A Visit with Woodblock Chocolate in Portland, Oregon

As Dessert Week draws to a close (aren’t you sorry to see it go? We are!) let’s talk about chocolate for a moment. Chocolate inspires the most passionate responses — I know people who say, hyperbolically, that they could not live without chocolate, that their ultimate dessert is a wedge of the darkest chocolate cake imaginable. But chocolate doesn’t really do it for me; I like it in small amounts or swirled with peanut butter. What about you? Is chocolate the best thing ever, or could you take it or leave it? 

More

• Spring Table Top Garden
  Apartment Therapy

“Our friends feel like they’re on vacation when they’re here,” say Jonah and Jodie in this recent Apartment Therapy House Tour. “The house has an ‘enchanted cottage’ kind of feel that makes people not want to leave.” Their glamorous yet modern Hollywood aesthetic is evident in their kitchen, too — a favorite part of the home. “When we have parties, one thing never changes… the kitchen draws a crowd.” See more photos below!

More

If Dan Lepard’s new cookbook Short & Sweet is the one-stop shop for homey everyday sweets and baked goods, Patisserie is the one-stop shop for all things classic and French. Want to become the master of puff pastry? Craft your own pulled-sugar roses? Drap petits fours with fondant? With over 3,200 step-by-step photos and 210 recipes in 800 pages, this book will show you exactly how to do all of these things and more. Wowzas.

More

Every now and again, I stumble across something online that makes me smile. Sometimes it’s an incredibly well-written article; other times it’s a preview of an album I’ve been wanting to hear. Then there are the times when all it takes to put me in a good mood is the thought of a single-serve soft chocolate chip cookie in a cup. 

More

4.08 / 5 Stars | 9 Reviews

by JUSTIN MAGARAM

“Pasta is cooked with lentils for an exciting variation!”

View Complete Recipe Details and Reviews

While Clayton and Kate may love their classic Los Feliz Spanish charmer, they’re not wild about the white tiled kitchen counters or the linoleum kitchen floor, which they call “the color of an overcast day.” Nevertheless, they’ve managed to make the kitchen a charming, stylish place to sit and enjoy breakfast. (Thanks in no small part to the Eero Saarinen tulip table, vintage Czech chairs, and large sunny window!) See more photos below:

More

Q: I want to start using coconut oil in some gluten-free baking but cannot find specific instructions. Can you confirm that when a recipe calls for 1/4 cup coconut oil, it means melted to liquid form? Also, is there a good method for liquefying the coconut oil?

Sent by Kara

More

Last we checked in with my kitchen renovation, we were wrestling IKEA cabinets and installing them with (ahem) sex bolts. (See all the posts about my kitchen renovation so far here.) Now I’d like to take a step back and talk about a process that should be sexy but is actually fraught with confusion, uncertainty, and a lack of resources: Buying kitchen appliances.

Read on to see how we navigated the overwhelming process of buying appliances, and to see what we picked out. I’ll talk about how buying a range top can actually save you money, as well as our one amazing Craigslist find!

More

When I first started living on my own decades ago, and cooking for myself, I would buy some fresh fish at the market, put it in the fridge, cook it several days later, and wonder why it never tasted as good as my mother’s. The reason? It was no longer fresh! Now, having been duly trained by my notoriously picky seafood-loving father and my fisherman friends, I cook fresh fish the day I buy it. Not only that, but I buy the freshest looking fish at the counter, nothing tired, dull, or remotely fishy smelling. This often means a trip to the store looking for one type of fish, and returning home with another, because the halibut just didn’t look good that day but the petrale sole glistened. These salmon fillets were the most gorgeous fillets on ice at the market the other day, and the result of the quick broil with a hoisin glaze? Transcendent. 

Continue reading “Hoisin Glazed Salmon” »