De Baking Psychopath

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,...

Another year has passed, and another roommate weekend was warranted, this time in Philadelphia! We had a whirlwind of a weekend, filled with food, random shopping, and catching up! Not pictured-- Friday night we went to Monk's Cafe , where we had yummy beers, buffalo-style fried frogs legs, steamed mussels, hamburger with truffled cheese and mushrooms, and duck confit. It was a hearty and delicious start to our weekend (although very dark and hence not photo-friendly). On the way back, we picked up frozen yogurt from Yogorino , which we brought back to the apartment to sprinkle on some crazy-awesome granola I had brought with me (recipe soon!). Bright and early Saturday morning, we took a stroll to the nearby Metropolitan Bakery and raided their day-old bin as well as bought several fresh treats. Eaten for breakfast: coffee/tea, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, chocolate croissant, nut and seed roll, lemon vs raspberry bar taste test. Not eaten but saved for late...

I have no words to explain. Just bask. T-shirt bought for Michael

I'm back from a conference up in Snowmass, Colorado that happens every two years. Last time I attended this conference, there was little free time scheduled for adventures, but this time there were many additional afternoon hours to be had. I had planned to do work...and of course, that got sidetracked by trips to the Maroon Bells (pictured above), downtown Aspen (ritzy shopping!), hikes around picturesque Snowmass, and of course hitting up all the winter clothing sales racks both in Snowmass and Aspen! More beauty and pure awesomeness to come!

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...

I first encountered Liege waffles on TV, on a travel show that was talking about a waffle stand that is only accessible to customers by skiing. It is located at the bottom of a ski slope somewhere in Europe, and the little waffle stand is run by a cute couple who specialize in these wonderful treats. Skiers waddle up to the stand and order their waffles, which is eaten plain by hand, wrapped in some paper, as they waddle off to the ski lift for another trip down the slopes. These waffles are not your normal Belgian waffles that you encounter in the US. They are made with a butter-and-egg-rich yeasted dough (close cousin to a Brioche dough) that is studded with large grain pearl sugar, which caramelizes in little pockets on the surface of the crisp, fluffy waffle. They are common to find in Belgium at street vendors for an on-the-go snack, apparently, but haven't really found a foothold here in the US as far as I can tell. I mistakenly tried "yeasted waffle" r...

This was a dessert created out of necessity but turned out quite delicious in its own right. The task was to come up with something that was dairy free and gluten free. A flash of memory reminded me of the faux cheesecake a high school teacher of mine came up with when she had just moved to Taiwan many years ago and could not get any American cream cheese. So instead, she used fresh tofu. It ended up being a lighter and healthier version of the classic dessert that was so enjoyed by her family and guests, that even after she gained access to cream cheese again, she would substitute half the cream cheese with tofu. So to achieve my goal, I paired an all-tofu version of the recipe with a nut crust and homemade blueberry jam for a very respectable fancy dessert! For even less calories, you can substitute the sugar with Splenda. The softer and silkier your tofu, the less prominent the taste of the tofu will be; I used firm tofu one of the two times and it ended up much firmer and ...

Yesterday was Ferry Building Farmer's Market Eating Day. There was also gorgeous produce. And this crazy looking rotisserie truck. If you click on the picture to enlarge, you'll see that there are what looks like small pigs on the spit, rotating and dripping fat onto a pile of potatoes at the bottom. I'm drooling just typing that. I didn't figure I had enough belly to eat that but we'll see if they come back on Tuesday... Korean-inspired street food. I got the taco, pictured further down in the post. I think I had to get a small bag of chicharrones (fried pig skin) from these flying pigs. Here is the Korean taco, which is kimchi, rice and marinated beef on a seaweed shell. And the pièce de résistance , slow cooked pork ramen. FRESH noodles, huge chunks of tender pork, a party-in-your-mouth array of veggie accoutrements (such as dried seaweed, fresh English peas, roasted Brussels sprouts leaves), and of course (my ...

I've got four different recipes in queue to be written up and posted, but I decided to put those aside to post in real-time about my travels and eats. I've got no flowers in my hair, but definitely I have been eating my way through my first day! Taco de lengua (tongue). Sooo good. Tangy, melt in your mouth tender, fresh corn tortillas. I wanted another one right away. Selections from Delica, the Japanese deli at the Ferry Building. On left, agedashi tofu; on right, potato croquette. The fried tofu skin was difficult to get through to cut down to bite sized pieces with chopsticks, but it was sweet and savory and delicious. The potato croquette...oh the croquette <3. The outside was delicate fried perfection, the inside creamy chunky potatoes with a hint of soy. Yum. Pistachio and chocolate macarons from Miette and cafe au lait from Blue Bottle Coffee. Awesome made-to-order drip coffee, insanely chewy macarons! I like them. I don't know if I ...