food

Yes yes, I have returned home. Our trip to Las Vegas and Los Angeles was nice, but it's good to be home with leaves that are starting to change colors and a bit of a coolness in the air. Plus, I am ready to start regular baking again and have some ideas in my head for adorable sweets. This morning I awoke to a rather empty kitchen, since we had used up or gotten rid of all our dairy and produce before we left. We were all quite hungry for breakfast, so I began searching for very simple baking recipes that could be eaten in the morning without much guilt. I came across one for a coffee cake, or kuchen , that I could throw together quickly, so I messed up my very clean kitchen and made us all a very sweet breakfast. The cake can also be topped with fresh fruit of your choice in addition or instead of the honey glaze (although I wouldn't leave it out- it's delicious) Quick Coffee Cake or Kuchen: altered from The Joy of Baking Ingredients: For cake batter 1 1/2 cups sifted all...

Well, it's been a little quiet around here. But, Summer is back in town, so hopefully we'll be making some treats this week. I've got a few plans for the end of season heirloom tomatoes I've been seeing around town. But, that's for a whole different post! Tonight, I made dinner. My mom has a few raised beds in her backyard, and this year she had a pretty decent haul of anaheim peppers. They're mild and slightly sweet- they are the "green chiles" you get when you buy one of those tiny cans of diced green chile peppers. This weekend I brought some home and started mulling over what I'd do with them. My first thought was of course, chile rellenos! But hey, let's not be too predictable. I started poking around on recipe websites and I came across one for ground lamb stuffed peppers. Simple enough for me, and we almost never eat lamb, so it was something different from our usual chicken and veggies fare. This was a food experiment, and li...

I was in a cookie mode yesterday. Friends of us had invited us over for dinner (thank you, Marika & Tambet!), and we wanted to bring something little and nice and edible along. Browsing through my Estonian recipe site , I came across a Finnish Valio recipe for 'Puolukka-kauracookiet', which sounded perfect, as K's mum keeps us well supplied with lingonberries this autumn (remember the lingonberry and chocolate cake , and Swedish lingonberry cake ? You get the picture - we've got loads of these berries). And these cookies were lovely! They made the whole house smell like Christmas - and as it was a beautifully sunny autumn day outside and we were on a way to spend couple of hours sailing on the Tallinn bay, that smell was a good sign of the good times ahead of us.. Lingonberry and Oat Cookies ( Pohla-kaeraküpsised ) Makes 4 dozens 200 g butter, at room temperature 275 g caster sugar (300 ml) 1 large egg 200 g plain/all-purpose flour (400 ml) 110 g rolled oats or 4-g...

Things have been very busy around my house the last few months, and I probably haven't mentioned here, but I've been featured in a few different art shows. Since most of my work revolves around this blog these days, I've been showing almost exclusively food photography! That means I have a stash of photographs that have been featured on this blog just laying around my house. I have 3 prints up on etsy right now that I'd love to get rid of, if anyone needs a little fresh kitchen decor. You might remember the following images from previous posts: and of course, the magic cupcake bush: So, if you're in the mood, swing by my etsy shop: http://alicialynn.etsy.com and help me clean out my closets! I have another show coming down at the end of this month, and when it does, I'll be listing whatever hasn't sold on my etsy page as well, so keep your eyes peeled. For Portland readers- you can see my prints in person right now at the Coffee Plant on SW 8th &...

Well, I don't think I need to explain TOO thoroughly. We had a friend over for dinner, and dinner turned into beers. After the first few were tossed back, somebody said something about a peanut butter milkshake, and then people kept bringing it up. "I need a peanut butter milkshake! Someone make me a peanut butter milkshake!" So, I got crafty and did the next best thing. I pulled out a quart of plain yogurt, a jar of peanut butter, and a honey bear. Into a bowl, I plopped a few large dollops of yogurt, a few large dollops of peanut butter, and squeezed a decent amount of honey. I whisked it all together, and then into the ice cream maker it went. I cranked it and cranked it for a few minutes until it was about the consistency of a firm milkshake, and then I spooned it into tiny bowls and sliced up some bananas on the side. A crowning achievement? Maybe, but I was a lot more excited when I remembered that I had chocolate-covered pretzel balls in the cupboard. W...

