food

What would I do without you, other foodbloggers?? You are a constant source of fantastic inspiration, and here's just a snapshot of dishes I've tried lately. David Lebovitz 's fantastic Fresh Apricot Ice Cream (especially if you've got some lovely French apricots from the market). MattBites kindly provides the recipe . I had no almond extract at home, so used 2 tsp of Amaretto instead. Lovely.. David Lebovitzi aprikoosijäätis Oh, and while you're at it - his Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream is pretty delicious as well ( Dagmar has the recipe ). I made it quite a few times this summer, and my Estonian friends say the recipe works with bilberries, too: Maasika-hapukoorejäätis Elise 's Tuscan Scrambled Eggs made a great light supper, and we'll be making it again soon: Toskaana munahüüve I really enjoyed Patricia's Crash-Hot Potatoes (see also Wendy 's version): Krõbedad purustatud kartulid And while we're at it, here are couple of really-really...

Up until a year or two ago, I had no idea that pulled pork existed. Just the name itself is kind of gross-sounding and weird, almost uh- kind of vulgar, if you know what I mean. When my husband mentioned "pulled pork" sandwiches, my reaction was one of mild disgust. I pictured meat all stretched out on something like a taffy pull. Of course, pulled pork is just a name for really tender pork that can be "pulled" apart. Still, it sounded weird. Then, he made if for me. As I may have mentioned- living in an upstairs apartment with no yard or patio leaves us little room to stretch out, let alone barbecue. When we have pulled pork, we make it in our trusty crock pot. Yes, we broke out the crock pot again, twice in a week! The meat simmers all day (after marinating all night in the fridge) and ends up moist and tender, perfect for little sandwiches. (Or big sandwiches.) Here's how the hubby puts it together: For a 2lb pork butt: In a bowl, combine 1 1/2 cup...

They're just as pretty as the 'regular' red ones (I've mentioned yellow ones before ). K. took these lovely close-ups for me. (And no, these are not salmonberries or cloudberries ).

I always love a good coffee or crumb cake. It is actually quite a weakness of mine, especially due to the fact that they are widely accepted as a breakfast food (as I have probably mentioned many times, I adore sweets in the morning). I also quite enjoy the process of making them- crumbling up a beautiful topping, or streusel , with my fingers and sprinkling it along the top of a cake batter. I find it almost therapeutic. I have had many successes in making vegan coffee cakes, since they usually do not require an egg replacer and soy margarine works beautifully as a replacement for the butter that is most frequently used in the topping. The recipe I used yesterday morning comes from Lolo's blog and really makes the ultimate crumb cake . These aren't the teeny puny crumbs I had seen in the past; they are the real deal: sweet, big, and perfect. Instead of copying the recipe here, I have decided to just link you over to the original post , since Lolo has some great images and det...

I'm not doing much cooking these days. It's too hot, I'm not in the mood, and I'm taking it easy on my summer vacation. Of course I do cook - and I've already made quite a few nice jams for the winter - but it's mostly tried-and-tested old favourites of mine, so there's not much to blog about. However, here is one of those old favourites that I do need to tell you about. The recipe is based on this Swedish Arla recipe . I remember making it quite regularly about a decade ago, and was happy to rediscover this dish again. A whole chicken breast with cheese topping is a bit too much for us, so we've split the fillet sideways (?). If you've got a mightier appetite, then feel free to use a whole chicken breast per person and extending the baking time by 10 minutes. Oven-baked Chicken with Feta Cheese ( Ahjus küpsetatud kanafilee fetaga ) Serves 4 2 large or 4 small chicken breast filets (ca 600 g) 100 g feta cheese, crumbled 200 ml sour cream or creme fr...

