Recipes

I am a big lover of compote, it is so versatile, effortless and I have yet to meet anyone who does not love it. This is a family friendly recipe that can be used on ice creams, pancakes, toast, punches, as a sweet accent to pork chops, or even in your next cherry pie. I love that the Stemilt cherry season lasts until September, I can make a pot of this and still enjoy fresh cherries while I...

What 4th of July celebration would not be complete with an American classic turned into a party punch? Made with zesty lemon juice, spicy Bourbon and fresh Stemilt Cherries, this punch is a real crowd pleaser. And because Stemilt Cherries are available until September, you can make this a classic summer cocktail that you can enjoy all season long.

The cherry season is never long enough, and while you can find these Stemilt cherries as late as September, knowing how to prolong the beauty of fresh cherries is the best way to keep summer going well into the first days of autumn. While fresh cherries are not the cheapest fresh fruit available, these Stemilt cherries are hand-picked and delicately transported nationwide --Cherries are...

Sometimes you have to tap into your inner Mary Poppins and remind your inner George Banks that flying a kite is a perfectly respectable way to spend an hour or two, even on a busy day. So in the middle of my mad apartment hunting, I gave myself a break by driving up on the highway to Sunland to check out a restaurant I bookmarked a few months ago after Jonathan Gold wrote about it; a Mole-specialty joint called Rocio’s Mole de Los Dioses (aka: Mole of the Gods). Click here to read the rest of this Amateur Gourmet post »

With the cherry season in full swing, it is safe to say that cherries are the official fruit of 4th of July. They are such a versatile fruit, equally fabulous in both sweet and savory dishes, and exceptional in crisp summer salads. These Stemilt cherries live up to their world famous recognition; plump, juicy and perfectly ripe, and their crisp granny smith apples make this salad a favorite in...

“Amélie has no boyfriend. She’s tried once or twice, but the results were a letdown. Instead, she cultivates a taste for small pleasures: dipping her hand into sacks of grain, crème brûlée with a teaspoon, and skipping stones at St. Martin’s canal.” — Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain Crème brûlée is the perfect dessert. Crème brûlée is French for burnt cream, or carmelized cream. It’s a dessert custard with sugar on top that is carmelized with a torch or under a broiler. Crème brûlée is sweet, creamy and decadent, but it also happens to be very nutrient-dense, especially if you use cream from grass-fed cows. Cream from cows eating green grass is rich in fat-soluble vitamins A, D & K2. It also has much higher levels of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), a compound that protects against cancer and also helps your body build muscle rather than store fat. What? You say I can eat crème brûlée and lose fat and build muscle? I’m in, ya’ll! I’m ALL in. Crème Brûlée: So Easy, Even a 9-Year-Old Can Do It People think crème brûlée is hard to make, but it isn’t! We made this crème brûlée when some friends came over for dinner recently. Their 9-year-old son helped me. He was so excited to use the torch. I kept calling him Chef. “Can I take that for you, Chef?” “Do you think it need more sugar, Chef?” I told him that one day, when he has a girlfriend, he’s going to be able to make her the most awesome crème brûlée. Can you imagine if a boy did that for you? Tres romantique! Recipe Notes This recipe is an adaption from the crème brûlée recipe in The Balthazar Cookbook. I’ve owned this cookbook for 15 years (a Christmas present from my brother) and it has served me very, very well. It’s a (much) slimmer version of Julia Child’s, Mastering the Art of French Cooking only modernized. Everything I’ve made from this cookbook comes out fabulous, from the braised short ribs with port-wine reduction sauce to French fries to this crowd-pleasing crème brûlée. The Balthazar Cookbook List Price: $37.50 Price: $18.97 Read Reviews You need 4-inch-wide ramekins for this recipe, but you can also use smaller ones. You’ll need to allow an extra hour for the crème brûlée to chill and set. But that’s the best thing about this dessert. You can make the custard the day before and let it cool in the fridge. Then, at the end of your dinner party, you can whip out the chilled ramekins and impress your dinner guests with your torch. If you are in a hurry and didn’t get to make your custard ahead, you can always chill it fast in the freezer. You do need a culinary torch. I got mine at the restaurant supply store but you can get one on Amazon (this is the one I have: Iwatani Torch Burner Professional). Iwatani Torch Burner Professional #Cb-tc-pro List Price: $53.93 Price: $24.25 Read Reviews You’ll also need some culinary butane like this: Blazer Butane Refill. Just snap the torch on top of the butane and you are ready to roll. If you don’t have a torch, you can also just put the ramekins under the broiler. Our crème brûlée looks a shade darker than you’ll see it in a restaurant because we are using sucanat or palm sugar. This is because sucanat and palm sugar are much more nutrient-dense than granulated white sugar, which is refined and has been stripped of all the nutrition. Crème Brûlée Serves 6 Ingredients Eggs, large, organic and free-range and ideally from pastured chickens (5) Ice Cream, organic, preferably from grass-fed cows (2 cups, or 16 oz) Sugar, sucanat or palm sugar (1/4 cup + 4 TBS) Vanilla bean (1) — you can also use vanil

