Watership Down Kitchen

I recently went to a lovely business party hosted by Aviation Management Systems. They had me provide cookies as a goody bag to take home at the end of the evening. Happily, my cookies were a big hit. The next day, I even got a few texts from happy attendees that ate my cookies for breakfast. The food highlight of the evening for me, however, was the happy hour held at the 100 Club. Every appetizer I sampled was a delight. Mini Monet Cristo sandwiches with maple syrup, lamb meatballs with tzatziki sauce, caprese salad bites, braised beef crostini and my personal favorite, roasted beets with goat cheese and walnuts. I knew I had to go home and remake it. Since I have a terrible sweet tooth, I did alter their appetizer slightly and candied the walnuts. I like the sweetness and the crunch; the cayenne adds a lovely spicy contrast. If you are hosting a party and want to serve an unforgettable appetizer, please give these a whirl! Ingredients: 2 medium beets, sl...

Cod is one of my favorite fish. It has a mild flavor and a dense, flaky, white flesh. It lends itself to hundreds of different preparations, and cooks in a jiffy. (Do you know a jiffy is an actual unit of time? The unit of time that a jiffy equals varies from one scientific discipline to the next, but most commonly it is used as a synonym for a nanosecond. In astrophysics and quantum physics a jiffy is, as defined by Edward R. Harrison, the time it takes for light to travel one fermi , which is approximately the size of a nucleon . By contrast, the earliest technical usage for jiffy was defined by Gilbert Newton Lewis ; he proposed that a jiffy was equal to the time it takes light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum (approximately 33.3564 picoseconds ).) But back to the fish. This is a very simple dish; the fish is lightly dusted with a spicy flour coating, seared for color and depth of flavor, then surrounded by a lemony garlic olive oil dressing and festooned with fresh ...

Am I still American if I confess that Chocolate Chip Cookies are not my favorite cookie? (And for full disclosure, apple is not my favorite pie. Quelle horreur!) I vastly prefer these chewy and oh-so-buttery butterscotch cookies. Even if you think nothing can top a warm chocolate chip cookies, I urge you to try these cookies out for yourself. You might be surprised. These are the cookies I make when I need instant comfort. It reminds me of baking with my mother and sister growing up, licking the paddle of the mixer, and watching the oven like a hawk until I could take the cookies out and burn my fingers trying to steal fragments of them as they cooled. I hope you make some cherished memories of your own when you make these cookies yourself. Enjoy! Ingredients: 1 1/2 sticks softened butter 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 cup dark brown sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 cups old-...

So it’s deep in the summer now, and cold desserts are in demand in my household. Well, in demand by me. I demand them of myself. When I don’t have time to make homemade ice cream, I like to buy Friendly’s. It’s really creamy and delicious and they have a lot of fun flavors. I recently bought their butterscotch swirl, but it left me wanting something different. This butterscotch ice cream is not a vanilla base with a butterscotch sauce ripple. Instead, picture butterscotch pudding, frozen. The butterscotch flavor permeates the whole of the ice cream. With rippled ice cream, you risk having a very thick, large ripple of straight sugar syrup. I find it too tooth achingly sweet. In my version, the warm, butterscotch flavor is balanced and creamy, never overly sweet. Make some today so you can enjoy it tomorrow; future you will say thanks! Ingredients: 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar 2 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon vanilla 2 teaspoons bourbon 1 1/2 cu...

Crab cakes; perhaps the perfect food? I find them utterly irresistible. If I see a crab cake on a menu, I have to order them. Done well, a crab cake is a bite of heaven; a truly transcendental eating experience. Done poorly, and they are still enjoyable to me, often do to a generous slathering of mayo-based sauce.  Crab cakes are expensive to make at home because crab is expensive. However, I do two things to cut down on the wallop to my wallet. First, I rarely purchase lump crab meat. Heathen that I am, I actually prefer a crab cake without huge, undisturbed chunks of crab in it. I like things more thoroughly combined. Because of that, I buy the much cheaper fresh-picked claw meat. Every bit as delicious, just cheaper and smaller pieces which more easily get combined into the cracker and vegetable medley. Secondly, I freeze my leftovers. This recipe make 14 to 16 medium sized crab cakes. I eat about 2 for a meal, so that gives me 8 times to enjoy crab cakes (and 7 of ...

I buy my milk and cream at my local farmer’s market. It is the most delicious stuff ever; creamy, rich and very obviously grass fed. I sometimes luck out and arrive early enough to snap up the raw milk; it is life-changingly delicious. I noticed recently that the same farm that sells the milk also sells cheese and meats. I snapped up some lovely ground beef, bacon and cheddar cheese. Since it is summer time, I knew I wanted to make a burger; I then realized that I had all of the ingredients for a simply irresistible Bacon Burger Egg and Cheese Sandwich. All I needed was to grab from fresh eggs, which happily are also sold at the farmers market.  This sandwich is only as good as the ingredients in it, so try to get really good beef, bacon, cheese and eggs. Believe me, it is well worth it. Since the star of the show is the interior of the sandwich, get a simple burger bun here. Don’t splurge on the brioche or potato buns; allow the bun to be the delivery system rather ...

It’s summer time, which means ice cream season. (If I am being honest, it’s ice cream season in my house all year long). I adore making home made ice cream; I can be endlessly creative with what flavors I make. However, this Cookies and Cream flavor is a classic and one that is very hard to beat. My spin on this perennial favorite is to make it ever more decadent. It’s base is my fool proof and luscious french vanilla ice cream. To this, I melt in the cream of the Oreo cookies- it makes it richer, silkier and permeates the flavor of the Oreo more fully throughout the ice cream.  The rum prevents the ice cream from freezing rock hard, which is the main challenge of home-made ice cream. Commercial ice cream either has softening additives and/or achieves a much higher overrun (aka percentage of air beaten into ice cream) than home machines can achieve. Feel free to omit this entirely; if you do, be sure to take your ice cream out of the freezer 15 to 20 minutes before s...

I have an abundance of waffle makers. I have a belgian waffle maker, a square waffle maker, a waffle cone maker, a heart shaped waffle maker, a mini waffle maker, a waffle stick maker, and so many more that listing them here might get me in trouble with my husband. Suffice it to say, I have a deep passion for waffles. This waffle recipe is very simple and basic, perfect for receiving a decadent topping over and above the usual butter and syrup. If you want to up your brunch game, add these to the menu. These Bourbon caramel bananas are incredible; your waffles will taste as good as any fancy restaurant’s! They cook up fast and require very few ingredients. The syrup soaks into the waffles and the bananas become soft, sweet and perfectly spiced bites of perfection. Enjoy! Ingredients: Waffles: 2 eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 3/4 cups milk 1 stick butter, melted 1 tablespoon white sugar 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla ...