tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14129985953107581502024-03-05T11:30:05.967-05:00Food for PoemsFood ... and poetry. Delicious and nutritious.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.comBlogger150125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-20353688491878048572011-03-13T14:24:00.006-04:002011-03-13T14:36:13.548-04:00Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Dried Blueberries
A couple of weeks ago, the fine people at Oh! Nuts contacted me to see if I was interested in trying some of their products gratis if I would discuss my experience on this blog. To which I responded: but of course! I was initially tempted to request hordes of walnuts and pistachios – I keep them in my desk drawer and munch on them whenever I’m snackish at work – but that seemed disingenuous. Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-79417934131638221552011-02-26T16:38:00.002-05:002011-02-26T16:38:50.804-05:00Cheddar Yoghurt BiscuitsSo these are the easiest thing ever. I always thought biscuits were pretty painless – cutting fat into flour has never struck me as an especially onerous chore – but this recipe eliminates even that minor step. There is no butter. Repeat: no butter. Nor is there any lard, shortening, margarine, or other solid fat ingredient. With this recipe, you just whisk together Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-43136595145827079132011-02-06T16:13:00.001-05:002011-02-06T16:16:01.512-05:00Rice Krispies TreatsSo I live in Connecticut which, if you haven’t been paying attention, is ground zero for this season’s snowpocalypse. It wouldn’t be so bad if we had a garage, but since we live in a city, we have street parking only – which means we have to dig the car out after every storm.
My mother, who lives in Florida, has been demanding pictures.
Here’s the street in front of my apartment:
And here’s Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-88578245020486854162011-01-17T18:00:00.004-05:002011-01-24T19:42:56.559-05:00Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies with AlmondsI know I’ve been gone a while, but this recipe should prove adequate peace offering. These tasty treat depicted here not be photogenic, but don’t let that dissuade you. I make a lot of cookies, and I flatter myself that most of them are quite tasty. These, however, are in another category of tasty altogether. I think they might be my favorite drop cookie ever. Yes, ever. This is not a Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-50393792199673316592011-01-08T14:33:00.002-05:002011-01-08T14:37:44.150-05:00HolidaysI've been quite busy lately -- this year's holidays were of the "go forth and travel" rather than "stay home and bake" variety. In lieu of recipes or poetry, I give you ... holiday pictures. The first few were taken by Richard, my Aunt Wanda's significant other, and show my family in Avon Park, Florida. After spending a few days with them, husband and I went down to Key West, upBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-27310900532208586352010-12-19T15:56:00.005-05:002010-12-19T16:13:57.690-05:00T.S. Eliot
T.S. Eliot is quite the polarizing figure. He was kind of a jerk. He badly mistreated his (admittedly difficult) first wife before abandoning her to an insane asylum; worse, along with his friend Ezra Pound, he traded in the basest, most pernicious anti-Semitic stereotypes. One doesn’t have a sense of him as a warmhearted person.
He was also a bit of a priggish Anglophile. Born and raised Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-75291326182668053792010-12-05T12:30:00.002-05:002010-12-05T21:56:04.802-05:00Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
I suppose we’ve just had a food-based holiday; another is rapidly approaching, but I’ve been determinedly absent. This post will not remedy the deficiency of holiday-appropriate recipes, though if you’re inclined to seasonal baking, I would direct you here, here, here, here, or here. Or here. What I’m saying is: we’ve been there, and I’ve been busy.
I did bake two pies for Thanksgiving, so Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-24127384606756719362010-11-14T16:09:00.002-05:002010-11-14T16:24:53.131-05:00Boozy Banana BreadThis is something like the fourth banana bread recipe I’ve posted, which perhaps speaks to a dearth of culinary creativity – but I quite like banana bread. Besides, given how often I over-estimate my weekly consumption of said fruit and end up with brown, cloyingly sweet-smelling bananas rotting atop my countertop, I find it best to have options for how to dispose of them.
