The first time I saw a spatchcocked turkey, I thought the cook had brutalized the poor thing. It definitely looked nothing like the roasted turkey that I was used to seeing in every food photo pretty much ever. So I politely asked, “uh… what’s with the bird?” It was then that I learned about the wonders of the spatchcocked turkey from the cook’s point of view: It may not be pretty, but damn it makes hosting Thanksgiving dinner a whole lot easier….
Tips
Homemade Pumpkin Purée
I’m going to be straight with you. I may or may not have googled where the accent mark in “pumpkin purée” goes before posting this recipe. I mean come on, two e’s? How many does the word really need??
Purée rant aside, let’s get back to the real topic here: pumpkin pie!…
Mastering the French Macaron
I finally had a free day to myself this Sunday with zero commitments, so my friend and I decided to try our hands at the French macaron. The macaron is probably one of the most intimidating baking challenges out there. If you mess up a ratio, forget to pop a few bubbles, or simply open the oven too soon, all can be lost. That said, we were determined to tease out the tricks of the pesky macaron. We made a number of different batches and tried a few different techniques to get the very best version – which, I won’t lie, took a good amount of time. After a few mishaps and broken macaron cookies (poor babies), we finally started to get the hang of it!…
Homemade Gnocchi + Wild Mushroom Ragù
On a whim, my brother decided that he was going to be home from college for a few days this weekend. Whenever he’s home, I immediately go into full Italian grandmother mode and make oodles and oodles of food, mostly in the hopes that it will entice him to choose LA over Denver when the time comes to graduate. He asked if I wanted to cook dinner on Friday and offered himself and a few of his friends as my potential kitchen scullions. …