BIZZY BAKES

This week is a special week for the ladies of Baking With Dorie .  Many of us have been together for one full year.  We have shared the joys and challenges of baking old and new recipes.  We have bonded and made new friends.  We found success and possibly a little failure.  All of it helped us grow in our baking. Together, we chose Brownie Buttons for the big occasion.  These cute little brownies adorned with frosting are simply adorable.  I had some chocolate ganache left over so I did not make the frosting, Dorie specified.  Hopefully, the other gals made it so you can see what it is like. The more I bake from Baking From My Home to Yours, the more I understand why Dorie is my "go to" baker and her books sits, worn in my kitchen.  I can always find something, I want to make, and I can't say this about some other baking books. Chocolate ganache with Marshmallow Creme Linked to Tasty Tuesdays at Beauty and Bedlam  What's...

This is my first week as a member of Martha Mondays and what are we making?  It is delicious and I love it and that means, we are baking.  We are not only baking but we are baking a coffee cake which is a favorite in our family.  One with a thick topping, fruit filling and delicious cake. It is NY Crumb Cake from March Living .  For my first recipe in the group, I am sure, I did the unthinkable.  I took one look at the amount of butter used in the recipe and cut it in half in the topping and used oil instead of butter.  I also cut a little from the cake.  It used several sticks of butter and for a moment, I though this was Paula Deen. In my most humble opinion, my cake tasted wonderful and we did not miss the fat.  The thick topping was crumbly and I had such fun, picking up those crumbs and eating them. The recipe has an option to add blueberry jam on the cake layer under the crumbs and I did that for half the cake and I used orange marm...

Bon Appetit is a wonderful and stunning blog.  Go take a look and see for yourself.  I found this amazing recipe there and knew it would be a hit, even though, I was missing some of the ingredients.  I was so right.  This is delicious and one tends to crave more after just tasting it. The recipe originally came from our gal, Nigella Lawson who has many amazing dishes for us to enjoy.  This was easy to make and simply the yummiest to eat.    For the original recipe, go to the source and get all the details. Peanut Butter Noodle Salad   adapted from Nigella Lawson Ingredients:  Dressing   2 tablespoons Canola Oil  1 tablespoon Sesame Oil 1 teaspoon garlic flavored rice vinegar 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce 2 teaspoons Tomato Sauce  2 tablespoons Peanut Butter  Salad Add dressing to noodles and cabbage. 12 ounces thin white rice noodles 2  cups shredded cabbage 4 scallions, ...

For many years, I have organized before, I cook and bake, particularly, when I bake.  This may mean that as early, as the night before, I take out my ingredients and line them up, in the order, I plan to use them.   This can be time consuming or a no big deal task but for me, walking over to the counter with everything ready to go, including having the written recipe, sitting there, puts me in a frame of mind for successful cooking. Of course, this takes time but it does diminish the actual recipe time and for me, that is huge.  It means, that I can enter my kitchen and mix my ingredients and put it, in the oven, while I am eating breakfast, getting ready for work or doing the wash.  This is particularly good with baked goods and I end up with a treat, on the spot.  A great way to start the day. I guess this is more division of time than cutting minutes but it works well from the psychological aspect.  When I start to bake, as an example, I am re...

In my attempt to use up food in my storage areas, I goofed and made a recipe that used up nothing but a little spray oil.  Of course, it was delicious and who really cares, when the food is so good. I have been making a different dish for years, noodles and cabbage, sometime sweet and sometimes savory.  This is a favorite of ours and originally, I thought, I would use my cabbage in that dish but I was overcome with a yearning for potatoes so I changed my menu and made this yummy potato, onion and cabbage dish. The shape and consistency of  this dish changed as I worked on it.  What started as the size of my fry pan, ended in Squares. Potatoes and Cabbage Squares  ( adapted) Gourmet  | March 2005 . Ingredients 1 lb russet (baking) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter 1 lb Savoy cabbage, cored and thinly sliced 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Method: Cover potatoes wi...

