I did it! Please join everyone else in congratulating me on reaching twenty-six years of age. While that in and of itself might not be much of an accomplishment, this last year sure has been. As you all know, and are maybe tired of hearing about, I married my co-blogger and the all-around lovely lady, Sarah. Since this past year was such a big one, you may be a bit worried about me. You may be wondering what my twenty-seventh year could possibly bring about to top all the goings on of twenty-six. Well nothing, of course, could top the wedding, but I assure you that’s not going to stop me from livin’! Read the rest of this entry »
Let me ask you a question. Do you like flavor? Of course you do. You have a mouth. (Hopefully.) Second question. Are you a vegetarian? Yes? Ok, you may want to leave the room. The rest of you, come with me . . . Read the rest of this entry »
The other night we had a brownie craving, so we thought that we could put a few aging boxes of cocoa powder to use! We really liked how dense and choclately these particular brownies were. They definitely hit the spot. We used a combination of regular Hershey’s cocoa powder and the Dutch processed cocoa powder, since that’s what we had on hand. If you’re in the mood for a real brownie, and not just any pansy, pre-boxed, pre-made brownie, put your stretch pants on and try this variation from Alton Brown.
Well it’s holiday time for the Westervins, which means we’re taking off for a bit so we can head down to Louisiana and Arkansas. But we’ll be thinking of you the whole time, we promise! See you in the new year.
This Christmas, one out of every four Americans will give the gift of booze. Ok, I made that statistic up. But you can’t deny that people love giving and receiving alcohol for the holidays! You also can’t deny that it’s hard to enjoy a fine wine without a way to open it… So this year, we’ve put together a gift guide of fine corkscrews that you might consider giving with that fine bottle of fermented grape juice. See what we’ve rounded up below!
Yesterday Sarah took a look at that common holiday present, the ornament. Today I’m doing something a bit different: giving you my very own Christmas list.
Now I don’t actually expect you to run out and buy all of these things for me, that would be silly, not to mention expensive. But I wanted to try to put together a wishlist of things that would make great gifts for someone like me. You know, an incredibly handsome, accomplished man with impeccable taste…
Well, it’s cookie time. The best time of the year. We tried out this Argentinian cookie recipe from Saveur the other day and were very impressed with the results. These things are addictive sugar cookie sandwiches with dulce de leche!
Alfajores
1 2/3 cups cornstarch
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
10 tbsp. unsalted butter,
softened
1 tbsp. cognac or brandy
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
4 egg yolks
Canned dulce de leche, for filling
cookies
Heat oven to 350°. In a bowl, sift together cornstarch, flour, and baking powder; set aside. In a mixer fitted with a paddle, beat together sugar and butter until fluffy. Add cognac and zest; beat. Add yolks one at a time; beat. Add dry ingredients; mix. Transfer dough to a floured surface, knead briefly; divide into 3 pieces. Working with 1 dough piece at a time, roll dough to 1/4″ thickness. Using a 2 1/2″ round cookie cutter, cut out cookies; transfer to parchment paper—lined baking sheets, spaced 1″ apart. Reroll scraps and repeat. Bake until golden, 12–15 minutes. Let cool. Flip half the cookies over; top each with 1 heaping tsp. dulce de leche. Top with remaining cookies.
What’s a wedding without refreshments? Well, I guess it’s still a wedding, but the point is everybody loves a good wedding bar. It took us a while to figure out exactly how we wanted to handle drinks at the wedding, and we’re pretty happy with how it all turned out.
