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The Ten Most Recent Posts By rebeccadiamond

From Talk

Honey cake (or other dessert) recipes?

Rosh Hashanah is coming up soon, and I volunteered to make dessert for my family's dinner. It's tradition to incorporate honey into certain foods like challahs and dessert (and to eat it with apples) to ensure a sweet new year. I found a great-looking Joan Nathan Apricot Honey Cake recipe, but does anyone have a great recipe for a dessert involving honey? Nondairy is preferable since some family members are kosher and you know we're having turkey and brisket for dinner!

The Ten Most Recent Comments By rebeccadiamond

From Talk

I eat _____ with my fingers

Nope, ceforrester, you're right about the sushi etiquette! Just smile and know that you are worldly and educated while people give you funny looks :)

From Talk

Honey cake (or other dessert) recipes?

Thanks so much! These all sound great. Good luck with your dinner, Hillary, and happy holidays to you too :)

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant'

sushi and good tv after a long day makes me really happy

From Serious Eats

White Chocolate and Cinnamon Babka?

babka can absolutely have a crumble topping. i grew up on Long Island, where Zomick's babka is practically a religion, and theirs has a delicious crumb topping. in fact, their chocolate meltaway, a flat chocolate babka, is practically all crumbs - the best part! they even now package and sell just the crumbs to customers since everyone ends up picking them all off of the cake anyway.... the filling and a glaze on top makes it a babka.

the real question is: chocolate or cinnimon? for me, chocolate all the way.

From Talk

Fage & Kashi

have to just echo everyone else's comments. i can't buy plain yogurt anymore. i live in manhattan so basically every grocery store/natural food store (even many delis) has it, but on long island, where i grew up, i know that Trader Joe's and Whole Foods (and the Fairway in Plainview but that isn't helpful to people across the country have it.
it's delicious, rich, and really thick. i actually buy the nonfat one and you can't believe that it's fat-free (and not in a Seinfeld frozen yogurt way). i'd probably topple over trying the regular one after only eating the 0% - i'm sure it's heaven. has anyone tried the honey/fruit varieties?
i usually eat it sweet with some vanilla extract (just like jaclynmck!) in the morning, and a lot of times when i don't feel like making a big deal out of dinner i make a really quick and delicious tzatziki with it (some frozen spinach, garlic, cucumber, whatever!), and you don't have to strain it or anything because it's so thick already. have i proselytized enough? i love Fage!

From Talk

Grocery shopping confessions...

Fage 0% yogurt
baby carrots
diet snapple
an Amy's meal
Kashi Vive

totally predictable shopper!
LiveToEat, i think we're peas in a pod :)

From Talk

I used to eat ________after school

always a bowl of cereal

From Talk

Dream job

i'd be a tiny old grandma from italy.

i know, not so much an occupation, but i'd make such good food...

From Slice

Mario Batali's Lakeside Pizza Oven

What I would give to play Iron Chef in Mario's living room while he makes pizzas for me in the backyard...

how is his wife so tiny?!

From Serious Eats

Healthy Deep-Fried Oreos: Could It Be?

oh god...deep-fried Diet Pepsi...i just died a little inside.

Responses to Comments by rebeccadiamond

From Talk

I add _____ to macaroni & cheese

@kristyandjamey...wow...thanks for posting a comment on my post from over a year ago :) Gorgonzola is one of my favorite cheeses.

SE's....any other new additions to you mac & cheese since talked about it last year?

From Talk

I add _____ to macaroni & cheese

I like Gorgonzola cheese and diced granny smith apples. I got this idea when a friend took me to a restaurant in San Francisco called Solstice. They do it there and let me tell you...Oh My Gosh! It's the best ever!!!

From Talk

Desserts I don't like...

anything with lemon...ew

From Talk

Desserts I don't like...

Icing with way too much sugar. I'm usually the one scraping icing off of cake at parties.
Banana bread or cooked bananas (plantains don't count). I love bananas though.
Most corporate baked goods; you can taste the lack of love and care in them, and I can't remember ever reaching for carrageenan or sodium benzoate when baking.
Sugar-free anything. Sugar substitutes taste nasty.
Most fruitcakes. I'm bored with them.
Adult-sized slices of chocolate cake. I usually find it too rich to eat in large quantities. I love chocolate, I just prefer it in small doses.
Most donuts, except for cake donuts.
Crunchy cookies. Just not a fan of the texture.

