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    chiknpastry

    chiknpastry

  • User post: Seoul Food

    These days, roaming street vendors carrying various delicacies are all the rage. I don't know about you, but I distinctly remember the yellow Schwan ice cream truck, complete with that tantalizing bell, slowly cruising through my neighborhood once or twice a week when I was a kid. Those vendors were

  • User post: Ramps are delicious "Wild Things"!

    My loving, darling husband has a stupid-crazy-job these days. He works harder than anyone I know (certainly harder than me), and he's in school two nights a week to get yet another degree so he can work even harder (but hopefully bring in more cash for that B&B he's gonna buy for me in Napa one day.

  • Take Me Out to the Ballgame: Hot Dogs 2 Ways

    (recipes at bottom)I used to collect baseball cards. In fact, I had so many baseball cards that I needed a special "baseball card binder" to keep them in. In middle school, one of my favorite excursions was a trip to Atlanta, Georgia to watch the Braves play; John Smotlz was super-hot, and I dreamed

  • User post: The Next Best Thing: Chicken "Wings"

    Remember the college days? What did you eat back then (well, for me it certainly feels like "back then" although it was only 8 years ago since those undergrad days) when the "freshman 15" was really no big deal because you were little, young, and knew you'd work those extra calories off at some poin

  • Seattle 101 + Braised Octopus

    I had a free flight courtesy of my friends at Southwest, and my 8 roundtrips within the last 2 years. It expired in April, and I don't know about you, but I'm not one to let things that are "free" go to waste. Hubs had 1/2 of a free flight (i.e., a "one way") as a result of his perseverence during "

  • User post: Healthy delicious focaccia with kale, squash, and peccorino

    it is not Big Star, or Avec, or even Blackbird. But it is Paul Kahan. And possibly, in a way you've never before seen him. He's been all over the newsstands lately - in Chicago and beyond. We made our first visit to his West Town spot, The Publican, a month or so ago, and had a decent sampling of p

  • Club Soba

    Part of having a food blog means you talk about the foods you ate (or didn't eat) as a child. Generally, that implies a certain amount of discussions involving your favorite dishes, a secret recipe, or in some cases, those dishes you still can't seem to stomach even after almost 30 years of watching

  • Channeling Bayless

    I am a huge Bayless fan. But let's put things in perspective here. Emily & Jenn are ginormous fans. If Emily isn't waxing poetic about Smitten Kitchen, she's doing it about Bayless. And Jenn, I mean, just look at one of her recent Bayless concoctions! The two of them even started a 'Bayless Fest' wh

  • A Parting Gift?: Pear and Prosciutto Pizza

    As you read this, I'm out enjoying one last day in Seattle with the Hubs. I'm sure it's been a fun trip, and I'm sure I'll tell you more about it when I'm back home. It's likely that we visited Pike Place Market and the original Starbucks, and we probably ate some seafood. Perhaps a trip to Woodinvi

  • Banana-fana-fo-fuffins

    I used to eat Luna Bars for breakfast every day. The chocolate-raspberry and caramel nut brownie were my two favorites, with the cookies n' cream and the peppermint bars taking a very close 3rd and 4th, respectively. I used to buy 20 bars at a time, stocking up every 4 weeks and driving the checkout

  • Stir-Fried Goes Green

    Over the course of 29.9 years, I've ever so slowly heeded my parents' advice, or demands, rather. I've eaten my vegetables. And I take that back - I've heeded my mom's advice; my dad despises any food that's green. In fact, he just hates green altogether. My mama though, she bonded with my dad's fam

  • How to be Awesome: Buttered Rum Sticky Buns

    Do you ever have those moments, rare as they may be (or often, if we are daring enough to admit it), when you say to yourself, "I am so flippin' awesome!"? I'm gonna go out on a limb here and admit to you, every last one of you, that I definitely have those moments. Like when I (with a load of help)

  • User post: Once Bitten, Twice Boiled, Tuscan Ribollita

    Though I didn't know it at the time, I found my very own Italian Stallion while drinking & eating my way through Europe's boot. Hubs and I met during a 5-week Florence-based study abroad trip, and despite his trying to woo me from week 1, I was (somewhat) slow to reciprocate. Nonetheless, those 5 we

  • User post: Not so Flash Taco

    China. Fine china. Bone china. You know, the fancy stuff you register for when you get hitched, or those dishes that your grandma gave your mom that your mom gave you (or maybe she just stored them away in the attic) that you're supposed to give to your daughter. Sure, those dishes are pretty, and I'm sure using them impresses people during those special dinners.

  • Converting to Chili

    It's safe to say it - I'm a chili snob. I mean, it's not just chili; there are other things I'm snobby about too. I have, possibly after drinking too much of it in college, grown to severely dislike watered-down beer and will only drink ales, aka beers with substance, or soul. I have very slowly sta

  • User post: One Down (and 3.6 to go)

    My cooking friend, Mark, emailed me a few weeks ago with a list of questions, reading recommendations, and an update on the North Carolina snowfall. He was practically snowed-in, with 8 inches in one day, and spent his time making stock. Me? I probably would have made cookies, or pie. But stock's go

  • User post: Icing on the Cupcake

    My (pound cake) gramma's house, the house where my dad chased rattlesnakes, cured tobacco in the barn throughout his summers, and where he to-this-day parks his 1984 Nissan pick-up truck (the same pick-up truck in which I learned to drive stick shift, and the same one I stole Doral ultra-lights from

  • User post: Batter up!

    It's National Pancake Week, boys and girls! I truly, honestly had no freakin' clue until around 12 PM on Thursday. Otherwise, I might have held off on the Vietnamese sandwich shop talk until later and instead provided some pancakes for you to mull over early in the week. Do you just love love love p

  • User post: Barbeque: Gooder than Snuff

    Have ya'll ever been to North Kakalaka? Let's just say, if you haven't, and if you ever do, a little preparation for the lingo might benefit you or else you may find yourself 'running around like a chicken with its' head cut off'. I am Southern, after all; it's only fittin' that I use my manners and

  • User post: I Miss My Ex.............

    [One more day! Vote for Friday's post at chiknpastry in the right column!] ... boyfriend's gramma's red velvet cake. I truly do. Why is it that almost every gramma is notorious for producing only the absolute best cake that you ever put into your mouth? My own gramma (not the s'mores one, the other