Category: Cooking

In the latest entry on Immigrant Kitchens Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Mexican Chilaquiles from Azminda Cansino (read the recipe, see the photos and watch the video).

For days I looked forward to this. “Life is good” shirts and spare tire covers didn’t look sarcastic anymore. We’re going to get to learn chilaquiles, whatever they are, and I know they are going to be out-of-this-world amazing because real immigrant food always is. On Wednesday an hour before we were to cook, I was in downtown Portland when I got a foreboding email from Azminda. “I have two drawbacks,” she wrote. Her blender broke, and she couldn’t find green tomatoes at Hannaford, Shaw’s, or Walmart. Of course she couldn’t, poor thing! I had to save our cooking session

For this month’s collaborative food blogging project the group focused on that most American of desserts, the pie. Jillian at From Away has shared some memories of Girl Scouts and a recipe for Coffee “S’mores” Pie, Kate at The Blueberry Files risked permanently dyeing her fingers red to try out a recipe for cherry pie, Erika has supplied a meat pie recipe she used at the last Cloak and Dagger dinner, and Vrylena has aired her trials and tribulations in making the family crust recipe and the Ancestral Lemon Pie recipe.

From Away – Coffee “S’mores” Pie

This pie is incredibly easy and incredibly delicious. The chocolate ganache is, as you might expect, rich, dense, and decadent. The meringue is more like a grown-up fluff, if there is such a thing, and the crust is made with Nutella. What could be better than that? Bring this the next time you’re invited to a picnic, a cookout, or camping in a friend’s backyard. S’mores make us nostalgic for simpler times, childhood, summers long past. This dessert will make everyone at your party feel dreamy and content.… read the full article

Instant Portland – Last Minute Pie

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things I love about Portland, but one of my least favorite things is this: it’s really hard to pick up a pie (not made at the supermarket) at 6 pm on your way home from work. Foley’s closed at 5, and Two Fat Cats is always out of pies long before I’m out of work. It’s 90 degrees, my in-laws are coming over, and I really need a pie. I’m certainly not going to bake in this weather.… read the full article

The Blueberry Files – Homemade Cherry Pie

I learned that baking really takes time and commitment. If you have all of the ingredients and equipment on hand and don’t expect to come together in an hour, you’ll have a nice final product.

Explains why I’ve never mastered it. I’m the queen of substitutions and half-assery in the kitchen. But this time, this time! I really followed the recipe, took my time, and ended up with a great pie.… read the full article

Vin et Grub – Meat Pie

Its probably obvious by now how much I adore pastry, so when I was told that July’s O-Rama project was to be based around pie I was ecstatic! I love pie! Rhubarb, blackberry, keylime– you name it. But you know what I love more than fruit pie? Meat pies. Pasties, pot pies- mmm.… read the full article

Vrai-lean-uh – Parker Family Pie Crust & Ancestral Lemon Pie

In any case, after a fair amount of consternation, I had a “jesus take the wheel” moment and decided to just follow the family recipe, shrinking/puddling/deflating/sweating be damned. And it seemed to go really well! I made the pie crust and lemon custard the day before, then made the meringue while the oven was pre-heating, all based on first-person accounts of what my grandmother used to do. The custard chilled overnight, and the pie crust was just loosely wrapped and left on the counter. The pie came out of the oven with lovely browning around the edges of the meringue.… Read the articles on pie crust and lemon meringue pie

For those of you that just can’t get enough pie I recommend picking up a copy of the quirky but always entertaining 2012 cookbook from the Portland Pie Council, where you can learn things like:

• first recipe was published by Cato the Censor around 200 BC
• reveals the existence of a real recipe for a live blackbird pie published in 1549
• a list of famous people who have been pied in the face
• pie-try
• and lots and lots of recipes

Chef Cinzia Rascazzo, Director of Stile Mediterraneo in Puglia, Italy,and Michelle Goldman of Sea Change Cooking were interviewed on WCSH.

For this months collaborative food blogging project the group has broken a few eggs in celebration of National Egg Month.

Edible Obsessions – Eggtastic Photo Montage

This months installment of the “O-Rama” series is a celebration of ‘National Egg Month” and these are just a few–a very few–of some of the eggtastic dishes we’ve had over the past six months. I did make a Spanish Tortilla with kale, Chorizo, ramps, roasted red peppers and smoked cheddar, but it had a slight accident in the pan. When the recipe says you have to use a skillet, use a skillet and not a straight sided pan. It’s not as easy to flip and/or slip onto a plate. … read the full article

From Away – Deviled Eggs

The deviled eggs I would make for that party were the kind my mom used to make: heavy on the mayonnaise, with a touch of dijon, maybe a spoonful of horseradish, and a sprinkle of paprika for color. They’re perfectly serviceable, picnic-style deviled eggs, good for serving with a dried-out hamburger or a few hotdogs on a Saturday afternoon where the focus of the day is not on food, but on being outside with people you love. Preparing them in such large quantities, however, left me feeling pretty turned off by the whole idea.… read the full article

Vin et Grub – Les Oeufs

Eggs. I love them. I can’t get enough of them actually. When I’m stateside, it’s the only food I ever crave, as well as the only food I eat on a regular basis. Even other members of the animal kingdom covet them as much as we do. Foxes are known to steal unhatched eggs to no avail. And you know why? It’s because they’re delicious.… read the full article

Vrai-lean-uh – Hard-Boiled Eggs

Back in January when I said that I needed to figure out how to feed myself lunch like a regular human being and not some crazy food-scavenging wild animal, I was imagining salads with fruits and nuts in them, sandwiches with unusual cheeses, maybe grilled. Thus far, my big lunch-related breakthrough has involved hard-boiled eggs. And not in a sandwich (although it’s an important first step for egg salad sandwiches). I mean peeled, on a plate, with some salt and pepper on the side.… read the full article