In case you’ve been out of touch – like, on a trip to Mars – and didn’t hear the news, the New Orleans Saints football team ended 42 years of gridiron futility Sunday night by winning America’s most media-crazed sporting event, the Super Bowl.

Understandably, the citizens of New Orleans have gone wild. Bourbon Street, home of jazz and impromptu dancing (and various interesting traditions involving colored beads) has reportedly been rocking ever since. Read the rest of this entry »

A whole wheat crust, spicy peanut sauce, chicken with a hint of citrus, and peppery cilantro topping. Thai Chicken Pizza is one of my craving foods these days, but I tell you, gentle reader, it was not always so. Let’s take a peek at my culinary past, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »

Crème brûlée… cake?

Isn’t crème brûlée that rich, inch-thick slab of vanilla cream covered with a crackly-crisp, caramelized sugar crust?

Yes.

So how does cake enter into this?

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“Oh, that’s my FAVORITE bread!”

“It never fails. It’s the one I make for sandwiches every week.”

“Walter Sands bread… always and forever.” Read the rest of this entry »

Uh-oh, here we go again. Venturing into prime “You don’t know what you’re doing” territory.

The land of “That isn’t the way my grandma did it so it’s wrong.”

Dare I go here yet again? After much ado (and plenty of a-don’t) about flourless chocolate cake; major differences of opinion regarding how many ingredients go into the perfect pie crust; and most recently, controversy surrounding the absolute authentic way to make Chicago-style deep-dish pizza (hint: there’s no cornmeal in the crust. There IS cornmeal in the crust), it’s with great hesitation that I dip my toe into Italian Wedding Soup – figuratively speaking, of course. Read the rest of this entry »

Inside out. Mirror image.

However you look at it, this fudge-filled vanilla cookie is a 180° twist on America’s favorite store-bought cookie, the Oreo.

A line extension, so to speak, of our original Oreo clone: the Faux-Reo. And its evil (calorically speaking) twin, the Faux Joe-Joe. As well as a bald-faced copy of the “Uh-Oh! Oreo,” one of Nabisco’s variations on their oh-so-popular original theme. Read the rest of this entry »

With Valentine’s Day in the air, many of us are thinking about the old adage “Good things come in small packages.”  Good things like sparkly earrings, shiny bracelets, and of course that lover’s special, the diamond engagement ring. While you’re planning your romantic dinner, consider making these personal sized treats, Chocolate Amaretto Trifles, one for you and one for your sweetie. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, boy… Chicago deep-dish pizza. Just the ticket for a cold January night.

It’s been an icon on the culinary landscape since 1943, when the story goes that Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo “invented” deep-dish pizza at their newly opened Chicago restaurant, Pizzeria Uno.

Ike and Ric’s new pizza was fashioned after a traditional Italian tomato pie: a thick crust with 1”-high sides, filled with tomato purée, and sprinkled with Romano cheese. But Pizzeria Uno’s proprietors went a step (or a couple of layers) further, adding mozzarella cheese and sausage to the mix.

I’d always dreamed of sampling deep-dish pizza at its source: in Chicago. And several years ago, courtesy of a trade show, I got the chance. Read the rest of this entry »

Necessity is the mother of invention. And nowhere is this truer than in the King Arthur test kitchen.

I recently watched a couple of my fellow bakers struggle to create Tarte Tatin – France’s classic apple tart – with a perfectly caramelized sugar sauce, and crisp, flaky crust.

While Andrea and Liz had nailed the caramel, they were still trying to figure out the best way to produce a crisp crust underneath that liquid caramel. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s only one thing to do when your business trip puts you in Cleveland at 10:30 in the morning, and you can’t check into the hotel until mid-afternoon. Head for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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