Katherine Sharpe | a pilgrim’s blogress

Just Like at the Coffee Shop (Currant-Buttermilk Scones)

I’m so delighted to have just bought a new cookbook.
When I first moved to New York in 2003, as my only reader will know, I got a  job working at a Soho coffee shop called Once Upon a Tart. Owned by a tall Frenchman given to double entendres, Once Upon a Tart kept me busy [...]

Failure! (Tapioca Pudding)

Tapioca grosses a lot of people out. There are many who’ve never even tried it. Yes, it’s the same shape as that fish-bait-smelling fish roe that you get at sushi restaurants sometimes if you’re not careful. But it’s pretty benign, just round and chewy. Suspended in a creamy, delicately vanilla-flavored pudding base, I like it [...]

Budget Recipes, Volume 6: What I Ate on My Late-Winter Vacation (Punk House Lentils)

I know five people who live in a house in West Philadelphia. One of them, I’ve known for a really long time. He told me, on behalf of all the people, that I could come down and stay in their spare room for a few days and check Philadelphia out.
The house looks out over a [...]

Oh, February (A Coq au Vin Recipe)

How I’m getting through what’s left of winter:
Weeknight Coq Au Vin

(There’s a chicken thigh hiding in there)
six pieces of chicken (I used legs and thighs), bones in and skin on
one-third bottle red wine
one package of mushrooms, cremini or white
one medium to large onion
third to half a (small) can of crushed or diced tomatoes
one bay [...]

Sweet, Peppery, Cabbagey, Wintry

Cabbage With Apples
~adapted from How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

2 tablespoons butter
one small/medium green cabbage
two apples
dash of cloves
half a cup of stock or white wine
a teaspoon of cherry jam
s & p
fresh lemon juice
Chop the cabbage and the apples into pieces that you like.
Melt the butter, add the cabbage, apples, and cloves; cook, stirring, for [...]

Get Ready to Crumble!

Weeknight dessert fantasia.

Plum Crumble
1.25 cups rolled oats
.75 cups brown sugar (packed)
.5 cups all purpose flour
1 stick o’ butter
2 lbs. plums
scant 2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1. Mix the flour and oats in a bowl with half of the brown sugar. Add the butter, and rub it in with your fingers until the mixture becomes [...]

Budget Recipes, Volume 5: Hot Soup!

Tonight, we’re making a bean soup, minestrone-style.
(Actually, a couple of weeks ago, we’re making a bean soup. This budget recipe series got away from me. Just pretend.)
First, we get out the ingredients and admire them. We have some cheese and crackers to snack on, on the left.

Then we get serious like this:
BEAN MINESTRONE
Servings: 10
Price per [...]

Fall and Winter Budget Recipes, Volume IV: Homemade Granola on the Cheap

I just noticed another budget recipe link: the Whole Foods Budget Recipe Challenge. I think it’s pretty rich that Whole Foods, aka most expensive big chain grocery ever, is sponsoring a budget recipe challenge, but it’s their prerogative. I do find the salad bar at Whole Foods Union Square to be a guilty pleasure (financially, [...]