Tag: sweet and savory

Smoked Salty Almond Chocolate Cookies

If you’ve read our About page, you would know that Leili and I met while working at a bakery in Boston. Allow me to garnish with extra information on our delicious friendship. Leili worked back of house as a baker while I worked front of house – we quickly became friends by talking about boys and her occasionally sneaking me sweets.

Between the two of us, Leili is the sweets and I am the salty. I have always been intimidated by baking but slowly unlearning that fear. This all changed very recently when Leili got me the Not Without Salt Cookie Mix by the great Ashley Rodriguez for Christmas.

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February 13, 2015
Ginger Scallion Wings

So the REAL winter is here. I was sure the winter vortex was going to bring White Walkers through the streets of Boston at those freezing temperatures. And if you didn’t get that Game of Thrones reference, please do yourselves a favor and go catch up before the new season starts. I won’t judge and you can enjoy binge watching while nibbling on these wings.

Another big event is just coming up – it involves beer, dancing, and touchdowns. See, I don’t follow football or usually watch the Super Bowl, but I do enjoy the food that surrounds this great American holiday. To me, it’s enjoying delicious bar food in the comfort of your own sweatpants. These ginger scallion wings are great for feeding others and yourself.

The wings are so easy to make and the sauce can be prepped ahead of time. Bonus: It also warms up the entire kitchen to distract you from the bitter wind chills outside. (more…)

January 15, 2015
Dark Chocolate Truffles

I’m a sucker for Christmas music. From Nat King Cole to Mariah Carey, Christmas music gives me the warm and fuzzies. It throws me back to blurry childhood memories of coming in from the cold after a vicious snowball fight and eagerly tumbling over my siblings to get to the first cup of hot cocoa. It reminds me of that fresh pine smell and the way beautifully thick snow crunches underfoot. This time of year is filled with nostalgia, and I’m a fan.

So I don’t waste any time when it comes to getting pumped for the holidays. Although I usually wait for the Thanksgiving dishes to be cleared, this year I couldn’t resist from listening to some Christmas songs in early November. This was not too appreciated by the people on the bus listening to me hum a little too loudly, nor by my boyfriend, who is the Grinch reincarnate. But I don’t care. The past few days have had me in a cookie baking frenzy as I try to wrap up all my holiday gifts, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of Bing Crosby’s familiar soothing voice reminding me that I’ll be home for Christmas.

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December 23, 2014
White and Dark Chocolate Pistachio Cookies

Since I started cooking and baking, I’ve been all about the marriage of sweet and salty in a single, perfect bite. And there’s a reason sweet and salty go so well together: science. It’s just how our taste buds were built.

I know I’m late to the whole sweet and savory game with these cookies, but that actually makes me really happy. It means that now I can look for any recipe for salted cookies and get pages of results to choose from. I’m not alone in the corner putting salt in my sweets anymore (or sweets in my salties), and that’s pretty damn cool.

These cookies are big, so they’re soft in the middle and slightly chewy around the edges. In addition to the salted pistachios, white chocolate chunks and dark chocolate discs, we’re also throwing in a hint of orange zest. You can barely taste it and it really rounds out the flavors, but you can also easily leave it out. (more…)

August 27, 2014
Plural Pesto

Basil is the unofficial herb of summer – at least in our books. We love using basil pesto with pasta, roasted vegetables, or even as a salad dressing with an extra bit of olive oil. The recipe is so simple that it is almost impossible to get wrong. Here, we’ll make it two ways: in a food processor, and using a mortar and pestle.

Creamy Pesto

For this pesto, a food processor does the heavy lifting. The garlic is slightly roasted on the stove top here, which gets rid of its bite and yields a much softer and sweeter flavor. Honey is the secret ingredient, but don’t let it weird you out – the sweetness perfectly offsets the savoriness of the pesto. The addition of spinach is great for sneaking more veggies into your kids’ diet, and ricotta really fills it out nicely. The result is a creamy, mellow pesto that’s not only great for picky eaters, but easy to whip up in a pinch. Enjoy!

-L.

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July 31, 2014