Did you miss me? Did you notice I was gone? It has been two weeks since I posted anything on my blog, the first missed entries in a year and a half. I wish I could say it was on purpose. I wish I had gone on a fabulous vacation and left the cares of the world behind me. But I did not. Instead, the roaring winds of Hurricane Dorian turned its sights on North Carolina, the beach on which my family has a much-loved home, and on Wilmington, the coastal city where my youngest daughter, Abby, was to get married that same week. I arrived in Sunset Beach a week before the wedding with every ...
Breads and Pastries
Tomato Tarts: Summer on a Plate
This has been a wonderful summer. And now it is the middle of August. The mornings are getting cooler and the sun rises later. In the evening the light has a golden tinge which signals the coming Autumn. An even surer sign of summer's end is the sound of children waiting for the school bus. Their laughter is such a pleasant sound to wake to although I am sure they would rather not be headed back! My tomato plants are sagging under the weight of ripening red orbs and I have eaten tomato sandwiches for lunch and dinner with an undiminished joy. But, as the summer harvest continues, even ...
Spiced Tomato Bread
My crazy summer continues. I have been doing a LOT of traveling and really enjoying myself as I explore new cities and places, and their food. I realized that while I have traveled around a lot of the world, it has been a long time since I visited many of the cities in the United States. So it has been a treat for me to do some travelling in the United States. You can follow my travels on Instagram @awomancooks and on this blog in The Adventures of an Asheville Cook. This week I returned from Cincinnati (Graeter's Ice Cream and Montgomery Inn BBQ Ribs) to find a massive number of lovely ...
ALASKA: MOUNTAINS, SEA, ICE AND PASTRY???
I went to Alaska on a culinary tour with Access Culinary knowing I was going to see some beautiful scenery, eat some great food, meet some great chefs and learn some new things but I was not prepared for Laura Cole and her pastry. Laura is the owner and chef of 229 Parks Restaurant and Tavern, just inside Denali National Park in Alaska. It is considered to be the finest restaurant in the state. You may know her better from Season 15 of Bravo’s series, Top Chef . It was day one of our tour and we left Fairbanks early for the two hour drive to Denali and our cooking class ...
LEMON RASPBERRY QUICK BREAD, INSPIRED!
Even though lemons are primarily a winter fruit, we seem to pair them a lot with the dishes of Spring. I think it may be because their sunny color and fresh, clean, tang reminds us of the return of sun, the growing season and a new start. But too often I find that the promised flavor is missing in the finished dish, especially in quick breads (aka Tea Bread) and muffins. Then I found this. And I made a Lemon Raspberry Quick Bread that tastes of raspberries AND lemon! Some people window shop clothing stores, I browse supermarkets. I love checking out new products and trends. There is ...
SAVORY SCONES PROVENCAL STYLE
In which scones are given a make-over with roasted sweet peppers, sundried tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and thyme: flavors reminiscent of Southern France. In fact, this recipe is more of an American biscuit recipe than a traditional British Scone recipe (pronounced sc-on, to rhyme with gone). If you want to find out why, here is a good article from Food 52 . Scone or biscuit, this is delicious and a great substitute for cornbread, rolls or bread in any meal. One of the great things about cooking is that techniques overlap. You learn something in order to make one dish and use the same ...
LET’S GET ROUGH! (ROUGH PUFF PASTRY)
If there is a theme to my blog, or a driving force behind my cooking, it is this: Does it taste better if you make it from scratch and, if so, is the time invested in making it worth the difference? For example: butter can be made at home but it’s not going to be appreciably different from a good quality store-bought butter. Homemade bread, on the other hand, gives a pleasure measurably greater than that derived from commercial bread. However, if you live near a good bakery, where they bake the bread onsite, the pleasure gained from one of their loaves may be as great or better than the ...
EASTER BRUNCH: EASY DANISH PASTRIES
Yes, you read that right. Today we are making Danish Pastries. And it’s NOT hard. I've been looking at the blogs and magazines for April and they are all about Easter Cakes and sweets. That's all well and good but in our house Easter Brunch is what counts and for brunch you need pastries. If you have been following my blog, you know I have been working on making rough puff pastry. “Rough Puff”, as it is known, is a simplified process for making puff pastry. It’s pretty easy but it does take some time to make as it includes multiple rests in the refrigerator for the ...
BETWEEN WINTER AND SPRING: GINGER AND PINK GRAPEFRUIT TEA BREAD
It’s that time of year when winter teases us with warm and sunny days when we can sit outside in the sun and think of working in our gardens. And then the cold air blasts back in and once again the skies are grey. Why does it always seem so much colder? I, for one, am done with hearty winter foods. I crave green salads and bright flavors. I think of citrus fruits with their acid bite and vibrant colors. Pink grapefruit is one of my favorites. I eat them like oranges, peeled and in slices. I eat them all winter long from December to March and then I put them aside in favor of the fruits ...
January Reflections: Cereal Muffins
January. It's a hard-to-sell month. For most of us the weather sucks and we are cold and dreary and longing for hearty, stick-to-the-bone, comfort food just at the time we are trying to regain our balance after the excesses of December. Friends don't want to meet for a drink because it's "Dryanuary" and our cupboards are full of left over cookies and candy which we attempt to ignore (or failing that, eat them). But there is also a lot to be said for the first month of the year. With little else to do, I organize my shelves and try to make a little order out of the chaos. This year my ...
