De Baking Psychopath

It's been difficult to make any significant headway into the plethora of baked goods in my freezer during the shelter-at-home.  We're not natural bread-eaters; although we love it in all its forms, we just don't have that bread-eating habit that Americans of European descent have of eating sandwiches oftentimes as much as once or twice a day, or eating bread as a side dish to dinner, and therefore making short work of plowing through loaves of bread and other baked goods.   At some point, though, it became difficult to repress my usual stress-/procrasti-baking tendencies, and also baking projects provide fun activities to keep the kiddo occupied for a little while.  Furthermore, with all the sourdough love on the Internet these days, I felt like I need to keep Gus in peak condition to flex some sourdough muscles and show everyone he's still got his skillz.  (Spoiler: Yes, he still does!)  A nd so despite good intentions to preserve my flour reserves fo...

My New Year's resolution this year had been to cut down on my hoarding and commit to try to buy smaller amounts of ingredients (particularly baking ingredients), and only when I had a specific application in mind.  I had done a mini-purge of expired ingredients from the pantry, and the guilt over the wasted food/ingredients drove me to strive to do better this year That being said, I knew that there were many ingredients that we did in fact go through consistently, and therefore I felt less guilty continuing to buying in bulk quantities, such as flour, my beloved Ahmed Mango black tea , instant espresso , and oats of various sorts from Bob's Red Mill.   Furthermore, at the beginning of shelter-in-home, I had a realization that we were already pretty well stocked to hunker down for a good long while, with exception of fresh produce and dairy items.  I had still a decent amount of flour left over from holiday time, when I stocked up on a couple extra bags o...

Greetings from the coronapocalypse of 2020.  Right now, I am at home for an indefinite amount of time.  Our county and city have declared a stay-at-home order for all non-essential work and services.  The university has mandated for research labs to reduce to "essential" staffing only, which I am not as a postdoc researcher.  However, I may get pulled to help with clinical service at some point; since pathologists aren't front line care providers, it would likely be if the regular pathologists get sick and need to self-isolate and need backup support.  While we wait for the storm of infections to hit us, I figured now would be a good time to reboot the blog and post some recent baking exploits, if only to distract myself from the vortex that is the news.  So, welcome to the new and fancy redesigned blog! First, an update on life.  Since my last post, I have finished residency.  I went on to complete a clinical fellowship in Liver/GI path...

Wow, I somehow let 2015 go by without a single post. I guess I have some excuses, like a baby, moving, first year of residency, etc. And I suppose in the whole Internet world, I've seen many well-loved blogs peter out due to changing priorities and modes of communication with the intended audience. But, despite the life changes, I do want to keep this space open and return to it one day. Probably when my core clinical training is finished and I return back to the research world more full time, I will be able to see whether I can fit this back into my lifestyle. For now, greetings from a new home and a new phase in life. Shrimpy is now almost 17 months old, and she is as feisty as we could have expected from her in utero exploits. She's got a full-time daddy to take care of her for the time being, and for that I am eternally grateful. I am 8 months into my first year in pathology residency, and it's been fun but challenging. Gus is still alive too, and if nothing else co...

What to do when you're sitting around waiting for your full-term baby to come out? As far as "nesting" goes, we've already done everything we can possibly do for the baby's arrival. A full complement of baby clothing/linens/blankets/etc. is all washed, folded, and in their proper places. The "go-bag" has been packed and repacked and is ready-to-go in the car. The car seat is installed. We have all the baby gear (stroller, carrier, bottles/pumps, etc). We've celebrated with friends and co-workers the incoming bundle of joy (thank you all!). My mother has arrived from far away and is settled in. I've finished all my academic obligations, including all my required medical school rotations, residency applications, and licensing exams needed for graduation.  So last week, at the beginning of my vacation/maternity leave month, I decided to stock the freezer with baked goods see if I could make myself busy enough to kick the baby out of dorman...

Hello, I've emerged from the dark vortex that is medical school! I've finished all my required third year courses, and except for one more time-consuming required course in June, I will be coasting with some elective courses for the rest of the year! Yay for almost being a doctor! It has been a fun and rewarding year, and the patients were all so generous and patient. I am planning to apply to Pathology, however, and help take care of patients from behind the scenes. I am hoping that this next year will afford me more time for blogging and baking! I say "hoping" because while medschool is winding down, we are awaiting the arrival of other chaos and mayhem, in the form of a little bundle of joy! Yes, "Shrimpy", our little one, is coming in early October! We're super excited that we were able to have the timing work out well and that our baby seems to be healthy and developing well. I'm 16.5 weeks along, and we're just starting to feel it k...

"Necessity is the mother of invention," the saying goes. In my case, necessity usually comes in the form of needing to get rid of some ingredient that I've hoarded. In this case, the culprit is raisins. I'm not a huge fan of raisins; they tend to be tough and get stuck in teeth, so the only way I accept them is when they are cooked or baked so they are plump. I had been itching for awhile to try a cinnamon raisin bread sometime for the reputation of the glorious toast, and finally I decided to take the plunge! This recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book does not disappoint! The dough is plush, soft, and stretchy. The crust is buttery and crisp, the raisins juicy, and the cinnamon gives it such a wonderful smell and flavor. And yes, the toast was phenomenal! The peanut butter and marmalade sandwich made with this bread was probably the best PB&J I've ever eaten. I definitely will put all those raisins to good use with this bread. R...

