12 August 2010

Elsewhere In The Blogosphere - July 2010 (Part 2)

• baking,
• Blog,
• David Lebovitz,
• Food,
• foodie,
• foodie news,
• Lemonpi,
• Not Without Salt,
• Orangette,
• recipe,
• Recipes,
• Smitten Kitchen,
• The Pioneer Woman Cooks,
• vegetarian,
• vegetarian recipe,
• Wildyeast

...I have done some culling of food blogs that I am following, where activity seems to have died down, while adding one new blog, Lemonpi, which has caught my eye, rather belatedly.

Lemonpi has an interesting recipe for Raspberry, White Chocolate And Lavender Muffins but I would like, at this time of year, to try it with fresh raspberries rather than frozen.  There's also a great recipe Italian Chocolate Raisin Torte, while her Banana, Yoghurt and Mesquite Cake sounds fine and you can get mesquite meal from Goji King, but not sure if that will quite do the job so any other ideas would be great.

At Not Without Salt, Ashley was on vacation for most of July, but before leaving she posted an evily sweet looking recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes With Marshmallow Frosting; it reminds me of many happy days in my youth and recently with my kids, when happily toasting marshmallows over fires beside dens in the woods or around a campfire.  Then to come back to the summer fruits theme of Part 1 of this round up there's a recipe for Raspberry Yoghurt Popsicles at Orangette taken from a David Lebovitz recipe.

Now if you've got a spare day, this is my recipe for the month which comes from the Smitten Kitchen Blog and is for Sweet And Smoky Oven Spareribs, which was awesome.  Firstly, if you have not got the 6 hours that the recipe required, just turn up the heat a bit to about 125C or 250F and cook for 4 hours - it still came out lovely and succulent, with the meat just sliding off the bone.  Secondly, take Deb's advice and reduce the sugar and up the salt, which is what we did and it was just right; also, I ditched the sauce as it is heresy to have a barbecue sauce with ribs, plus it just did not need it.  Then there was the Thai Style Chicken Legs, which sounded great but didn't the month just fly past.  Plus two gorgeously simple puddings, Raspberry Brown Sugar Gratin and Peach Blueberry Cobbler.

And Ree at The Pioneer Woman Cooks is a lady after my heart as she knows that custard is just the best, whether it's a warm custard on your sweet fresh fruit crumble or a cold custard in a custard tart or in the richest of richest crème brûlée recipes that she shares with the blogging world.  Then she whips up a simple but glorious sounding Blackberry Cheesecake that seems so simple to make that I don't know why I never seem to find the time. While I like the quick cheat Sixteen Minute Beef and Beans Burritos as it exemplifies what real, home food is about - getting well-balanced food to the table quickly with whatever ingredients are in the cupboard, and (in our house) that's without the aide of a microwave.

And finally, I like the idea at Wild Yeast of Ginger-Pecan Sourdough Biscotti, perhaps with a sweet Vin Santo di Montepulciano.