After babble.com named me as one of their favorite mommy food bloggers last month, they asked me if I would also like to blog on their website. The food portion of their site is called The Family Kitchen, and I have joined Jenny Rosenstrach of DinnerALoveStory.com, Julie Van Rosendaal of Dinner With Julie, Kelsey Banfield, The Naptime Chef, and Caroline Campion, from devilandegg.com. It will be a lot of blogging, and a lot of fun to work with these women.

If you ever feel neglected here at sophistimom, then go on over to Babble.com‘s Family Kitchen, and you can see what I am posting over there. But for an easier time of it, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to become a fan of my new sophistimom facebook page, where I will always have updates of what I am posting, and where. Or, you can always just click on one of those cool new buttons over there on the right and register for my RSS feed, (my facebook page), or follow me on twitter.  But only if you want to.  No pressure.

Today I posted a recipe on babble for a crust-less quiche, which you see in the picture sandwiched in between the two halves of that biscuit. Click on over to see that recipe, and read about how I came up with the idea.

When I made these biscuits, I did something I have never done before in my life: I used the leftover bacon grease. Some of you may think that’s cool, others may think it’s disgusting. I knew it couldn’t be much worse than using hydrogenated oil, and thought it would add to the flavor and overall texture of the biscuits, so I gave it a whirl.

I think it really delivered.

Read the rest of this entry »

I am just now getting around to making my New Year’s Resolutions. One of them is to eat healthier. I am sorry I am just now starting off the year on sophistimom. If I’m not mistaken, it’s February 1st.

On that note, I just want to thank you all for being so patient with me.  I know I have been gone for awhile, but I have not stopped thinking about my readers, and I have not stopped thinking about the blog.  Life has just been crazy.

Speaking of crazy things, I have recently moved into a basement apartment, and sadly, it has no natural light.  None at all.  And so for these bagels, I took some instructional pictures, but they kind of stink.  White balance on even the nicest of cameras, surely cannot make up for fluorescent light.  I want to cry.  So, after today, I think I will be skipping the instructional pictures unless I make the food at a friend’s house.  I live in Utah, so if there are any volunteers . . .

Okay, down to business.  Homemade bagels are delicious, and worth every second it takes to prepare them. White bagels would have been good, but my bloggie friend Kamran at the sophisticated gourmet made some awhile back.  When I make white bagels, I like to refer to his recipe.  They’re amazing.

Though I am a sucker for white bread, I am trying to be healthy right now, and that’s why I made these.  My kids prefer white bread too, but let me tell you, trying to wrangle that one in the picture out of the house so I could photograph it at my friend’s house was nearly impossible.  My kids kept begging me for more.  So if you want to get your kids to eat healthier, you may want to try these.

Read the rest of this entry »

I thought these were going to be a sort of filler doughnut to help stretch out doughnut week. But they were actually a huge hit and everyone’s favorite.

The inspiration came from my citrus pancakes I did ages ago.

I used the same dough as I did for the Vanilla Bean Boston Cream doughnuts, so if you want to double the recipe, or even cut the recipe in half to make both kinds, be my guest.

Read the rest of this entry »

French crullers are probably one of my favorite kinds of doughnuts. They aren’t too sweet, and have a texture and flavor all their own—eggy and light on the inside and sweet and crispy on the outside.

It had never occurred to me that I could make my own until last summer I came across an old Martha Stewart Living that gave instructions on how to make them. I don’t recall the recipe they used exactly, but I do remember they used a pâte à choux—that wonderful, easy to make, easy to use French pastry dough—and piped it onto little squares of parchment paper with a large star tip, then lowered it slowly into the hot oil.

For my own version, I basically did the same. They were exceptionally easy, and were a great variation of texture and flavor from the other doughnuts.

Read the rest of this entry »

That pumpkin torte I made the other day was really delicious, so I thought I should fry some of the batter for our little party.

I honestly have no idea how people make cake doughnuts in a ring shape, so these were made into little doughnut holes, which actually worked perfectly at our doughnut party because they kept the kids happy while we worked on rolling out, filling, and frosting the other ones.

In the picture, I sprinkled them with powdered sugar, but in the recipe I’ll give you instructions to make a glaze, which makes everything taste better.

