This weekend is a busy one over here at Beneath the Crust. Maria is off in California hiking with a childhood friend (at 28 weeks pregnant, mind you)! Her energy and commitment to staying active is truly remarkable. If you missed it before, here's a crash course in Maria's approach to fitness.
Read MoreNot gonna lie, I'm not a huge fan of the rice teething crackers that fill the baby aisles these days. They're sort of flavorless, insubstantial wafers that break down into a soggy mess and, once hardened, are impossible to clean up. Years ago, I remember seeing zwieback toast packaged and marketed as teething biscuits, but after looking around, it seems that both brands I recall have discontinued the product. Bummer! But then again, perhaps not. In my online quest, I discovered many recipes for making zwieback from scratch at home. I decided to give it a try.
Read MoreThis salad is a delight. It's so fresh and flavorful and the perfect accompaniment to barbecue, spicy Mexican, or any lighter spring/summer meal. Fresh sweet corn contrasts with salty feta and the zing of the lime bounces around in your mouth with the herby cool of cilantro. The fresh zucchini gets softened by the vinaigrette but keeps a pleasantly firm texture which it otherwise loses when cooked.
Read MoreFor Easter this year, I fell in love with the idea of doing a Robin-egg-themed dessert...something that was a beautiful speckled blue. In the course of my pre-holiday shopping, I came across these turquoise Wilton candy melts (you can find similar ones here) and I was sold on the idea: I was going to make Robin Egg cake bites! Perfect for an Easter brunch (next year!) or any Spring-themed spread, these moist chocolate cake balls are shaped into ovals, dipped in blue melting chocolate, and speckled all over.
Read MoreIf you've noticed how quiet we've been this week, it's because we're all a little burned out by Easter preparation. It doesn't seem to matter how well I schedule my time or how much I do ahead of time, when the day after Easter rolls around I. am. beat. All I want to do is sit and read and eat jelly beans. (Which is a little what I did.) This week has been a good decompress, but it's time to get back to normal - meal plans, grocery lists, dinners more involved and nutritious than mac and cheese. But I'll take full advantage of the weekend first. :)
Read MoreFor the past three years, my younger sister-in-law and I have been trying to make the bulk of the Easter basket candy ourselves. We have a lot of fun doing it, and the candy is all the more special. Here are the recipes we've used, if you'd like to give it a shot too!
Read MoreWe grew up getting our babka from a local Polish Deli. It wasn't until later on that we began making it ourselves. We love a good chocolate babka, but this sweet cheese babka, with swirls of rich cream cheese filling and piles of crumble on top, will always take first place.
Read MoreI really don’t bake cookies that often but today I wanted peanut butter, pretzels, dates, and chocolate (hello pregnant!) and couldn’t think of a better platform for that combination than a warm gooey cookie. Blitzed up oats to chocolate chip cookies gives them a delightful chew, dates add a wonderful sweet contrast to the salty peanut butter and pretzels, but you can just do all chocolate chips.
If you can stop yourself from eating all the dough you’re going to love these sweet, salty, chewy cookies.
Read MoreAs you'll notice from the links below, we're kind of obsessive about holiday baking. The list of links for this week could easily have been solely food interests. And even still, we really had to hold ourselves back!
For us, holidays sort of completely revolve around food. It's not a celebration unless the feast is decadent. In some ways, it can pose a problem, like when we overstretch ourselves, or when we are consumed with food preparation and forget to enjoy the company of our family and friends. But in so many more ways, the centrality of food in celebration is a good thing, a great thing. It creates a sense of history and tradition (especially when you begin to associate certain foods with certain celebrations--Sophie has some great thoughts on this subject). It can be a way to connect with your cultural heritage.
Read MoreI got a little bit side-tracked last time I attempted to write a post on baby registry ideas. I'm going to pick up the topic again here, and hope to make it through to the list this time around!
What I want to say (or really, pick up saying) is that I benefited (and still benefit) so much from having a community of women to turn to for advice when it comes to parenting. Just the other day, I was texting my mom, my sisters, my sister-in-laws with questions about potty-training tactics. And before that, it was questions on double-strollers. And two years ago, it all began with an email begging them to help me wade into the waters of making a baby registry.
Read MoreThis dish is a perfect instance of where few and simple ingredients come together and become amazingly, astonishingly flavorful. It's fantastic on its own with a side of rice, but also makes for a good burrito meat as it can be stretched while still providing a flavor punch.
Read MoreHomemade donuts are an incredibly rewarding endeavor and a delicious treat that you should try at least once, and here I am to dispel any of your fears or hesitations about making them!
Read MoreHappy St. Patrick's Day to you all! May his life be a real inspiration in our lives!
Now, while you're waiting around for the parade to start, or the pub to open (jk! please be safe today), here are a few little tid bits to help you pass the time. Oh yeah, and in case you missed it, we've got some boozy Guinness Bailey's brownies up on the blog, and Sophie's got you recipe conundrum covered with an Irish Soda Bread bake-off!
Read MoreThere's no way around it: these brownies are ridiculously indulgent. Moist, super dense, super chocolate brownies, baked with a Guinness Stout reduction that gives them an earthy dark depth, brushed with Bailey's cream, you know, to lighten things up, and then topped with more Bailey's in a brown butter icing party. And no, that isn't a typo in the title. I meant "brownie fudge" not "fudge brownie," because these rest solidly somewhere between fudge and brownie...and probably more fudge than brownie!
Read MoreWith St. Patrick's day coming up, I wanted to try out some new Irish soda bread recipes. My standby has been Simply Recipes', but a couple new ones caught my eye. Why not bake a few and compare? So that's what I did.
Read MoreThe coconut topping gets caramelized during baking and creates a sweet, buttery, chewy topping. The browned butter adds depth of flavor and the cake is moist and tender. It's like the dressed up sister of banana bread. Plus, it passes for dessert and is still totally acceptable for breakfast.
Read MoreWe are back again with this & that, a round-up of some fun and interesting things on the web! We've been hammering out how we want to format these lists of links, and it's still a work in progress. This week's new development? Breaking the links down into categories. Enjoy!
Read MoreTwo years ago, when Edith was just about to be born, Philip and I decided we wanted to move closer to family. Seeing that his family had been in the same house since he was 3 years-old - whereas my family hadn’t stayed in a house for longer than five - it made much more sense to move to his family in Maryland than to my family, then in Florida. We were living in Massachusetts at the time, but as soon as a job in Maryland worked out, we took it. (Quite hilariously, my family actually moved to Maryland within the same year.)
Read MoreThere was a bowl filled with 10 cups of homemade chicken broth in my fridge that was fast approaching the 1-week mark. I'm not 100% positive about how long various things stay "fresh" in the fridge, and I suspect it is oftentimes longer than the standard safety recommendations*, but in general I operate under the 1-week policy. Under a week? Eat it. Over a week? Toss it. It's that hazy 6-7 day area where I know my logic is a bit spurious. It's okay to eat at 11pm on Day 6, but by 9am on Day 7 it has got to go.
Read MoreWhen I was 5 months pregnant with my first, I set out to create a baby registry. I opened my computer, logged into Amazon, and...found myself completely overwhelmed with the decisions ahead. Somehow, I imagined it would be comparable to creating a wedding registry, which I also did through Amazon (more on that another time). Not so.
Read More