Taking a drive to the far Northern section of California yields a bounty of beautiful places to visit. I loved driving up to Northern California, mostly as a child, picking wild berries that grew along the winding roads, up through Trinidad, the redwoods and Crescent City. Some of our most beautiful coast is also home to wild blueberries which produce a marvelous little jewel Blueberry Crumble. Continue reading Blueberry Crumble
This year I found my self in the thick-of-it with apples from my new garden, many recipes ensued. Simple Apple Tart is a preview recipe from my 4th upcoming cookbook, Beautiful Food, by Design.
This is the first year with my tiny Anna apple tree. I planted it in my new garden to remind me of the wonderful Anna tree from my home of old. The thin trunked tiny tree was planted, I had no idea what would ensure. In this first year the tiny tree yielded over 50 beautiful apples. At times, the branches bent down from the weight of 5-6 apples per branch. This really restores my belief in nature and the power of a garden.
Thankfully I love apples and have a collection of recipes to choose from. Simple Apple Tart is really a variation on my Thin Apple Tarts recipe, another simple apple avenue. For this recipe I used a basic sweet pastry recipe and rolled out one large tart topped with thinly sliced apples, a sprinkle of sugar and baked.
As you can see, not all the apples were the same size so they don’t spread out perfectly, and of course the sugar gets a deep brown and burns slightly on the edges of the tart not to worry.
Simple, you got this. Enjoy another jewel recipe from Bijouxs.
Strawberry season is here! I now live in strawberry fields along on the California Coast, which means I receive many baskets of berries dropped off by friends. Here is a great way to preserve the ripe fruit and provide a lovely fruit compote that tops just about any dessert. Roasted Strawberries Parfait is a jewel of a recipe.
Roasting makes almost anything taste better, and believe it or not, even fruit is becomes more joyful when roasted. I have shared recipes featuring roasted pineapple, apples, grapes and of course strawberries. This simple yogurt parfait is layered with spiced roasted berries, vanilla yogurt and a crunchy layer of granola.
I adapted a roasted fruit recipe from Ottolenghi Simple to create the parfait. I have collected everyone of their cookbooks. I even have their very first cookbook, printed in England with recipes in metrics. The store and restaurant really embraces my mantra “beautiful food by design.” My parfait is an anytime treat as serves as breakfast, a snack or dessert. This makes it a little jewel recipe.
Exploring new spices is a great way to ramp up your cooking game. Sumac is a spice that you may not know about, but it is a little jewel. Once again, Ottolenghi introduces us to this Middle Eastern spice. Sumac are red berries that grow in areas of the Mediterranean which are dried and ground into a powder. It features a sweet and sour taste, quite vibrant with undertones of lemon.
Wow! Soon celebrating 10 years of Bijouxs! I began the blog in the “golden age of food blogs”, with a great group of LA food bloggers. That is when it easy easy to have loyal followers with lots of comments on the recipes, but now food is a VERY crowded space. ALMOST every website has a “recipe” section. For those of us who worked as chefs, the food world has really changed. Please don’t forget to sign up for my recipe newsletter – just the recipes please:) Thank you for your support.
From my curated Bijouxs Little Jewels recipe collection comes this Coffee-Cream Crunch Tiramisu. I have had the recipe in my file since I found it (1980’s? 1990’s?) A wonderful ‘cake’ constructed with ladyfingers, coffee buttercream and lavishly coated with toasted hazelnuts, a little jewel from the Collection.
Yes, there really is a Bijouxs Recipe Collection. Housed in a file box and binders containing recipes collected since I was 16 years old. Wow. I am so happy that I began the collection long ago. Nothing digital in those days, I resorted to ‘tear sheets’ from magazines, all filed by recipe category. Going through the file, each recipe takes me back to the time I collected it. Many recipes I have made, but there are hundreds I still hope to try. Most were collected from the top food and design magazines of the days, such as House & Garden, Saveur, Gourmet, W Magazine and other publications. My work as a designer led me to create Bijouxs Little Jewels from the Kitchen, photographing and sharing beautiful recipes for the home cook.
The history of this recipe goes way back, so far I don’t recall the exact date, but I can visualize the photos and recipes. I found the recipe clipped and pasted on a card in the file, thank goodness I did. This has been a go-to quick dessert. You can find ladyfingers at most supermarkets, which make this a cinch. The recipe is close to tiramisu, but not really. The ladyfingers are dipped in sweetened coffee, but the mascarpone cream is swapped out for a rich coffee buttercream. The toasted hazelnuts really add the texture. A friend suggested the nuts be chopped a little finer, that is your call. The original recipe was coated with rough chop hazelnuts, like my version pictured. Simple purchased ingredients, no baking, and make-ahead option make this a favorite dessert, right behind this cake.
Hard to believe but this recipe marks number 450! Crazy how fast the time has gone. I am very proud of keeping Bijouxs real. Real food prepared and photographed without all the styling. Keeping it real for over 10 years. I know there are now SOOOO many food blogs and recipes online. Thank you to those who have stayed with me and purchased my cookbooks. I hope that the recipes bring joy and beauty to the home cook.
The simplest cheesecake is also one of the best I have eaten. Let’s get cooking Labneh Cheesecake with Lavender Honey, a little jewel for your kitchen. Continue reading Labneh Cheesecake with Lavender Honey
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