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Summer returns in orange-filled triple ginger oatmeal sandwich cookies
During the warmer months we often write about our near-maniacal gathering of local goods, which we (OK, mostly Michelle) make into jams, frozen meals and other lovely things. While candying, drying and...
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Distinctive desiccation dazzles in apricot, date and nut loaf
While we still await our area’s first bits of fresh fruit (please hurry, strawberries!), we have made a nice discovery: apricots from Apricot King Orchards in Hollister, California, a farm in the...
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Pot roast with Guinness and dried cherries (skip the sweet potatoes, go for...
We have been working our way through a batch of beef we bought from our biodynamic farm neighbors. While we enjoyed much of it, we were unsatisfied with the lean roast cuts (one rump, one sirloin tip)....
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Pecan Kumquat Tarts spring from salad, parking shortage
These lovely bits of sweet and citrus began with a recipe from Tartine, a bakery in San Francisco we were unable to visit last time we were there because there was no place to park, a problem the...
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Sometimes you feel like a dark chocolate almond coconut bar, sometimes you don’t
Those outside of America may be unaware of either Almond Joy® or Mounds® candy bars. This means they are also unaware of the “sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t” debate that would have...
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Strawberry delight just one of many found on Dewees
Gourmandistan has once again been lucky enough to decamp with Michelle’s family to Dewees Island, a little eco-slice of paradise just off Charleston, South Carolina. The week we have been here has...
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Besting the queen with blueberry-ginger ice cream pie
We have quite often catalogued the various nature-related nuisances of where Gourmandistan is most often located: our sometimes raging and/or icebound creek, roaming bands of garden-gobbling deer,...
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Wild blackberry curd and buttercream make a lovely wedding (cake)
The wedding that eventually led to Gourmandistan happened many years ago, and it has been quite a while since we’ve attended anyone else’s. However, a combination of Michelle’s imagination and Steve’s...
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Peach Ginger Rosemary Brown Betty makes brioche flop much better
An anticipated bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich ended up as a Peach Brown Betty, and it really wasn’t a bad ending. It did begin somewhat sadly for Steve, who had fussed over his buttery brioche...
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Plum buttercream further plumbs depths of fruit-based deliciousness
Michelle’s discovery that most any fresh fruit juice can be used to flavor buttercream has created a bit of an unusual cake boom here in Gourmandistan. While handing over a hoarded, frozen slice of our...
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walnut-apple-calvados-caramel cake says “autumn,” avoids awful pumpkin spice
Gourmandistan enjoys autumn, and does not generally stand in opposition to cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg. (OK, Steve admits to being somewhat more averse to cinnamon than most people.) But we do not...
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King-size apple cake keeps us intrigued, well-buttered
We have been enjoying this simple, old-fashioned apple cake from Susan Herrmann Loomis’ 1991 Farmhouse Cookbook for several days. Long before she began making everyone jealous with her tales of Rue...
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Boozy cherry almond biscotti demonstrate thinking inside and outside the box
Many years ago, Steve had his first day at a new advertising agency, receiving a t-shirt with the company logo and the slogan, “think outside the box.” Steve received it politely but did not wear the...
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Bacon salad dressing brings back memories, blesses pea shoots and more
Michelle had never heard of Hillstone Restaurant Group before reading this month’s feature article in Bon Appétit Magazine. This “non-chain chain” is reportedly adored by such culinary luminaries as...
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Cocoa brownies with coconut icing sweetly kick chocolate to the curb
Gourmandistan has a long history of bringing our virtual world recipes from Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies. (We are not sorry, dear readers, because the recipes are so...
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Pre-Pearl Harbor peach preserves are historically delicious
Michelle recently made two wise decisions: teach Steve how to make jam and get a monthly subscription to the newly-available online archives of our local newspaper, the Courier-Journal. Steve has...
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Blueberry, banana & poppy seed cupcakes sensibly say goodbye to blueberry season
We are quite fond of cake in Gourmandistan. But with our small population, cakes often last past their enjoyment date. Of course Steve is not above trying to reduce the surplus by sneaking bits and...
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Approaching fall with apple curd, salted caramel, pecan and rosemary cake
Crisp apples are showing up at our local markets, which of course means that Steve is buying them and that summer is coming to an end. It seems it’s still a bit early for his beloved Gold Rush, but the...
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Making things a bit sunnier by adding apricots to lentils with sausage and...
Gourmandistan’s old Kentucky home is once again undergoing the Commonwealth’s standard version of Winter, where “the sun shines bright” line in the official state song seems only a bitter, damp and...
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Hand jive, hand pies, doin’ that crazy good sour cherry hand pie
While we do host both felines and poultry, Gourmandistan does not have a cat named Way-Out Willie, or a cool little chick named Rockin’ Billie. We’ll let others do that hand jive all over town. We’ll...
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