Saturday, November 28, 2009

happy turkey day!

Well, Craig's turkey was our biggest ever, a honkin' 22 pounds. It took a loooong time to cook, but in the end it was worth it.


Craig's bird is the word

Thanks to everyone who came to the Leaperville feast. I feel honored (and very full) to have so many good cooks in my family.

Not a thanksgiving dish, but Craig recently made a delicious baked squash stuffed with mushrooms and spinach. I don't know the recipe, but I do know it was tasty.



Baked stuffed squash à la Leaperville

Thursday, November 19, 2009

gravedigger cupcakes



Maybe it's kind of lame I'm posting these Devil's food (of course!) cupcakes waaay after Halloween, but I'm rather proud of them. And they were...scary good.

Coconut and "Awesome" Cream Pie

We'll, we had a hoedown in Palo Alto, so I decided to make a pie. This recipe came out of America's Test, and it turned out great, plus is was pretty simple, holler at yo brother if you need the recipe, although I imagine most of you have it already. This first picture is the graham cracker crust, unconventional for this particular pie perhaps, but America's Test points out that it doesn't get soggy like a normal crust would. I can confidently say that this is the best one I have ever made. Perfect amount of butter ensured that the crust held together but was crumbly and not hard. Delightful.

This next picture shows my helpers, they pitched in and it turned out great. I would also like to point out that we were supposed to dress up in western wear, and most people did cowboy, but I went trucker (or white-trash if you prefer). What you can't see is the fake ponytail coming out of the back of my hat. Oh-yeah.
Finally, I think this picture speaks for itself, blue-ribbon! Now, in the interest of full-disclosure it was co-first with everyone else that made a pie, but that is only half the story. Mine was the first pie that was eaten completely, and I only had one small piece. Several people told me how delicious it was, and I was the only guy that baked a pie. So I think that ought to count for something. Seriously though, you can make this pie and crust in under an hour, it just has to chill for three hours, so make it early. Also, the only things that this pie requires that you might not already have at your house is coconut milk and heavy whipping cream, so simple and fairly inexpensive. Finally, I will be attempting chicken and dumplings for the first time this week, so wish me luck!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009


This is to prove we still intend to cook--even though we are sometimes only 3 of us at home now. Lance came to Sunday dinner to make sure we were doing OK, and it was his idea to post this salad-beautiful and healthy. Look for colorful fruit on sale (kiwis-.15, mango-.85, blackberries-.75)). Drizzle with honey mixed with lime juice and sprinkle with almonds--or pomegranate seeds. Eat happy!

Sunday, November 1, 2009


Right behind my number one find at D.I., the infamous Burberry trenchcoat, comes the newest and cheapest addition to my food literature collection. Ruth Reichle's Gourmet Magazine's ultimate compendium. Coming in at an astonishing five dollars, I was pretty excited when I picked it up and realized there was no way this book has ever been used, maybe not even opened, I love D.I. A little different than the teaching basics and techniques of joy of ccoking and Mark Bittman's how to cook everything, this is just a collection from gourmet magazine which Ruth described, "Our goal was to give you a book with every recipe you would ever want." It's a little more advanced, maybe I'm in over my head, but over 1000 recipes for five bucks --I just couldn't pass it up. And, I love Ruth Reichle, read her books, you'll love food even more, but skip book number two, it's not really worth your time. Yeah, I haven't cooked anything out of it yet, I'm pretty busy, ok? But I'll try to keep you posted on my future endeavors...literally.