Playing With My Food ~
A journal about food, thought, travel, and life; by Chef & Raconteur Chaz French.

Baked Sundays: Sunflower Butter Cookies With Cranberries

As there are more and more nut allergies (or perceived to be) these days, I decided to play with a classic peanut butter cookie recipe and swap the peanut for sunflower, and then add a little something in the form of ground cranberries.  They add a subtle note to the cookie.  The recipe requires a […]

Baked Sundays: Crackers!

These are damn tasty crackers! Crunchy, flavorful, healthy and awesome!  I’d been wanting to experiment with crackers for the kids at school, but wanted them to be really healthy, I remembered a recipe we made in culinary school for some “Oatmeal Dulse Crackers” I used that as a jumping off point and adapted it to […]

Eating Well: Red Russian Kale Frittata

Russian Kale Frittata (Quick note: I don’t use non-stick cookware, so frittatas take a bit more oil, I’ve noted where you can leave out 2tbsp if using non-stick). Rinse your kale well, the cut off the tough end bits of the stem, then finely chop kale and stem.  In a saute pan melt half the […]

Baked Sundays: Brown Butter Shortbread With Saffron

I am in fact, slightly evil.  To make it worse, I didn’t just make an addictive brown butter shortbread, I added saffron as a mood enhancer. Brown Butter Shortbread With Saffron Yeild: 64 2″ x o.5″ baton cookies  Time: 40 minutes, plus 8 hours chilling. Ingredients: 1 stick (4oz) butter 1/8 teaspoon ground saffron 3/4 […]

Eating Well: Tuna Radicchio Salad

So, “Eating Well For One On A Budget” is way too long to put in most post titles, and EWFOOAB is an ugly shortening, so, we’re just going to call the series “Eating Well” from here out so the dish name can be in the title too. First, yes this is a full and filling […]

Baked Sundays: Buttermilk Lasagna

Oh, hi there! I hope you didn’t think that Baked Sundays was all about cakes, cookies and sweet decadence.  It’s most certainly also about savory decadence! What you’re looking at is a lasagna made with a buttermilk bechamel, layers of baby spinach, mushroom, emmentaler , chevre, leek and garlic.  The noodles were made by my […]

Baked Sundays: Recipe: Banana Bar Bites

This weekend I was away visiting my friends in Mendocino, pics from that to come.   While i was staying with Sydnee & Ken I got to watch as Ken made this recipe.  It’s strangely fascinating to watch someone else make something from my instructions.  As promised here’s the recipe for the Banana Bar Bites from […]

Misadventures in gluten-free baking

No, I am not going “Gluten-Free” or “GF” it ain’t happening. But I have friends with gluten issues from confirmed celiac, to people who just feeling better without gluten, so I’ve decided to see what’s involved in faking gluten.  So far what’s involved is a lot of money!  Baking gluten-free is fucking pricey. Ingredients from […]

Baked Sundays

Welcome to Baked Sundays, wherein I bake and share on Sunday.  The photos at least you get today, the recipe was a first draft, so while you’ll get to see my chocolate/ginger/yogurt cake, and I get to eat it, you have to wait a bit to try it yourselves. Happy Baked Sunday! Tweet

Orange Loaf for Lionel

So, my buddy Lionel is a dessert man but he prefers the use of chocolate to be limited; he feels it’s overused in desserts, and he has a point. And it was a chocolate orange bread from Nigella Lawson, that got me thinking about an orange loaf, but I didn’t want a pound cake, or […]