Michael's birthday request: British Meat Pie . I used bacon fat for the crust. Best. Crust. Ever. Bake or Break always has the best recipes. This cream cheese and blueberry coffee cake was no exception. Another Bake or Break recipe: Pecan Cake . Fabulous. I used Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk and the cake turned out delightfully springy in addition to moist and nutty. Chocolate frosting was optional but delicious. I picked up some fresh figs from Trader Joe's and tried this fig and olive oil loaf cake from Tracy Shutterbean . It was dense, nutty, and delicious!

Back in Philly! We visited in mid-August, and we had a blast, as usual! Lots of good food! Bread from the Metropolitan Bakery, Wilbur bacon, cannelles from a small bakery stand in the farmer's market. Cheesesteak. Visit to old-school Italian bakery Termini Brothers. Yum, cannoli! Picnic in the park: whitefish salad and crackers, a variety of sushi rolls, pizzelles from Termini's, and fruit from a local corner grocery. Grilled cheese from the Valley Shepherd Creamery stand at the Reading Terminal Market. And of course, pork sandwich from DiNic's!

Let me introduce Wilbur!! Over the summer, we heard about an opportunity to buy half a Berkshire hog through Shannon and David's farmshare company, and after much deliberation, we took it! We got about 100 lbs of meat, including lots of pork chops, loin roasts, shoulder roasts, a gigantic ham cut in two, over 10 lbs of bacon, 13 lbs of ground pork, 10 lbs of fatback for sausage making, and a fresh ham hock and shank. Of course we had to name our piggy, so after much deliberation, we settled on Wilbur! Yes we're a little morbid, but c'mon, Charlotte was the true hero of that book, not the whiny pig. So far, we've made pork chops a couple different ways, pulled pork, bacon in many ways (in fried rice, stir fry, and normal breakfast style), and used ground pork in bolognese sauce. We have been not eaten this much pork since we moved back to the States, and we've never had such good chops and bacon!! The meat taste is just so rich and has great texture. ...

Hey everyone, I apologize for the long silence, but rest assured that I'm still alive, eating, and even occasionally baking! I'll try to do a roundup of recipes recently tried and a couple photos soon! Hope everyone's doing well, I think of you all and this space often. Stay tuned!

When you combine Gus, bacon fat, and caramelized onions, there can only be one outcome: triple happiness. I needed to feed Gus this weekend, and feeling lazy to make bread, I decided to give these sourdough biscuits a try. I got the recipe from the King Arthur Flour catalog awhile back because they were very intriguing (cue in imaginary beard stroking). The sourdough starter is not used for leavening, it's just for flavor. Then to "kick it up a notch" (a la Emeril), I substituted most of the butter out with rendered bacon fat I've been saving in the freezer for biscuits one day.  And finally that day had come! These biscuits came out completely fabulous. Smoky bacon flavor, sweet caramelized onions, flaky/tender biscuit. There was a hint of sourdough flavor at the end, but nothing too overt. We just ate them straight, but they would be great as an accompaniment to soup or eggs as well! You can find the recipe here:  http://www.kingarthurflour.com...

Another year has come and gone, and we've once again convened to eat and chat our way through a weekend! We were pretty lazy as a group to take pictures this time (we were probably eating too fast), so the best one I have is the group picture shown above. We were exploring the Cathedral of Learning and found these cool fold down desks that were inlaid in the seat backs of these benches. I believe it was the Syrian room.  So there was a quick rundown of our weekend: Saturday morning--meet up at my apartment. Dara arrived earlier so we took a trip to La Gourmandine bakery in Lawrenceville to get a bunch of tasty French pastries Saturday afternoon--we met up with some Pittsburgh friends and had a BBQ, including burgers, roasted veggies, salads, and brownies.  Saturday evening--took a breather after returning from the BBQ, and then late evening we got takeout from Spice Island, a Burmese restaurant in Oakland. Pad Thai, mohinga (fish stew with noodles), mango pork stew,...

Welp, I'm back! The defense was March 6, and this past Thursday I finally turned in all my final documents and fees, so I am officially getting my PhD!! Woo! I did some baking in the last few weeks, recipes to follow shortly. Thank you for all your support and encouragement, and I am looking forward to my next phase of training and the resuming of baking/blogging here! Onward to doctor #2!

Hi everyone, Just wanted to post a quick note that I will unlikely be posting here or on the other blog for a bit of time, as I am trying to finish my thesis and defend in the next month or so. I have been baking on occasion (Gus must be fed, after all) but I have been returning to old tried and true recipes, so nothing new to report here. I expect to have some more free time in March-April, although after that I return to medical school so I cannot predict whether I will be able to post with any regularity. However, I have a long term commitment to this blog and to you guys, so whenever I have the chance can make new and exciting baked goods, I'll be sure to share them with you! Alrighty, see you on the other side!

This was one of the most popular gifts I made this holiday season, so to share the joy of the tart, not-too-sweet, deep antioxidant-packed power of this jam, here is the recipe below. I used all frozen berries for mine: 2/3 frozen blueberries (bought from Costco, wild blueberries from Maine), and 1/3 a mix of frozen berries from Trader Joe's (mix of regular blueberries, cherries, and raspberries). I'm sure fresh sweet berries would be fabulous as well. Enjoy! Mixed Berry Jam (adapted from The Art of Preserving ) Makes 6-8 half-pint jars (total volume of 48-64 ounces) Ingredients: 3 lbs (12 cups) of berries (can be raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, in any ratio you want; frozen berries work great and are cheaper during off-season months) 3 cups (1.5 lbs) sugar (cannot decrease) 3/4 cup lemon juice 1 package pectin (you can find this at the store usually near the JELL-O/gelatin) Instructions: If canning, sterilize jars and canning lids/sea...