Since strawberry season is coming to an end, I am trying to use them as much as I can while they are still sweet and inexpensive. I realized yesterday that, although I had talked and talked about making one, I still had yet to make a strawberry tart this season. So, after finding that I had a huge container in our fridge filled with very ripe strawberries, I figured that this would be as great a time as any to make one. I still had half a jar of the berry jam that needed to be used up soon (freezer jam has a shelf-life of about 3-4 weeks), so I chose to go for a jam & strawberry tart that is made with a crust that tastes just like a huge butter cookie (oh buttery sweets, how do I love thee?). The tart is made with fresh, unbaked strawberries, which is just how I like them. This would make an excellent party or potluck dessert, since it's rather large (8 by 14 inches) and quite beautiful. (Alice so nicely helped with the crimping) Sweet Pastry Crust: from Good Housekeeping: Ba...

There are a lot of awesome things about being married. You get sweet tax breaks, you get to tap your wedding ring loudly on stuff when obnoxious dudes are hitting on you- I mean, there are plenty of perks. Not to mention all the love, and togetherness and blah blah blah- but seriously. When I got married almost 3 years ago, I was 21, living in a sparsely furnished apartment and cooking on some old, totally beat-up frying pans I'd stolen from an Italian place I used to wash dishes at. Then, following the magic of the BRIDAL REGISTRY- we suddenly had a kitchen full of amazing gadgets. For 2 foodies, being newlyweds was like Christmas! We ended up scoring a heavy-duty set of stainless pots & pans, a nice Henckel knife set, good wooden cutting boards, wine glasses, and a nice big crock pot. I had a small crock pot before that I had never, ever used, but we got rid of it when we cleaned up the place one time and I never thought about it until I got the new one. At the time, ...

Yet again I am returning to the spicy apple desserts. Even though I absolutely love the summertime, I will be happy when the autumn comes and apples are all around town, just waiting to be plucked and baked. Berries are so gorgeous in desserts, as are other summer fruits, but apples- oh, their taste in sweets is just hard to beat. The other night, I came across a couple of banged up Granny Smith apples at the bottom of our produce basket, so I thought I would make some apple cookies that I had bookmarked from Allrecipes a little while ago. It was one of those baked goods that completely filled my house with a delightful smell that still lingered the next day, the sweet aroma of apples, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar. The cookies themselves are soft and quite cake-like, with a sugary hardened glaze covering the tops. I admittedly ate them for breakfast the following morning with a cup of black tea- perfection. Glazed Apple Cookies: altered from Allrecipes Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, roo...

To me, sangria is the ultimate summertime cocktail. It is ice cold, sweet, and filled with an abundance of fresh fruit. It also makes the perfect party drink, since it can be made ahead of time and in large quantities. While deciding on my menu for a small party I was throwing the other night, I immediately chose sangria as the main beverage. It looked beautiful served in a big glass pitcher with chunks of red-stained fruit (the name "sangria" means bleeding in both Spanish and Portuguese) floating inside. There are so many different variations of Sangria based on these factors: the fruit used, the color of the wine, if spirits are added, and whether or not it is carbonated. I chose to do my own variation of a recipe I had found on the internet, made mainly with citrus fruits, red wine, and ginger ale (for carbonation). It was quite refreshing and tasty. Feel free to double or even triple this recipe, depending on the size of your gathering. Party Sangria Ingredients: 1 bott...

I have always found it quite sweet and endearing that one of my favorite bloggers, the beautiful and ever-inspiring Andrea of Hula Seventy , bakes a red velvet cake every year on her birthday (you can read more about it here ). On Saturday I turned twenty-six years old and since I love baking and wanted a lovely cake for my birthday, I decided it would be nice to follow her tradition and bake my own. Instead of following the recipe she uses, the original Waldorf-Astoria one , I used one from marthastewart.com (mainly just due to the fact that I didn't have shortening on hand). It turned out quite moist with such a nice vanilla/cocoa flavor. And oh, that cream cheese frosting- I could have eaten it with a ladle. Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting: from marthastewart.com Ingredients: 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted, plus more for pans 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking p...

