Jessica's Dinner Party

Archive for the 'recipe' Category

Nigella’s Scones

A few days ago, I wrote about my search for an English scone recipe. Specifically, the English scone recipe from my mom’s London memories. Luckily, a friendly British, blogosphere neighbor, Kate gave me a link to a tried and true scone recipe (by the way, her blog, Coquette & Dove, is also a fantastic read, full of beautiful things you wish you had and beautiful people you wish you could look like). The recipe comes from Nigella Lawson or the Domestic Goddess. I’ve never tried any of her recipes but have always been very fond of her. I immediately wanted to make them, but decided to wait a few days before baking another batch. I knew I could eat scones for days, but I wasn’t sure if the rest of my family wanted to. If my family didn’t eat them, then that means I would eat all of them, and that would end up being a very ugly site. A lot of thought went into waiting a few days.

November 14 2009 | bread and recipe and thoughts | 9 Comments »

Alice Waters’ Italian Meatballs

I never got around to writing about what we ate at the mini road trip my friends and I took before I left New York. Week after week passed and when November hit and I decided to, a little absentmindedly, participate in NaBloPoMo, I tagged this recipe in my head for that one day when everything falls behind and it’s almost midnight and I still don’t have a clue what I’m going to write about. I was pretty organized that first week. I made something during the day, wrote about it at night, and posted it the next morning. But this week has been a bit of a struggle. I’m not at that point where I want to tear my hair out and beat myself over the head for doing something crazy like promising to post every day for one whole month. Somebody told me today to post a picture of a fried egg, but I won’t go that low…yet.

November 13 2009 | books & cookbooks and meat and poultry and recipe and thoughts | 5 Comments »

Sweet Potato Kimchi Pancakes

It’s kimchi season right now, which means many Korean families will be making enormous amounts of that famous spicy fermented cabbage. We’re in the middle of making our own right now, and I must say, it is quite a fete. I can see why many families forego the whole ordeal and just buy some at the supermarket. It’s not only a long process, but we’re dealing with pounds and pounds of cabbage, more than you would believe you’d eat in a lifetime. However, nothing beats food made at home. There’s that love and trust that is absent elsewhere.

November 11 2009 | asian and korean and recipe and thoughts and vegetarian | 6 Comments »

Brown Butter Pound Cupcakes

I picked up Gourmet at the airport last month when I was flying over here and felt a pang of sadness as I carefully flipped through the penultimate issue. Even for me, a foodie and blogger newbie, I felt that great sense of shock and disbelief to be witnessing the end of an era. The legacy and recipes will live on, but all in all the food world has lost one of its greatest pillars.

In honor of Gourmet, I thought I’d do a round of recipes from the magazines archives. So, for the next couple of weeks be on the lookout for those Gourmet recipes you always wanted to try, but never got around to!

To start, I picked the brown butter pound cake recipe in the October 2009 issue. It hit a chord with me because I love almond meal and thought that brown butter could be pseudo alternative for those who have nut allergies. I have a friend who’s highly allergic to peanuts and almonds and have always felt like I was wagging a bone in front of a dog whenever I raved about it. So this is for her and all those other nut allergic individuals.

November 09 2009 | cake and dessert and recipe and thoughts | 8 Comments »

Scottish Scones

When my family took a trip to London many years ago, my mom fell in love with English scones. I was at most six years old when we went and so I only vaguely remember trying Great Britain’s amazing scones. I just remember them being very dry, but in a good way. My mom mentions these scones once in awhile when we see one at a bakery. However, she’s never been able to buy one that is even close to the taste she remembers.