Desserts that make me go meh:
Red velvet cake? I mean, it usually tastes OK (vaguely reminiscent of malted milk, like Wendy's frosties), but I always feel odd eating so much food coloring.
Sock-it-to-me/7-up/insert soda here cake. Common in Southern cooking, and almost always too sweet.

Re: buttercream icing: unless you had it on a homemade cake or cake from a wedding party, it probably wasn't made with real butter. 'Buttercream' icing made from vegetable shortening is pretty disgusting.

I'm surprised so many people here don't like tiramisu, but I've had my share of bad tiramisu. I'll second the cannoli though. Highly overrated and just not that tasty.

From Talk

how much food channel (hours) do you watch per week?

I enjoy Food Network! I AM SO GLAD THAT THEY FINALLY PUT AFRICAN AMERICANS ON THERE TO SHARE SOME RECIPES THAT I CAN RELATE TO. I am not interested in panini or vinaigrette....give me soul food & my family is happy!! I am glad that they are more diverse now & I will watch them even more now, since I will be getting recipes that my whole family are used to & will be able to enjoy! THANX FOOD NETWORK...KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!
Also, dont be so hard on Rachel Ray....she is not a chef & it just shows how food network is not so fast to judge others, they accepted her & the audience saw themselves in her & that is how she has became so famous. She IS goofy, but that just reminds me that she is human! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK RACHEL!! JUST (PLEASE) get rid of the goofy laugh....she laughs at LEAST 4 times a show & it is beginning to DRIVE US CRAZY!! lol

From Talk

Best places for cake in NYC?

i adore the layer cakes at formerly yura, now the corner bakery on 3rd ave and 93rd st.. the yellow cake is my favorite but they don't have it all the time. their cupcakes are lovely, too.

amy's is another good place to get a delicious slice of cake.

From Talk

Best places for cake in NYC?

Happy happy B-days!!! And what a fun idea. You are so lucky to have so many choices. I've been to NYC several times and the only one of the bakeries I'm familar with is Magnolia which I wasn't impressed with at all. These are such great suggestions for my next visit. Does Chick-a-Licious or Blue Ribbon Bakery do cakes?

From Talk

Best places for cake in NYC?

Baked in Red Hook is awesome... But you need to go to Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery (Get the Bob cake and a big cup of banana pudding)

From Serious Eats

The Future of the Jewish Deli

Reading about all these delis is making me hungry. But for me delis are about something more than food: they're about nostalgia. Normally, I find all nostalgia corrosive and to be avoided, but nostalia for the deli is irresistable and not all that bad for you--like a pastrami sandwich once every other month: it won't kill you. So, to indulge... Ed's recent musings about delis past reminded me of the Strathmore Deli on Northern Blvd (I think) in Manhasset on Long Island. My parents liked it because they knew the owner who had worked (or partly owned?) the Turnpike Deli in Forrest Hills (which was a GREAT deli). The owner (I wish I could remember his name) was married to the woman who worked the cash register. There were numbers on her arms. "From the camps," my parents informed me quietly. At the time, it didn't seem out-of-the-ordinary for me to meet a Holocaust survivor. This was the Sixties and WWII was more recent history for my teenage self than the War in Vietnam is for today's young people. ...These are odd images to indulge when discussing delis, but my memories do point to the uniquely Jewish (and perhaps vanishing) sense of community one felt in a local deli when I was growing up. Everything felt famliar and family-like...in the good and bad sense of those phrases. I loved the food, of course, but the experience of going to the deli, was about much more than food. But honestly, I could go on for hours (or paragraphs)...so intense are the memories evoked by Ed's piece.

From Serious Eats

The Future of the Jewish Deli

As all the old, modest buildings are replaced with shining towers and the people who have been here for generations and who defined this place are priced out of their neighborhoods, pretty soon there will be nothing left of the NY we know.

Those "modest" buildings replace other buildings and the people who have been here for generations replaced other people who had been there for generations.

People who lament for economic hardship and crime to preserve some silly ideal, that very likely never existed, are just as bad, if not worse, than the "white elites" who "prey" on the culture. You'd rather people suffer so you can enjoy some kitsch culture.