For the Love of Food

So, I have had an “exciting” few days. This past weekend I cut my finger while cutting some raw meat. I only ended up needing one stick because the cut was on the top of my finger where it bends.

Luckily, this happened on my left hand because I seem to have cut a nerve…no feeling from the cut up.

Anyways, this has slightly slowed me down in cooking lately and to top it off it has been really really warm. So, my husband had the great idea to make popsicles. Continue Reading »

So, a week ago my husband was asked to take a business trip to Washington, DC (the city of his birth). So, I decided that my son and I would go along since it will be a 10 day long trip and we will be able to visit with family and friends.

The last time I was there was in the summer of 2004. I didn’t have a blog then…or even know what one was for that matter, and we spent so much time touring around town that we never got a chance to try any local food…not that I can remember at least. Well, we did go to the Woodside Deli in Silver Spring, MD – that was great.

So, I am asking for your help. What are some typical local foods in DC? What do I just have to have when I’m there?? Continue Reading »

The other day I was really in the mood to make a blueberry pie. I think I make one every summer.

This time I wanted to try something new and while searching online I came across a cute-looking recipe on Joy of Baking.com.

The pie came out quite delicious, but I was most impressed by the sweet dough which was not overly sweet and had a great thick and crispy consistency that never crumbled.

I did change some things around to fit my liking. First of all, I try to avoid, at all cost, lemon in sweets. Back when I was in 4th grade I got food poisoning from a lemon-flavored birthday cake that was sitting out in the hot sun just a bit too long. Let’s just say that to this day I only enjoy savory/salty lemon-flavored foods and not sweet ones. So, instead, I substituted with milk for the liquid and just left out the lemon peel.

I also went ahead and substituted all sugar with fructose.

I had a great time making the top crust. I find rolling dough so boring, and finally being able to use cookie cutters for something other than cookies just brings a smile to my face!

You can find the recipe here.

My husband found this awesome recipe the other day while online.

It was fabulous, fun, and delicious!

This is a favorite Colombian breakfast of mine – arepas and fried eggs. It’s very simple, flavorful, and filling.

My husband and son think these are delicious. Continue Reading »

So, for this month’s Taste&Create I was paired with Erin from Dinner & Dessert. I was really excited to see all her recipes and I really had a hard time deciding which one I was going to make for the event.

When I saw the snikerdoodles recipe I knew that was the one. My husband hasn’t stopped talking about me needing to bake some for quite a while now.

Oddly enough, the first and only time I have ever eaten a snikerdoodle was when I was about 7 years old. So, this is my second time eating them and first time baking them myself.

To be totally honest, I have never gone out of my way to make snikerdoodles because my first experience was so terribly disappointing. My best friend kept talking about the snicker cookies her mom made..and when there were no Snickers involved…well let’s just say I never ate one again.

But, I like to give everything a second chance, and this was it. Continue Reading »

The other day I realized that we had a bunch of creamy coconut milk to use, and I really had no idea what to do with it. My husband had the brilliant idea of looking for an ice cream recipe, and he ended up finding one on at allrecipes.com by “SUEMB”.

We tweaked it a bit to fit the ingredients that we had on hand and added some malt-sweetened chocolate chips. It was absolutely fabulous! And, I can’t wait to make it again!

Next time I will add a shot or two of vodka to keep it from freezing into a rock-hard state. I thought of adding rum, but the flavor was so perfect the way it was that I didn’t want to change it.

Ok, without further adieu, the great recipe: Continue Reading »

Yesterday I blogged about the making of chocolate chip cookies for 36 hours, and today I want to show you the “studio” behind the pictures.

A while back, I blogged about my “food porn room being in my dining room.

Well, after seeing that my bedroom had better lighting, I rearranged the whole apartment (I’m not kidding…) and moved our bedroom to the former living room, the living room to the former dining room, and the dining room to our former bedroom. This is possible in German homes because of the lack of closets. (I have a picture of the new dining room somewhere, but just can’t seem to find it..)

Anyways, I feel that my photography has improved because of the massive amounts of natural light.

Here’s my setp-up for yesterday’s blogged photos: Continue Reading »

By now many of you may have already read New York Times article about the search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

The jury is still out on where exactly the best cookie can be found, but they seem to believe that when baking the perfect cookie, 36 hours of resting time for the dough are necessary.

So, I figured I’d try things out for myself. I used the Nestle Toll House original chocolate chip cookie recipe and substituted sugar with fructose and brown sugar with pal sugar.  Granted, I am not using brown sugar, so my dough does not change colors as dramatically as theirs, but I can tell you that there was definitely a noticeable difference! Continue Reading »

I am really excited to let you all know that I can eat cornflakes again!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been exactly 1 year 4 months and 6 days since I had been able to eat cornflakes because of their added sugar.

A local drugstore sells plain cornflakes: corn, sea salt, and corn malt are the only ingredients. I am in heaven! And, since it’s the season, I enjoy topping them off with some delicious blueberries (and milk of course).

You will be surprised how much sweeter the more popular cornflakes (with added sugar) are. I can literally smell the difference (since I’m not allowed to taste the difference).

I am just happy as a clam!

For those of you also living in Germany, and looking for the same thing: The product brand is Alnatura, and I buy it at DM, but it can also be found other places. Check out their website here.