Monthly archive May, 2008

Herbed-Baked Eggs

Do you have the Barefoot Contessa fantasy? The one where you come home to mammoth bouquets of freshly-picked, artfully arranged flowers. Tomato and feta salad packed into Chinese takeout containers. Picnics on the beach and fireside dinners. The perfect cocktail for every meal. A refrigerator filled with exotic cheeses, olives, and homemade lemon curd. And...

Daring Bakers: Opera Cakes

Can you hear her? Off in the distance, the fat lady is singing. Yes, a mere hour from the deadline, I have completed my first Daring Bakers Challenge: an opera cake. A traditional opera cake has layers of sponge cake, coffee buttercream, ganache, and a final glaze of chocolate. They’re usually decorated with a musical...

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns. You Need These In Your Life.

So, way back when Tuesdays with Dorie made Brioche Raisin Snails, I used the other half of the dough to make this week’s recipe: Pecan Honey Sticky Buns. If you don’t make another thing you ever see on this site, make these. Baptized in honey. Christened with pecans. Worthy a two-syllable damn. Even after you...

Traditional Madeleines

Unless you’re in traction or trapped under something heavy, life’s too short to read Remembrance of Things Past. It’s more than 3,000 pages–roughly the length of War and Peace, Gone With the Wind, and Bill Clinton’s My Life combined. What do you need to know about Marcel Proust’s masterpiece? It’s all about involuntary memory. The...

Peanut Butter Torte

My nephew, Jack, is rocking in my dad’s recliner when Henry the Wonderdog launches over the armrest and licks the tip of Jack’s nose. “HENRY TRIED TO BITE ME!” We tell him nooooooo, Henry was just trying to kiss him. “HENRY KISSED ME!” I tell him he should feel special, because Henry doesn’t go around...