Category: Food & Drink

Fine food & ginger cookies

Last night our friend Stefan treated us to Riesling and muskatzinen cookies (at right) from Germany and took us out to dinner as a late post-wedding celebration. We went to Bacarro, one of our favorite happy hour spots, and enjoyed fine seafood (us) and fowl (Stefan). We then headed over to the Walnut Brewery, where we met up with Sally, one of Stefan’s former roommates. We had such a great time–and stayed up several hours past our bedtime. It was lovely.

p.s. The ginger cookies were delicious! We ate the entire batch today… Yum! Thanks, Stefan!

I love chill time on the weekend with friends.

Back to the kitchen

I am always looking for new vegetarian dishes. I love knowing a dozen variations of roasted tomatoes (which are now lost on my husband who has developed a tomato sensitivity) and trying a bunch of soft pretzel recipes until I find the best one. I like experimenting with different herbs and different heirloom varieties. Unfortunately, I haven’t done much of the above since graduate school.

Between long hours at work and our evening workout routines, I haven’t spent much (any?) time in the kitchen over the last two years… up until we came back from our honeymoon two weeks ago. These past two weeks, partially inspired by the coming of fall and our switch to morning runs, I’ve cooked and cooked and completely loved it.

Now I help out with dinner, I help out with dishes, I help out with planning our meals for the week. We are heading towards a more equal division of labor in the house. While David has never complained about my lack of help around the house, I think he is really enjoying us doing these things together and also having more time during the evening for his research and schoolwork and reading for pleasure (the new Robert Jordan book came out on Tuesday).

I am excited about finally making the time to explore the two shelves worth of cookbooks in our study, remnants of my graduate school cooking experiences and gifts from friends and family. I am ashamed to admit that I haven’t really had much of a chance to explore them… until now.

I am so excited.

Baked Apples


Fall has arrived in Boulder. The trees on our block are a mix of green, orange, yellow, red and brown colors, the air is crisp and cool, and the sun continues to set earlier and earlier. Autumn is here.

In celebration of fall and the Jewish New Year, last night (after cooking a delicious and romantic Rosh Hashanah dinner) I made one of my favorite fall treats: baked apples. They were fantastic.

I adapted the recipe from the “French Women Don’t Get Fat” cookbook. Presented below is the recipe with pecans, rather than walnuts. Enjoy!

Baked Apples
by Mireille Guiliano

1/3 cup chopped pecans
4 apples
4 teaspoons butter
4 teaspoons sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons water1. Place the pecans on a baking sheet and toast them in a 250-degree oven for about 5 minutes, until they are fragrant. Set aside.

2. Wash and core the apples. Place them in a baking dish. Combine the butter, sugar-cinnamon mixture, and toasted walnuts.

3. Fill the cavity of each apple with the mixture, dividing it evenly among the apples. Pour the water into the bottom of the baking dish.

4. Bake the apples at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve warm. You can make the dessert more festive by pouring 1 teaspoon of heavy cream over each apple just before serving, garnishing with a sprig of mint for color, or placing an edible flower on the side.

Trust me, you can skip the garnishment. Unless you really have too much time on your hands…


p.s. I really love food photography, in part because it’s actually quite hard to get food to look good. I recommend the following sites for delicious and artistic food photographs:

Jennifer Causey Photography (favorite shots here and here)

Heidi Swanson Photography + Creative with many, many photos at her cooking site 101 Cookbooks (my favorites are here, here, and here)

Latest beverage addiction

I recently discovered IZZE sparkling juices created right here in Boulder, Colorado.

I had my first IZZE experience several weeks ago while we were at a restaurant celebrating happy hour with friends. The grapefruit IZZE and vodka $3.50 beverage special caught my eye on the menu. As a hard-core grapefruit lover, I couldn’t resist trying it out. Yet another drink later, I was thoroughly obsessed.

Know that I usually drink just tea and water, with a glass of smart water here and there. Things have changed.

We now have different flavors of IZZE on hand at all times at home. We’ve discovered that I am in fact allergic to the pomegranate one (not a complete surprise as I’ve reacted sporadically in the past to pomegranates). I prefer the grapefruit variety to the other flavors that I’ve tried. We’ve also developed a soft spot for IZZE spiked with rum (like the vodka version, it’s delicious!). IZZE has become my special treat at the end of the day. I am so addicted. Go try it!