Clafoutis is a traditional French dessert, basically baked custard with fresh fruit. This version features summery nectarines. Recipe below.
IL éTAIT UNE FOIS, I would make clafoutis for dessert all the time. It was my effortless fallback, quick, simple, fresh and, of course, delicious. Continue reading “Summer fruit meets a classic French dessert: Nectarine Clafoutis”
Rye flour adds a nice nuttiness to these luscious chocolate cookies. The small batch recipe helps avoid overindulging. Recipe below.
I AM GIVEN TO RANTING ABOUT HOW I DISLIKE BAKING COOKIES. So much fussing, so much stickiness, so many sheets and sheets of blobs of dough and so much anxious peering into hot, hot ovens—by the time everything is done and cooling on masses of racks, I am beyond done. I don’t even want to eat them. Continue reading “Deliciousness served in small batches: Double Chocolate Rye Cookies”
With Passover here, matzoh is in your supermarket. Here are two delightful, unexpected ways to enjoy it.
ALONG WITH SHOWERS AND FLOWERS, SPRING BRINGS HOLIDAY EXCUSES TO EAT WELL. Ramadan, which we covered last week with Middle Eastern Labneh Sandwiches, Easter with its various food traditions, and our personal favorite, Passover. With our family scattered, we don’t always manage the full holiday dinner, but we do indulge in a pair of treats made with matzoh. Continue reading “Matzoh Brei for breakfast, Matzoh Crack for dessert”
Homemade apple butter makes pumpkin pie creamier and subtly sweeter. Recipe below.
WHEN TERRY MADE CHRIS SCOTT’S LOVELY JOHNNYCAKES AND APPLE BUTTER a couple weeks back, the apple butter recipe was small compared to most, but it was still a lot of apple butter for a two-person household. We heroically slathered it on waffles and toast and pork sandwiches, but there was still some left. That was when I stumbled across this recipe for apple butter pumpkin pie. Continue reading “Two traditional favorites create one delicious dessert: Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie”
A couple of our favorite recipes turn into an informal Sunday dinner when family drops in.
IF BLUE KITCHEN WERE A PRINTED COOKBOOK, some pages would be more dogeared and food-speckled than others. Often, Marion or I will be in the kitchen, a laptop open to a recipe on the blog as we cook. Last Sunday, we were both in the kitchen armed with laptops. We were cooking two of our favorite recipes. Continue reading “Sunday in the kitchen with family”
This lemony bright, nicely substantial cake is infused with rosemary syrup for a subtle herbal sweetness. Recipe below.
A FEW MONTHS BACK, OUR EXCELLENT FRIEND LIZ, the person who encouraged us to create the feature we call Liz’s Crockery Corner, moved away. She and her family now live on one of our favorite places on earth, Whidbey Island in Washington state. Sweet, huh? But we really miss her. The other day, thinking of Liz and her family’s new world, I was poking around in The Hedgebrook Cookbook: Celebrating Radical Hospitality, the lovely book of recipes from the Hedgebrook writing retreat on Whidbey, and came across a recipe for Lemon Polenta Cake with rosemary syrup. Continue reading “Friends and subtle sweetness: Lemon Cornmeal Blueberry Cake”
Baking a banana bread in a bundt pan cuts down on the baking time and makes it more show-offy. Recipe below.
ONE EVENING OVER THE HOLIDAYS, on a night when we were rich in guests and enjoying ourselves immensely, I was looking for a way to add something extra to our evening and ended up knocking together a Vaquero cocktail for us all—it was a nice, bright, peppery change and big fun to think about, and make, and drink. Continue reading “Banana bread made faster, fancier: Pineapple Banana Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze”
COOKIES—AND BROWNIES—MAY BE THE PERFECT HOLIDAY TREATS TO BAKE. You can make them ahead in batches, ready to serve to guests or take to a party, scaling the amount up or down as needed. With a cake or a pie, once you’ve cut into it, you can only offer it to family or really good friends afterward without looking, well, overly thrifty. Here are seven recipes for you to bake and share. Or keep for yourself, no judging here. Continue reading “Seven cookie (okay, and brownie) recipes for the holidays”
Blackberries and lime juice and zest offer a nice tangy balance to these buttery, airy scones. Recipe below.
SO SCONES HAVE APPARENTLY BECOME A THING FOR ME. I like making them and we both love eating them, so I find myself looking for different kinds to make. Our daughter Claire and her boyfriend visited over Thanksgiving and—over our apple cheddar scones, appropriately enough—they mentioned some blackberry lime scones they can no longer get (the place has gone out of business, sadly). Let’s just say some synapses fired. Continue reading “Buttery, airy, slightly tart: Blackberry Lime Scones”
Chopped apple provides a sweet foil to the savory cheese and buttermilk in these crisp outside/airy inside scones. Recipe below.
A quick note: with this post, we have now been doing Blue Kitchen for 16 years. We’re as surprised as you are!
THESE SCONES WERE INSPIRED BY AUTUMN AND A READER’S COMMENT. The changing season has filled farmers markets and supermarkets with apples. Falling temperatures have put us in the mood to bake, which for me, often means scones. Which reminded me of a comment by Sherry when we posted lemon lavender scones here last spring. She said she tended to like savory scones, with herbs and cheese. We’d never done savory. Continue reading “Seasonal, savory and sweet: Apple Cheddar Scones”