Gina Ruiz on September 3rd, 2008

So there was this chocolate sauce just sitting in my fridge, left over from the eclairs.  The chocolate glaze was in there too.  Seriously, they were calling me, begging not to be left in there on their own.  Several times, i walked over and thought maybe I should make more eclairs.  Maybe creampuffs.  No, it’s [...]

Continue reading about Call Me Crazy – Cream Puff Crazy

Gina Ruiz on August 31st, 2008

Jasmine really loved the chocolate glaze.

The Challenge: Chocolate Eclairs from Pierre Hermé’s book, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé.
The Hosts: Tony Tahan and Meetak
Many, many thanks to our wonderful hosts this month. What a wonderful recipe they chose and how supportive and marvelous they were. (Insert applause here).
Hurry up Autumn, I’m getting a [...]

Continue reading about Daring Baker’s Challenge – Eclairs in August

Gina Ruiz on August 13th, 2008

Recipe submitted by Darlene Chan
I hate buying buttermilk for one recipe because ultimately I use 1/2 cup and then it sits in the fridge until I throw it out. This time I thought I’d be a bit smarter. I had originally bought a quart to use for buttermilk pancakes, which left me with 3/4 of [...]

Continue reading about Peach Cobbler

Gina Ruiz on July 3rd, 2008

I love cooking and baking and take just about any opportunity to try something new or make something. If I’m cooking, I’m a happy camper. So when my roommate Rachel wanted to buy Challah for Shabbat with a friend, I jumped right in and asked if I could make it.
I had this recipe [...]

Continue reading about We’re Just a Couple of Challah-back Girls!

Gina Ruiz on June 29th, 2008

When I first saw this challenge posted, my first thought was, “oh holy crap no, there’s no way I can make that, I’m skipping this month,” but then I shook myself off and started thinking about fillings. The fillings got me going and as I read through the recipe, it actually didn’t seem that hard. [...]

Continue reading about Daring Bakers Challenge #4 – Danish Braids

Gina Ruiz on June 17th, 2008

A decadent and sinful Peach Trifle was the star at our recent Sex and the City movie party.

Continue reading about Another Party & Peach Trifle

Daring Baker’s Challenge # 3 – Make an Opera cake light in color and flavor.

Continue reading about Daring Bakers Challenge #3: A Taste of Light Opera Cake – Lavendar, Lemon & Rose

Gina Ruiz on April 27th, 2008

This month’s Daring Baker challenge was truly a challenge for me on many levels. I had made cheesecake before but not this recipe. I couldn’t find a roasting pan that my cheesecake pan would fit in so I ended up using a big stainless steel bowl, which was cumbersome but worked fabulously. [...]

Continue reading about Daring Bakers Challenge #2

Gina Ruiz on February 1st, 2008

There are times when I really love just playing with food and experimenting. Take a few weeks ago when I was scrounging around looking for something sweet to make but of course, we’d gotten rid of all the yummy stuff because we’re on this health kick. I managed to find flour, butter, cashew-macadamia [...]

Continue reading about Cashew Macadamia Nut Butter Cookies with Nutella Filling

I recently came across an amazing little book called Poems from the Table: The Fruits of the Earth in Verse at my favorite local book store Read Books. It really is the most marvelous little bookstore with the nicest people running it. The book I found is filled with poetry about food [...]

Continue reading about The Poetry of Food Fruit Tart (dedicated to all my Poetry Friday friends)