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Musings & Recipes From My Kitchen

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Archives for May 2011

Eat Write Reatreat 2011: Fettuccine in Bianco with Asparagus, Mushrooms and Asiago Cream

May 27, 2011 By Laura 9 Comments

Fettuccine in Bianco with Asparagus and Mushrooms

As most of you know, I attended Eat Write Retreat this past weekend.  I am (I think) one of the last attendees blogging about it–it amazes me how fast people got their review posts out.  I needed time to sleep, to drive home, to sleep, to relax, to process the entire event, to sleep some… 

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Filed Under: asparagus, cookbooks, easily made vegetarian, Italian, misc, mushrooms, reviews Tagged With: asparagus, bianco, cream sauce, Italian, mushrooms, pasta

Caramelized Peanut Shortbread Bars: A Review of A Baker’s Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies

May 24, 2011 By Laura 14 Comments

Caramelized Peanut Shortbread Bars: Snickers plus Twix plus homemade!

I’m headed to I just got back from Eat Write Retreat this past weekend, and I meant to get this posted before I left.  Life happened.  For those who don’t know, it is kind of a networking workshop–I describe it this way, rather than a conference (despite having never been to one of any kind… 

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Filed Under: bar cookies, brittle, candy, caramel, chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, cookies, Holiday and Christmas Cookies, peanuts

Spicy Southwestern Rice & Bean Bake: A Review of Not Your Mother’s Casseroles

May 18, 2011 By Laura 6 Comments

Christmas came to The Spiced Life this May!  A friend of my dad’s, who graduated high school with him, passed my card onto his daughter, who works for The Harvard Common Press.  She has my pre-mom dream job, she works in the cookbook division, where she also worked on their cooking blog (Harvard Common Press… 

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Filed Under: beans, casseroles, cookbooks, reviews, rice, southwestern, tomatoes, vegetarian, zucchini

Persian Gulf Split Pea Soup with Rice & Mint

May 16, 2011 By Laura 5 Comments

So what is Mother Nature doing where you are?  Is it as weird and crazy there?  Temperatures all over the place, nonstop rain and storms, flooding, weird random sunshine when you least expect it (and probably cannot take advantage of it anyway if you have a traditional weekday job)… 

Filed Under: carrots, Creek in Ohio, curry powder, lentils, lime, Middle Eastern dishes, Persian, rice, soup, split peas, vegetarian Tagged With: curry, lentils, Mideast, mint, onions, Persian Gulf, rice, split peas

Ruperto’s Tender Flaky Cookies: A Great Dairy Free Cookie to Satisfy Shortbread Cravings

May 14, 2011 By Laura 18 Comments

With apologies to my dairy free friends who also keep kosher or halal, I have to tell you that these cookies were so delicious, so sublime, that they might have replaced traditional butter-based Scottish shortbread for my favorites of this type of cookie (I will continue to make both though, because Scottish shortbread is fabulous… 

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Filed Under: cookies, dairy free baking, Holiday and Christmas Cookies, shortbread, Spanish cuisine Tagged With: cinnamon, cookies, dairy-free, lard, lemon, shortbread, Spanish

Vindaloo Spiced Pork Tenderloin

May 11, 2011 By Laura 4 Comments

We have a weird summer coming up.  I don’t think I have ever been gone from my house for such a large span of time (all of July and half of August).  No camps this year, no garden vegetables, no pool membership.  No blueberries will be frozen come July, no early tart apples will be… 

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Filed Under: Indian recipes, pork

Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

May 5, 2011 By Laura 7 Comments

I am pretty certain this post can be filed under “ironic.”  I am finally caught up enough to share my first deliberately dairy free recipe, and guess what?  I had a CT scan today and am re-introducing the dairy.  Wee-hoo! 

Filed Under: chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, cookies, dairy free baking, peanut butter Tagged With: chocolate chips, cookie, Dairy Free Baking, dairy-free, dessert, peanut butter, shortening

Mahi Mahi & Rice Noodles in Curried Coconut Broth

May 3, 2011 By Laura 8 Comments

I attended my 20th high school reunion this past Friday night.  In typical fashion for my class, we skipped all the official stuff and met on our own for dinner and drinks instead.  It was the first reunion I’ve attended and it was great fun.  So I’ve had high school on the brain, high school,… 

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Filed Under: coconut milk, curry, curry powder, Indonesian, Malaysian, rice noodles, seafood, soup, stews Tagged With: coconut milk, curry, curry paste, fish, fish sauce, mahi mahi, rice noodles, SouthEast Asia

Cuban Mango Cake with Coconut and a review of A World Of Cakes

May 1, 2011 By Laura 32 Comments

I mentioned a while back that some friends and I had started a supper club in my small town.  We started with Italian and then most recently, with me hosting, we did Caribbean.  I immediately volunteered for dessert because I saw a great opportunity to give Krystina Castella’s A World of Cake a test spin… 

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Filed Under: cakes, Caribbean dishes, coconut milk, cookbooks, Cuban dishes, fruit, mango, reviews Tagged With: cake, Caribbean, coconut, Cuban, mango, review

Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

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