The Daring Cooks Make Steamy Kitchen’s Pho Ga

Andrea Meyers - Steamy Kitchen's Pho Ga

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen, and the recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. I was excited to see that Jaden would be our host for the October Daring Cooks challenge, especially since I finally got to meet her at [...]

The Daring Cooks Make Vegan Dosas

Andrea Meyers - The Daring Cooks Make Vegan Dosas

For the Daring Cooks September challenge, we made vegan dosas adapted from the reFresh cookbook by Ruth Tal. Fresh is a popular chain of vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Toronto, Canada with three published cookbooks teaching how to cook Fresh food at home. Our host Debyi of Healthy Vegan Kitchen chose this fun challenge for us, and [...]

The Daring Cooks Make Creamy Rice with Mushrooms, Artichokes, and Shrimp

When I saw this month’s Daring Cooks challenge announcement, my pulse quickened and I envisioned a moist, colorful, flavorful Spanish rice. The sofregit seemed perfect for the season, with fresh tomatoes, peppers, and garlic, and this was a perfect opportunity to test out the paella pan (paellera) Michael gave me for Christmas. That I still [...]

The Daring Bakers Make Milan Cookies

The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network. The Daring Bakers have made all sorts of challenging desserts, some before my time and some since I joined two years ago. I’ll never forget [...]

The Daring Cooks Make Chinese Dumplings and Potstickers

I remember first tasting Chinese dumplings and potstickers when I lived in Saipan, and I always liked ordering them in restaurants, but then I visited Hong Kong and southern China and got hooked. It was so fun to see the dim sum trays in the restaurants, taste different things, and try to figure out what [...]

The Daring Bakers Make Strudel

Andrea Meyers - The Daring Bakers Apple Strudel

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of Make Life Sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague, by Rick Rodgers. I felt a lot of excitement for this challenge because I adore puff pastry [...]

The Daring Cooks Make the Zuni Cafe Ricotta Gnocchi

The Daring Cooks have begun! An offshoot of The Daring Bakers, group members strive to hone our skills by tackling one cooking challenge each month. For this inaugural challenge, our founders Lis and Ivonne chose the Zuni Cafe ricotta gnocchi from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, by Judy Rodgers. I was thrilled to try the challenge [...]

The Daring Bakers Make Cheesecake: Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Cheesecake

Andrea Meyers - Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. The infamous cheesecake recipe comes from Jenny’s friend Abbey, and in this challenge we were given lots of room for creativity. We had to use the cheesecake recipe as is, though we could flavor it [...]

The Daring Bakers Make Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels

This post is supposed to be about Shuna’s to-die-for caramel cake and the caramels are the optional challenge. I managed to finish the caramels but just ran out of time to make the cake. I’m very disappointed to miss a challenge, but I plan to make the cake for my birthday in January. I just [...]

The Daring Bakers Make Peter Reinhart’s Pizza Napoletana

Andrea Meyers - Minced Fruit Pizza

I remember seeing Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice for the first time at a bookstore the year it was released. The striking photo on the cover immediately grabbed my attention and I heard my own voice say aloud, “I want to make bread like that.” The book did not go home with me that [...]