Holiday Shortbread
30 cookies
Florentine Lace Cookies
• Preheat the oven to 380 degrees. • Place the sugar, salt, butter, shortening, honey, cinnamon and water in a small pot and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and cool the mixture to 130 degrees. • Stir in the flour and the almonds. Refrigerate the dough for at least 6 hours or…
Gingerbread Ornament Cookies
48 cookies
Baci D’Alassio
40 cookies
Rosemary-Lemon Cookies
24 cookies
Gingersnaps
About 3 dozen 1-inch cookie
Adventures in Soy Milk: Do it yourself for economy and experimentation
Are you an eager consumer of seen-on-TV-type kitchen gizmos? I wasn’t until I became the proud owner of an automatic soy-milk maker. Not only does this appliance make fresh soymilk, but it also churns out raw nut milk, smooth nut butter, porridge, rice paste, even soup. It also converts to a coffee grinder and dry…
The French Toast of the Town
Dennis: Slingers. Ribs. Gyros. That, my friends, was the reviewing run I was on for the last year. An unprecedented streak of self-serving picks, geared to my tastes, with little regard to my better half. Alas, I knew my savory ride would eventually end, and I’d find myself glazed over, trying to remember if my…
Music List: January 2009
Downtown BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups 700 S. Broadway 314.436.5222 01/02 Leroy Pierson 7-9:30 p.m., Cryin’ Shame Blues Band 10 p.m.-2:30 a.m. 01/03 Tom Hall 7-9:30 p.m., Marquise Knox Blues Band 10 p.m.-2:30 a.m. 01/09 Leroy Pierson 7-9:30 p.m., Arthur Williams & Cryin’ Shame Blues Band 10 p.m.-2:30 a.m. 01/10 Margaret Bianchetta & Eric McSpadden…
Chestnuts Boasting: Holiday cooking gets a boost of sophisticated flavor
Every December, I look forward to buying a sack of hot roasted chestnuts at WinterMarkt, the outdoor German winter carnival in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood. I stuff the nuts into my pockets to keep my hands warm while I browse the artisan booths, pausing to pull out a nut, peel away the smooth, flat shell and…
Big Night Out: Six luxe ways to celebrate the holidays
The answer is yes. Live a little. December is made for merrymaking, and with a select list of splurges at your fingertips, you can start to decorate your calendar. THE GOLD STANDARD COSMOPOLITAN Mandarin Lounge 44 Maryland Plaza, St. Louis 314.367.4447 Flash a Ulysses S. Grant at Mandarin and – eureka – a Gold Standard…
Candied Grapefruit Rind
INGREDIENTS 3 grapefruits6 cups sugar, divided¼ cup corn syrup PREPARATION • Cut the grapefruits in half and squeeze out the juice. Scrape out all the membrane. • Cut the halves in half again and then cut into skinny strips. • Place the rind in a stock pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a…
Eggnog Pudding
4 to 6
Root Beer Pulled Pork
12 servings
Hazelnut-Toffee Sauce
• In a saucepan, combine the butter and sugar and bring to a boil. • Add the cream and salt and simmer until thick. • Stir in the hazelnuts. Refrigerate until cool and the sauce is thick. 4 Tbsp. (½ stick) unsalted butter ½ cup dark brown sugar ½ cup heavy cream ½ tsp. salt…
Review: Monarch Restaurant & Wine Bar in St. Louis
Like most of you, I have noticed many St. Louis chefs playing musical stoves lately. Yes, it’s commonplace in the frenetic restaurant world. And yes, given the competitive nature of that world, restaurateurs work hard to lure good chefs. It’s true even at that Maplewood bastion of fine dining, Monarch Restaurant: Brian Hale left his…
Recipe: Niche’s Eggnog Pudding
Is it possible to pinpoint the taste of the season? For Mathew Rice, pastry chef at Niche, it’s eggnog, that thick, silky potion served only at year’s end ‘ and forever at Rice’s family’s holiday gatherings. Nog-laced nostalgia inspired him to create a dessert with the flavor of yuletides past in a more luxurious form…
Review: The Amsterdam Tavern in St. Louis
I’m definitely a fan of bar patios. Being on the fringe of the action in the open air, trading stories and cigarettes with complete strangers – it’s the best place to be. Thus I found myself a few weeks ago, huddled around a blazing fire pit on a quaint patio behind the Amsterdam Tavern, the…
How to Reap the Benefits of Local Pork
My Iowa-farm-raised grandmother cooked pork chops so fine, fork-tender and juicy, we grandchildren would salivate waiting for the platter to pass. We’d eat her mashed potatoes with red-eye gravy, the succotash and the sliced tomatoes with the knife-and-fork manners of civilized children. When we finished the dainty process of cutting and eating our chop, however,…
Spiced Cider
INGREDIENTS ½ gallon apple cider½ large vanilla bean2 cloves2 whole allspice2 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg, divided2 cinnamon sticks1 cup rum or bourbon PREPARATION • Heat the apple cider on medium heat with the vanilla bean, cloves, allspice, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 cinnamon stick. Do not boil. • Remove the mixture from the heat…
Hot Mulled Wine
6 to 8
Mover & Shaker: Ted Kilgore elevates cocktail culture
The fact that Ted Kilgore’s cocktails have recently collected national accolades makes it hard to believe that he very nearly became a truck driver. In between jobs and marriages at age 30, Kilgore had arrived upon an ellipsis … he didn’t know what came next. “I called this guy about truck driving school, and as…
Primo pasta on The Hill
We’ve lived in our South City neighborhood – which borders The Hill – for six years. In that time, we’ve eaten at restaurants on The Hill exactly twice. No slight intended; we love The Hill. But we’re so often cooking Italian that the thought of going out for Italian just never hits us. Yet once…
Diner Deluxe
Anyone seeking a culinary blast from the past need go no further than Deluxe Fine Foods and Spirits, a new spot in Maplewood that blends rockabilly chic with the come-as-you-are feel of a neighborhood joint. Black, red and stainless steel dominate the comfortably retro-modern dining room, complete with old cigarette ads and pinups lining the…
Gluten-free, taste-full
Imagine not being able to eat anything that contains gluten. Anything. That includes not only baked goods, but pasta, soy sauce, many soups, some candies and other foods that make up a huge part of the American diet. That’s what faces people with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that impacts the intestines and interferes with…
2008’s Top 10
I started my annual Top 10 list two years ago, and at least in my mind, this has become a tradition. So I present my 10 most memorable wine and beer moments of the past year. Jefferson Cup Invitational Wine Competition At the conclusion of the judging, I had the great joy of calling Tim…
