lorenius

Tonight was one of the first hot, sticky nights we’ve had this summer. So it was so nice to have a refreshing Italian Ice after dinner.
I was trying to replicate the flavor of the ices they sell at the Hackensack Pastry Shop. My mom grew up in Hackensack and whenever we’re in the vicinity we [...]

I put together an afternoon tea for my mom. It was great but a fair bit of work. I made two types of tea sandwiches – waldorf chicken salad and prociutto and asparagus with cream cheese. Vanessa, my oldest sister, made vegetarian ones. She had cucumber, radish, and goat cheese ones that were my favorite.
The [...]

It was supposed to rain all weekend, but yesterday it cleared up mid morning and was nice all day. I was hoping for the same today, but it was not to be.  The cold, damp day called for some scones.  Reader, I made them.
Cardamom scones with Lemon icing and Cranberry and Walnut Scones.  I’m eating [...]

I made some cupcakes for my sister Vanessa’s birthday. They were incredible.
I started off using Grandma’s Chocolate Cake recipe from Cake & Commerce. It was delicious. One of the nice things about it is that it uses vegetable oil instead of butter so it’s easy to make it last minute. My butter is always in [...]

We had a family dinner last night and I made fajitas. I used Paula Deen’s Gold Medal Fajita recipe from Food Network and it was delicious! The key to this is really the marinade.
I mostly followed the recipe but I added at least double the garlic and replaced the onion salt with some chopped [...]

Santa got me a new ice cream maker for Christmas. My the freezing gel disk on my old one got corroded so I threw it away. Anyway I also got the Ben & Jerry’s cookbook. My first batch had to be my favorite flavor – Mint Chip. I used the Sweet Cream base but [...]

I have gotten terrible at updating this. Between twitter and facebook I stay pretty busy. Going to try harder though.
Back on topic. I have an idea for this year. I want to put together a family cookbook. My mom has lots of recipes in various books and in her computer and I have my [...]

I brought my lunch into work today. It’s sliced grilled chicken, feta and grape tomatoes over spring mix lettuce with some balsamic vinaigrette.  I like the chicken, feta and tomatoes but I realize more and more that I dislike lettuce. When I get a salad from the cafateria here I eschew the lettuce in favor [...]

One of the best things about St Patrick’s Day is Shamrock Shakes at McDonalds. Mmm…minty. Apparently I’m not the only one who loves them. There’s a website out there to help you track down a McDonald’s that has them. And apparently the NYC franchises voted not to carry them. Sick bastards!
 http://shamrockshake.com/

I spent most of wednesday night baking for Thanksgiving.
My contribution was a maple spice cake with maple cream cheese filling and chocolate ganache.

Then I made a couple Aunt Rose’s Pumpkin Pies.

And lastly the BEST COOKIES EVAH – Walnut Cookies. They may not look like much but fights break out over these when my aunt [...]