Food, Photography and Bons Mots
So, where did the idea of celebrating birthdays with cakes come from? It was the Greeks!!!, as my Greek friend Michelle would be quick to say. (Michelle proudly maintains that most good things originated with the Greeks. ) Michelle may have a point. According to…
Just WOW! This is such a good cake and a relatively unique cake flavor to place on your table to entertain your guests. I have to confess, though, that I’m not having a party and this cake is quickly disappearing off my counter! This is…
Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for a beautiful Tomato Galette. You can find the recipe here.
Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.
And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne.If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.
I can remember sitting in a hotel restaurant in Cairo back in the 1980s furiously looking for something Egyptian on the breakfast menu. There were all the usual western breakfast items–eggs, pastries, oatmeal. It was pretty much the breakfast menu you would find in any…
Shirley Temple, remember her? In 1935 she made the song Animal Crackers In My Soup insanely popular, performing the song in her movie Curly Top. Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along: Curly Top/Animal Crackers in my Soup. Curly Top takes you on…
Wishing you a happy spring.
Here in Southern California, the birds are singing and gardens are waking up. How good is that?
Here is a recipe for a wonderful cookie to celebrate spring, the Spanish Almendrado, sometimes described as an almond-lemon macaroon. It is a small cookie with a big flavor–slightly crispy on the outside with a soft lemony interior.
Today, Almendrados are widely enjoyed in Spain. A popular Christmas treat, the cookies make use of Spain’s abundant almond crop. (Spain is the world’s second largest almond producing country. The United States is the number one world almond producer with California producing roughly eighty percent of the world’s almond crop.)
This is a cookie with an interesting history. Spanish Almendrados have been traced to the 15th Century. Some food historians believe that the Almendrado is, in fact, evidence of the Sephardic Jewish influence on Spainish cuisine. Javier Zafra, in his book Flavors of Sephardic Spain, makes the point that the Spanish Inquisition forced many Jewish Spaniards to convert to Catholicism or flee the country. The authenticity of their conversions was frequently challenged, however. In an effort to prove their Catholic bonafides, some of these “conversos” sent their daughters to convents to serve as nuns. Those young girls, Zafra argues, carried their Jewish family recipes to the convents with the flourless almond cookie, originally a Passover treat, being one of them.
Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for Sweet and Sour Tofu With Corn. You can find the recipe here. Want to dive deeper into…
For anyone out there who loves a good Alfredo sauce (you know who you are), this use of the classic sauce with beans is a revelation. That’s right. Beans. Who woulda thought? I made my dish with the giant Royal Corona beans made…
These stuffed pears are stunningly beautiful and delicious. They’re easy and quick to prepare, too. What’s not to love?
This is a quiche of culinary giants. The filling for this savory tart is a variation on Craig Claiborne’s famous Quiche Lorraine filling and the crust is from Ina Garten. It doesn’t get a lot better (or bigger) than that. You can find the links…
