Butter, Please.

There is nothing better than an omelet for a late dinner.

Protein + whatever vegetables around = reliable + delicious.

This evening I took my chances with a nutcracker and some dungeness crab. A couple legs and part of a back (?) I think.

I tried to cook the egg in some of the leftover butter with lemon, but I don't think that was quite as good an idea as I first thought. I kept it simple for the filling: crab, spinach, green onions.


Halfway through the omelet, I got the best idea ever. Top this thing with the butter and lemon.

Mmmmm. I know what I'm making for breakfast.

Dinner For Two

My sister and I had a lovely little Valentine's candle-lit dinner together, as our sweethearts are currently long distance. We had ravioli with garlic, walnuts, and goat cheese over a bed of wilted spinach.

Wilted is really the only way to have spinach. The trick is to throw it in the pan for just a moment, give it a quick stir, and pour it onto the plate, letting the ravioli or whatever do the rest of the wilting.


Goat cheese is one of my absolute favorites. Its creamy tangyness brings this dish up a notch or two. If you want to use walnuts as a dressing like this, make sure to cook them - in lots of butter.



Ground salt and fresh cracked pepper and voila! Quick, beautiful, and tasty with a helping of iron. All you need is a glass of wine and a French film.

A Night at the Opera

I've been thinking about macarons recently. Everyone seems to be talking about them. When I looked up the recipe, however, I got too overwhelmed and decided to make a 6 layer cake with a three page recipe instead. Why? I don't know.

Here's a picture from the beginning of this expedition. This is the part where I fold the 6 egg whites in with the 6 whole eggs and over two cups of powdered sugar.


This recipe requires over a dozen eggs and about 3 and a half sticks of butter. I am not kidding. I am not exaggerating. Oh, plus whipping cream.


This took me many hours. One trip to the store included, due to my poor planning. I don't think people usually make opera cake on a whim. I also had to redo the coffee syrup because I accidentally added it to the buttercream frosting. It was an easy mistake to make -- both require coffee. And that's my excuse. The results, however, are fabulous.



This is a serious cake at 20 servings. I followed advice on the recipe (thank you, Lynne Rossetto Kasper!) and cut it into pretty blocks to freeze. Drop by my house soon and I'll make espresso and share cake with you.

Oh, I made quite a mess.