The Bitten Word

Beet Sorbet with Blackberry Ripple

adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

We are just loving all of your great entries in our ice cream flavor contest.  Peep sauce? Fig, nectarine, and bleu cheese ice cream with a balsamic ripple? Cajeta and banana? 

You guys are such a creative bunch! And our wheels are turning. 

We tried our own flavor combo this week, creating this Beet and Blackberry Sorbet using the method from Jeni (we like to think we're on a first name basis now). 

So let's round out our Ice Cream Week with a sorbet. 

Roasted Pineapple and Sage Ice Cream

adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Once we'd cranked out a batch of Jeni's Salty Caramel Ice Cream, we were eager to try her method for another flavor. 

So we looked at what we had on hand in the kitchen. When Zach's parents had come to visit a week ago, we'd purchased a fresh pineapple at the supermarket. Why, exactly? We're not sure. It was one of those "company's coming!" impulse buys that marks the arrival of visitors. ("Oh, maybe they would like to eat fresh pineapple while they're in D.C."  "Definitely." "And maybe some string cheese?" "For sure.")

Needless to say, the parents came, the parents went, and the pineapple remained untouched. So there it was, ripening upside down on our counter. 

Then, last week, Clay met up with his friend Rachel for coffee, and she showed up with a huge bag of pineapple sage that she'd plucked from her yard. It was beautiful and fragrant, and we instantly knew just what to do with it. 

Pineapple sage? It was a sign!

We got to work on a Roasted Pineapple and Sage Ice Cream.

Jeni's Salty Caramel Ice Cream

From Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

We have met our new hero, and her name is Jeni.

Way back in July, Rina -- a friend who we met through the blog and our go-to for Chicago restaurant recommendations -- sent us an email extolling the genius of Jeni Britton Bauer and recommending her (new at that time) cookbook, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home. 

We were interested (as we are in all of Rina's recommendations) but we didn't rush out and get the book. 

Why? The shame of our ice cream maker. It sits on the top shelf of a storage closet, rarely touched and seldom used. Did we need an ice cream cookbook to keep it company? 

We thought not.

And we were so, so wrong. 

Blackberry-Cream Layer Cake

Everyday Food (April 2012) 

Zach's mom and stepdad came to visit this past weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend -- D.C. at its spring finest. We had some delicious meals (including a sojourn out to Four Sisters, the best Vietnamese place around the District), saw a few sights and generally tried to spend as much time outdoors as possible, soaking up the gorgeous spring sunshine.

For dinner on Saturday night, we wanted something light and springy. We did an all-veggie meal of grilled spring onions with a mustard sauce; a yummy asparagus-and-cheese tart we'll write about soon; and a wilted salad of spinach, fresh peas and sauteed red onions (which had a dressing of hot bacon grease, so we suppose it wasn't quite a vegetarian meal after all. Sue us.).

For dessert, we wanted something really special, but still light and springy. Enter this Blackberry-Cream Layer Cake.

Roasted Pineapple with Honey and Pistachios

Bon Appétit (March 2012)

We're always looking for reasons to make desserts. We don't typically make them for ourselves, unless it's a special occasion. But we love to eat them and we love to showcase them here on the blog.

But there are two occasions when we almost always make something sweet: when someone invites us somewhere (see Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cereal Bars) or when we invite friends over for dinner. 

If friends are coming over mid-week for dinner, dessert is usually simple, or something that we can easily make ahead. In the case of this Roasted Pineapple with Honey and Pistachios, it was the former. Our friends Ed and Guy were coming over for dinner on a Wednesday night, and we needed something we could easily throw together in under and hour.

No-Bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cereal Bars

Everyday Food (March 2012) 

We spent this weekend out in West Virginia. Our friends Charlie and Scott invited us, along with our friends Drew and Ralph, to come out to their cabin for a few days in the country. We jumped at the chance to get out of the city for the weekend. 

You may remember this cabin as the scene of the crime for The Bacon Explosion two years ago. (Never. Forget.) You may also recall that Scott and Charlie introduced us to a lovely libation known as a Porch Crawler. This weekend introduced us to another new drink -- the Pickleback. It's a whiskey shot with a pickle-juice chaser. Believe it or not, we really enjoyed 'em!

Anyway, we didn't want to show up to the cabin empty-handed. So we took a quick spin through the current food magazines, searching for something that we could easily make on a Thursday night, and that would travel well to work on Friday, and then on the two-hour drive out to the cabin. Cakes and pies were out of the question. We needed something easy that would be a crowd-pleaser. 

These no-bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cereal Bars looked like just the ticket. We ran to the supermarket on Thursday after work to buy some sugary cereal.

Orange-Scented Olive-Oil Cake with Orange Compote and Ganache

Martha Stewart Living (February 2012)

Here's something we probably don't need to tell you: Martha Stewart Living has nice photography. Great photography, in fact. 

But there's a feature in the current February issue that has such stunning, jaw-droppingly gorgeous photos, we wanted to cook something from it just so we could talk about the pictures.

Could this Orange-Scented Olive-Oil Cake with Orange Compote and Ganache possibly live up to its photo?

Warm Coconut Rice Pudding

Cooking Light (January/February 2012)

Rice pudding is easy to forget about. It's sort of a sleeper dessert. If it were an Oscar contender, it'd be The Artist. If it were a character on Downton Abbey, it'd be Edith, the middle daughter. (Yes, we're watching. And we're obsessed.) If it were a Beatle, it'd be George. (Obviously, if Ringo were a dessert he'd be something more like this.)

Rice pudding is Jan Brady.

Which, of course, isn't fair. Rice pudding is warm and comforting, and it's easy to make. Scented with cinnamon and other spices, it's the perfect treat on a chilly winter night.

And this recipe from Cooking Light has us sitting up and taking notice. More than two years ago, we asked ourselves why we weren't eating more rice pudding. But, well, we keep forgetting about it. Not any more. This rice pudding may just be our new favorite winter dessert.  

Clementine Granita

Martha Stewart Living (December 2011)

When we moved into our first apartment together and started cooking in earnest, granita quickly became our go-to, fall-back dessert.

Why? Because it's tasty and impressive -- and unimaginably easy.

If we had friends coming over but didn't have the time or moxie to make an elaborate dessert, we'd throw together some juice, water and sugar, pour it into a glass dish, and freeze it. Then we'd scrape it with a fork and pile it high in an old-school champagne glass, kind of like we did when we made Coffee Granita last year. We loved it and so did guests. (And in truth, a few times we served granita as a dessert before a more substantial dessert.)

These days, we don't make granita nearly as often, mostly because we've either already served it to just about everyone we know or we're trying out a new dessert to share with you. But we still love it, which is why we jumped at the chance to make this Clementine Granita from Martha Stewart Living.

Nigella's Chocolate Fruit Cake

We're back from China!

We just arrived home yesterday, and once we're fully unpacked and have downloaded all our photos, we'll share some tales with you. Needless to say, it was a wonderful and adventurous few weeks away. Now we're both eager to get back into the kitchen and take a break from our endless parade of noodles and dumplings and rice. 

It seems that the Christmas season exploded while we were gone. Greeting us at the airport were sparkly trees, big faux packages and holiday songs on the loudspeaker. The houses up and down our block are already done up in strings of lights and festive wreaths. 

So, mere hours back from our trip, we already have holiday cooking on the mind. And for us, holiday cooking involves one recipe that we're eager to return to each year: Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Fruit Cake.