Archive for January, 2009
Two Chocolate-y Valentine’s Treats: Candy & Cocktails, Oh My!
Valentine’s Day is approaching. Love it or hate it, it’s a fabulous excuse to indulge in a few sweets. Here are recipes for two devilishly delightful chocolate-y treats. Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Hearts (Peanut-butter cup and pretzel sandwiches dipped in a lavish amount of chocolate) Chocolate Cherry Kiss Cocktail (Created especially for my friend Bunny, this [...]
Basic Cooking: The Secret to Perfectly Cooked Hard-Boiled Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs? How about *hardly* boiled eggs? Now that’s more accurate. (And that’s also the secret to perfectly cooking them.) I make hard-boiled eggs the way my mother does. And she uses the same basic method that Julia Child did—minus the egg pricker. Every time I do this, the eggs are marvelous. The whites are [...]
Super Bowl Recipe Roundup: 20 Game-Day Nibbles
Pizza, meatballs, wings, ribs, cookies, and ice cream sundaes and floats? Yes, please! With Super Bowl weekend just around the corner, here are links to some of our favorite game-day nibbles and noshes here at The Mouse House. Be sure to take our Super Bowl Poll at the end of this article, and see how [...]
Blood Orange Cocktail
Um, yum! Seriously? The blood orange has to be one of the loveliest fruits on the planet. And in typical Mouse-House style, we found a way to enjoy it in one of our very favorite ways—in cocktail form. This drink is sweet, but not too sweet. It’s fresh and juicy—and gets an extra bump of [...]
One Potato, Two Potato, Part 1: Cognac-Laced Potato Cream Soup
The humble potato is so versatile—and filling—that I’m not sure why I don’t use it more often. This soup sounds fancy, but you can whip it up in no time flat—with stuff you probably already have in your house. Loaded with potatoes and heavy cream, it’s also ridiculously decadent (no diet food today!).
Butter-Fried Sea Scallops
So simple. So yummy. There are a zillion recipes out there for pan-fried scallops. This is one of mine. The fresher my ingredients are, the less I usually fuss with my food. This recipe combines a few simple ingredients that complement each other—and still let the individual flavors shine through. For this recipe, fresh sea [...]
Basic Cooking: How to Test a Cake for Doneness with a Toothpick
Years ago now, I used to hang around a little cafe that a friend of mine owned. One day, she charged me with keeping an eye on a couple of cakes that were in the oven. Easy as pie (err, cake), right? The batter was made. I just had to yank them out when they [...]
How to Make Homemade Marshmallows (And Then Dip Them in Chocolate)
Hello, Willy Wonka! Making candy is just delightful. There’s no two ways about it. And making marshmallows? From scratch? That’s downright magical. I mean, take a handful of regular old ingredients through a few very simple steps, and…presto! Marshmallows. I’ve done this dozens of times over the years, and it never fails to amaze me. [...]
Rib of the Week: Guinness-Braised Short Ribs (Plus a Quick Primer on Braising)
We woke up to more snow this weekend. It put me in serious cooking mode, so The Angry Chef dug out the car and intrepidly made his way to McKinnon’s, our local butcher shop. He came home with a couple of bags, including a package of gorgeous beef short ribs. I quickly set about preparing [...]
Deep-Fried Ravioli
Fried ravioli! These are so yummy, it’s almost ridiculous. They’re oh-so-crispy on the outside, and oozing with creamy, molten cheese on the inside. Start with fresh ravioli. (Frozen will work, too. Just thaw them completely in the fridge first.) For this recipe, I used a four-cheese ravioli made locally. Use any quality ravioli that you [...]
