Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Gobbled on October 22, 2012 by tartepink

It has been a while I could not cook/bake for fun, no therapy, no experimenting… Just eating to survive. I was busy. New job, new a lot!

I was between jobs a little too much that I started to think I can enjoy staying at home forever. Why not? I can do pilates & pool in the morning, go shopping in the afternoon. Reading, painting (not that I create master pieces), baking, playing with my baby, and what not. But I could not.

As a child I was always very proud with my mother that she was working. I was in a private school but even in such a privileged environment, kids with working moms were rare. At the first days of the school when we were telling about ourselves it meant all the world to me to tell them about my mom.

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Posted in Cookies, Italian | 4 Comments

Homemade Pasta

Gobbled on August 10, 2012 by tartepink

Thanks god I wasn’t that obsessed with kitchen when I was so busy studying on my doctorate. Well, there were some signs, I was a kitchen-nut in-progress, but still managed to stay in focus in the beginning years. Studying on a PhD degree is probably one of the most boring experiences one can ever live. It bores you to death, sucks the life out of you and makes you to do weirdest things. For a time I went cuckoo about ironing. When we visited Turkey during summer, we stayed at B’s parents. His mom irons everything from bed sheets to socks and all. It was great and I was addicted! But it was probably the worst thing to do someone neat freak but busy and lazy at same time like me. What was I gonna do when we were back home? At the beginning, I said no way! But then as the end of the study nears and my brain burns out I was ready to do anything but academic! I started ironing, I mean ironing all day! I was ironing everything in and out! Of course, B. was worried especially if you consider normally I hated ironing, and he was the ironing guy in the house till that time! No worries, today I’m over it, again hate ironing! It is again the chore that is most complained about and not working in our house. Who is gonna do the ironing?? Sorry not me :)

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Posted in Italian, Pastas | 1 Comment

Dulce de Leche

Gobbled on June 29, 2012 by tartepink

Dulce de leche is a South American born gem that translates to milk jam. It tastes and looks like caramel without the overwhelming sweetness. It is believed that Dulce de Leche is not evolved as a confection but instead as a way of preserving the milk without refrigeration in tropical climates. God bless those tropical climates so that today we get to eat this! How to eat? Well, start with directly spooning from the jar. Then it is up to your imagination and taste. You can use it as base and make dulce de leche brownies, macarons with dulce de leche ganache, dulce de leche ice-cream, cookies and what not. (Hopefully, these links will be active as I add these recipes to my blog.)

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Posted in Deserts, South American | Leave a comment

Kunefe (Kanafeh)

Gobbled on June 18, 2012 by tartepink

Finally, I’m back. With all the moving and adjusting here it was hard to blog. Now that I’m in Turkey I wanted my first post here to have a Turkish identity.

Kunefe (kanafeh) was one of the weirdest sweets to me when I was a child. (Two weirdest, mind shocking Turkish sweets will be in this blog at some point- sneak peak: one of them is made with all kind of beans and legumes and the other one with chicken breast!) But that was when I did not know about cheesecakes and all the sweet goodies made with cheese. I was sure that it cannot be good- cheese in a desert? I was not such an explorer growing up so I resisted to it till I was 17 or so. Ohh, how wrong was I. Today kunefe is at the top of my favorite desert list.

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Posted in Deserts, Turkish | 7 Comments

Chocolate Nougat Squares (Rice Crispy Treats)

Gobbled on January 31, 2012 by tartepink

On my chocolate cake post I told you I’m a chocoholic. My other addiction is shopping. As I became more of a foodie and cooking/baking lover, my addiction shifted towards kitchen shopping. I got the clue while watching Gossip Girl! Instead of drooling over THE shoes or purses, I went cuckoo when I saw Blair’s mom with all the Mauviels. So just before we moved back to Turkey for good, I went a little crazy. I could not get out of Sur la Table, Williams-Sonoma etc. I wanted all the colors and styles in Le Creuset store. I just wanted to live in Williams-Sonoma store- there was a La Cornue cooker, I could have slept in it forever. It must be great to be able to indulge in a $35-40K oven!!

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Posted in Chocolate, Deserts | Leave a comment