De Baking Psychopath

We attended the 4th annual Farm to Table Conference Friday Night Food Tasting event this weekend. Set against the pretty backdrop of the city skyline, it was a festive and delicious sampling of local (mostly PA) wineries, specialty stores, farms, and personal chefs/caterers. Here's a photojournal of some of the things we tasted and saw: Little communion-sized cups for the wine sampling. I found that I tolerated and liked the dessert wines much better than regular wines, of which I have a hard time finishing even a small glass because they're too strong for me. I drank much more wine in one go than I have in years at this event. I bought a bottle of "Sweet Sensation" ( A sweet sparkling red wine. Jammy aromas with hints of dark berries entice you to taste its velvety full body and mouthwatering finish. Best served chilled.) from the Thistlethwaite Vineyards. Bonus: I must have been wearing adult-looking clothing because I did not get carded once, while a friend ...

Have I mentioned that I love breakfast/brunch foods? Maybe once or twice... Interestingly though, this is the first coffeecake I've ever made. This particular blueberry coffeecake has been on the to-do list for ages, ever since I saw it on the blog Burghilicious . I love blueberry quickbreads, period. Muffins, tea breads, pancakes, etc. And the fact that this recipe comes from a bed and breakfast inn increases the appeal of the recipe exponentially for me. I love the romance and homeliness of tried-and-true B&B classic recipes. They emanate an aura of history and homemade comfort food. ...and of course, the two tablespoons of cinnamon in the topping of this recipe was calling my name. Loudly. So one weekend, as I was pondering what to do with the last dregs of a bag of frozen blueberries, I decided to make it. The recipe can be found here . The only change I made was to substitute half the flour for whole wheat pastry flour. This coffeecake was hearty/dark/rich wit...

A good friend of mine gifted me with an awesome set of safari animal cookie cutters for my recent birthday , and as soon as I saw them, I knew I had to put them (as well as the animal cookie cutters I already owned) to good use. My first thought: animal crackers!! Although I do have a more traditional recipe for little cookie/crackers that remind you of the store-bought little treats, I instead decided to go with a heartier sweet biscuit for my first animal cookie foray. Can you find the following animals below: cat, bat, elephant, mouse, zebra, frog, lion, giraffe, bear? Hint--you may have to tilt your head up to 180 degrees upside-down for the correct perspective for some of the shapes. These cookies were designed to be gnawed upon by teething babies, but they've got enough flavor to satisfy the discerning adult palate as well. They are lightly sweet, hearty from the wheat germ, faintly citrusy and cinnamony, and a suitable complement to a cup of coffee or tea...or a sippy ...

The big birthday bash has come and gone. It was a very busy weekend: shopping on Friday, baking all day Saturday, and then the festivities on Saturday evening. Here was our menu, with links to recipes used, if available: Savory An assortment of crackers, baked flour tortilla chips, and toasted baguette slices Crudite and Hummus (store-bought) Smoked Salmon Dip Warm Spinach and Artichoke Dip Pasta Salad (brought by friend) Homemade Roasted Sweet Potato Fries Assorted Puff Pastry Hor's Doeuvres (bought; Costco) Sweet Kid's Thumbprints with Orange Marmalade or Blackberry Jam ( Baking: From My home to yours, pg. 163) Chocolate Toffee Cookies Tate's Bake Shop Thin and Crispy Cookies Tiramisu (made by friend) Black and White Chocolate Cake ( Baking: From My home to yours, pgs. 258-260) Party Favors One big fat chocolate chip cookie ( the famed NYTimes recipe ) So I actually have a pitiful number of pictures of the party, and even more pitiful is that I forgot to take my usu...

...allow me to introduce: chocolate square cupcakes! For whatever reason, this year I've been doing a lot of birthday related activities for myself. I don't know if it's because my mother's been reminding me for months that my birthday is coming up, or if this is a special birthday to me because the age I am turning is my childhood favorite number...but from an objective standpoint, I'm not sure why I am anticipating my birthday more this year than in the last two years where I've had my zodiac year as well as significant-fraction-of-a-century birthdays. But in any case, I've already made birthday cupcakes for a joint birthday lunch at lab, almost two weeks before my actual birthday, and I'm making grandiose plans to make a fancy celebration cake from my recently-acquired copy of Baking: From my home to yours for my upcoming birthday party. For the birthday cupcakes, I called up my fancy-cake-making little sister and asked her what she'd recommen...