Breakfast and Brunch Posts
Torta di Ricotta
This cake is like a coffee cake, but better. It’s rich, but still manages to have a light crumb. It gets a subtle, mollasses-tinged sweetness from dark brown sugar, and a burst of brightness from a generous amount of fresh lemon zest.
Orange Pound Cake
Warning: Baking this cake will fill your kitchen with the irresistible smell of oranges. This is a slightly modified version of a recipe I saw recently in Saveur. It’s a buttery pound cake shot through with freshly grated orange zest and soaked with sweet orange syrup.
St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake
So here’s the thing. I liked this cake so much that I immediately had to get it out of the house so I didn’t gobble down the entire pan. Find the logic in that, I know.
Strawberry Brunch Tart with Thyme and Black Pepper
This is not a fancy tart. It’s not one of those gorgeous, fresh-fruit-and-custard puff pastry things that looks like a piece of art. I’ll make you one of those one of these days. Don’t get me wrong: Those are lovely, too. But, this…this is messy and delicious and is the kind of thing that you [...]
Fresh Herb Egg White Omelet with Black Olives & Sun-Dried Tomatoes
So recently, I found myself with a bunch of spare egg whites. (Stay tuned to find out what happened to the yolks sometime later this week…) I was starving when this happened. I whipped them together quickly with a handful of stuff I had in the fridge, and…voila! A super light omelet that was packed [...]
One Potato, Two Potato, Part 2: Duck Fat Hash Browns
What’s the best thing about making duck for dinner? The leftover duck fat. At least, so says The Mouse. What’s even better? Using that fat to fry potatoes. Mmmm, mmm, mmm. Right now, I’m not sure you could convince me there’s a more delicious thing on the planet. So, last week, I made a couple [...]
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 [...]
How to Make Buttermilk Biscuits
These are super easy to make. If you have a food processor or mixer, you can throw them together in less than 10 minutes. If you don’t, it will take just a wee bit longer to cut the butter and flour together with a pastry cutter or a couple of forks. I made these this [...]
How to Make Buttermilk Pancakes
I’ve had a surprising number of people tell me they have a really hard time making pancakes at home. Here’s how I make my buttermilk pancakes, which I whipped up for The Angry Chef just the other day. How to Make Buttermilk Pancakes: Wait, pancakes made with…olive oil? Yep, yep. My original recipe calls for [...]
Simple Bacon and Cheese Omelet
I love fancy food. Really, I do. I love complicated recipes, exotic ingredients, and dishes that take three days to make. I have to admit, for all my gourmet inclinations, I also love all sorts of decidedly Not Fancy Foodstuffs. Especially things that make me feel like an eight-year-old again. For example, I love American [...]