For whatever reason, Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-90336345338552891612010-11-07T17:17:00.001-05:002010-11-07T17:17:29.707-05:00Apple CrispSo, apples: this is their season, after all. Apples are on the EWG’s list of highly pesticide-soiled fruits, so I always try to buy them organic. I’m not persuaded that buying organic really make a difference – either to my health or the planet – but my tendency is to err on the side of caution, though there are times I suspect myself a bit of a Whole Foods stooge. At least the stores have a Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-19727438590680101152010-10-31T14:53:00.005-04:002010-10-31T14:56:45.492-04:00Seamus Heaney and James Wright
I'm in the mood for a bit of juxtaposition. Neither Seamus Heaney nor James Wright are among my great favorites, but each has his moments. I do keep telling myself I ought to read Heaney's translation of Beowulf, but I fear my ambitions outpace my diligence.
Both of these poems are "epiphany" poems. I go back and forth over whether I find such poems charming or tiresome. Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-48321878031138423402010-10-23T17:54:00.000-04:002010-10-23T17:54:16.558-04:00Malted Vanilla TartThis is a bit of a lazy recipe. I bought some cream cheese a month or two ago with vague ambitions of making danishes, but danishes only stay fresh for a day or two, and I doubt the capacity of my two-person household to consume an entire batch of danishes. I suppose I could be munificent and send the extras into my husband’s lab (as I often do with cookies), but I’m not sure they’d travel. Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-86960471047206257942010-10-10T14:29:00.001-04:002010-10-10T14:30:50.709-04:00Simple Fudgy BrowniesI didn’t use to be a big brownie-eater, but lately, I’ve been more amenable to the charms of America’s favorite bar cookie. You can make them in one bowl (though you do obtain better texture if you use two); they need not be painstakingly scooped and molded into dollops of dough like regular cookies; they’re easy; and lately, I’ve come to recognize that they’re eminently satisfying.
I’ve Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-52603652193574611972010-10-03T12:49:00.004-04:002010-10-03T12:52:53.216-04:00Thomas LynchI've been feeling fairly chipper and busy, which can only mean that for you, dear readers, it's time for something dark and indolent. One of the things I miss about living down south is the sense of atmosphere. New England has an atmosphere, but it's a spare and etiolated thing, redolent of the pilgrims and puritans and characterized by restraint. There's not much excess here --Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-19353304154277572032010-09-19T13:55:00.001-04:002010-09-19T13:56:06.061-04:00Wild Blueberry Pie
My mother-in-law likes to vacation in Maine every year, and where husband and I live is a convenient near-halfway stopping point between the pine state and her Pennsylvania home. For the return leg of the trip, she has adopted the excellent habit of toting back huge quantities of wild blueberries for us to enjoy.
I am not kidding about the large quantities part: this time, she brought us a Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-82751736731424773302010-09-12T17:27:00.004-04:002010-09-12T20:44:02.558-04:00Apple Crumb PieLike many cooks, I find myself far less drawn to the kitchen during summer months. We don’t have central a/c, and our kitchen is ill-served by the lone wall unit that keeps the living room tolerable on the warmest days. This doesn’t usually bother me, but it does make one give pause before baking something like pie that requires an hour or so of oven time.
Husband’s favorite pie is apple pie.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-1078340192407473442010-09-06T17:53:00.001-04:002010-09-06T18:00:03.763-04:00Alfred, Lord TennysonI'm feeling a touch maudlin and sentimental, and that can only mean one thing: it's time for Tennyson. I have no defense of the following poem except to say that I like it. It possesses the virtues of my current mood (which is to say maudlin, sentimental, excessive, inflated). It practically bleeds pathos. My love for it flies in the face my (admittedly mild) convictions Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-84173655800982776072010-08-29T12:36:00.003-04:002010-08-29T12:38:48.221-04:00Peach CobblerYou needn’t fear that I’d abandoned my hankering for peach cobbler. I’m firmly in the “biscuit crust” cobbler camp. Pate brisee is a fine thing for pie, but that’s my primary use for said pastry. Cobblers demand a hefty biscuit crust, all the better with which to sop up delicious peach (or other fruit) juices.
