all about deb (mostly).

i've pretty much been hanging out and making smitten recipes. in the last week:

• light wheat bread
• light brioche burger buns
• grapefruit olive oil cake (you're going to have to buy the book)

additionally:

• lemony hummus
• cowboy cookies (adapted from baked)
• strawberry-blueberry jam (inspired by cookfight)

photographs and details to come. 

la bonne année.

most people celebrate the new year on january 1st. but not everyone. while they celebrate the regular new year as well, the russians also celebrate old new year on january 13th and the jewish people celebrate yom kippur in the fall.

well, we sort of moved it, too. tracy and keith and i wanted to throw a party, but we were all traveling throughout the holiday season, and so we decided it would be a post-new years new years party of sorts. so, i made some treats. obviously. hummus and carrots and peppers, to start.
vegetarian sushi with carrots, peppers, chives, and cucumbers .
two of my favorite dips, recipes from ina garten: pan-fried onion dip and sun-dried tomato dip. they are both full of fatty awesomeness that i cannot describe here because then my friends will no longer eat them.
finger foods. tomato+basil+mozzarella.
fancy olives and sesame-crusted almonds.
and punch! in my new punch bowl. yes, i realize the bowl itself is ugly. it's vintage. be nice.

this was the harvest moon punch, created by a bartender at prime meats, with the recipe found on the internet. it was a hit. a smash, if you will.

additionally, tracy and i made some fancy-schmancy margaritas with those infused tequilas: blood orange margarita with the cinnamon tequila AND red chile guava margarita with the pepper one. so very awesome, these cocktails. and we have so many good liquors left to drink. with fancy bitters. we have a coveted bottle of angostura bitters, as well as 2 types of fee brothers: cherry and rhubarb.

the nytimes was right when they said it was a good cocktail decade. an evolving. we learned that the drinks of our grandparents are the best ones. my own grandfather likes whiskey; maybe that's why i am so into the old-fashioned these days.

bonne année. let's make it a good one.

eggs, not elephants.

lindsey is really into poached eggs. i want to like them more. but i always think of them as food for grandmothers, even though i liked them as a kid.

so, last egg in the carton. i decided to poach it. such a disappointment. i made it in the pot with boiling water, but lindsey has explained how to do it in a cup. maybe in the future i will try this again. for now, i am sticking with fried.

luckily, there were other treats with this meal: toasted pita and hummus, sauteed green beans with lemon and parmesan, and heirloom tomato. i love when they are shades other than red. i feel like they taste better.

citron.

i really enjoy making hummus. it's easy to make at home; the only real tool needed is a blender. we eat it so fast at my house that those packaged preservatives are just unnecessary.

i am up too early this morning, but i didn't want to go the laundromat at 8am. i brewed some tea and made simple syrup (for iced tea later on). of course, i am drinking coffee (from gorilla, my favorite). i decided to make the lemony hummus from the march 2009 cooking light. cooking light has been a bit of a disappointment this year, but i still have hope that it will redeem itself.

i used the juice of an entire lemon in this recipe. and it's quite good. refreshing. summery.

no pictures; hummus is never very pretty.