I, thankfully, don't usually feel under the weather but tonight, I do.  I came home, checked my mail and climbed into my cozy bed.  I had stopped at the store to pick up chicken cutlets for dinner but did not feel like making them. After a while of feeling sorry for myself, I dragged myself ( Am I doing a good job of sounding like I was miserable?  I am but not that miserable .) into the kitchen and stood there looking at the counter.  Not terribly productive, I admit.  Hubby came home, took one look at me and asked what he could do.  Yeah hubby! I left him cutting potatoes while I mixed an easy glaze together, one which was not going to sit with the chicken for 24 hours.  I can imagine how much tastier, this would have been, if it had sat for the time. Asian Glazed Chicken Ingredients: 1/3  cup  rice vinegar 1/4  cup  lower-sodium soy sauce 3...

I am really excited about this post.  This is the first Guest Blogger Recipe for Quick and Easy.  April, the 21st Century Housewife is one of my favorite bloggers.   She has shared her recipes on the linkys on My Sweet and  Savory for quite a while and as a result,  we got to know each other.  She and  I are now working on another  enterprise with a few other bloggers.  You will have to wait and see what we  have up our communal sleeve.  If you have a "quick and easy" recipe, you would like to  share with us, please let me know.  Now, let's see what April brings to the table. " This dish is really quick and easy to make, and you probably  already have most of the ingredients on hand. You can buy  almonds already toasted, but if you can’t find them in your  local store, simply heat some flaked almonds over medium  heat in a non-stick pan and keep them ...

My goal is to cook one recipe a week from my new pasta book, Thirty Minute Pasta by Giuliano Hazan.  Having cooked only two dishes, I am far from an expert on these recipes but one attribute of Hazan's dishes appears to me, little in the butter/oils department.  They are utilized  in small doses.  Most of the recipes, I have looked at, are mostly vegetables and pasta.  He also does not list much in the way of seasoning, except salt.  Everything is fresh including the herbs. There is a lot of chopping which is time consuming but certainly tonight, I did not find it kept me over the thirty minutes.  Tonight's recipe, he gave directions as to what to do when another ingredient is cooking.  When the onions cooked, the peppers were prepared.  When the peppers cooked, the tomatoes were prepared.  It went smoothly. Since, I cook gluten free, my selection of pasta shapes is limited which ruins some of the fun but the bottom line is that the...

   As comfort foods stand, my guess is that mac and cheese are on the top of the list.  One of the best macaroni and cheese recipes, I have had, was one from Paula Deen (I am sure I cut back on the butter.).  She has a mac and cheese with sliced tomatoes on top which was creamy and benefited from the tomato taste. Bittman comes through with flying colors and I topped this with a Nigella Lawson recipe which could only bring it over the top.  The curried tomatoes even beats Paula's sliced tomatoes and we also have peas.  You never knew these vegetables could taste so good until the three of us, Mark, Nigella and Bizzy got cyber together and made this fantastic recipe. Baked Macaroni and Cheese  ( adapted from Mark Bittman ) Makes 4 to 6 servings Time: About 45 minutes Ingredients: Salt 21/2 cups milk (low-fat is fine) 1 pound elbow, shell, ziti, or other cut pasta 3 tablespoons margarine 3 tablespoons rice flour 11/2 cups ...

For those of you, who do not know, about the holiday of Passover, I want to explain why I am starting to use every single bit of food, in the house, from today on.  For Orthodox Jews, Passover is a complete change of eating styles although eating tons of veggies make it less so. We do not eat any food from the five grains, wheat, barley, spelt, oats, and rye.   We also do not eat rice and beans unless one is Sefardic .  I think you can imagine how limiting this is.  No corn either.... I am happy, I love potatoes because we eat grandiose portions of potatoes and eggs and some eat meat to the same degree.  We may not own the food besides not eating it.  As a result, we clear everything out of the house the days, weeks and months before.  I am starting the process now and as I go around and see a particular foodstuff, I mentally add it to the list of ingredients for recipes, in the next month or two.  Passover starts around April 20 th .  My...