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By Emily, July 1, 2010 5:38 pm

It’s hard to believe that just over a year ago (June 27, 2009), Brian and I got married. It was a perfect wedding and a great year…and our one year anniversary meant that we could finally defrost our 2 slices of leftover wedding cake and eat them!

Cake that’s been in the freezer for a year may seem a little sketchy.  I wasn’t sure I was going to want to eat it.  But at $6 a slice it didn’t really seem fair to waste it. Besides, its tradition.
Surprisingly, the key lime coconut cake was still incredibly delicious. Even the frosting was good!  The bakers at Sticky Fingers Cakes in Waldoboro, Maine definitely know what they’re doing. And now we have more room in our freezer!

Anyone else actually eat their wedding cake on their one year anniversary?

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By Emily, June 19, 2010 8:46 pm

Tomorrow is Father’s Day (so sorry if I’m the first one to tell you!).  For the first time in memory (though I’m sure it’s happened…), I won’t actually be spending the day with my father.  Fear not, a trip to Maine is in the near future, but it still seems strange.   Granted, my father and I haven’t always seen eye to eye regarding food, but he’s still the best dad in the world.  Happy Father’s Day, dad! See you soon!

Did you forget about Father’s Day? Make amends by getting your dad a great foodie gift!   Slashfood has a number of gift ideas for food loving dads, including Star Wars pancake molds (Williams-Sonoma also makes cookie cutters) and a portable grill.   Epicurious put together their own gift list, which includes knives and the Hot Sauce of the Month Club.   If your dad likes a good drink, check out Serious Eats’ Liquor Gift Guide for Father’s Day.

Cooking for your dad this Father’s Day? The wonderful folks at Tasty Kitchen put together a beautiful collection of breakfast, snack, main course and dessert recipes that would surely please your papa.  Epicurious has a Father’s Day Guide featuring cookout and grilling ideas, grilling cookbooks and beautiful burgers.

Slashfood did 2 interesting posts about fathers recently.  One on Father-Son Distilling Teams, the other is interviews with some chefs who are also dads.

Finally, what’s a holiday without some Cake Wrecks?

Are you cooking anything special for your father tomorrow?

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By Emily, April 24, 2010 2:09 pm

As you’re probably aware, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day was this past Thursday.  Earth Day is great for spreading awareness about ecological issues, but that’s no reason not to treat our planet well every day!

The Atlantic has 10 recipes featuring meatless mains, sustainable seafood, and local flavors to help save the earth-one bite at a time.

It’s about time! A company in Oregon is going to be putting its frozen vegetables in 100% biodegradable bags.

Serious Eats tells us why we should eat peanuts on Earth Day.

Beyond Earth Day: 3 Easy Food and Health Ideas for Maximum Impact All Year, from Planet Green

Cheap, Healthy, Good gives some very compelling reasons to eat local. (Hint: It’s not “just a fad for hipsters and yuppies who don’t get enough snooty karma from their NPR totes.”)

Coincidentally, Brian and I watched the film No Impact Man on Thursday.  It’s a really interesting documentary (and there’s a book…and a blog) about a family that attempts to make no impact on the earth for a year.  Well worth watching, if you haven’t already.  The trailer is below:

How did you celebrate Earth Day this year?

Every Saturday, I choose a theme and highlight blog posts, websites and news articles from my Google Reader which I found interesting (and hope you do too!) If you want more reading, check out “What I’m Reading” on my sidebar.  And don’t forget to add Relishments to your reader!

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By Emily, April 3, 2010 7:20 pm

Part of me can’t believe it’s April…and Easter…already.  But it is!  I’m not complaining.  I’m thrilled that winter is over.  And I love Easter–its so wonderful to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection with those I love.  I’m really looking forward to my first Easter in the Berkshires as a married woman.

Of course, the food blogs are pretty excited about Easter too.  And with good reason: in addition to being the most significant day in Christianity, it’s also one of the best candy holidays.

Highlights for March 28-April 3: Happy Easter!

Last week, Endless Simmer asked “Which Part of the Chocolate Bunny Do You Eat First?” and then published the (not at all surprising) results.

Taste Test: Chocolate Bunnies.  I’ll spoil it by saying that See’s Candies was one of the winners, which makes me really excited because we still haven’t cracked into the one that my parents sent us.

Way better than dyed eggs, mental_floss has the story behind 10 Faberge Egg Surprises.

Check out these really cool entries to the Peeps diorama contest.  One post that didn’t make it is this one of a bridal salon, courtesy of Offbeat Bride (yes, I still read a wedding blog even though I’ve been married for 9 months)  Need more Peeps?  How about Peeps Krispies Treats? (Brian believes I have an unhealthy Peeps obsession)

The Atlantic explains the story behind hot cross buns.  And the Pioneer Woman has a recipe, if you want to make your own.