I am out of town in Los Angeles right now which means that Alice and I are quite far apart for the week, resulting in less posts from my end since she is my personal food photographer. I will still be baking a bit while I am down here (I find it rather impossible to ever take a break from it), and if I can take some decent pictures, I will make sure to fill you all in. The above cake was the result of two things that occurred one day last week. Firstly, I woke up with an intense chocolate craving, the kind that couldn't be ignored. I knew that I had to bake something with a strong chocolate flavor. Secondly, Alice mentioned that she wanted to photograph something Autumn-inspired. The result? A chocolate chip apple cake made with cocoa for an extra chocolatey kick. It is not a combination of flavors that one would usually think of mixing together, but they worked together wonderfully. The warm apples and warm chocolate chips melded together and created what I think to be ultra delic...

I think I forgot to mention that Summer's going to be out of town for the next week and a half- so you're all stuck with me, ha! The downside of this of course, is that I don't really bake, so if you're here looking for sweet treats, you might have to hold out for a few more days. So, last night I scrambled around the kitchen trying to get dinner ready in time for us to eat and rush out the door to see the swifts. We ended up finishing too late to get out there in time, but they keep up the show 'til the end of the month, so I hope to see them soon. Dinner ended up being a simple meal of spaghetti and steamed broccoli. Tasty, but where's the darn protein? All my chicken was frozen. I stuck my arm in the cupboard, and it came out holding a can of kidney beans. Kidney beans? Why do we even have kidney beans? We never eat them with anything! Usually it's either black beans, pinto beans, or garbanzo beans. What can I say, we're not a very beany ...

We're having apples for dessert on a daily basis these days. Last weekend, we picked two large baskets full of apples at my grandma's place, and although they're delicious as they are (juicy, sharp, crisp, sweet - all at once), they're also excellent in various cakes and puddings. Here's a twist on the traditional oven-baked apples that should appeal to everybody with a sweet tooth. Oven-baked Toffee Apples ( Ahjus küpsetatud õunad mandli-iirisekattega ) Serves 4 to 6 5 to six large firm apples Toffee-almond topping: 50 g almond slices 50 g unsalted butter 200 ml soft brown sugar 100 ml whipping or double cream 1 Tbsp potato flour To serve: vanilla ice cream Peel the apples (optional*), halve and core them. Fit them snugly into a buttered oven-dish, cut-side down. Mix brown sugar and potato flour in a small saucepan, add butter, almond slices, and cream, and bring slowly to the boil, stirring regularly. Spoon the toffee mixture onto the apples. Bake in the middle of...

My husband, dear sweet man that he is, is not a very demonstrative person. It is part of his laid back personality, and I've come to terms with it in the years we've been together, even though I'm more... hysterical, I guess. We balance each other out, right? That's why I was so surprised that he kept asking me, "Did you blog that fried rice yet?" He probably asked me like 5 times today! I shouldn't have been so surprised, though- that fried rice was so, so delicious, I've been having a hard time forgetting about it too. The idea for this dinner came from the same place that roughly 95% of our meals come from- "Oh, we have to eat this before it goes bad." In this case, it was the other half of that massive hunk of tri-tip beef we took camping. It was kind of a down-to-the-wire, eat it now or throw it away kind of deal, and we sat at the kitchen table, brainstorming for awhile when I saw the little light click on above Jason's head. DING! ...

One of my favorite things to do with my time (besides baking of course) is thrift store shopping. Although Portland thrift shops can be rather picked over when it comes to cool vintage clothing and kitschy household items, there is usually a ton of fabulous kitchen supplies for very low prices. While perusing one of my favorite neighborhood shops the other day, I came across some very adorable individual baking molds that I just couldn't resist, especially since they were marked half off, making my wallet only $2 short. The next morning I sat in the kitchen trying to figure out what I should do with them. At first I decided to make madeleines and even started making the batter, but then I thought that the spongy consistency wouldn't hold the design of the molds. So I started over and went for a basic shortbread (oh, how I love shortbread with afternoon tea). I crossed my fingers after the little tins came out of the oven and was relieved to see that the small pineapple marking ...

I guess it betrays a little bit of my nerdiness if I admit that I've been excited about blogging these cakes for ages. The first time Jason told me about this recipe, my mind was blown, and I couldn't wait to try it. It's not really a recipe, I guess- just a method for cooking. It's the easiest thing ever, but I never in a million years would have thought of it on my own. It's a simple setup- some oranges (we had enough batter for at least a dozen oranges!), a box of cake mix (mmm... yellow cake), a knife, a spoon, and some tinfoil. And a camp fire, obviously. Cut the tops of the oranges off, and scoop out the guts. I asked Jason if you could mix the orange pulp in with the cake batter, and he said that it's not a good idea, because the batter might not set up very well. I ended up drinking the juice that was squeezed out of the orange cuts, it was pretty delicious. Anyway, hollow them out like little pumpkins and reserve the tops. Fill the oranges up a...

