baby rambutan

One of the reasons I started foodblogging was to store my children’s favorite dishes in a daily journal of some kind, as an aid to remembering which dishes they want to keep on their “permanent rotation”.
Another reason was to get green. Yes! if you look at it that way, storing recipes in an online journal makes for quite a saving in terms of paper storage. I’ve been collecting recipes since i was a child, and being a pack rat, it made for quite a bulging folder of recipes.
there’s an online site that helps you keep track of your favorite recipes, all for free, and with the added bonus of gaining access to other cooks’ recipes.
So if you have a favorite Food Recipe you want to keep “safe” from an accidental spill or from a spouse or partner who might toss out your stuff in a fit of overzealous spring-cleaning (oh yeah, it has happened to me!) then sign up for an account now. it’s quick and easy! and your recipe will look like this…

if, like me, you are a mommy who has spent sometime at a children’s library or at the children’s section of the great Big Bookstores then you’re familiar with DK Publishing. they publish lavishly photographed books–we have one that is now so well-worn, a volume that taught my #1son to tell analog time at a very early age. our other favorites are the world atlas and multi-cultural books for kids.
well now i’ve discovered they’ve got wonderful cookbooks, two of which are now featured in the website:
Spain , and the World Table

i just love cookbooks that are generous with illustrations and photographs. escabeche and tapas dishes abound. a lot of the recipes we are already familiar with, but there are also a lot of new and intriguing dishes (stuffed figs with blue cheese!)
Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas

just in time for barbecue season…today it was 80F in the metropolitan Boston area, and we all quite forgot it is just April. everywhere people seem to have dug out their shorts and bright cotton shirts! if you are into wood-fire-grilled pizzas (who isn’t?!) then this cookbook is just the ticket.

so, would you like to win one of these cookbooks?
yes? then if you can answer this very easy question (easy, if you’ve been a faithful and loyal reader of this horribly sporadic and moody blog): what fruit from the Philippines does my #2son and i crave more than any other fruit we can think of? (hint: it is green and it is sour!)

email me drstel@yahoo.com with your answer and preference for either cookbook and we will raffle it off…deadline for submission is May 15. contest is open to everyone as long as i can afford the postage and packaging!!

good luck!

…i thought we needed a(nother) chocolate high .
from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book


one of the best cakes we’ve had! and we’ve had plenty. you’ll love it too especially if you’re a big fan of chocolate malted milkshakes.

deep, dark, sublime chocolate cake layers engulfed in a chocolate ganache-style frosting, just dripping with malted milk powder and heavy cream and milk chocolate and golden corn syrup and butter… parental guidance suggested.

recipe… (more…)

i am the very lucky recipient of this beautiful little baking book. i feel like i’ve just won a contest!
the Sweet Melissa Patisseries in the New York City borough of Brooklyn has been around for 10 years (i lived in another borough long time before then, and therefore missed out… ) and chef/owner Melissa Murphy, a native New Yorker, specializes in the application of French technique to homey American sweet treats.
and this cookbook illustrates how easy that is!
i can’t wait to try the chestnut honey madeleines…the chocolate malted layer cake…the sour cherry pie with pistachio crumble…
it just makes me want to load up the minivan and take a little field trip to Brooklyn, NY, to sample the goodies from “Sweet Melissa”.
many many thanks to the Penguin Group/Viking Studio for this lovely book.
(you all know the Allman Brothers’ song right? )