
Here’s a traditional, egg-custard based pie, and a vegan version! Continue reading
Kaki, here we are again! Recapping the many lovely things I’ve made and/or eaten over the past weeks. First up, something you inspired me to try to make: Frozen Chocolate Banana Bark Girl, I thought for sure I could solve … Continue reading
Kaki, my, it’s been a bit “meh” around here. I’ve spent the past month going from one mediocre dish to the next. With some I think, “Caitlin, you tried to make that too healthy.” With some I think, “Caitlin, you … Continue reading
Kaki! This tart is the last thing we made for Meyer Lemon Day. It was a great end to a great meal. 🙂 Just a heads up, though, this particular recipe does require a food processor; you have one, yes? I … Continue reading
Kaki!
About a month ago, a long-time family friend (she was my fifth grade English teacher, and my Confirmation sponsor, and I’d just helped with her daughter’s wedding; wonderful people) gave me four Meyer lemons from her garden. Four! Knowing how pricey they can be, and how slim the likelihood of finding them in a grocery store*, I was seriously pumped.
I spent quite a bit of time that week researching recipes. And once I’d picked the menu, I emailed Cooper to let her know that, prior to our Golden Globes viewing, we would be celebrating Meyer Lemon Day. And there was much rejoicing.
It turned into one of those perfect Sunday afternoons, Kaki; chatting and cooking new things and sipping wine and laughing at adorable baby antics and enjoying some red carpet gowns. Plus the Meyers lent the whole afternoon such a bright note of, “Spring is on the way!” Here’s to Meyer Lemon Day!
Meyer Lemon Day 2014 Menu
Flatbread with Meyer Lemon, Goat Cheese, Rosemary, and Olives
I’ll be sharing the individual recipes over the next week. Stay tuned!
And thanks again, Bridget, for giving me these lovely lemons!
–Caitlin
*And if I have trouble finding them, we know your grocery store chances are rather unfortunate. Then again, plenty of citrus is grown in South Texas; maybe that goes in your favor?
P.S. Matt got Cooper this ridiculously great camera for Christmas. We all three took turns playing around with it to take these photos! Thanks for lending me the great equipment, and your photog skillz, you two. 🙂
Kaki! So lovely to see you and Andrew and the pups this week. I wore my new scarf today, and it’s wonderful, the infinity-ness of it, the weight of it, the colors… Thank you! I wanted to share this fun … Continue reading
Kaki, wow, November. November happened. And now it’s almost over! It’s almost the holidays already! Needless to say I am not fully prepared for this. We’re going up to my aunt and uncle’s place in Dallas for the big Turkey … Continue reading
Kaki!
It’s been so long since I’ve seen you! Too long. When can we remedy this.*
I visited my long time friend Stephanie in upstate New York a few weekends ago, as she was someone else it had been much too long since I’d seen in person. I got to spend time with her and her husband and their son Baylor, who is four months old and freakin’ adorable. He smiles all the time, it is incredibly cute. Plus it was great to see him while he was still just a little guy!
We spent one evening while I was there at a friend’s game night, to which I naturally brought some cookie dough.** We may have killed it at Cards Against Humanity that night, but the cookies, the cookies killed it at tasting awesome. These, Kaki, are the fall-flavor cookies I’ve been searching for!
Now the, upsides: you can totally taste the rum flavor in these babies, which I really liked. They also have just the right amount of chewiness. And they don’t use that much rum so you can bring the remainder with some Dr. Pepper to said party and boom, you brought dessert and drinks. And the greatest guest award goes to…
There were a few slight downsides, though. The dough is soft, really soft, and super sticky; I found it difficult to work with. But once you’ve dolloped them on the cookie sheet in little blobs they do flatten out all on their own in the oven. Also, we had leftovers for a few days and they got a little tougher each day. I’d say they have about three days of shelf life in them, which is shorter than I’d prefer for baked goods. Do you have any good baking ingredient tips that extend shelf life? Or would you store a cookie like this in the fridge, maybe? I don’t typically do that, but maybe that’s what I needed to do.
Molasses Rum Cookies
adapted from TheKitchn
makes, um, a medium amount? We didn’t count. The original recipe says 18 cookies, which seems about right.
Ingredients
Pre-heat oven to 375*F. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray or line with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Add the ginger, clove, allspice, and salt, and stir to combine. Add the baking soda and flour and stir again. Add the molasses and rum and stir until the dough just comes together; it will be very sticky, not dry at all.
Dollop large spoonfuls on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes. (The original recipe notes the tops of the cookies will be all one color, without any light areas in the middle or dark areas on the edges. I’m not sure I saw that distinct of a color change, but maybe you will.) Remove from the oven and let the cookies finish baking on the hot cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Store in an airtight container for about three days.
I can’t wait to make these again, Kaki! Maybe next time I see you we can make them together? And drink apple cider?
–Caitlin
*No question mark. That’s a statement.
**We totally didn’t run out of time to bake them before we arrived and that’s why we brought the dough, no way.
P.S. We also visited this great apple orchard while I was up visiting Steph. It was called Bowman Orchard, and we picked apples and ate apple cider doughnuts and I proved my corn maze navigation prowess. It was a beautiful afternoon.
Also, they had a pirate ship:
And here is a grainy phone camera distance shot of the horses and fall foliage that were just too picturesque not to attempt to capture:
And here is a close up of their adorable spotted pig:
Kaki!
Fall. Is. Happening.
Acorn squash! Soup! Gingerbread!
So it still gets up to 85-degrees here, so what? It’s a new season of tasty things I haven’t eaten in a year and I am all about it. Here’s what I’ve been making these days:
Girl, have you made mac-n-cheese from scratch? It’s way easier than I thought it would be. It’s a white roux, plus milk, plus cheese. Then you add some mustard and some other flavors. Add noodles. That’s it.
Except of course I took it about four steps further, because I cannot leave anything alone. I added 8 ounces of frozen (thawed and squeezed dry) spinach to the sauce, which is something I will definitely repeat. I roasted acorn squash to serve as an edible bowl, which was tasty, though the texture between the roasted squash and the noodles was a little too similar. I mixed Parmesan and panko breadcrumbs together and added them in the last 10 minutes of baking to the top of the whole mess. That was a good choice their crunch added much needed texture to the dish.
Best part, though? I made this at Cooper’s, and at the last minute we added some of this garlic-y bread dipping seasoning she had in her pantry (not that exact brand, but similar). It made it, just amped up the flavor tenfold.
I’d never had split-pea soup before, Kaki. But Elissa Altman mentioned it in her memoir as a really tasty and yet, er, cost-effective recipe, so obviously I had to try it. I’m really glad I did, this soup is tasty. But a couple of notes: this soup is mostly about the ham. Great flavor, but it’d be hard to de-meat this particular recipe. Also, it was really not that tasty just after I finished making it, but the next day it was way, way tastier. I’m used to soups tasting better after a day or so, but this was a drastic improvement.
Tasty. Really tasty. The dough had a ton of molasses flavor, almost too much, but it mellowed a lot after baking. Even so, these were just shy of what I was looking for. I’m going to try this Drunken Molasses Ginger Cookie recipe next and see if it has that elusive, “This is it!” quality I’m looking for.
What have you been making lately, my dear? Do tell. 🙂
Happy Monday,
Caitlin
Dear Kaki, We’ve been blogging for a year! Woo-hoo!! Which means your post about homemade tortillas was a year ago. A year ago! And that means our epic trip out to LA was two years ago! Madness. So I made … Continue reading