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to Sophistimom’s Trick-Or-Eat post. Today, nine favorite food, craft & lifestyle bloggers await behind nine haunted houses with an array of holiday treats created just for you. At the end of this post, you will find two of these mystery houses. To join in the holiday fun, simply click on one of the buttons and you’ll be linked to the next home on the block. You can also discover all of the Trick-Or-Eat contributors and find direct links to their posts at www.Trick-Or-Eat.com. Happy Halloweening!

You came to the right house! Come on in, we’re having a doughnut party!

In New England, where I come from, only friendly spirits roam our antique houses’ halls. Pierre of Kitchen Scraps did a lovely job on my house, didn’t he? It’s a Cape Cod with nothing spooky or creepy—just the way I like to celebrate Halloween. I love the way he made the windows glow! If I could live in any house, I would dream up something like this.

While you’re stopping by for Trick-or-Eat, help yourself to this recipe for pear beignets with cardamom crème anglaise. They are worth dying for—well, maybe not, but definitely worth smelling your whole house up with deep frying oil. When I knew I’d be making them, I invited friends over and tried out four other recipes for doughnuts. We had glazed French cruellers, Pumpkin Poppers, Citrus Twists, and Vanilla Bean Boston Creams! Come back everyday this week when I will post each of the recipes.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the Trick-or-Eat fun!

Be sure to read to the bottom of the post, to follow all nine trick-or-eat blogs!

Read the rest of this entry »

If you have never tried steel cut oats, then now is the time. They are really quite different than rolled or quick oats–chewier, and nuttier.

Even though they take quite a bit longer to make, you can prepare extra, refrigerate it, and then heat it up the next morning. When I do this, I usually divide up leftovers in separate microwave bowls. Then in the morning, I break up the cold oats (which turn into gelatinous bricks in the refrigerator) with a spoon, add about 2 teaspoons of water per bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for about a minute until hot.

Read the rest of this entry »

It may be too hot to bake these, but if you get up early enough, or you have central air, these are a fun breakfast for Fourth of July.

I first made these as just blueberry muffins a few weeks ago when I got all those blueberries on sale, so if you want to only use one or the other kind of berry, be my guest. You could make them with chunks of peaches and raspberries, too. Oooh. That would be really good.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s June 3rd, and I have the heat on.

These rainy, misty days are my favorite days of summer.  They remind me of my childhood in New England with windy walks on beaches and pinewood fires in the center of drizzly campgrounds.  They were the days that gave us hope amidst the countless unbearably muggy days in between.

The chilly summer memories I hold most dear are the vacations we spent in Maine.   One early morning, while staying near friends, we ventured out to Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries.  On the way home, we found a red raspberry bush with the most delicious berries.  I still compare all raspberries to those I had on that vacation, and only rarely do I ever find one that rivals them in taste.

For many years, I thought that Robert McCloskey had based his book Blueberries for Sal on me, because my parents had taken a picture of me sitting amongst the blueberries on the same hill.  As a teenager, I discovered, much to my disappointment, that the book was published before I was born.

In the afternoons, we would run around with our friends’ Golden Retriever.  Her name was Sunshine, and till this day, if ever I hear the John Denver song “Sunshine on My Shoulder,” I think of those vacations in Maine and get a catch in my throat. (Yeah, I know, whatever.  I’m a sap.)

This Cream of Wheat with blueberries and maple syrup brought back my memories of Maine.

If you have never tried cream of wheat cooked in milk, then I would strongly suggest it.  It is like eating pudding for breakfast.  If you would like a vegan version of this recipe, that tastes like a creamy version of mangoes with sticky rice, substitute the milk for a cup of light coconut milk.  Follow the same cooking instructions, and garnish with turbinado sugar and mango.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s just a quick recipe I thought might be fun.  I thought about making it for ages, and had very high hopes about it.  When the moment arrived, though, I burnt a ton of them trying to get the eggs to cook through.  In the end, I decided to pull them out of the oven when the phyllo was golden brown and microwave them to cook the egg enough to be presentable.  If you’re some sort of purist that refuses to use a microwave, or you just don’t have one, feel free to experiment with the recipe and post your cooking times and temperatures in the comments.  I’d love to know how to get them to work without the microwave.

Read the rest of this entry »