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Baking Recipes
Masa Biscuits with Ham & Chipotle Jam
Half Price Books has been an amazing source for cookbooks. Somehow there are always good finds, whether semi-recent releases or books of a certain vintage. I always want to leave bookmarks or post-its sticking out of some books saying, "BUY THIS ONE!!" And while sometimes you know why books end up on the clearance shelf -- 80s microwave cooking, anyone? -- others are a mystery. The El Paso Chile Company's Texas Border Cookbook -- was one of those mysteries, but the recipe for masa biscuits alone made it a bargain at twice the price.
April 10, 2012
Restaurants Travel
Ba Bar – Vietnamese Street Food in Capitol Hill
From the outside, Ba Bar (yes, Ba. Bar. Not the elephant.) looks like a coffee place. Its big windows face the street, and even as you step inside, the espresso bar with a few baked items is on your right. The floors are acid washed concrete. Walk into the main dining space and off to one side, there's an enormous, typical Pacific Northwest-looking wood bar. You might take it for a gastropub. But sit down and the menu in front of you is...Vietnamese street food.
April 4, 2012
Baking Recipes
One a Penny, Two a Penny – Hot Cross Buns
Hot Cross Buns are usually eaten on Good Friday, but whether you observe Easter as a religious holiday or a Hallmark holiday, or a little of both, they are a fantastic breakfast bread. A lightly sweetened yeast bun, they're really at their best when they're redolent with spices and fruit, with orange and lemon peel…
April 2, 2012
Baking Book Reviews
Banana Date Cake (Vegan)
This week, I've been in overdrive catching up on Mad Men so that I'm up to speed for season 5. And now I've got '60s-era food on the brain. But rather than torture myself with some kind of terrible aspic with vegetables in it, I decided on a date cake. Flipping through some of my vintage cookbooks I discovered we used to eat a lot more date cake and date bread than I realized. It's even in an episode of Mad Men, one where Don Draper is having a tete-a-tete with Sally's teacher in season 3. She's made three loaves of date nut bread for a school bake sale.
March 29, 2012
Main Course Recipes Soups
Rustic Tuscan Chickpea Soup
Oh, humble chickpea, when we met at the Sizzler salad bar when I was seven, you were called garbanzo beans, and you were just an alternative to kidney beans in my salad. Little did I know that around the world, other cultures were doing you so much more justice in dal or falafel or hummus.…
March 20, 2012
corned beef hash
Breafkast Recipes
Sunday Brunch: Corned Beef Hash
Around St. Paddy's Day, my grandma always bought an extra corned beef and threw it in the freezer, so at some random time of the year, in June or maybe October, you knew corned beef and cabbage would turn up on the dinner table. Last year with the best of intentions, I bought an extra…
March 17, 2012
Main Course Recipes
Char Siu Experiment, Hoisin Pork Results
Last week I posted a one-off with a photo of some char siu chicken legs we had in Kauai. I don't know what the secret to char siu is aside from the red food coloring, but I'm determined to crack it. I went to Uwajimaya yesterday to check out the jarred and packet marinades and see what was in those, but the plan was to make the marinade myself. So, while some Chowhounders said there's no way a restaurant uses ketchup and hoisin, an old recipe in the Honolulu Star Bulletin said different.
March 12, 2012
Main Course Travel
Eat Local: Hamura Saimin in Lihue
There's almost nothing more comforting than a bowl of noodles. No matter what country it comes from -- China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Italy, heck, even America -- noodles fill your belly and soothe the soul. So it should be no surprise that after a 6-hour flight from Seattle to Kauai, our first stop was Hamura Saimin in Lihue.
March 11, 2012
Restaurants Travel
Food Truck Alert: Pat’s Taqueria in Hanalei, HI
I'm usually a rigorous researcher before a vacation, so at least I have ideas for things to do and places to eat in between chilling out and reading books under swaying palm fronds. But for this trip to Kauai, I was pretty much useless. Although Pat's Taqueria was in the guidebook, I didn't know that until later, so we got lucky. But if there's one guiding light, one truism that I know is actually true it's, "Where there are surfers, good Mexican chow follows." See also: Tacofino.
March 7, 2012
Main Course Photo One-offs
Photo One-Off: Char Siu Chicken Legs
There are a million reasons to want to live in Hawaii -- sunny days, sandy beaches, great surfing. I'm adding these char siu chicken legs to the list. Thanks to the melting pot of cultures in Hawaii, Foodland, a local grocery store chain, offers pre-marinated char siu drumsticks in the meat department. These…
March 6, 2012
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