Monthly Archives: September 2009

Cooking with Amanda: date one

When I first told my friend Amanda I was thinking of starting this blog, she responded with cheerleader-levels of excitement and encouragement, and, quite the cook herself, she asked if she might guest-post from time to time. I told her I was totally envisioning Amanda and Jill’s team-cooking night, and a few weeks ago, Amanda came over and we cooked and ate and drank for about four hours straight. It was divine. Our menu was as follows:

Chopped Caprese Salad
Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Ravioli with Pan-roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Citrus-scented Olive Oil Bundt Cake

Amanda had a bag of plump little sun-dried tomato jewels that she’d bought at a farmer’s market while visiting her family in Ohio, so we used them as a jumping-off point for the rest of the meal. Amanda found the ravioli recipe at 101 Cookbooks, I found the bundt cake recipe in Enlightened Cakes, and I had a wealth of garden-fresh tomatoes for the caprese salad. Read on a for a photo-journey through our cooking night, and then check out the recipes in the separate links below! Continue reading

Chopped Caprese Salad

Part of my team-cooking adventure…
Continue reading

Sun-dried Tomato Pesto Ravioli

Part of my team-cooking adventure…
Continue reading

Citrus-Scented Olive Oil Bundt Cake

Part of my team-cooking adventure…
Source: Enlightened Cakes
Serves: 16

whole cake Continue reading

Cupcake Friday

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Cake from Smitten Kitchen, Icing from Enlightened Cakes
Makes 18 scrumptious cupcakes

cupcakes

So I’m thinking I need to start a Friday cupcake theme on this here blog. I’m sure it would be catchier if I were doing something alliterative, like Fruit-filling Fridays, or Wiener schnitzel Wednesdays, but I think Cupcake Fridays will work. After all, Fridays are fantastic, and cupcakes are equally so. And also, Wiener schnitzel is disgusting and you will never find a recipe for it on this blog at all, let in alone in weekly incarnations.

And, okay, I need to add a disclaimer, because as delightful as I find cupcakes to be, I don’t bake them all that often. So Cupcake Friday will not appear every Friday, but I will do my damndest to have a Cookie Friday then to tide you over. Because cookies are also fantastic, and I make them a lot. Continue reading