Change.org has  options for a sustainable Easter.

Eggs, Ham and Lamb: A History of Easter Food from Slashfood.

How to Naturally Dye Easter Eggs–no store-bought, chemically dye necessary!

Happy Easter, everyone!

He is Risen!

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By Emily, April 2, 2010 5:02 pm

At the end of February, in Highlights from My Reader: Good News Edition, I mentioned the addition of chocolate-covered marshmallow Peeps to the Easter candy options.  Intrigued, I spent the next couple weeks scouring supermarkets and convenience stores searching for Peeps covered in chocolate.  Why?  I like Peeps.  But more so, I like Russell Stover Marshmallow Eggs (or Santas, or hearts, or whatever the season happens to be).  They are one of the rare candies that, no matter the holiday season, I buy impulsively.  And I don’t even really like regular marshmallows.

Surprisingly, it took a while (granted, it was still early March…but it seemed like they should’ve been easy to find).  Brian and I finally tracked down both the dark and milk chocolate varieties at Rite Aid.

Along with the chocolate covered peeps, we picked up a couple of Russell Stover marshmallow eggs for comparison.

As you can see, the egg and the Peeps are about the same size.  The Peeps have been dyed bright yellow to replace the trademark coating of sugar.  After eating 3 chocolate covered marshmallow candies each (which, for the record, is two more than I need to have in a sitting), Brian and I came to the same conclusion:

Despite my excitement, the Russell Stover chocolate covered marshmallows taste much better. The marshmallow was stretchier and less dense and didn’t overwhelm the chocolate.   Maybe we liked the Russell Stover because it’s what we’re traditionalists.  I’m sure there are people who would pick the Peeps in an instant.  Nevertheless, we won’t be changing our Easter candy traditions anytime soon.*

Anyone else tried the chocolate covered Peeps?  Thoughts?

*Actually, for our first Easter together,  Brian and I are limiting our Easter candy to a Cadbury eggs and some See’s Candies that my parents sent us.  This is mostly his choice, not mine; I love Easter candy.  Nevertheless, it’s probably the right choice.

Happy Easter!

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By Emily, March 21, 2010 8:12 am

I am so incredibly excited that it’s now officially spring.  I was so excited yesterday I that forgot to even finish this post!  Fear not, the weekly highlights from the web are here!

I really can’t complain.  I was a little concerned about how bad winter in the Berkshires was going to be (I know…I’m from Maine…but I still hate winter), but this winter really wasn’t bad.  Still, this week’s beautiful weather has allowed me to start walking into town again, stop turning on the heat in our apartment, open the windows and eat dinner outside.  It’s wonderful.

Anyway, on to the links.

Highlights for March 14-20: Hooray for Spring!

In addition to the warm, sunny weather, one of the best things about spring is the availability of local produce.  Local Harvest is a great site which allows you to find local sources of sustainably grown food.  Yesterday I ventured out to Cricket Creek Farm to check out their local, fresh products.  It was the perfect place to be on a spring day (who knew I’d be so into farms?).

If you’re interested in knowing where your food comes from, Where is My Milk From is definitely interesting.  Now I know what those codes on milk cartons are for!

Serious Eats has a mouth-watering discussion thread: What spring foods are you looking forward to? Asparagus? Strawberries? Rhubarb?  Yes, please.

If you don’t know what to do with all the exciting spring food, Food & Wine has over 100 recipes that use fresh spring produce.

It’s also springtime for chefs-what are chefs looking forward to cooking this spring?

Erin at $5 Dinners is awakening her garden.  Brian and I (well, mostly I) are planning to do a little container garden on our balcony this year.  I’m really excited!

Oh look, the Simple Dollar has something on container gardening! What timing!

Happy Spring!

spring chickens at Cricket Creek

Every Saturday, I choose a theme and highlight blog posts, websites and news articles from my Google Reader which I found interesting (and hope you do too!)  If you want more reading, check out “What I’m Reading” on my sidebar.

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By Emily, March 17, 2010 7:19 pm

I don’t eat meat too often anymore.  I almost never buy beef.

But there are reasons to make exceptions, and St. Patrick’s Day is one of them.

I’m a little bit Irish, but if you want to be technical, I just love corned beef.  I used to make my mother make it every year, even though some of my other family members weren’t big fans.  We never had cabbage.

