Pancakes and Ping Pong

Saturday morning bliss. No, I didn't eat all of those. Yet.

Strawberry tart

A sea of strawberries on a bed of mascarpone cream in a citrusy tart shell. Finished off with a drizzle of port wine sauce.

Carrot cake

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, made for dinner with coworkers (Amanda, Steve, et al). This cake was one of the better recipes I've used-- crushed pineapple and sweetened coconut flakes in the batter, but no nuts.

Devil's Food Cake

Made for my brother's 32nd birthday, this cake is two layers of devil's food cake, each topped with dark chocolate ganache and white chocolate cream frosting. Finished off with some dark chocolate curls.

Pizzelles

Pizzelle cookies in a box designed especially for them, for a Christmas party at my friend Blade's.

Many Macarons

Not to be confused with macaroons, these French sandwich cookies were made to be a bite-sized snack on the table where I sold cards, calendars, and books at MIT's Artists Beyond the Desk semi-annual craft fair.

Thanksgiving Pi

Pumpkin pi, with label as requested by my nephew Jason.

Gingergread cake

Individual 'hot and sassy' gingerbread cake, courtesy of Todd English's fantastic recipe.

For art class

I took a graphic design class at MassArt, and in the middle of the semester we had a potluck party. As we had been working with Sylvia Plath's poem 'Mushrooms', I decided to make a cake with that theme. Happily, I had just received the perfect cake pan from my friend Rachel, originally designed to make a cake in the shape of a giant cupcake. Turns out cupcakes and mushrooms look quite a bit alike.

Berry Pavlova

This 'cake' is composed of 3 layers of sweet meringue disks sandwiching and topped with a mixture of whipped and sour cream and fresh berries.

Red Velvet Cake

Assembling berries on the frosting between layers.
Completed cake, frosted with cream cheese icing and topped with a pile of fresh berries.
Inside the cake, in all its red velvet glory. This cake was colored with food coloring-- it's pretty much just a vanilla flavored cake that's tinted red-- but in the early days of this cake's making, it was a small amount of cocoa powder (which was processed differently then) that gave the cake a red velvet appearance. This may also be the reason for the title "Devil's Food Cake" given to other chocolate cakes.

Easter 2009

Easter dinner at my apartment in Boston included whole stuffed artichokes, green beans, honey glazed ham, prosciutto with melon, deviled eggs with capers and tarragon, and potato, leek, gruyere, and mushroom gratin.

Lemon meringue pie with toasted coconut for dessert.

St. Patty's Day Cake

I was asked to bring a green cake to a green potluck party that was being held in the MIT Provost's staff office on St. Patrick's Day. This is just a simple white cake with a whole lotta green food coloring, frosted with a white chocolate cream cheese icing, and pressed with coconut on the sides.

Raspberry Chocolate Cake

This four layer chocolate cake with chocolate raspberry frosting and cookie crumb coating was prepared for my wonderful boss Amanda's birthday.

Note: The bag of alphabet tile chocolate cookies only had 2 A's, so I had to substitute an upside down V for the middle one. :)

So Many Cupcakes

Rachel and I made these cupcakes for a dinner party with coworkers. On top are chocolate almond cupcakes with fluffy coconut frosting, and below are lemon raspberry cupcakes (with raspberry jam hidden in the middle!) They are sitting pretty on the fabulous cupcake rack that Rachel bought me for Christmas last year (along with the wrappers and silicone bears which don't happen to appear in this picture). Next order of business: full on cupcake party with at least twice as many kinds of cupcakes!

Waffles

This is a simple waffle recipe that involves separating the eggs and beating the whites and folding them in last, so the waffles come out really soft and fluffy. Here, they are topped with whipped cream and fresh blueberries. And then maple syrup, of course!

Vanilla Creme Brulee and Ice Cream

Real vanilla beans are what really do the trick when making creme brulee and ice cream. The flavor is so much deeper and it's great to be able to see those little black seeds in each spoonful.

Because I also cook sometimes...

Here's my prep work for a chicken soup I made one Sunday night not too long ago. This recipe included all KINDS of vegetables. From left to right, there's brussels sprouts, pearl onions, mushrooms, carrots, celery, and cauliflower. Also some sage and butter for some additional flavor, and flour and milk to make it creamy. SO good!

Here is an asparagus mushroom risotto that I am particularly proud of because I merged two separate recipes together to make this from ingredients I had around my kitchen.

Pecan Pie

This is one of my least favorite kinds of pie (I'm more of a fruit pie fan), but it's what my Dad requested for his birthday dessert. So, voila!

Christmas Pizzelles

This year, I made vanilla and almond flavored pizzelles. Usually I flavor half with anise and half with chocolate, and make a batch with a little of both. This time I accidentally threw in almond extract, thinking I had reached for the anise (those little bottles look the same! of course, I realized the swap as soon as I poured the extract in and smelled the almond) Luckily, these little cookies taste great with any kind of flavoring. Maybe next year I'll do orange and lemon, to mix it up a bit!