Adventures in cooking and baking.
Plov is a meaty rice dish that is considered the national dish of Uzbekistan. It is typically made with rice, onions, garlic, carrots, and either lamb or beef.
As is the tradition, this pilaf dish is made in layers, beginning with the meat, the onions, the carrots, and finally the rice. I made this Uzbek rice with beef, but lamb would be delicious too. It's sometimes made in large quantities for gatherings. If you are curious, there is a photo on Wikipedia of a huge vat of Plov being prepared.
This Mini Chocolate Almond Babka is made with an enriched brioche dough and is filled with swirls of chocolate and almonds.
This little babka is made with just one cup of flour and baked in a mini loaf pan. I love it because enriched doughs, especially ones with butter, tend to not last as long as leaner doughs (ones with just flour, water, salt, and yeast). There are just two of us, and only so much room in our freezer. Making a mini version of a babka is great solution.
These werewolf sliders are a fun to make Halloween treat. You can make them to serve at a party or prepare the ingredients for your guests to get creative and make their own.
I had fun making these a few years ago with my grandkids but never posted them! Now that Halloween is approaching, it's the perfect time to share.
This giant Nutella Pop Tart is a fun take on the classic breakast pastry. It's definitely too big for a toaster but it is just right for dessert.
This big Nutella Pop Tart starts with a pie dough and then is filled with a generous amount of Nutella. Once it's done baking in the oven, it's topped with a chocolate glaze with sprinkles, making it super tasty and fun. Who doesn't love fun desserts?
These slice and bake iced lime cookies begin with a shortbread-style dough, but they are flavored with fresh lime zest, lime juice, and even lime oil, to bring out the sweet citrusy flavor.
These lime cookies are rolled in sparkling sugar, baked, and then dunked in a lime flavored glaze. Finally, they are finished with more lime zest.
This Parmesan and Thyme Honeynut squash is cooked until it's tender and then it is tossed with Parmesan cheese and roasted until it's crispy.
Once you have prepped the honeynut squash, this side dish takes just 25 minutes to cook, and the resulting side dish will make you very happy with it's sweet and savory flavor. Yep, this squash dish is both sweet/savory and tender/crisp.
This tomatillo salad is bright flavored and refreshing. It's made with a combination of fresh tomatillos and butterhead lettuce and dressed with a creamy tomatillo ranch-style dressing.
Fresh tomatillos are not actually tomatoes despite their appearance and their name. They come in a loose husk, and the skin is slightly sticky. They are actually related to gooseberries (aka golden berries). Typically they are cooked and used to make stews such as pozole verde, enchilada sauce, and chile verde, as well as salsa verde.
