31 Jul
Spumoni Ice Cream Terrine
Posted by Michelle as Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts | 23 Comments
When I asked my Chief Culinary Consultant last week if he had any ideas for new ice cream flavors since I still had two more Fridays left for celebrating July’s National Ice Cream Month, he offered up quite a few great ones, but the one we both got excited about was spumoni. I haven’t had spumoni since I was much younger, and was excited to tackle this traditional Italian frozen dessert. Little did I know when I decided to make this that in addition to another baking project I would also be tackling a research project. There was much to learn about spumoni! I wanted to make it as authentic as possible, so I went about reading everything I could find both online and in the cookbooks I own. Spumoni, known in Italy as Spumone, is a molded Italian ice cream made with layers of different colors and flavors, and containing a variety of fruits and nuts. The most traditional flavors are chocolate, pistachio and cherry with various nuts and fruit. In mine I chose to use hazelnuts with the chocolate layer, left pistachio as-is, and after reading much about the cherry layer finally settled on maraschino cherries, pineapple and almonds.
30 Jul
POLL: Video How-To Posts
Posted by Michelle as Brown Eyed Baker Site News | 20 Comments
After all of the positive feedback I received on the How to Decorate Cookies with Royal Icing tutorial I did back in June, I have been taking notes on the suggestions many of you have sent me on future tutorials you’d like to see. How to make bread with yeast and how to cover cakes in fondant have been two of the popular requests. I was all set to take lots of pictures and document the step by step process and then it occurred to me that perhaps a video tutorial would be an even better way to demonstrate some of these techniques. Since I want to please all of you wonderful readers, I would love to have your feedback on the idea.
Q1: Would video how-to tutorials be useful to you? Would you rather have step by step pictures? Or a combination of both?
Q2: What topics would you like to see covered in how-to posts?
Thank you for your feedback!!
29 Jul
Ultimate Ginger Cookies
Posted by Michelle as Cookies | 34 Comments
Eating these cookies is like being wrapped in a big fleece blanket in front of a crackling fire. They will make you yearn for hot spiced cider, pumpkin pie, and cooler days watching the leaves change colors. I am a fall girl. I love the crisp air, jeans and hoodies, football Sundays, and the smell of hearty dishes like stew and chili simmering on the stove. One bite of these cookies and I could feel myself smack dab in the middle of October, ready to usher in the holidays with all of the warmth and spice that the season brings.
When I asked everyone what their favorite cookie is while holding a giveaway, Sherri of Eat.Make.Live. said her favorite are these Ultimate Ginger Cookies by Ina Garten. After compiling a round up of the top 10 favorite cookies and seeing that ginger cookies made the cut, I knew immediately that this recipe would be the one I’d use. Ina Garten never disappoints; she is one of the few Food Network hosts that I know will always deliver fool-proof recipes.
28 Jul
Eggplant Lasagna Tart with Parmesan-Basil Crust
Posted by Michelle as Savory Pies and Tarts | 27 Comments
There seemed to be a perfect storm of savory Italian tart recipes that landed in my inbox within the last month. I first saw a Zucchini Lasagna Tart and then a Fresh Tomato Tart not too long after. I saved both and kept looking at them again and again. I will be the first to admit that I have a problem when it comes to recipes. I save what seems to be countless recipes on my computer between my email inbox, Google Reader and bookmarks. Then there is the binder of recipes that have been clipped out of magazines and old ones of my mom’s and grandma’s that I want to try. And don’t even get me started on the 30+ cookbooks I own that don’t get near the attention they deserve. With all of these recipe repositories, it’s truly something special when I run across a recipe that sticks like glue in my head; when I find myself thinking about it over and over, plotting when the first chance might be to make it. It happened most recently with the Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls and Better-than-Brownies Chocolate Cookies I made, and it happened with these tarts.
26 Jul
FoodBuzz 24,24,24: Could I Be the Next Food Network Star?
Posted by Michelle as Appetizers, Meat, Quick Breads, Seafood | 37 Comments
This is the fifth season of the Food Network’s dive into reality TV as they search for the network’s next big star. The show airs on Sunday evenings and contestants ranging from seasoned chefs to stay-at-home moms compete in different cooking and TV challenges to try to win a place on The Food Network’s lineup. For my FoodBuzz 24,24,24 event I decided to see how I could stack up against this season’s lot of contestants by preparing a number of the winning dishes featured on recent episodes and having my family act as the judges, rating each on a scale from 1 to 5 (5 being the best) and providing comments about each one. The dishes prepared were:
♦ Red Chili Citrus Mushrooms with Grilled Zucchini
♦ Bruschetta with Poached Egg, Truffle Oil, and Arugula
♦ Mulberry Street Burger
♦ Crispy Catfish wtih Edamame Succotash
♦ Spicy Southern Collard Greens with Sweet Maple Cornbread
♦ Chocolate Crepe with Tangerine Dried Red Chili Sauce
24 Jul
Butter Pecan Ice Cream
Posted by Michelle as Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts | 23 Comments
I’m continuing my celebration of National Ice Cream Month with a flavor that most would consider a classic and is found on the menu of just about every ice cream stand in towns both large and small. Butter Pecan was never a flavor I chose over other classics such as vanilla, chocolate, or cookies and cream, but it has always been a big favorite in my family – my mom and grandma both do back flips for great butter pecan ice cream. When thinking about what new flavor I could churn up for this week’s ice cream recipe, my Chief Culinary Consultant gave me some great ideas, including butter pecan. Smooth and creamy, the flavor reminiscent of melted toffee and just when you think it might be too sweet you get the contrasting crunch of toasted pecans. Perfection.
