The Bitten Word

New England Brown Bread

Saveur (March 2012)

In August 2009, we were staying with our friends Dan and Wendy in Belfast, Maine. That Saturday, they suggested that the four of us drive up to Bangor for the annual American Folk Festival. 

Mere moments after we arrived at the outdoor festival, the skies opened up. A Nor'easter socked Bangor for the entire day, drenching everything in sheets of freezing rain. The two of us Southern boys were essentially wearing every article of clothing we'd brought with us (how could it be this cold in August?!), and we were ready to pack it in and head back to the house. Dan and Wendy are made of hardier stuff, however, and we stayed for the day, teeth chattering and rain pouring down our necks. (It wasn't a total bust: We saw a nifty maple syrup demo, and we heard a very cool Quebecois vocal group.)

By the end of the day, we were frozen to the core and soaked to the bone. We headed back to Belfast, lit a fire in the potbelly stove, and hung our clothes to dry. 

Suddenly Wendy had an inspiration: We'd make brown bread for dinner. The two of us had never heard of it, but she assured us it was a New England specialty. Dark and dense and subtly sweet, a slice of warm brown bread slathered in butter, Wendy said, would be just the thing to restore our souls.

Reader, brown bread saved our lives.

Incan Super-Power Bars

Food & Wine (September 2011)

Don't you feel like this recipe name is just begging to be followed by an exclamation point? "Incan Super-Power Bars! Power-blasted with ancient Incan energy secrets to give you the boost you need!!! INCAN SUPER-POWER BARS!!!"

No? Just us?

Well, here's a sentence that definitely needs to end in an exclamation point: Zach is running a marathon! (Actually, maybe that calls for an interrobang: Zach is running a marathon‽)

Anyway, yes, Zach's running the Marine Corps Marathon on October 30 here in D.C. It's his first marathon, and he's been training since May. Prior to this, the most either one of us had ever run was the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, which we've run the past two years.

Sidenote: The team that Zach is training with is called Team to End AIDS. It's a very, very good cause, and all the fundraising proceeds go to AIDS United and the Washington AIDS Partnership. If you'd like to donate to Zach's fundraising page -- even a buck, or five bucks or 10 bucks -- you'd be helping out an excellent organization. And we would love you forever.

As a result of all the running he's been doing over the past several months, Zach has blissfully been eating everything in sight. (Seriously, we should have purchased stock in a peanut butter company this summer....) He's constantly been on the hunt for foods that are nutritious, delicious and full of energy.

Which is why we were thrilled to find these Incan Super-Power Bars (Incan Super-Power Bars!!!).

Morning Glory Muffins

Cook's Country (May/June 2011) 

 

We've been to our fair share of coffee shops. So we were already familiar with the glories of the Morning Glory Muffin before seeing them featured in the most recent Cook's Country.

If you're not familiar with them (several friends we've discussed them with over the last week haven't been), they're those beautiful, carrot-studded concoctions of fruit and nuts, typically filled with raisins, cinnamon, walnuts and pieces of carrot. They're like the breakfast equivalent of a Compost Cookie -- a little bit of everything thrown in.  

Now, we're not usually muffin people. Breakfast around our house typically consists of protein shakes or oatmeal. On weekends we'll usually make some kind of eggs or the occasional pancake or waffle. 

But the arrival of guests is a great time to break out of your breakfast tradition. So when Zach's mom visited recently, we seized on the opportunity to make muffins. 

Dorie Greenspan's "Visitandine," or Your New Favorite Strawberry Shortcake

Adapted From Around My French Table

Here's a tip: Before you start cooking any recipe -- or really, before you even go shopping for the components of a recipe -- read the full instructions all the way through.

Not that we're good about following that advice ourselves. Time and again, we find ourselves barreling toward the end of a dish, and suddenly -- ohhhhh, cripes! -- "Let rest for 90 minutes before proceeding to next step." 

We were glad to see this tip, submitted by Chef John Besh, included in Food Network Magazine's terrific May feature, "The 100 Greatest Cooking Tips of All Time." It bears repeating: "Take the time to actually read recipes through before you begin."

Of course, sometimes things turn out okay. In fact, not heeding that advice led us to make this strawberry shortcake. More on that in a moment.

But first: strawberries. 

Strawberry season is upon us, at least in our neck of the woods. If you're south of our nation's capital, you no doubt already have them by the bushels. Folks up north: Hold tight! They're coming. Our CSA kicked off this week, with a small quantity of strawberries, but it sounds like a bunch more are on their way to Chez Bitten Word. 

We have some favorite recipes we'll revisit, like Strawberry Dumplings, or maybe this Strawberry-Citrus Salad. We also love making Freezer Jams, so that we have all that deliciousness on hand year-round (or at least as long as we can ration it). 