Just about five years ago, well before I lived here, I drove up to Portland from southern California to stay with Sharin, one of my closest friends. One of the nights of our stay, her friend decided to bake us something sweet. Since there was a big bunch of delicious strawberries, he chose to alter a recipe he had liked before, a "wacky cake", and change it to one made with fresh berries. I can recall sitting on the porch on that hot summer night and having my friend come out to get me, saying "you better get inside quick, or you're not going to get any cake". When I entered the room, I found six people hovering over a cake pan in the middle of the floor with forks, picking at it to the last crumb like a bunch of vultures. Luckily I was able to get a few bites and goodness, it was scrumptious. Thankfully the baker of this wonderful cake, Mark, was able to remember what changes he made and was nice enough to email me the recipe a few months later. The other morni...

While grocery shopping last week, a box of beautiful little apricots caught my eye. So I purchased them, put them in a glass bowl and into our refrigerator, and you know what? They sat there. I realized after eating just one that I am not really the biggest fan of fresh apricots- I love them dried or in baked goods, but they are not the kind of fruit I will grab and eat when I want a snack. And so, they sat there, that is until yesterday morning when I decided that instead of letting them just go completely to waste, I would bake something delicious with them. I didn't have enough of them to bake a pie or a full-sized tart, so I chose to make sweet little apricot tartlets. These tartlets are extremely simple and use few ingredients. The crust is flaky and buttery and the tart filling is so sweet and fruity. Also, if you do not have apricots on hand, I am quite sure that these would be just as good with fresh nectarines or peaches. Fresh Apricot Tartlets Ingredients: For the crust: ...

Yesterday morning I watched quietly as our 1960's stove was rolled out of the house and out of my life for good. I couldn't help but feel a certain amount of sadness as I watched it leave. Sure, it was quite far from being a decent stove- it was always at least 100 degrees hotter inside than it stated, it's burners could not be regulated, and it baked terribly unevenly, but somehow my oven and I had formed some sort of a kinship over the past couple of years. Things were quite shaky when I first moved into our home and began cooking with it- I can still vividly remember the grease fire that almost burned down our entire kitchen- but we soon got into the groove with one another and I learned how to work it with some sort of ease. No one could quite understand how I managed to deal with it and make things come out decently, but somehow I figured it out. Our time together was finally up though. After years of writing off foods that might be too complicated for my oven (crusty...

The other morning I awoke with a strong craving for honey. It wasn't the kind of craving that could be satisfied by just mixing a little bit of honey in my tea, but the kind where I needed an entire food devoted to it. I started off with the plan to make a honey cake filled with bits of dried fruit, but halfway through measuring I realized that I didn't have nearly enough honey as required for the recipe. So, I cleaned everything up again and started anew with a recipe for Honey & Banana Cupcakes from 500 Cupcakes since I had a whole pile of bananas that needed to be used soon. I haven't had the best of luck as far as that cookbook goes, but these turned out quite scrumptious. The bananas contributed to a perfect moistness and the honey brought out that beautiful sweet flavor that only honey can do. Banana and Honey Cupcakes: adapted from 500 Cupcakes Ingredients: 1 3/4 cups (about 4) mashed ripe bananas 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar 1/4 cup honey 4 tablespoons mar...

In every person's life there comes a time when they've got almost 1,5 kilograms freshly picked wild strawberries ( Fragaria vesca, see a gorgeous photo by a talented Estonian photographer here ) at hand. I'm no different. It happened to me in 2006 , in 2007 , and again about a fortnight ago. K. and I spent just under 2 hours on our secret wild strawberry field, we barely covered a plot larger than a large kitchen, and we had a 3 litre jar of wild strawberries between us. What can you do??! Well, one of the easiest things to do (and one of my favourite childhood memories) is following. I've given a 'recipe' below, but you really do not need one. It's healthy, summery, quick, and oh-so-very Estonian (unless you pick 'smultron' in Sweden, or 'ahomansikkoita' in Finland, or 'Walderdbeere' in Germany, or 'fraises des bois' in France, and so on, in which case this dessert would be very Swedish or Finnish or German or French, and...