Apparently I hadn’t had enough dumpling making after the pelmeni/vareniki day, so I jumped straight into making some Georgian dumplings, called Khinkali. To accompany this, we made some Khachapuri, a Georgian bread dish full of cheese and topped with an egg and butter. This was a heavy meal, and the cooking process did not exactly go to plan. But I’m out here sharing my successes and my failures, so let’s get to it. I tried Khinkali for the first time at a Georgian restaurant in St. Petersburg . These are like a huge version of soup dumplings. They are intimidating the first time. They’re big and the process of eating…
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Pelmeni – Russian meat dumplings
As the shelter-in-place draws on and on, I am going through waves of excessive energy and the urge to stay busy and make things, followed by periods of near paralysis, glued to a video game for a few days or a week. I think I enjoy both, and each is kind of a re-charge from the other. The past 2 weeks have been a huge up-swing in energy and making things. While this week is much more sedate, which allows me time to actually sit and sift through a million photos and write about things. I’m not usually prone to such differences in mood, but I think the news and…
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Croquemouche – Birthday Baking
It is 2020 and we are still under shelter-in-place orders, so for my birthday, I celebrated #atHomeTogether. I wanted to plan a relaxing, luxurious day for myself, but also have some fun and not be bored. This resulted in what I called my “Birthday Obstacle Course”. I sectioned my back yard into activity stations, with a lounging area to play Animal Crossing, a refreshment area stocked with an array of charcuterie and accoutrements, a table with a hand-sewing project to work on, and through it all, I kept open a Zoom chat wherein pretty much anyone I know could drop in at any time and have a chat. It was…
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Russian Honey Cake
I’ve been enjoying the quarantine baking, probably more than most. And this week I used it as an excuse to make one of my favorite treats from traveling, a dish I have tried in multiple cities and countries. So this post will be about me reminiscing about how much I enjoy it, my travels, and if you’re just here for the recipe, you can check that out here. Chef John is pretty to-the-point about it. I, however, write this blog as a journal, a hobby, a way to entertain myself. So if that’s your jam, you can keep reading. Research I love honey. It is one of my favorite things…
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Biscuits with Chocolate Gravy
In the midst of all that is happening in the world, it seems like there are no rules anymore. This is the perfect time to share this completely ridiculous Southern recipe. This was one of my favorite breakfast treats growing up, and I still make it for myself once every month or so. However, for people who did not grow up eating it, the amount of sugar and carbs is a bit overwhelming. I have yet to make it for a person who is already an adult and have them want to eat it again. Fair warning. You must truly live this to appreciate it. What is it? This is…
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Let’s talk Tartiflette
Last year, I was lucky enough to spend the month of November as a temporary resident of Luxembourg. I had a marvelous time, enjoyed tons of interesting food and experiences, but the thing I enjoyed most was discovering raclette. Apparently, this is a winter-time treat enjoyed throughout this region of Europe and, because I love cheese more than a normal amount, this delicious meal of pure, melted cheese served with sliced meats, boiled potatoes, and steamed veggies, was amazing. But today, we are not here to talk about raclette. It seems that, in my haste to eat raclette everywhere I found it last year, I might have missed out on…
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Dinosaur Cake
A dear friend is having a baby shower, and I have been given the honor of supplying a cake. This is one of my favorite things to do, as it lets me contribute and take care of my friends and also experiment and enjoy my own creativity. The theme for the shower is ‘Dinosaurs’, so I immediately set to work image searching different dinosaur themed cakes and decorations. The first thing to decide, when baking a cake, is how many people will be there, and how large it should be. For this event, there will be around 40 people, so I went with a 3-layer 12-inch round cake instead of…
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Dobos Torte
Here is my attempt at the famous and famously complicated Hungarian Dobos Torte. I mostly followed along with this video from a Hungarian chef’s youtube channel. It’s in Hungarian and I, regrettably do not understand any Hungarian. Don’t blame me, I tried. But that’s another story. This recipe has been in my list of things to try for years. Literally, I have it saved from 2010. This and croquembouche. Some day I will make one of those… There are lots of interesting Hungarian cakes, but this one has stuck with me for 1 reason: it lacks fruit. I love fruit. And I love chocolate. But I never like fruit and…
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My love for cooking
One of my favorite hobbies has always been cooking. As a small, nerdy child, I loved watching the cooking shows on the Discovery Channel (because the Food Network had not yet been born and not yet been killed by “personality” chefs, but that’s another topic). My favorite to watch was Graham Kerr on Discovery. My local public television channel had a cooking show from Louisiana, starring Justin Wilson. As a human who has never mastered sleeping, I would wake up at 6 a.m. on the weekends and watch Mr. Wizard and my cooking shows. Which, now that I think about it, are pretty much the same thing. Science and cooking.…
