Italian Cookies

I bought a roll of almond paste and later realized I couldn't just eat it plain (i guess I should say I shouldn't eat it plain because I certainly could). I found a recipe for Italian Cookies that looked delicious. It was fun making and dying the layers, and it tasted great. I decided I didn't want to use shortening in the frosting layer...big mistake. It turns out the butter just doesn't do volume like shortening does. It still tasted good but it could have been prettier. Freshly made they were great! Every day you could taste them getting not as great (still delicious though). The problem was the apricot jelly between the layers absorbed into the cake layers. Not the worst, but if you try this I recommend serving it immediately. I'll certainly try this again though!

The start of a new project!

I found a pattern for a new blanket. I'm not sure yet how big i'll make it, but the first piece came out pretty well. Look out for updates on this one :)

Crochet

Remember back in august when the hurricane "hit" I taught myself how to crochet? Well I figured I'd try out making a bigger thing, like a throw for the couch. I found a cute zig zag pattern and gave it a shot! I dont love the colors I picked, and I also picked not the softest yarn since i'm a beginner, so its not the greatest blanket, but i'm done and the pattern looks awesome.

Rosti and Museli

One of my favorite childhood breakfasts is a swiss dish of Rosti and Museli. I don't get it very often, but whenever my dad goes to switzerland he brings back a pack of Rosti for me. I decided to make it this weekend since its almost like latkes so it would be a good pre channukah breakfast. I had forgotten how gross it looks right out of the package.

but after cooking it and next to the bowl of Museli it looked (and was) delicious!

New Foods

I'm a sucker for buying new products that I see whether it be a fruit I've never seen or a new flavor of gum. This week at Trader Joe's and then Whole foods I found 3 new things that I had to buy.

First at trader Joe's I saw pea shoots! I love pea shoots at restaurants but I've never seen them before at the stores, and trust me I've been looking.

I've enjoyed using these by throwing them into stirfry and eating them with my potstickers. Its nowhere near as delicious as the ones in restaurants though, but I suspect those are a slightly different variety.


Next at whole foods I found Keffir Limes. I've never even heard of these, but how could I not buy one to try. I haven't tried it yet though b/c when I went to look up the recipe it turns out what most people eat are the leaves, but they weren't selling those. The internet went on to teach me that the zest of the lime is good in Thai cooking so maybe I'll try that. The part that I thought I'd be eating, the citrus center, is evidently not good for eating but is good for washing your hair because its so strong. Maybe I'll give that a try.


Lastly at whole foods I found an apple variety I've never seen before. I cant remember what its called but the blurb on the sign said its from Japan, perfected in Italy, and made exclusively for whole foods.....wait what??? how can a fruit be made exclusively for a store! This seems pretty wrong to me. I did buy one to try out of curiosity, and it wasn't bad but it tasted as fake as it sounds. I don't think that was just in my head, it had this weird almost perfumy sweetness to it.

Flax Crackers Take 1

My dad has been making Flax crackers and working on perfecting the recipe. His are delicious. I though i'd give it a try....it turns out they are harder to make than it looks! For starters I let mine sit for 2 hours in the fridge in the water, but it turns out you need to let it sit at room temperature. Second for flavoring I only added (low sodium) soy sauce which made them turn out far too salty. Third I cant seem to figure out when to take them out of the oven so that they are perfectly crispy without being burnt. I tried a second batch with soy vay instead of soy sauce, and i'm not sure why but its terrible. Maybe third time's the charm...we'll see!

Butternut Squash Soup

This weekend I decided to try out my new immersion blender, and what better to try it on than Butternut Squash Soup now that the temperatures are dropping and all the fall and winter foods are starting to appear in the grocery stores. we used this recipe, which in my opinion is miss titled. Its called Butternut squash shallot soup, but you could barely tell there were shallots in there, and really taste the ginger. Peter suggested putting a few crumbles of goat cheese on top next time which maybe we will try. It was very delicious.