And then there's shortcake. 

We've made a handful of strawberry shortcakes here on the blog, our favorite being these Balsamic and Brown Sugar Strawberry Shortcakes. The compote was our own, but the shortcake itself was from Everyday Food, and it was very good.  

But it looks as if we may have found a new favorite shortcake recipe. 

Sweet Potato Doughnuts

Food & Wine (March 2011)

Many times over the past few years, we’ve considered making doughnuts.  But the timing was never right. Either we didn’t have enough time or the right occasion to go to the trouble. 

This past weekend, though, it was finally time to make the doughnuts.

We were having a lazy weekend at home, with few plans.  And these Sweet Potato Doughnuts from Food & Wine were calling out to us.  

First things first, though: If you want to make these doughnuts, you need to set your expectations. 

Mini Mocha Cheesecakes

Everyday Food (January/February 2011)

 

As more than one commenter noted in our recent gallery of magazine covers, January is the time of year for food magazines to trot out every "light" and "health" dish they can find. It makes sense, of course, after the glut of holiday fare and with New Year's resolutions fresh on the brain.

If you've resolved to eat better, these Mini Mocha Cheesecakes are a terrific way to satisfy your sweet tooth in a healthier way. (Although let's just all be honest for one second: If we were really trying to improve our diets, we'd be skipping dessert altogether.)

Anyway, we were drawn to these cheesecakes because they seemed like light, simple desserts. Well, they are light -- just 174 calories each -- and they should be simple. But there are some things you need to know.

Flourless Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cookies

Southern Living (December 2010)

The two of us have a lot in common when it comes to food. We have similar tastes, we're both willing to eat just about anything, and we have a penchant for selecting the exact same dishes on a restaurant menu (if only that was a game show, we'd be shoe-ins!). 

In fact, the places where our palates differ are few, and mostly center around dill (Clay doesn't hate it but isn't a huge fan) and mushrooms (Zach's still trying to get on board). 

But the one thing we agree on more strongly than anything else? 

It's an undying, passionate love for the combination of chocolate and peanut butter.  Chocolate and peanut butter together is our weakness, our craving, our happy place we'd visit over and over and over again.

We've made plenty of dishes featuring this combo here on the blog.  At the bottom of this post, you can see a list of our four favorite PB-and-chocolate recipes. 

So when we got on a little cookie-making kick last week, starting with Snow-Capped Macaroons, Southern Living had our number with their recipe for Flourless Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Snow-Capped Macaroons

Food Network Magazine (December 2010)

Every December, you can count on the holiday issues of all the food magazines to be overflowing with cookie recipes.

Maybe it's us, but this year's issues seem to have even more cookies than usual, dazzling arrays of snickerdoodles, shortbreads, thumbprints, haystacks, gingerbreads, iceboxes, meringues, Linzers and on and on and on.

We're not complaining.

After all, if you're ever gonna make a cookie, now's a good time to do it!

Also, call us crafty, but "making holiday cookies" sounds a little fun, and we start to imagine a day spent making all kinds of beautiful creations that get wrapped up in little boxes and given to friends. 

Well, that's not going to happen, but we thought we'd do our part with these Snow-Capped Macaroons from Food Network magazine. We love coconut, and the notion of a classic macaroon dipped in chocolate and topped with sugar sounded too good to pass up.

Thanksgiving 2010: Pumpkin Layer Cake with Goat Cheese Frosting and Quince-Ginger Compote

Martha Stewart Living (November 2010)

Martha, you had us at goat cheese.

Of all the Thanksgiving recipes in all the magazines we looked at this year, we were most excited to try this Pumpkin Layer Cake with Goat Cheese Frosting and Quince-Ginger Compote.

The thought of a goat cheese frosting had us salivating. A tangy, sharp frosting sweetened with sugar, paired with layers of pumpkin cake? Count us in!

We almost made one crucial error, though. We nearly skipped the quince compote.

Classic Buttermilk Cornbread

Fine Cooking (October/November 2010)

Like all good Southern boys, we both grew up eating a lot of buttermilk cornbread. It's classic Dixie fare, and you'll find it on the dinner table all year long. (Or the dessert table: To this day, Zach's grandfather's favorite after-dinner treat is a half-glass of buttermilk with cornbread crumbled into it, topped with a spoonful of sorghum. To each his own.)

But what's not to love? Moist, golden, Southern-style cornbread hot out of the iron skillet -- with that distinct buttermilk tang -- topped with a little sweetcream butter?  It's perfect!

One point of clarification before we continue, though: This ain't Southern cornbread.