(Video link here.) The Kids Should See This is a site full of wonders for kids AND adults. Dig this beautiful short video of what ACTUALLY happens when a kernel of corn POPS. I had no idea the stuff I threw into my trusty Presto PopLite Hot Air Popper is so magical. I’m thinking that browsing through The Kids Should See This‘ awesome videos while eating…
Read MoreA Chocolate Cake for Emotionally-Challenged Days
Our friend Ellen Silverman, who photographs frequently for Improvised Life, sent us a compelling email the other day, with equally compelling photographs. She wrote: What you do when you don’t know you are having an emotionally challenged day, and then you suddenly do something that makes you realize that you are deeply distracted by…big emotions you…
Read MoreOpen Source Systems for Everyday Objects, Food + Living
(Video link HERE.) Bio 50 has applied open-source thinking to electronic appliances we use in our homes everyday. They’ve prototyped of a system built upon standard components that offers the user the ability to assemble, customize, repair, and repurpose existing products. Check out their clever fan, hand mixer, and a balloon-encased lamp all configured from the same elements.
Read MoreThe Popcorn Improvisations + a Free 6 Recipe PDF
A sensual description of Anson Mills’ Appalachian Heirloom Sweet Flint Popping Corn reminded of my popcorn improvisations, when I went haywire experimenting with different flavorings. Download 6+ recipes plus a ton of inspiration in a free PDF from The Improvisational Cook.
Read MoreA Chocolate Valentine’s Cake as Easy as Making a Brownie
With the difficult weather, you may find your self on-the-hook for a Valentine’s gift for tomorrow. If you’ve got the basic makings in your pantry for brownies, we recommend our tried-and-true Essential Chocolate Cake for Improvising recipe. It’s as easy to make as a brownie, with a good deal more bang for the buck, AND there are endless ways to improvise on its essential formula, adding in all sorts of unexpected flavorings to delight your beloved.
Read MoreDIY Gifts: Dried Fruit in Fragrant Syrup (Boozy or Not)
Every year, I make big batches of Prunes in Armagnac, Cherries in Red Wine Syrup and Apricot in Cardamom Syrup to give as gifts, packed into pretty jars, with handwritten tags listing their possibilities. I also rely on them for my own entertaining, to serve as fab instant desserts. They are all made by the same basic approach. Here it is, with some recipes to illustrate.
Read Morerecipe riff: chard + other vegetables stuffed with rice, raisins, pine nuts
For many years, I wrote about improvising in the kitchen. My basic approach was to show people how to ‘see’ the basic structure of a recipe. Once you understood its essential workings, you could play with all sorts possibilities, depending on what you had on hand or were inspired to do. It’s pure liberation. So…
Read More‘a new way to cook’ (gift idea + a trove of recipes)
Some time ago, Michael Druzinsky, an acquaintance of mine who is a composer, emailed his friend Mark Bernstein, who created the idea-mapping softwear Tinderbox, to ask if he’d mind talking to me about his very interesting software. Michael forwarded Mark’s reply: “Sally Schneider’s book, A New Way to Cook, changed my life. I’ve given it to lots…
Read More‘hip girls home’ giveaway: win ‘the improvisational cook’
Kate Payne over at The Hip Girls Guide to Homemaking is giving away a copy of Sally’s award-winning cookbook The Improvisational Cook, plus a bunch of other goodies at one fell swoop. To enter, visit Hip Girls’ giveaway page, scroll to the bottom and fill out the form, RIGHT AWAY. The contest ends Wednesday (tomorrow)…
Read More‘improvised life’s’ favorite last-minute thanksgiving recipes
For the past couple of days, we’ve been getting calls from friends asking for recommendations for the Thanksgiving meal: the best way to cook the turkey, what side dishes, what to drink. So for all our readers who may still be at odds with what they are going to make tomorrow, here’s our round-up of…
Read More2 great end-of-the-season cherry recipes
We were thrilled to see the play that the video of Sally making herb salt on Splendid Table got, including a big fat mention on Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn. From that post we discovered that a year ago during cherry season, they’d riffed on Sally’s improvised cherry vinegar from The Improvisational Cookand did a lovely photo of…
Read Morebrown sugar butter cookie dough tarts with summer fruit (recipe)
Maria Robledo sent us this iPhone photo of a recipe she’d made by improvising with one of Sally’s and marrying it one a friend taught her. The Sally recipe is a endlessly mutable Brown Sugar Butter Cookie dough made with so much butter that it is SHORT, that is, it melts in your mouth. Maria…
Read Moremystery tree structure contest winner!!!! (+ 25 great notions)
Our minds are boggled by the twenty-five wondrously imaginative entrees we got for our Mystery Tree Contest…“prototyping to the sky”…”a fitting room for very chic lumberjacks” …”infrastructure articulated”…YIKES! We were so hard-pressed to pick a winner, we ran it through random.org. The winning entry contains some interesting philosophical underpinnings (totally in line with ‘the improvised…
Read Moreour book giveaway winner!
We just ran all 85 entries to our The Improvisational Cook giveaway through Randomizer and came up with a winner. Her name is Katie and here’s the kitchen improvisation she sent in: This recipe is a riff on The Splendid Table’s Lynn Rossetto Kasper’s Sweet Sicilian Sauce recipe, found at this link. I make this…
Read Morelast chance: ‘the improvisational cook’ giveaway
The Improvisational Cook free giveaway ends Thursday at midnight so you’ve got a couple of days left if you haven’t entered. Click here for the super-easy entry requirements and to find out about Sally’s award-winning cookbook. Scroll down to the Comments to read some truly inspired improvisations. We’ll announce the winner on Friday afternoon. Related…
Read Moremaking it up as we go along (an interview)
Liz Massey of Creative Liberty blog featured an interview called with Sally in her April e-newsletter. Check it out here to learn how ‘the improvised life’ came about, and Sally’s rant-ette on the creative process, how cooking relates to improvising, and the benefits of adopting an improvisational frame of mind… Here’s an excerpt: What advice…
Read Morereminder: ‘the improvisational cook’ book giveaway
We been KNOCKED OUT by the responses we’ve gotten to our teeny, easy contest to win a free, inscribed copy of Sally’s The Improvisational Cook. Check out the Comments following last week’s bookgivaway announcement to read some of the great, imaginative improvs reader’s have done in the kitchen. The deadline for entry is Thursday, April…
Read Morebook giveaway: ‘the improvisational cook’
We’re giving away a free copy of Sally Schneider’s award-winning cookbook The Improvisational Cook (inscribed by the author if you like), widely viewed as THE book about improvising in the kitchen. “Schneider gives cooks the know-how to embellish, adapt, change, alter, modify and experiment in their cooking with plenty of encouragement and helpful information. Here…
Read Moremake or buy: fragrant, wildly all-purpose herb salt
One of the staples of my pantry is a classic herb salt fragrant with rosemary, sage, and garlic that is used all over Northern Italy. I learned the recipe – or I should say approach – years ago while traveling with Peggy Markel on one of her Culinary Adventures, and have never grown tired of…
Read More‘juicy details of a culinary private life?’
William Morrow, the publisher, has been busy blogging, tweeting and facebooking about Sally Schneider’s The Improvisational Cook, newly launched in paperback. They recently blogged a “Conversation” with Sally, with questions like “What’s your Mantra”, and “If you could have dinner with three people, living or dead, who would they be?” They are tweeting it as the…
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