Rhubarb custard pie

The custard doesn't look all that much like custard and tastes really eggy. And it really dulls the bite of the rhubarb. I made the custard version since I thought, well, might as well give it a try, I've never made custard before! But while not terrible, it's so bleh, so not what I want it to be.

Potato bread

Bread #89,931. Or something. I finally made potato bread! With potato water! It came out OK, but this is still basically white bread, and I still basically don't care for it. Harrumpf. I mean it's fine. But, bah. I need to stop worrying about white bread.

Also, I'm starting to think my loaf pans are too small. I want loaves with slices like you get from store-bought bread. This is my desire!

Babka

A coworker was complaining about how you can't get babka in Portland. She'd gone to the Jewish deli and to some bakeries and apparently even went so far as to call up the free weekly newspaper and pitch a "Why is there no babka in Portland" story to them. Well, I hate to see someone go without a beloved breadstuff, so I made some babka.

I made two, one for us, and we tasted the one for us this morning. It is superb. I don't really know from babka, so I couldn't tell you how authentic it is, but it certainly is tasty! The chocolate swirls through it magnificently; instead of being satisfied with a jelly roll, you are supposed to twist the bread rope-like afterwards and then coil the rope into the shape of the bread. It's a great technique, one that leads to beautiful and unpredictable swirls, and I'll have to remember it for the next time I'm making a swirled bread.

Apple blackberry topping

I tried to make an apple blackberry syrup as a topping for ice cream. It didn't come out quite as thick as I'd hoped but it was pretty tasty. Perhaps I needed to boil it down more. I will investigate other recipes.

Carmelized onions

I made pizzas with Bryan, and he carmelized some leeks for the topping of one of them, and it was fantastic (with a little goat cheese, whoo). So I have been carmelizing onions nearly every day since then. Mostly having them with mashed potatoes (we have a big bag of potatoes and a big bag of onions). My carmelizing technique is not yet perfect but it's a food that can withstand a little failure.

Cream biscuits

Biscuits made with heavy cream instead of cutting butter into them. They taste pretty much the same but take less work. Who knew?

Rye bread with walnuts and raisins

Bread number something or other. This was a different rye recipe, and did not have caraway seeds in it. And while it was a difficult dough to work with, it ended up being a pretty tasty and hearty bread! Without the caraway seeds the dark flavor of the rye shines through, which is nicely offset by the raisins and complemented by the walnuts. Might like to try hazelnuts, though.

Apple and raisin pie

I didn't cook it quite long enough to get the apples tender enough, but the raisins macerated in brandy are delightful, and the whole wheat crust compliments the apples nicely, and really no one is complaining.