Gastronome

So I baked up what I think was my first batch of scones or thereabouts. Recipe originally from Epicurious, but I made a few alterations… and they were good!
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Trying to prevent myself from making the morning journey to the Tully’s or the Starbucks or the swedish bakery, I made this relatively healthy cranberry-orange bread to take to work. It tastes kinda healthy, but is still yummy enough to satisfy one’s morning sweets craving, if one has one, which one does when one is me. The recipe’s from my 2002 Cooking Light cookbook.
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This is the flatbread I served alongside Moro’s hummus and lamb dish. It was easy, quick, and very, very tasty. I didn’t have za’tar, so I used chopped parsley and sea salt to top the bread. From The Moro Cookbook.
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The Cheese Board is a Berkeley institution - they have amazing cheese, a great bakery, and are a worker-owned collective. This recipe is an adaptation of The Cheese Board’s chocolate chip scones. If you (much like me) are a cook who toys with baking, I’d highly recommend their cookbook, The Cheese Board: Collective Works. It’s a great read, and the recipes haven’t let me down yet. I’m giving you the stand-mixer version of the recipe; I’ve made scones both ways, and I think the stand mixer gives better results than my hand-mixing. (Thank you, Miss Naomi. We do understand, don’t we?)
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Muffins are an I-love-you morning comfort food for me. I love waking up early enough to make them for guests or a boy that I like. Apparently Canadians eat muffins as a sort of stereotype: there’s even a UK chain called “The Canadian Muffin Co.”

I’ve been fiddling with apple muffins lately — I think this buttermilk recipe is just about perfect.
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So just to hop back in with a bang…

P cooked up this amazing, tangy, tart loaf of banana bread and I just can’t stop eating it! Personally, I think the cream cheese glaze is gratuitous and would be just as luscious without. Recipe from Cooking Light (Sept 03).
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Bread scares the tar out of me. I never have any idea if I’m doing it right. I tried this recipe for Apricot-Cream Cheese Braids, and they turned out a little squishy in the middle for my tastes. A more accurate oven probably would have fixed me right up.

We polished off one loaf for dessert tonight. I have three left that I think I will toast before serving…
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An excellent recipe for grilled flatbread hors d’oeuvres from The Best of Sunset Recipes (currently on a Safeway checkout magazine rack near you). Lacking a grill, we popped these directly into the oven on top of a super-hot pizza stone. They turned out fantastic, but I’m sure grilling them would have made them even better. I’m usually scared to death about making breads, but this recipe made it easy to produce what looked and tasted like something you’d find in a first-class trattoria! Here’s the recipe:
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