De Baking Psychopath

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!

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. ...

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...

Yes. You read that title correctly. No, I'm not one of those crazy bacon-is-god sort of people.  ...But I do like my breakfast meats sweet and salty. I've always drizzled a little bit of maple syrup on my breakfast sausage or bacon, along with a healthy dose of black pepper. So when I saw this recipe in Joy the Baker's new cookbook , I thought it weird but intriguing...     (stroking imaginary beard in contemplation) Meanwhile, I have been on a mission to use up my insane Costco tubs of peanut butter, and I might not have so much trouble if I keep making these cookies!  When I first tried them, I went "Hmmmm...." (more imaginary beard stroking) The nutmeg flavor packed a big punch fresh out of the oven, and I was a little overwhelmed. My second response was "I am not sure yet what I think about these cookies...but I think I need to eat another cookie to decide!" (which is always an optimistic sign)  Once they had full...

This is where my food picture documentation has started to be more patchy. First I went to Berkeley and also Chinatown with people, but I always forget to take pictures of the food when I am trying to catch up with people. We had some wonderful Taiwanese food in Berkeley, and then in Chinatown I had some decent dim sum and really awesome sizzling pepper steak and yummy bok choy.   But somewhere in between I went to Japantown. I got some mochi and salmon-stuffed rice ball (pictured above). And a ham and cheese and veggie crepe with sweet Japanese mayo. Yum! Not too heavy and crisp, and fresh. And today I took a bakery trip to Chinatown. From the top, going clockwise, we have an egg custard tart, paper-lined sponge cake, "dry pork" bun, and custard bun. Also from Chinatown was this beautiful baked pork bun from a really old school joint.  Inside was meaty and fatty and sweet and delicious. The bread was more brioche-y than a no...

This weekend, we headed out to central PA to check out the 47th Annual Bedford Fall Foliage Festival . We took a scenic trip down the turnpike and found ourselves in the midst of this craziness: A festival of epic proportions! Arts, crafts and decorations of all sorts, gourmet foods, and food trucks galore! We were acutely aware that we provided a full 25% of the Asian contingent at the whole festival...REPRESENT! Since I am mildly (i.e. completely) obsessed with Guy on a Buffalo , when we saw this truck... ...OF COURSE we had to eat a buffalo burger and buffalo polish sausage. Delicious! Since Bedford is fairly close to State College, we were filled with glee to see this sight: OH YEAH. This was our first taste of ice cream from the Penn State Creamery, and we selected Butter Pecan and Death by Chocolate. We give both flavors two thumbs up. It was rich, smooooth and creamy, and amazingly it was relatively heat stable. We walked around ...

MEAT!  Meat plus bread = MAN FOOD! These pepperoni rolls were taught to me by my awesome friend, and it is such a versatile recipe to keep in your repetoire. It is sufficient for a meal in itself, it is a great accompaniment to a meaty main course or a hot bowl of soup, and it is a mean snack any time of of the day. (And great with beer, says Michael) The dough is enriched with an egg and a bit of oil, so it is soft, fluffy, and tasty. The pepperoni and cheese get all meaty and melty and happy together in multiple layers. I don't really like pepperoni by itself or on pizza, but I am a big fan of these rolls! Figure 2. Second layer of pepperoni and cheese before folding the last flap over Figure 3. Place rolls seam side down for proofing and baking Pepperoni Rolls (original source unknown, as taught to me by my friend Shannon) Ingredients : 1 & 1/2 cups warm water 1 teaspoon yeast (I used active dry) 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons s...

We tend to put more emphasis on our dating anniversary. To me, it's a better landmark of when our lives and destinies became bound together and seems somewhat more significant than the day we signed a piece of paper to make legal what was by then already a reality. Of course it's also that we've grown accustomed to celebrating this day, and to not do so would seem almost a denial of how significant this day is in our relationship. We're almost to double digits here (next year will be the big 10), and we went all out at home with the food to celebrate. Two gigantic ribeye steaks, a healthy portion of buttery boiled potatoes, and our favorite salad (inspired by one of our favorite local restaurants, Girasole ). The cooking can largely be attributed to Michael. The steaks were a beautiful medium-rare to medium, tender, juicy, and well-seasoned. The salad is composed of baby greens, chickpeas (canned), cherry tomatoes, sunflower seeds, Gorgonzola crumbles (not enough t...

We ran out of curry beef steamed buns. More buns were needed. The dough recipe is the same as last time , with the only two differences being: 1) I measured each dough ball to be 1.5 ounces instead of 2 ounces, so we got more buns out of the same recipe, 2) we proofed the buns after wrapping but before steaming for a longer period of time (at least 30-45 minutes), and we got a much better fluffy texture for the bread. This time we decided to go with a more traditional filling: pork and cabbage. The recipe is loosely adapted from a dumpling filling recipe from our beloved book Regional Cooking of China by Margaret Gin and Alfred E. Castle. Pork and Cabbage Bun/Dumpling Filling Ingredients : ~2-2.5 lbs ground pork (we ground up some pork chunks with our food processor) ~2 tablespoons ginger root, frozen as a chunk and grated 4 green onions (scallions), minced 1/3 head of cabbage (doesn't really matter what kind), finely diced and sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper until soft...

Tender beef, soft and sweet onions, and fragrant curry--all bundled up in a fluffy and moist bread. This is a wonderful on-the-go breakfast or lunch, a satisfying after-school snack, and (dare I say it) probably a really good accompaniment for beer in the wee hours of the night. The inspiration for these buns comes from two sources: 1) my mother's steamed bread recipe from when I was little, and 2) a beef curry filling method/recipe from a prolific Taiwanese home cook whose house we went to for a party after Christmas this past year when visiting some family friends--this lady also was the maker of the original beef curry steamed buns we tasted a few years ago. I've been wanting to get the recipe for the filling for those buns ever since I tasted them originally, and it was an exciting day this holiday season when I finally met her again and got the inside scoop. As my mother's recipe consists of a list of 4 ingredients handwritten on a post-it (no instructions give...