Hi, friends! Happy Tuesday! I hope your week is off to a fabulous start! So, guys, I have a little confession for you: I’m bored with taking photos of my food. Phew. There, I said it. If you’ve been following CNC from the beginning, you know I’ve been snapping photos of my meals and snacks for almost 5.5 years now. That’s a lot of food photos! Even though I don’t take photos of everything I eat, it’s still something I think about multiple times a day. And I guess I’m just not that into it anymore, which maybe you’ve noticed over the past several months. Now don’t get me wrong, I love blogging and sharing my life “one bite at a time” on CNC, but, moving forward, I’m going to document less of my everyday meals and snacks. I’m not saying I won’t document a full day of eats from time-to-time, but I just won’t do it on the regular. What does this mean for CNC? Honestly, not too much. You’ll still see some of my meals—more like snapshots and summaries of what I am eating—and I hope blogging less about my daily eats will make way for other fun content: workouts, events, recipes, new products, life adventures, pug photos (obviously), and other randomness. You can also follow me on Instagram (carrotsncake) to see what I’m eating. I post a lot of food (and pug) pics there! With that said, here’s a snapshot of some of my eats from the past couple of days: Roasted chicken with carrots, celery, and onions, steamed broccoli, and rice Homemade cauliflower, leek & ginger soup, a banana, and Marylou’s white chocolate chip iced coffee with soymilk Green juice made with apple, spinach, carrots, cucumber, and ginger Baked acorn squash with vanilla cake batter coconut butter Avocado chicken salad Avocado + banana smoothie (recipe on Health next week) Health News & Views Remember when exercise meant playing kickball with neighborhood friends and Capture the Flag during recess? As a kid, I never went in search of a new workout or felt like I needed to check it off my list for the day. I got a workout without even trying! Boy, when did exercise stop being fun? If you can’t remember the last time you enjoyed a workout, try this one, which takes place at an outdoor playground. It’s a guaranteed fun time! Try This Fun, 15-Minute Playground Workout Questions of the Day What are your favorite kinds of blogs to read? What’s your favorite thing about CNC? Bloggers: Have you ever changed the focus of your blog? P.S. Local dog owners: Canines & Cocktails kicks off at the Seaport Hotel tomorrow night (6/19)! Murphy and I will definitely make an appearance there sometime this summer. We had so much fun at Yappier Hour last year!

