Vacation is usually a chance to get away from it all and let someone else do the cooking. But on Kaua’i, the Garden Isle, that’s only half true for me. If I've only got a week, I want to soak up the sunshine, slurp down some saimin and savor the sweetness of pineapple, papaya and mango.
None of that requires a kitchen, but once you’ve been to one of the farmers markets on the island, you’ll want one. For our last two escapes to sunshine, we’ve stayed in a little vacation cottage steps away from the beach with a little deck and a hammock slung between two palms. And a kitchen.
When I heard Tom Douglas was going to be at Costco signing copies of the Dahlia Bakery Cookbook
a couple of months ago, I expected organized chaos a la Giada de Laurentiis’ signing. I rolled in about 30 minutes before it was slated to start and Tom was already there. No need to pre-purchase a book, get in line outside and have a handler scribble your name on a post-it for the inscription. I walked right up, got a book (one for me, and one for my mom), had a chance to have a little chat with Tom and then was on my merry way for the rest of my Costco shop.
a couple of months ago, I expected organized chaos a la Giada de Laurentiis’ signing. I rolled in about 30 minutes before it was slated to start and Tom was already there. No need to pre-purchase a book, get in line outside and have a handler scribble your name on a post-it for the inscription. I walked right up, got a book (one for me, and one for my mom), had a chance to have a little chat with Tom and then was on my merry way for the rest of my Costco shop.
Every Rom-Com, every book, every platitude says when you meet “The One,” you’ll just know. We didn’t lock eyes in a crowded airport terminal or pass each other on a train platform or have an awkward conversation about the weather in biology lab. We met on the Internet. And it’s like….magic. I have fallen completely, utterly and irrevocably in love. We are M-F-E-O (made for each other). My husband? What? No, I met him in a bar. I’m talking about the Baking Steel.
Beets were on my top food offender list when I was a kid. Beets didn’t come from a farm or the grocery store, they came from a salad bar. Sizzler, Soup Plantation, even Carl’s Jr. (yes, they had a salad bar in the ol' days) all had ‘em. Sliced or julienned, my auntie would pile…
When you talk about shopping at Costco, everyone laughs and says, “Do you really need 6 packages of toilet paper? Or 3 cartons of milk?” Just like with 20 pounds of rice, no one says, “Two jars of Nutella? Do you really need two jars?” Ever. Because obviously.
I joke that the tagline for DailyWaffle is “Home of the Nutella Fudgesicle.” It’s my most popular post, a Zoku pop recipe that went viral (thanks peeps on Pinterest!). Just two ingredients, hazelnut milk and Nutella, you can either freeze it into a popsicle or heat it up for a cup of hot chocolate. And if you choose to spike it, well, that's between you and your Nutella. Any which way, if there’s one made up food day I have to honor, it’s World Nutella Day.
Devising a dessert 7-layer dip is no easy feat. Earlier this week in the midst of all the chicken wing and pulled pork sandwich recipes, I wondered out loud on Twitter, “Why have I seen no 7-layer dip with chocolate pudding, caramel, cool whip and M&M's (ok, you figure out the other 3).” Rebekah at…
You know that thing when you discover something, whether it’s a song or a TV show or even just a color, you see it everywhere, where once you probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought? I’m going through that right now with harissa – the Tunisian hot sauce/red pepper paste.
There’s nothing quite like a good Cubano sandwich. Layer on layer of pork – roasted loin, ham and salami with Swiss cheese, pickles and a schmear of mustard, pressed like a panini until the cheese is melty. On the West Coast, unless you’re at a Cuban restaurant, it’s not a sandwich you see all that often. There are exceptions – the last one I had was actually a couple of years ago at Matt’s in the Market here in Seattle. We also have a Caribbean place called Paseo that’s supposed to have a great Cubano-like sandwich. But really, there's no reason you can't make a pretty good Cubano, or perhaps more accurately here, a medianoche sandwich at home. (The main difference is the bread).
The mojo(ish)-marinated pork started as tacos for Saturday night’s dinner, but as I thought about the leftovers, Cubano-inspired pulled pork sliders seemed like the perfect lunch for us and a great idea for the Super Bowl next weekend.