About this Blog Portland, Oregon food blog with over seven years worth of recipes, restaurant features and food photos.
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By Michelle Abendschan, on February 24th, 2014%
I was recently a participant in the Food Blogger Cookbook Swap, hosted by Alyssa of EverydayMaven and Faith of An Edible Mosiac. I sent a cookbook to a fellow food blogger and received a cookbook in return – Tate’s Bake Shop: Baking for Friends from Lisa at Flour me with Love. Thanks, Lisa!
I’m trying to actually do more baking, so this was a wonderful surprise. And it also just so happens that I recently bought a madeleine pan, so even though I was tempted by a number of recipes in this cookbook, I knew that the madeleine recipe was the one to try.
The original Vanilla Madeleine recipe from the cookbook makes 24 madeleines, which I wanted to half, so I could just make one pan of 12 cookies. But of course, there was the tricky 3-egg dilemma. How to half that easily — actually crack a second egg and use just half of that? Use one egg plus an egg white? Only use one egg and hope that one egg is un oeuf? (See what I did there)?
Then I remembered my most favorite cake in the whole . . . → Read More: Food Blogger Cookbook Swap: Vanilla-Cardamom Madeleines & Tate’s Bake Shop Baking for Friends
By Michelle Abendschan, on February 19th, 2014%
One of my most favorite restaurants on the Oregon Coast is Local Ocean in Newport*. And whenever we go there, even though I know I should order something new, I get the Grilled Halibut with Swiss chard, edamame, bacon, udon noodles, ponzu sauce – because it’s so good that I just can’t bring myself to order anything else.
Recently, I recreated it at home, using salmon instead of halibut and I think it turned out great. The thing with salmon is that you can get a nice crispy skin that just adds to the deliciousness of this plate.
Timing can be a little tricky, but if you’re up for it, after you cook the bacon, just get three burners going on the stove at once and you can get it all done about the same time. Or just set the noodles, chard, ponzu, and edamame aside with some foil while you cook the salmon. That works fine too!
 . . . → Read More: Grilled Salmon with Chard, Bacon, & Udon Noodles
By Michelle Abendschan, on February 13th, 2014%
So here’s the thing about these cookies. I actually made them last year, fully intending to post them at that time and then this happened and I kind of lost interest in getting a Valentine’s Day post together. But this year, I decided that since I had liked the cookies and I had some nice photos, I would go ahead and post it. Early. And then I forgot.
So now, completely in character (procrastination, yay!), the day before valentine’s day is when I’m going to post about heart-centric cookies. But it’s okay. This cookie could really work for any holiday, even a non-holiday. First of all, the hearts don’t need to be pink or red. How about purple hearts? Black hearts? White hearts for an anniversary celebration.
And also, who says you have to use a heart shaped cookie cutter at all? The technique will work with any small cookie cutter – four leaf clovers, a fleur de lis, a pumpkin. Really, any not too complicated shape that you could easily fill in with glaze would be perfect.
When I made mine, I liked a cleaner look so I used a slightly smaller round cookie cutter . . . → Read More: Valentine’s Day Baking: Heart-Glazed Cornmeal Almond Cookies
By Michelle Abendschan, on February 9th, 2014%
I really tried to like this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe for Boeuf à la Ficelle. I did! But, no, and I wasn’t the only one that didn’t quite care for it. To begin with, neither of us are big meat-and-potatoes eaters. And my general feeling is that if I’m going to make steak, I want to make it count. Poaching a piece of beef tenderloin (I only used a half of a pound because there were only two if us and I had an inkling of how this was going to go), does not in any way, shape, or form count. This one was kind of doomed in our house from the start, I suppose.
That said, this is really only one of a handful of recipes from this cookbook that I haven’t enjoyed – so, that’s a pretty good track record for Around my French Table, actually.
Also, we have been in the middle of an out-of-the-ordinary SNOWPOCAPLYSE! here in Portland, so I couldn’t get all over town to find oxtail (although – marrow bones were no problem), so I made due with a packaged beef broth that I then added . . . → Read More: FFwD: Boeuf à la Ficelle
By Michelle Abendschan, on February 4th, 2014%
Just the other day, we got teased with about 10 minutes worth of snow. It didn’t stick or anything, but during a winter that so far has been extremely mild*, it was a nice 10 minutes. The kind of 10 minutes that make you want to go roast a chicken. And if you don’t want to roast a whole chicken, then at least maybe some chicken thighs.
A very nice aspect to this recipe (no matter what season you choose to make it) is that it is fairly one-dish. Especially if you marinate in a freezer bag. The honey in the marinade should give you a nice, darkened crust to your chicken.
And, like I mention below, the brussels and potatoes aren’t going to get that dark – if you want more color, just pop them under the broiler while the chicken rests.
. . . → Read More: Winter Comfort Food: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts
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