FloorCookies

Cleaning out the freezer, I found a few frozen plums. I immediately thought about making one of my favorite crumbles adapted from the 38th issue of Donna Hay Magazine.

A collection of international cake recipes from all over the world offering fascinating insights into their origins; this could be a short description of my newest cookbook, World’s Best Cakes by London chef Roger Pizey. The book has two extra perks for me: 1) the food photography was done by the talented Czech photographer Šárka Babická 2) it was a present from my son.

Do you have a favorite dish from your childhood?  I’m sure, you do.  This simple dish is one of my favorites from when I was a kid.

Liptauer is a unique, piquant cheese spread made with paprika and caraway.  It originates from Central-Europe, more precisely from the region known until 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  In these days, in Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Northern-Italy, or Serbia – just to name a few geographic locations – there are many variations of thi

It’s time again for another simple bean salad!  This time the idea for it comes from Donna Hay’s book The Instant Cook.  You can really assemble this salad in an instant if you have all of the ingredients at home.

It’s time for a simple salad!  For a simple Italian bean salad that is refreshing, colorful, and good on its own or served as a side to any meat.

When it comes to the use of small berries for baking, frozen or fresh blueberries are always a good choice.  I love their taste and color, and how beautifully they can color the batter.

Quick bread – noun – “bread made with a leavening agent (as baking powder or baking soda) that permits immediate baking of the dough or batter mixture” – Merriam Webster Dictionary

My newest scone recipe discovery comes from pastry chef Elizabeth Prueitt’s book Tartine which she co-authored with her husband, the baker Chad Robertson.  This recipe can be varied – as they do in their famous Tartine Bakery & Cafe in San Francisco – using different types of dried and fresh fruit.

Would I consider baking for a wedding reception?  I enthusiastically said yes, when my friend Tricia asked me to bake for her.  She knew I had experience with this – earlier I had baked for my son’s wedding.

Delicious savory tart with bacon, preferably with lots of sour cream!  It’s so good especially warm on its own (instead of a pizza) or as an accompaniment to a hearty soup.  I adapted the recipe from one of my favorite Hungarian cookbooks Mai magyar konyha by Tamás Bereznay.

Gulyás, which is a soup not a stew, is probably the best known Hungarian dish, even though other nations, the Slovaks, Czechs, and Austrians, have their own versions of it.  Interestingly enough, ”In the United States, someone decided that elbow macaroni with ground beef and tomatoes could also be called gulyas (although the innovator changed the spelling to goulash).” – writes Nicolaus Balla and Corthney Burns in Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes.