a lovely day, everyone... PS It's my birthday today, not K's :)

David Lebovitz, everybody's favourite ice-cream (and chocolate sauerkraut cake ) guru wrote about humble prunes in Los Angeles Times last week (you can follow the link here ). We like prunes in our house - juicy Californian prunes make an excellent nibble - and are somewhat amused by the fact that Californian Prune producers had to rebrand prunes as 'dried plums' few years ago. David's Prune and Armagnac Ice Cream sounded very appealing, so this was the first recipe we tried. I didn't use Armagnac cognac, but an acceptable local favourite, a 9-year old Georgian Gremi Brandy (that's Georgia in the Caucasus mountains, and not in the Southeastern US). A very, very likeable ice cream. No custard to make, just soak the prunes in cognac/brandy, blitz with sour cream, milk and some sugar and churn. How easy is that?? We've been eating ours plain until now, but I can see that it'd be an excellent accompanion to an intensely dark chocolate cake - perhaps Tarte...

Almost three years ago, just few months into my foodblogging thingy, I told you about a beautiful part of Estonia, Lahemaa, and a nice lunch I had with my mum, sister, nephews and a friend in a tavern in Altja. One of the dishes they served us were thin black pudding chips, and I had been thinking about making them ever since.. Not sure why it took me the better part of three years, but few weeks ago I finally picked up a suitable black pudding in the grocery store, and made them at home. Note that for black pudding chips, you need verikäkk - a thicker and denser cousin of verivorst , our typical Christmas fare . In order to make the tasty black pudding chips above, remove the outer casing, and cut the pudding into thin slices (ca 3-5 mm is about right). Place the slices on a baking sheet and place into a 100-110 C (225-240 F) oven for about 35-45 minutes, until the chips are dry-ish and crispy. Flip them over after about 20 minutes, so they'd cook evenly. Serve with a cold sour c...

I do try quite a few recipes from fellow food bloggers, but disproportionally many of the recipes are from Molly. I've already written about her bouchons au thon (K. recently spotted them at his friend's birthday party as well) and her ( chocolate and nut 'blocks' ), to name just a few. More recently we've devoured her vinegar-roasted shallots (above, and utterly brilliant! We simply ate these with buttered slice of rye bread), and tomato sauce with onions and butter (right). Note that both of these recipes have just four ingredients, yet generous amounts of flavour! We brought back some artichokes from Spain, and last night I cleaned and cooked them, and then served with Molly's friend's Olaiya's Favourite Artichoke Dipping Sauce (reduced white wine, butter, parmesan cheese and lemon juice). Mmmmmm... My dear friend Johanna is another constant source of inspiration. Few weeks ago we had a small gathering at our place with some of K's colleagues...

I looooooove Nigella. Apart from my pistachio macarons disaster , all the recipes I've tried from her books have worked like a charm. Be it Pasta alla Vodka , Store-cupboard Chocolate and Orange Cake , Cranberry Upside-down Cake , Upside-down Red Onion Supper Pie , Chocolate-Cherry Cupcakes , Pan-fried Halloumi with Chilli Drizzle , Raw Beetroot Salad with Dill and Mustard Seeds , her Rum-Soaked Banana Bread , her cheeky Cheesy Feet , Rosemary Loaf Cake , or her Lemon and Parmesan Linguini - you name it, I love it. Her effortless and luscious style of cooking, and easy, yet decadent choice of recipes appeals as well. So when my friend Ruxandra recently offered to send me her extra copy of Nigella Express , of course I said yes. Within a fortnight I had tried quite a number of recipes from the book. I've already shared her Cider and Mustard Pork Chops with you; I've also tried and enjoyed her recipes for Hokey Pokey, and Grilled Duck Breasts with Pomegranate Seeds . And t...

Well, K. and I got back from our ten-day Spanish trip late last night. We've almost unpacked everything, and are in the middle of sorting out our photos (ca 900 of them!). There's lots to do at work at the moment, so it will be a few more days before I'm blogging properly again. But I'll leave you with a taste of what's to come :) Click on the photo to enlarge!