I had never actually made corned beef myself before.  My best friend and I made it once in college, but she did the cooking.  And my husband says he has never even had corned beef! (If he’s wrong on this, Carol, let me know!  I can’t believe it!)  So, for my first St. Patrick’s Day, I had to come up with a way to make corned beef.  Because its not St. Patrick’s Day without it.

So, for my first corned beef, I bought a $3 cut of meat ($3! How could I say no?!) and followed this  recipe for Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Vegetables. Always use the slow cooker when you can–I don’t use mine nearly enough.

The corned beef came out great!  The vegetables, as you can probably tell, are pretty well cooked, but they tasted good.  I made some drop biscuits as sides.  As predicted, Brian loved the corned beef.  I’m satisfied for another year (its so good though!)

If you’re not into corned beef, check out these other St. Pats Day posts from around the web:

Serious Eats has been especially busy:

What to Eat and Drink on St. Patrick’s Day

Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Irish Food?

Green Fried Chicken–coated with wasabi!

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Irish Whiskey Filling

Irish Whiskey Cake from All We Can Eat

Guiness Milkshake from yumsugar

Nigella’s St. Patrick’s Baking Tip: Just Add Guinness from NPR

Beef and Guinness Stew from Shedding It and Getting It

From mental_floss: The Quick 10: 10 Pats Born on St. Patrick’s Day

10 St. Patrick’s Day Parades

Enjoy what remains of St. Patrick’s Day!

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By Emily, February 16, 2010 10:17 am

As I mentioned on Saturday, Brian and I are pretty low-key in the V-Day department.  Plus we’re on break from school this week, so our travel plans interfered with celebrating on the big day itself.  So, we “celebrated” our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple last week.

For my part, I offered to make Brian the meal or baked good of his choosing.
Brian told me he bought me something off of my Amazon wish list.

That’s the normal part.  Here comes the irony.

Brian’s request: Meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, carrots cooked in butter and dill and biscuits.

My book:

Confession #2: I’ve never actually read any of Michael Pollan’s books.  But I’ve read enough articles and watched enough interviews to know that I agree with him.  My plan is to spend the rest of my school break reading In Defense of Food.

So, did we “Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.”? (That’s Pollan’s basic guideline)  Well…we ate food…probably too much…not many plants…but it was really yummy and we enjoyed ourselves.

And I’m really excited about reading my book.

Don’t forget, you have until Thursday to enter my Frozen Smoothie and Blender Giveaway!

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By Emily, February 13, 2010 9:06 am

When I was in high school and college, I used to vehemently protest Valentine’s Day.  I’d wear all black and generally be obnoxious to those around me.  Things since then have changed (it helps to be happily married!) and though Brian and I are still having a really low key Valentine’s Day, I don’t hate it the way I used to.  This week’s links are, of course, Valentine’s Day themed.

Highlights for February 7-13: Valentine’s Day

Gifts:

Still shopping? Slashfood has a collection of Funky Valentine’s Day Gifts for Foodies.  I already have 3 aprons, but there’s some cute ones on there…

Everyone loves love letters.  Mental_floss has A Brief History of Great Love Letters, in case you’re in the mood to write (or read…) one.

Drinks:

Serious Beer Pairings: Chocolate and Beer for Valentine’s Day (via Serious Eats)

Pink Sparkling wines (Slashfood)

Food:

Heart Shaped Food for Valentine’s Day (Mental_floss) and just what I always wanted, Papa John’s has heart shaped pizza! (Slice)

One of the things that can suck about Valentine’s Day is not having a significant other.  Fear not, A Food Coma has taken care of that with an indulgent Valentine’s Day menu for one.

Change.org has some ideas for a Sustainable and Sensual: A Valentine’s Day Menu

Both the NY Times and The Daily Beast have pieces on aphrodisiac foods.  I’ll leave it at that.

Candy (clearly, the best part of Valentine’s Day):

5 recipes for homemade chocolate candies (that’d be good for any time of year!)

Why We Give Candy on Valentine’s Day.  Um, because it’s delicious?

Top 10 Dark Chocolates for Valentine’s Day from Huffington Post.

Though I won’t have time before V-Day, I think I may need to test out this recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Strawberries from Slashfood.

Apparently you can use Red Hots as a spice.  Go figure (I may not be trying that one…).

Over at No Meat Athlete, Christine has posted a recipe for making your own vegan box of chocolates (as well as one for Vegan Merlot-Berry Sorbet)–I’m not even vegan and they sound amazing.

I know that’s a lot of links for the week, but there was too much good stuff out there!  Stay tuned for a post about how Brian and I celebrated our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple.

And, don’t forget to enter my Yoplait Frozen Smoothie and single serving blender giveaway!