Oh man, what is there to say about Batter Blaster? I don't want to do an all-out product endorsement here, but this stuff is pretty hilarious. This product (that I sadly have received no compensation for mentioning, boo hoo. Gimme some money!) was first brought to my attention by my friend dalas verdugo (whose name is legally spelled lowercase, dudes) after he posted a video about making Batter Blaster pancakes. I had forgotten all about it until we were shopping for our trip and I spotted some sitting on the shelf, a single lonely can left. Jason was like, "Uh, really? " I assured him that dalas and friends had vouched that it's pretty good, and according to their literature, it's all organic and like, basically as eco-friendly as food in a can could get. We were sold, so we grabbed the can and our first morning out, we made some pancakes. You know what? Not bad. Not something I'm going to keep in my kitchen for everyday use, either- but if you are...

Well, our trip to the coast was basically pretty awesome. I can't think of anything more colorful than that to describe it. Watching my son run around the camp site, try to help us start the fire, etc. it was all pretty great. But, as with most trips, my favorite thing about it was the FOOD. We thought about what we'd eat on our trip for weeks, but when it came down to the wire, we just scrambled around and picked up a bunch of random, delicious-looking stuff. I don't get to go to the big downtown farmer's market very often, because I usually work on Saturday mornings, but I took the day off for my son's birthday last weekend and we picked up some goodies for our trip. A pint of padron peppers (a Portland foodie favorite- I'm seeing them everywhere) to snack on, a handful of amazing heirloom tomatoes that got sliced into sandwiches and eaten plain or sprinkled with flakes of sea salt, and some lovely ears of triple-sweet corn. The padrons were quickly bla...

Last week, my sister-in-law dropped off a massive bag of pears that were picked from her mother's pear tree. Since many of them seemed like they might take a turn for the worst soon, I decided to throw together a tart using the ones that needed to be used immediately. I am rather in love with rustic pies and tarts, made free-form with no pan or need for perfection, mainly because they are simple and have a nice old-fashioned feel to them. What I really need to say about this tart is that it was amazing . I brought it over to my friend's apartment where we sat on his carpet happily eating it until our stomachs were very full. The combination of the toasted almonds, sweet pears, and thick syrupy filling made for quite a delectable dessert. And I must tell you- the crust is just as good as Martha's . P.S.: Don't mind the messy appearance of the crust. There was a bit of breakage, but the taste completely made up for it. Rustic Pear Tart: from Taste of Home Ingredients: Cr...

I went on a Stockholm day cruise last week with my friend Melissa and her daughter Natali. Melissa is a friend from my Edinburgh-days, who is now based in Toronto. She spent 9 days in Tallinn, and to give her a small break from my hometown, we popped over to the capital of Sweden for a day. It was lovely, if a bit chilly and wet, and luckily the ferry ride wasn't too bumpy. On a way back to the ferry terminal I picked up two Swedish food magazines, and this Chocolate and Lingonberry Cake in the August issue of Allt of Mat immediately caught my eye. K's mum provides us with lots of lingonberries these days, you see, and although I liked the last week cardamom-scented Swedish lingonberry cake , it's fun to try new recipes. This one was a great hit with K (he had 3 slices on Saturday night alone), and his mum called me yesterday afternoon to tell how much she and her friends liked the cake, too. It's almost brownie -like in texture - smooth and velvety - with lingonber...

It might be a mild exaggeration to say that no-knead bread changed my life, but it definitely changed the way I look at baking. Until I became a mom and decided to really dive into being domestic, I never put any thought into baking bread or really baking anything at all. But ever since I made that first flawless loaf of perfect, crusty no-knead, I really feel awakened to the idea of making my own bread. I can't help it! It's SO EASY, you literally cannot screw it up. We're heading out tomorrow to the Oregon coast to go camping for a couple of days, and I'm so excited! I decided to bake us a loaf of fresh, healthy bread, so we'll have something hearty to snack on. The recipe is completely straightforward and totally easy. All I did was prep bread dough according to the famous no-knead recipe posted in the NY Times, but I added a few handfuls of different types of seeds- black sesame, poppy, sunflower, and flax. To make: 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, m...