if you'd told me a year ago that my favorite colors would become pink and yellow, i would've laughed hysterically. my wardrobe consisted of blacks, grays, dark greens, and the very occasional light blue. my bedroom was literally 50 shades of gray. but something changed, and now i can't get enough of bright colors. it's [...]
SPRING BREAK = free time = nonstop cooking! i made these sliders in the midst of a cooking frenzy, somewhere in between baking a five-layer apple cake and a kosher-for-passover chocolate roll. the desserts are a bit seasonally inappropriate — the apple cake has a thanksgiving vibe, and the chocolate roll looks like it belongs in a christmas dinner [...]
one of my favorite breakfasts is warm banana bread smothered in cream cheese. it's simple, but the flavors pair unbelievably well together. this dessert elevates that breakfast to a new level: it combines cream cheese, bananas, and spices into a rich filling that gets baked inside a buttery nilla wafer crust. the cheesecake is then topped with bananas foster — [...]
since i was born on the last day of january, i won't get to experience my golden birthday until i turn 31. that'll be in more than a decade! because i have to wait so long, i've been living vicariously through other people's golden birthdays for as long as i remember. people usually either forget [...]
the last time i made ice cream was in my seventh grade science class. we put milk and sugar in a ziploc bag, stuffed that bag into another bag filled with ice and salt, and shook it until our hands felt like they were gonna freeze off. the experiment illustrated how sodium chloride lowers water's freezing point, [...]
i wish we had tea in the u.s. i'm not talking about a cup of chamomile, i'm talking about afternoon tea. with crumpets and scones and cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. our fast-paced culture lends itself to an on-the-go espresso much better than it does to a sit-down afternoon meal, but i think it's something we should start doing. a [...]
isn't that cheese beautiful? i love the mottled green coloring. i think it looks like marbled granite. the cheese, sage derby, is semi-hard and has a mild sage flavor. it adds creaminess and depth to the dish. i created this at my friend margot's house. we were too lazy to go out and buy proper [...]
i tried making cured egg yolks a few weeks ago. it's a lengthy process; the yolks have to sit submerged in salt and sugar for four days, then once they're firm and weird-smelling, they get rinsed off and baked for 2 hours. the end result has the appearance and texture of a dried apricot. they [...]
a few years ago, everyone became obsessed with red velvet cake. ben & jerry's came out with a red velvet ice cream, oreos released red velvet cookies, and pop tarts invented a red velvet toaster pastry. in recent months, the red velvet craze has died down and been replaced by a new flavor: birthday cake. birthday [...]
while stuck in the sweltering reality of durham's 98 degree heat, i've found myself entertaining reveries of winter days spent in minnesota - what i would give to be taking a long walk through freshly fallen snow, or climbing up the first few icy rungs of a grain silo's ladder! i've built a little fantasy farm with gingerbread [...]
LENA'S LUNCHBOX 