DailyWaffle - Page 90 of 117 - The Blog About Books and Bites

24 Hours Without Power

We were on our way out the door to see Gravity around 11 am yesterday and Wolf went to open the garage door. Nothing. It had been a gusty morning, with acorns and pine cones plonking on the roof and leaves blowing out of the trees, but it was otherwise uneventful. Then, literally the moment we went to leave, the power went out. With my car trapped in the garage. Having the power out on a not-a-work-day Saturday should have been a liberating experience. No power means no doing laundry, no puttering around all day on the Internet, no TV. It also means, for the most part, no cooking. No access to my car also meant not going anywhere. It meant sitting around and reading. It should have been a good thing, right?

November 3, 2013

The #3 Pizza in America is in Phoenix?

Who doesn’t love a good list? The DailyMeal just came out with the 101 best pizzas in America, and as you might expect, roughly one-third of them came from New York state. In its analysis, The DailyMeal says, “…most of America’s best pies are still in New Haven, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Phoenix.” {record scratch} Phoenix? Pizzeria Bianco’s Marinara pie ranked THIRD overall on the list, single-handedly putting Phoenix on this pizza map.

October 23, 2013

Baking Recipes

Toasted Coconut Spice Fauxnuts

"Two fingers," he'd say, holding two gnarled, deeply tanned digits up to his glass. Reaching into the sideboard cabinet, he pulled out a half empty bottle. He poured two fingers worth of brown liquor into the rocks glass and I followed, holding the carton with two hands and topping the booze with at least two more fingers of eggnog. Some years it was Wild Turkey and others Crown Royal, but always whiskey with eggnog. Like a lot of Japanese-American men of his generation, my grandpa wasn't a super talkative man, but he'd sit at the kitchen table and shoot the s**t over a glass of spiked eggnog, getting chattier as he got deeper into his cups. Even now, there's nothing like a whiff of whiskey and eggnog and nutmeg to put me right back at that table with him during the holidays.

October 16, 2013

Main Course Recipes Side Dishes

It’s All About the Butternut, Baby

One of the best things I've eaten in an airport was a roasted butternut and feta sandwich in Melbourne. Simple, earthy and salty all at the same time. We're no strangers to the virtues of butternut squash around here, and in fact, my grinchiness about pumpkin this year has sent me straight into the arms of butternut squash. Roasted, it makes great soup, salad, risotto, pasta, even pizza sauce. Even with a good, sharp peeler, it may feel like prepping a butternut is taking your life into your own hands, but it's worth the effort.

October 15, 2013

Baking Cooking Dessert

Finding My Way Back: Maple Walnut Squares

Walnuts. Ruiner of fudgy chocolate brownies, scourge of chocolate chip cookies, I’ve tolerated you, but there’s no love lost between us. You’re slightly bitter and unless you’re incognito, almonds and pecans rocket past you on my list of favorite nuts. Until now. Until this recipe. Paired with sweet maple syrup, you are magnificent. If, like…

October 13, 2013

Restaurants Travel

48 Hours in Denver: Black Eye, Uncle, Linger

Our friends Jed and Lara hosted us in Denver last weekend. The trip has become something of an October tradition in the last few years. I'd chalk it up to the everlasting sunshine in Denver and the coincidence with the beginning of the rainy season in Seattle, but really, it's been life events. Lara and I have known each other about 12 years and we worked together for a good batch of them. The first year I flew out for Lara's baby shower and returned a year later to meet A in person. This year, A is up and around and walking. We rolled into town with no real plan, the only requirement being a pitstop at GoLite for Wolf. If you don't know GoLite, it's good outdoor/ workout /Winter gear on the cheap.

Like the best weekends, there was plenty of hangout time punctuated with good food - morning, noon and night. It's enough to make this girl want to move to Denver.

October 12, 2013

Op-Ed

Pumpkin Grinch

I’m a pumpkin Grinch this year. Before it was even October, I un-veganized a pumpkin cake with pecan streusel from Veganomicon (it was delish!), but now, even piles of gorgeous gourds aren't doing it for me. I just can’t get on the pumpkin bandwagon. Trader Joe’s is rockin’ the pumpkin products big time – granola, toaster pastries, macarons, cereal bars, pumpkin spice coffee and tea, croissants, waffle mix, even pumpkin body butter. You name it, they’ve got it. You can’t hit a food blog and not see a pumpkin recipe of some sort. And yet, I’m not inspired.

October 3, 2013

Entertaining Recipes

Recovering from a Long Week…with Beets with Yogurt and Za’atar

Wolf was down in California finishing off Triathalon season over the weekend and I was back at the ranch prepping for the long week ahead. Food-wise, it was a hodge-podge, though I did cook Friday night after living off of enchilada casserole all week. It felt good to get back in the kitchen on Saturday morning and do something that didn't involve sitting in front of a computer. Kneading dough for pita bread and running some errands did me some good. But then that pita really needed something to go along with. Hummus? Mmm, ok, but maybe something else?

September 15, 2013

Dessert Recipes

Fig Ice Cream Sandwiches with Speculoos Cookies

"Slightly Gingery. The Ed Sheeran of cookies,” says the sign at Trader Joe’s. Can you guess? Speculoos, aka biscoff cookies. Now, I’m late to the biscoff cookie crazy. I’ve never really flown Delta, which is where a lot of people first encountered a 2-pack of those cinnamony, gingersnappy cookies. Long known in Belgium, those little cookies have been one of the positives airline passengers can point to about flying in the last few years.

Gingersnaps have been a favorite of mine since childhood, thanks to little purple bags of Pogen's cookies. But I never paid much mind to speculoos. I mean, I’ve had a packet of them in my cupboard for the last several months, just languishing. So when I bumped into this blueberry mascarpone tart with a speculoos cookie crust, a light flicked on in my head. Speculoos cookies would be perfect for ice cream sandwiches.

September 7, 2013

Appetizers Entertaining Recipes

Football Food: Hatch Chile Poppers

Peeling back the wrapper on a can of refrigerator biscuits and thwacking it against the edge of the counter takes me back to childhood. I’m not talking about the big flaky layer biscuits, I’m talking the cheapest ones – the skinny tube of “homestyle” or “buttermilk” refrigerator biscuits that come 10 to a can. I’ll eat them every which way, but not as baked biscuits. Most of the time, I plunk them on top of Chunky Chicken Noodle soup and let them steam up in a shortcut version of chicken and dumplings. It’s comfort food from childhood that still hits the spot to this day if I’m not feeling great.

September 2, 2013