Cheese Soufflé

I really like making soufflé, but I don’t do it very often because every time I start, an imaginary soufflé expert materializes in my kitchen to critique my every move and offer very little by way of helpful suggestions. The conversation usually goes something like this. But, if I can keep the illusory prima donna distracted long enough, I actually very much enjoy the process of making soufflé, and I always find the results tasty, however imperfect they may be. So here follows a non-expert’s guide to making soufflé. If it doesn’t turn out the way you expect, then just tell everyone that you created a new dish pronounced “SOO-full,” and pretend nothing is amiss.

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Em Hungry has been on a long hiatus. First, due to a tech job that sapped my enthusiasm for cooking. Next, due to a pregnancy that sapped my enthusiasm for any food besides crackers and lemonade. (And ice cream... it takes a truly catastrophic health condition to make me lose my taste for ice cream.) But now, I have a new baby and a newfound appetite for just about everything, especially chocolate cake, and this is one of my very favorite chocolate cakes. It takes pretty basic ingredients, so there's a good chance you already have everything you need to get started. Enjoy!

Brown Rice Salad with Dates & Cashews

One of my favorite food websites has a series of articles called Not Sad Desk Lunches. If I were ever asked to contribute to the column (which my own lazily assembled desk lunches would surely prevent from ever happening), this rice salad is definitely what I would share.

Eggnog + Chocolate Variation

I once believed that eggnog had to be one of two varieties: either the sickeningly sweet, slightly bubblegum flavored concoction that lives safely on grocery shelves for the entire duration of the holiday season or the nostalgic salmonella slurry made at home with raw eggs and an entire dairy herd’s worth of cream. Granted, I happily drank the store bought variety for many years, but I began to wonder if there was something better out there.

Disclaimer: this eggnog is much more attractive in real life. Perhaps my new year’s goal will be to learn how to photograph beverages…during the darkest part of the year…

Orange-Scented Brownies

I’m a sucker for orange and chocolate together, from the chocolate oranges my mom would put in the toe of our stockings every year to the Barefoot Contessa’s orange chocolate chunk cake to the chocolate covered “orange sticks” you see everywhere around the holidays. It was really only a matter of time before these brownies happened.

Garlic and Dijon Brussels Sprouts

These sprouts and I go way back. In fact, they were my very first post on Em Hungry 1.0 more than 5 years ago, and they were the second most viewed recipe on the site! (Due to one loyal reader and cook, haha. Moms are the best.) At any rate, I figured it was time to share them here, and with pictures this time.