…and it was.

Grilled spiced chicken quarters (cumin, coriander, ancho chile powder, cinnamon, lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary)

From the Motte & Bailey Used Books website:

This reading group began meeting at Motte & Bailey in July of 2009, reading books about any aspect of culinary history.  Books for the next meeting are determined at the end of each meeting, and members are encouraged to bring books to suggest or simply to show before the meeting. We meet the 3rd Wednesday of each month.

How exciting!

Recipe Below! Read the rest of this entry »

BonAppetit has a guide of “global hot dogs” on their website this month.  I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.  Some of the entries are just downright ridiculous (why would you put vegan mayo on a hotdog?  Why would you put mayo on a hotdog at all?), while others are…interesting enough that I’d try it out but not so interesting as to be completely unappetizing in my particular opinion, and some are just genius. Read the rest of this entry »

But until that day, I will just have to get by on the kindness of my husband (who brings me chocolates from my current all-time favorite chocolatier Schakolad) and good friends like my fellow foodie Brian, who just came back from three weeks in Europe (jealous?  Yes, completely) and brought me a bar (it’s actually 2 bars in one package) of delicious Belgian Côte d’Or Noir de Noir chocolate.  I love this chocolate for a couple reasons: one, it’s freaking delicious; two, I may be somewhat in love with the packaging because it’s entirely in French and, thanks to 5 years of French classes I am a bit of a Francophile (although, really, I’m in love with the Mediterranean as a whole, but France in particular).  Read the rest of this entry »

So, yeah, I don’t really eat breakfast foods, per se.  I know, I’m odd.  I’m told that on a regular basis.  I used to eat breakfast foods.  I used to eat pancakes, french toast and waffles until I realized that those delicious yet sugary carbs were exactly the reason I was crashing and feeling crappy by midmorning.  Again, I tend to have low blood sugar and reactive hypoglycemia and the worst thing I can do is start out the day with a metric ton of sugar pouring into my bloodstream.  So I stopped eating those.  Eggs tend to make me sick, and I only ever ate them scrambled anyway and not very often.  And breakfast meats like sausage and bacon are full of fat, which I tend to avoid not only due to my preference for eating somewhat healthy but also because meat tends to make me sick to my stomach for some unknown reason, and the fattier the meat, the worse it is (I know, I know, I’m so oddly delicate, right?).  So I avoid breakfast foods.  We go out to brunch on the weekend and my husband gets an omelet or french toast…I get a chicken caesar salad.  Or a gyro.  Go out with coworkers during the week; they get bagels and cream cheese, I get chicken salad.  That’s just sort of the way I am.  Besides, in my opinion, lunch foods are way superior–and more varied–than breakfast anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

Eastern Market in Detroit, that is. Eastern Market is the largest historic market district in the nation, apparently.  I’ve been going there for several years now and it’s always fantastic.  It’s a great place to get plants, flowers, fresh produce, cheeses, Josh’s favorite brand of Mexican chorizo, spices, cheap meat, fresh made barbecue and to sit out, hang out, and eat at any of the great restaurants lining the streets.  We go about once a month and stock up and it’s always a good time.  The stall vendors are loud, colorful and friendly and much of the food is locally grown (and some even organic).  Read the rest of this entry »

Coconut cupcakes2I got this recipe on Bakespace from user idreamofdessert, who got it from the Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten. I added a bit of color to mine with some fresh raspberries.  The cupcakes were dense but flavorful and sweet.

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Lately I’ve been making my own granola bars.  I blame Whole Foods for this development; I got the inspiration while looking through the snack recipes on their website and found one for chocolate chip granola bars.  It looked pretty simple (it IS pretty simple) and besides, I love granola bars but often they make me sick.  I tend to have bouts of reactive hypoglycemia fairly often and commercial granola bars are usually full of sugar and corn syrup which is a bad thing for me to have, and natural store-bought granola bars are pretty expensive.  So I thought, why not?  I’ll make my own.  It’ll be like the culinary equivalent of cutting down your own trees for wood.  Or something like that.

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