23 Jul
Vanilla & Brown Sugar Breakfast Polenta
Posted by Michelle as Breakfast Foods | 22 Comments
Growing up in an Italian family, it goes without saying that this was not the first time I had polenta. This was, however, the first time that I had it in a sweetened form. When I think about polenta I am immediately transported to my grandma’s dining room, her house crowded with people, and catching a chill from the draft created each time a new person comes into the house. People are buzzing, and whiffs of sauce that has simmered all day and sausage that is frying dance through the air. It’s Thanksgiving Eve, and it’s one of the most celebrated dinners in our family, perhaps even more so than Thanksgiving Day dinner. You see, all of my grandfather’s siblings and their resulting families settled in the Chicago area while he stayed in Pittsburgh and married my grandma (aw). It became a tradition when my mom was still very little that our Chicago relatives came to visit for Thanksgiving. When I was young the house was full of people and everyone came for a full week (or longer) and for us kids it was truly like Christmas. Over the years, as members of the older generation passed and kids grew up, got jobs and families of their own, less and less made the trip, but there are still a few that come every year even if only for a few days. And to welcome the weary travelers when they get in on Wednesday, my grandma always prepares a large meal that includes a huge pot of polenta. You can choose to have it with marinara sauce and meatballs, or with crispy sausage and bacon. (I’m a sucker for the sausage and bacon, myself.) Needless to say, I am a big polenta fan and became an even bigger fan after tasting this sweetly satisfying breakfast dish.
22 Jul
Better-than-Brownies Chocolate Cookies
Posted by Michelle as Cookies | 77 Comments
The title essentially says it all. Having trouble deciding between making cookies or making brownies? Your problem is now solved – bake these beauties up and you get the best of both worlds. This is yet another installment of cookies I made as a result of the Top 10 list you all helped me create. I have loved trying new cookie recipes each week, and with this being the next to last recipe (next week is ginger cookies!), I’m going to have to come up with another food genre to get input on. Any ideas? Maybe favorite recipes with summer fruits, ice cream flavors, ethnic dish or something like that? Feel free to throw out some suggestions.
Now we must get back to talking about these cookies. They are not for the faint of heart, and if you are only a fair-weather chocolate fan, these will either fully convert you or may be too much for you. Since I am an all-chocolate-all-the-time chocolate fan, it goes without saying that these cookies razzled and dazzled me to the point of wanting to hide them from others. I didn’t really hide them, but I was tempted. Actually, it wouldn’t hurt to stash a few of these in the freezer for when chocolate hunger pangs strike. A quick turn in the microwave and you will be beyond satisfied.
21 Jul
Anise-Almond Biscotti
Posted by Michelle as Cookies | 21 Comments
Biscotti are as familiar to me as chocolate chip cookies are to most children. Growing up in an Italian family and spending a lot of time at my grandma’s house, there was never a shortage of biscotti. Cookie jars at her house weren’t full of store-bought cookies or any type of homemade “American” varieties; no sir, in her house cookie jars (and random tins, for that matter) were full of biscotti. Dinners on Sunday most often featured some sort of dessert, but without fail everyone always ended up in the cookie jar, digging for biscotti to dunk in their coffee. I can recall gazing into my grandma’s small kitchen and seeing the counters and table crowded with sheets pans with sliced biscotti either cooling from the oven or waiting their turn.
It seems, however, that as popular as the anise flavor is in Italian baked goods, someone in my family must not be a fan (and the culprit is currently unbeknownst to me) because nary a biscotti or pizzelle that was ever a product of my grandma’s kitchen was flavored with anise. Don’t get me wrong, everything she has ever made tastes extraordinary (after asking I found out that she uses a butter nut flavoring), but I love anise and so I have started to use it more in my own baking, first with the pizzelles I made and now these biscotti.
20 Jul
Tell me: Do you want this, or that?
Posted by Michelle as Brown Eyed Baker Site News | 11 Comments
I am planning a minor facelift here at Brown Eyed Baker and am looking for input from my readers. No worries, the look of the site is pretty much going to stay the same – same logo, same color scheme, but I am hoping to do some upgrading around a number of technical glitches and improvements, and that’s where I’d like you to make some noise and tell me what you’d like. What would make your experience here at Brown Eyed Baker even better?
I am currently planning on having the ability to reply to individual comments in a nested fashion so that we can have little “conversations” going on if someone has a question or a great suggestion – no need to scroll through all of the comments to see if something specific was responded to. Additionally, I am going to have a nicely organized recipe archives page so you can easily view all of the recipes in a particular category or posted during a particular month.
As I continue to plan there will be more tweaks and improvements added to the list, so please let me know what you would like! Is there something on another blog you love but isn’t available here? Do you have a wish list of what you think all great blogs should have? Is there some small thing that just bugs you every time you come to Brown Eyed Baker that you wish you could change?
The possibilities are endless, just let me know what you want to see here! I want my readers to fully appreciate their time spent here so I’d like to do all I can do to improve that experience.
Thanks in advance for your input! 