This recipe is very, very generously adapted from the The America's Test Kitchen Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-82595302100049268392010-08-22T11:43:00.001-04:002010-08-22T11:44:42.927-04:00Lemon Ice CreamAs summer emits its last gasp, I’m trying to make the most of my beloved ice cream maker. New England seems to already have turned the corner from hazy summer to early fall. Those of you in more southerly climes probably can’t imagine how quickly and sharply the seasons turn the corner up here; one can literally go from all shorts and tee shirts to sweaters and fleece in the space of a Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-73154844784611709362010-08-14T15:29:00.002-04:002010-08-14T15:31:02.041-04:00Fresh Fig Tart with Citrus CustardSince the beginning of the summer, I’ve been hoping to lay my hands on some fresh figs. I’m not so keen on them plain, but I love them in baked goods. I had some fig “pizza” – really, something very similar to what’s shown here – when I went to the local farmer’s market with some friends a few of weeks ago, and that only strengthened my resolve to locate these delectable, eminently perishable Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-68850883830627679852010-08-04T18:08:00.003-04:002010-08-04T19:58:28.041-04:00Vanilla Malt Ice Cream with Almond Butter SwirlApparently, we just had the hottest month ever recorded here in Connecticut. Usually, I scoff and pish at those who whine about New England’s meager heat and humidity, but July was excessive even by my standards. I fear this means I’m getting soft. I’ve been up here for over six years now; perhaps it’s impacted my capacity to distinguish oppressive heat from the merely uncomfortable.
Ice Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-77099386722770393602010-07-29T18:24:00.000-04:002010-07-29T18:24:02.674-04:00Richard Wilbur IIClearly, I am not the only one borderline obsessed with True Blood. Its near-pornographic violence and sex make me feel like I need to wash my soul out with soap after each episode. And yet: I am transfixed. The show is an addiction I have no intention of forsaking.
Given that we are amid prime True Blood season, I thought I’d give you a poem about vampires. There really aren’t enough of themBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-21620613205835545322010-07-25T14:57:00.001-04:002010-08-04T18:02:52.298-04:00Almond Joy CookiesThere’s a local ice cream parlor that serves the best Almond Joy ice cream I’ve ever had. Since my husband got me an ice-cream maker for my birthday, I’ve been promising myself I would replicate it at home.
And yet: it hasn’t happened. The stores at which I shop have been curiously lacking in sweetened flake coconut in recent weeks, and for ice cream, I just don’t think unsweetened coconut Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-2842821519958139882010-07-18T16:21:00.002-04:002010-07-18T16:22:48.155-04:00Cheesecake-Filled CupcakesThese were supposed to be Black Bottom Cupcakes, but something funny happened in the heat of my oven. Essentially all of the cream cheese filling I had carefully dolloped in the midst of my cupcakes was overpowered and encased by rising cupcake dough. The cupcakes depicted are actually a minority, the resolute few whose cheesecake filling refused to be wholly submerged in a tide of rising doughBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-78053797725243490632010-07-11T09:00:00.003-04:002010-07-11T09:15:23.118-04:00Olive Oil Yoghurt Cake with Wild Blueberries and LemonDon’t be fooled by the lengthy title. This is a simple dessert that can be ready for the oven about 20 minutes flat. I’ve actually done it in ten, but I don’t want to inspire false confidence for those of you who don’t spend such a great portion of your waking hours in a kitchen.
This is a light, tender-crumbed cake that makes a perfect weeknight dessert. It’s so bright-tasting that I do Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1412998595310758150.post-4362196614235581412010-07-05T11:01:00.003-04:002010-07-05T15:08:50.936-04:00Pizza CrustSo I may not be from the northeast, but one thing that I think they get absolutely right up here is thin-crust pizza. I also love deep-dish Chicago-style pizza. It’s what I think of as Midwestern pizza that really gets to me (though it’s pretty common in Florida and is what you’ll find as the default from any of the national chains): medium-crust pizza. For me, a pizza is all about its Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15505933658153917045noreply@blogger.com7