Double Take: Rosemary Onion Bread

Rosemary Onion Bread

I've taken my bread making to a new level and couldn't be more thrilled. If you've been reading my blog from the beginning, you know that I've always been a little hesitant about working with yeast. But, I made it through the cinnamon rolls. And then I conquered pizza dough (I need to give you my new recipe for that. It has changed dramatically since I first posted it). I've tried my hand at rolls a few times, those will make the blog eventually too. But today I want to share my first attempt at a loaf bread with you.

100th Post: Green Tomato Gazpacho for The Secret Recipe Club

Green Tomato Gazpacho

For today's post, I'm focusing on the positive. Happy 100^th post Fabulously Fun Food! Bender and I have now been back in the USA for two weeks and will be moving to our new home next week. We've spent the last two weeks visiting with family, which has been wonderful after two years of being so far away. As such, I've spent most of my time away from the kitchen, but I snuck in to my mom's kitchen last night and whipped up a batch of Green Tomato Gazpacho. Perhaps snuck is the wrong word considering my mom put more effort into making the gazpacho than I did. Halfway through the process I realized that I could not find the avocado I purchased, so I had to get Bender to drive me to the store to get another one. Luckily, Publix accepted my story without any questions, so I didn't have to buy a second one. So Momma did all the chopping; I did the blending.

Double Take: Almost Bourdain's Mandu (Korean Dumplings)

Dumplings.... one of those things that I don't photograph well.

Dumplings are one of those foods that seem to cross food cultures. Each one has its own version, a different unique spin, and I have yet to come across one I didn’t like. Oh, some of them fail to excite me, that’s true enough, but I don’t actively dislike any of them.

But one thing that really doesn’t excite me about them is making them. There is just something about filling and sealing each dumpling individually that doesn’t get me going. I’m more than happy to eat them (and very happy in the case of samosas and empanadas), but to stand there over a bowl of raw meat filling and sealing and crimping the edges for ages just doesn’t excite me.  

Double Take: Almost Bourdain's KFC (Korean Fried Chicken)

Sticky, yummy, messy Korean Fried Chicken

Tabitha and I are finally getting around to making a recipe that has been going around the blogosphere for as long as we’ve been food blogging: Korean Fried Chicken. With all the hype, I wasn’t quite certain how I would like it. I also wasn’t totally convinced that I had access to the key ingredient: gochujang. So when Tabitha added it to our “to-make” list, I decided to look for it. Turns out, it was relatively easy to find since Ellie at Almost Bourdain had actually taken a picture of the container. If she hadn’t, I’m sure I wouldn’t have agreed to post this recipe since nothing in the store actually said “gochujang.” My smart phone came to the rescue and Wikipedia informed me that its name is also Hot Pepper Paste. The Asian store in Jena is quite small, but its shelves are also packed to the brim. Yay! Now I just had to figure out when to make it…

Double Take: Pink Parsley's Summer Vegetable Gratin

Summer Vegetable Gratin with corn and Cuban burgers.

By the time this post goes live, I'll be sitting in the airport waiting on my flight out of Germany. We're moving back to the US. Whoa. So I hope you'll forgive me as this post is short and sweet...


I'm not big on making side dishes. I don't know why, but I just don't make a ton of them. I put so much effort into my entree that the side just put off until the very last minute when I blanch some green beans or broccoli. Occasionally they'll get roasted, but I'm a big fan of blanching vegetables. In an effort to balance my cooking skills a bit, I picked out a gorgeous looking Summer Vegetable Gratin to try my hand at a side. Plus, it looked substantial enough to be a main so I was kinda hoping it'd be a good vegetarian main dish for us.