This is not a typical Cooking From the Book post for a bunch of reasons (the recipe’s not from a book; I absolutely did not even try to follow the procedure exactly as written) but because I thought it deserved a very thorough walk-through, I’m calling it a (Sort Of)... Read More

The Baked NYC cookbook Baked Explorations is a favorite of mine, so I was thrilled when Shake gave me the two other books in the collection about a year ago. (There’s now a fourth, released this past fall.) I’ve made a couple other recipes from them before. I know that... Read More

Warning: This is not your standard Cooking From the Book post because I’m going to force you to wade through some not-totally-related and longer-than-usual backstory first. But here is a pretty picture first so you know what we’ll eventually be getting to: You see, way back around Thanksgiving, our stove—after... Read More

We have a long running—about a decade—tradition with our friend, Craig, to have dinner at his house on the “Eve of the Eve” (the night before Christmas Eve). This year, our plans came together a bit later than usual, so I found myself faced with the same dilemma as at... Read More

A couple days before Thanksgiving, a friend texted Shake and asked, “Would you want to come over for a late Thanksgiving get-together?” “So do you?” Shake asked. “Yeah, sure, why not?” But then I realized… “Oh. We should probably bring something, huh?” But what to bring? I already had my... Read More

This is the most sprinkle-tastic birthday cake you will ever encounter. I made this because we were getting together with some friends to celebrate the memory of a dear friend we lost nearly two years ago. I volunteered to make the dessert for this little dinner gathering and since it... Read More

Some of you may have seen the birthday cake I was working on last weekend. If not, check out the Sugar + Shake Facebook Page. Here is a work in progress preview photo: The real deal post is coming soon. (It will be a “Cooking From the Book” post, which means... Read More

I’d like to start this post with an open letter to two dear friends of mine, with whom my relationship of late has begun to go sour: Dear Garlic and Onions, We used to be such good friends. What’s happened between us? When we get together now, it all starts... Read More