Pepping Up the After-School Snack
Snack: crackers, hummus, baby carrots, tomatoes, mango
With lunchbox packing having become a chore and a bore (the boys, now 11 and 12, want something simple they can despatch quickly before returning to their busy social lives), my attention has turned to the hitherto overlooked after-school snack.
Homemade Jaffa Cakes (for the 11 year old’s Birthday)
It can be a pain in one’s well-padded tuchus if one loves British sweets, chocolate and biscuits, but doesn’t currently live in the UK or its ex-territories. Yup, the former colonies got the short end of the chocolate finger here, for those Brits came, they conquered, they built the train lines, they took the jewels, the Jaffa cake and the curry, and left those behind with royally sweet teeth. (more…)
My Grandmother’s Keralan Fish Cakes
I don’t often post the recipes of my maternal grandmother, being as they are, gold. Gold because she is the biggest influence in my life and in the kitchen, and because she was the best cook ever.
Oatmeal and Pumpkin Waffles (with Almond Whip and Fresh Pear)
The best way to get your kids up for breakfast on a Sunday is to have a routine of pancakes or waffles going! If they haven’t already jumped into your bed demanding one of the above (and this applies only to tweenage and older kids)(because the younger ones would have been up and jumping on your head from the crack of dawn), the delicious aromas wafting up into their bedrooms will rouse them pronto.
Cupcake and Cake Gallery III
A slideshow of my cakes and cupcakes. Enjoy!
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 63,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
For Hanukkah, Leek and Scallion Latkes with Chinese Five Spices
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- My new Asian-inspired latke
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- Chinese leek and scallions (aka spring onions or green onions)
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- Scallions and leek, sauteed
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- Grated spud, meet sauteed leek
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- Done!
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- Just scrummy
For the longest time (okay, the past 15 years), I have made the family’s favorite cilantro-ginger-chili latkes – a Diva original – for Hanukkah and also come up with a new one each year.
This year, I take inspiration from the Chinese.
(Photo-viewing tip: To see close-ups, click on the pic, and scroll right or left with arrows)
Stuffed Focaccia
Here’s an easy focaccia you can mostly knead in your food mixer (with a dough hook). I like to fill it with herbs and cheese or vegetables and cheese to make half of a meal with soup or salad. (more…)
Ginger Snaps
This is the third recipe with ginger in recent weeks, after honey cake and burgers. Even panic shopping involved the fragrant rhizome – it was preceded by my having to get rid of my precious wodge of frozen ginger. (more…)
Panic Shopping 101 for a Storm
As the U.S. Northeast gets used to a new normal (of being slammed by several massive storms in a row), it’s good to have an action plan as one heads to the grocery stores for the mandatory panic shopping.
