September 8, 2010 by Jen W.
Have you ever experienced Late Night? Years ago, this was a term for when college dining halls reopened in the late evening hours. But for me, Late Night also meant that I could finally eat as late as I wanted for the first time ever. And that made it an exciting, memorable event.
So yesterday I was excited to learn that my essay on Late Night Eating had been posted on Smithsonian magazine’s Food & Think blog as part of their Inviting Writing series. (Inviting Writing was one of 5 Opportunities for Food Writers that I mentioned last week.) If you remember Late Night, take a look and reminisce with me, then check out Food & Think’s links for more fun food essays on college food.
Posted in Writing | Tagged college food, food & think blog, late night, smithsonian magazine | 3 Comments »
September 6, 2010 by Jen W.
Three Chocolate Bark with Spiced Nuts and Dried Cherries
Candy was a big part of my youth, and a feature in two of my favorite books. The first was actually a series, The Baby-sitters Club. I was a big fan of the character, Claudia, a sugar fiend who hid candy bars around her bedroom.
The other was a book from the 1981 Time Life Series, The Good Cook, called Candy. Here’s a picture of the scrumptious cover:
I spent way too much time obsessively flipping through the first half of this book, which is filled with pictures of the candy-making process: soft chocolate paste piped into a foil cup, white fondant balls dipped in shiny pink icing, long coils of red and white taffy stretched into long strands. At the time, these lovely photos must have been enough for me because I never actually made any candy.
Then last week, I found this book at my parents’ house, and immediately got excited about all the candies I could make. Peanut butter cups! Nougat! Triple Layer Chocolate Sandwiches!
But as I read through some of the recipes, I realized many require the ultimate in temperature precision, i.e. a thermometer. I don’t have one, so making these complicated candies will have to wait. (Stay tuned though. I’m determined to make nougat soon.)
Instead, I made chocolate bark.
Continue Reading “The Simplest Candy Bar”
Posted in Ingredients, Recipes | Tagged emeril lagasse, candy, chocolate bark, spiced nuts, chocolate candy bars | 5 Comments »
August 25, 2010 by Jen W.
Sometimes I stumble onto a dish that is so amazingly good that I wake up thinking about it the next day. This risotto is one of those dishes, and the only reason I found the recipe is because I wanted to cook with squash blossoms.
I was at my uncle’s farm a few days ago, walking to my car with a green basket full of eggplant, squash, tomatoes, and corn. Then, just before I left the field, I noticed the orange and green blossoms on the zucchini plants.
When I was a teenager working on the farm, I hated these blossoms. After cleaning the zucchini in a big blue tub filled with water, the leftover blossoms always seemed to get these brown, slimy edges. When I would reach in the water for more zucchini, they would cling to my hand like seaweed.
But now that I know the blossoms are edible, I decided to pick a few just for fun. “How do I eat these?” I asked as I plucked a blossom from the vine.
“You’re the one that wants to eat the blossoms,” my uncle said. “I eat the squash.”
Humph. Well, I knew I could cook something with them. So I gently laid the blossoms in the green basket.
Continue Reading “Yellow Tomato, Summer Squash, and Squash Blossom Risotto”
Posted in Ingredients, Recipes | Tagged how to make vegetable stock, risotto, squash blossom, squash blossoms, recipes squash, yellow tomatoes, deborah madison | 7 Comments »
August 20, 2010 by Jen W.
Vosges Haut Chocolate's Black Pearl Bar with wasabi, ginger, black sesame seeds, and dark chocolate
It’s been a couple of weeks since I made a chocolate dessert – Mexican chocolate ice cream was the last one - and I feel that I’m not living up to the My Morning Chocolate name. So today, I want to talk about chocolate. But first, some housekeeping.
You may notice that the home page has a slightly different look. ”We” (as in me and Kenny – I need to start giving him credit for the all the work he does with MMC’s pictures!) have a new tagline, a new Facebook page, and pretty, shiny icons for both Facebook and Twitter pages. Please do “Like” or “Follow Us” to get links to our newest blog posts and our favorite food articles, and to join the discussion about everything edible and delicious. Thanks so much!
And in the coming weeks, look for a new ”About” page and possibly a newsletter with new content not available on the blog.
Now let’s talk about chocolate!
Continue Reading “What Chocolate Treats Do You Crave?”
Posted in Fun Food Bites | 14 Comments »
August 16, 2010 by Jen W.
Ever since my family has discovered the food company Tastefully Simple, I’ve eaten a lot of beer bread made with their mix. But even though this bread has a nice texture – a cross between cake and bread – and is buttery and salty, I’ve never tasted the beer.
That could be because my family makes their loaves with a light beer that may not have enough flavor to withstand baking. Still, I wondered, when used in bread, would any of the beer’s flavor cook off after 45 minutes in the oven?
So I decided to do an experiment: I would bake two loaves of beer bread with two different types of beer to see how different they taste.
Continue Reading “A Beer Bread Faceoff”
Posted in Baltimore, Experiments, Recipes | Tagged beer bread, flying dogs brewery, flying dogs brewery golden lager, flying dogs brewery porter | 7 Comments »
