Sunday Cookies

Toll House Chocolate Chip!

Triple Coconut Cookies (Good to the Grain)

Feeling decidedly under the weather but Peter leaves for three weeks of your tomorrow and no amount of stuffiness is going to stand between me and sending him off well provided for.

Apple Picking and Jammers

These are a few shots from last weekend...fall is really heading to Portland in all its rainy, cozy glory. The Jammers up top are a new recipe from the Grand Central Bakery cookbook and they were really, really good...light and flaky and salty-sweet. I'll try to post the recipe soon. 

Pumpkin Spice Buns

Made Smitten Kitchen's pumpkin buns last night...didn't rise quite as much as they should, but they taste so good I don't think anyone minded too much. 

Summertime!

So I'm glad that I gave you the heads up back in April (was it April?!?) when I last posted that I'd be on a bit of a hiatus while all these major life changes happened. Since then I've finished my thesis, finished my job, finished my two internships, packed up my stuff in my parents' wee little Mazda, collected my boyfriend from the airport and drove my worldly goods halfway across the United States. So you may be able to understand if I've been a little AWOL. My next posts should be more along the lines of the recipe-per-post sort of thing but this one is going to be a bit more like a pictorial diary of what's happened between April and now.

THE ROADTRIP
 (in no particularly coherent order):

A visit to Taos pueblo. I haven't been back for so long; it's always really strange to sort of half-remember a place and to remember where certain streets or shops are but not the overall layout. It was a beautiful morning stop between Santa Fe and Laramie. 

Almond Date Breakfast Bars

Breakfast bars are a wonderful thing, especially when they hit that perfect spot between sweet, nutty, chewy and wholesome. There's nothing much better when you're in need of a quick snack but the clock's a tickin' and the door is beckoning.

Marie-Hélène's Apple Cake

I went home last week and, as usual, it a typical bacchanalia of food, food and more food. My mother wanted a "culinary journey" through different cuisines. So we had Thai shrimp curry, Chinese stir-fry, Italian night (pasta with prosciutto, clams in white wine), French night (chicken with a tarragon pan sauce), steak with pesto, Indian night (lamb rogan josh, shrimp curry, spicy potatoes and spinach). It was all amazing. But this apple cake was undoubtedly one of the major stars of a really great week of cooking and trying new recipes.

Rice Noodles with Chicken and Fish Sauce

If you want a lovely, lively weeknight pasta dish with great flavor and colorful representation from all the best food groups, check this recipe out. Crunchy radishes, tender poached chicken and a deliciously funky, spicy fish sauce concoction. As you know, if I hear the words "fish sauce," I come running.