DIY vanilla extract
It’s important to have people in your life who push you to do your best and follow your passions and all that, or at least those who send you three kinds of vanilla beans and subtle hints. For my birthday…
Salad dressing in a blender
I’m often a very lazy salad dressing maker, to the point that I usually just drizzle the salad with some oil and sometimes vinegar if I’m feeling fancy. (Maybe this is why I don’t eat a lot of salads.) But…
Squash, apple, and goat cheese salad
The vernal equinox last Friday heralded the beginning of spring, but I think Boston missed that memo. It started snowing Friday night and kept it up just through the run I dragged my sister on Saturday morning, marking at least…
When heavy cream lightens
I’ve eaten an incredible amount of chocolate pudding in the last week and a half. There were the initial tests, then the one that turned grainy overnight, the one that was way too thick, and the one that my moving…
Toasted marshmallow chocolate cream pie
I know that Pi Day was Saturday and I totally missed the boat, but this was moving weekend. There was a large truck and many heavy boxes and so many cows through all of Ohio, and the pictures of this…
Why use brown bananas for baking?
I’m usually pretty particular about my bananas, preferring a slight green just at the stem for less sweetness and a firmer bite. But when it comes to baking, the browner the better. It may take some patience—the bananas I got…
Whole wheat banana muffins
My mom sent me Nutella. What was I supposed to do? You can’t have Nutella without bananas. And peanut butter. Preferably all together–so I gave in to the inevitable and made some banana muffins. The resulting trifecta of all that…
February updates
About a month ago, I took steadying breaths and gave myself a good internal pep talk as I knocked on the door of a company called Chew here in Cambridge. I knew almost nothing about them beyond a vague impression of food…
Roasted acorn squash with spicy beans
I remember moving to Chicago at the end of college, facing the terrifying reality of adult life outside school for the first time. I didn’t have a lot of friends, especially after a rough breakup, and I underwent foot surgery…
Starch and potatoes
There’s a lot more to potatoes than meets the eye, and the choice of which potato to use in a recipe can have a huge impact on the results. The most important variation comes in the form of starch, the…