Molly Siegler Cookout season is upon us and burger lovers and vegetarians alike will clamor for these flavorful and filling veggie versions of our favorite grillable main. Making your own veggie burgers is easier than it sounds and such a resourceful way to use leftovers that we’re not sure why we don’t make them more often. These burgers also freeze well so you can have an easy, vegetarian-friendly addition on hand all summer. Note: Veggie burgers should bind together well before baking, but can be reassembled if they break during an overzealous flip. Mediterranean Veggie Burgers To Bind and to Hold Something soft and mashable that can be used as binder is essential. Steamed potatoes or sweet potatoes can be mashed with other ingredients to hold the burgers together. Cooked whole grains add bulk to the burger, offering great texture. Ground nuts and seeds act as flavorful binders, too, giving veggie burgers a heft often relegated to meat-based burgers. Raw oatmeal can help to pull a looser veggie burger together. Cooked beans can be mashed to serve as a binder or left whole for more texture. Indian-Spiced Veggie Burgers Add to the Mix Fresh herbs and veggies enhance the texture of veggie burgers and spices and pantry staples (like capers, olives and nuts) add to the fun. Chopped fresh herbs and spices can help to tie a veggie burger theme together – use cilantro and curry powder for Indian-inspired burgers and parsley and olives for Mediterranean-inspired patties. Mix in thawed frozen peas or diced raw bell peppers for bright color and texture. Capers and diced gherkins up the savory quotient. White Bean and Almond Burgers Top and Serve While ketchup and mustard are fine, these flavor-packed veggie burgers give you an excuse to experiment. Blend wasabi powder, fresh basil or curry powder into mayonnaise. Slice ripe avocados and shred Swiss chard for a fun spin on the traditional tomato and lettuce garnish. Grill red onion rings and bell peppers alongside your veggie burgers over the fire. Serve veggie burgers atop a bed of greens, open-faced on toast or classically between buns. Southwest Veggie Burgers Have you ever made your own veggie burgers? Share your tips and techniques in the comments section below.

Looking to add a dose of fresh flavor to your picnic spread? Now that Summer is here, try a sturdy salad that'll stay crisp throughout an afternoon of sipping wine and sunbathing (no leafy greens need apply). From a light and lovely pea and mint salad to heartier noodle-based options, we've got you covered. View Slideshow ›

After the previous two days on Polar food, I think we need something comforting, don’t you?Some long time ago I came across a reference to “Golden Pudding” but at the time could not find any specific recipes. I have just revisited the concept, and thanks to progress in cyber-space, I can now report that there are several variations on the theme of Golden Pudding, and none of them sound bad.Golden Pudding.Ingredients.— ¼ lb. of bread-crumbs, ¼ lb. of suet, ¼ lb. of marmalade, ¼ lb. of sugar, 4 eggs. Mode.—Put the breadcrumbs into a basin; mix with them the suet, which should be finely minced, the marmalade, and the sugar; stir all these ingredients well together, beat the eggs to a froth, moisten the pudding with these, and when well mixed put it into a mould or buttered basin ; tie down with a floured cloth, and boil for 2 hours. When turned out, strew a little finesifted sugar over the top, and serve. 'Time.—2 hours. Average, cost, IId. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. Seasonable at any time.Note.—The mould may be ornamented with stoned raisins, arranged in any fanciful pattern, before the mixture is poured in, which would add very much to the appearance of the pudding. For a plainer pudding, double the quantities of the bread-crumbs; and if the eggs do not moisten it sufficiently, use a little milk.Mrs. Beeton's Dictionary of Every-day Cookery, 1865Phyllis Browne’s A Year’s Cookery, published in 1879, gives a similar recipe to Mrs. Beeton’s, but adds “a little sherry is a very agreeable accompaniment,” which sounds like a good suggestion to me.Golden Pudding.Line and ornament small pudding dish with puff pastry. Beat 2 tablespoons Crisco with 4 tablespoons sugar till creamy, add 4 tablespoons cakecrumbs, yolks 3 eggs beaten with ½ cup milk, ½ teaspoon salt, grated rind and strained juice 2 oranges. Pour into pudding dish, and bake 40 minutes. Whip up egg whites to stiff froth, stir in 3 tablespoons sugar, few drops yellow color, 1 teaspoon orange extract, and pile on top of pudding. Put back in oven to brown.The Story of Crisco, (Cincinnati, 1914) Marion Harris Neil