Ward Street Bistro

New Recipe Index

It took 50 years, but I broke my first bone (an ankle) last Monday. So, while it's not quite as easy for me to get around in the kitchen these days, I took at least part of my convalescence to update the Ward Street Bistro recipe index. It now includes both photos and text links, organized by recipe category. I think this will be much easier to browse than the previous text-only index.

Apple Cider Cupcakes

I've been food blogging since March of this year and it's been an absolute blast.  One aspect I've especially enjoyed is getting acquainted with other food bloggers. There is some serious talent on the Internets when it comes to food blogging!

For this post I'm pleased to feature a recipe from Rachel Rappaport of Coconut & Lime. She graciously agreed to "adopt" me as part of Dine & Dish's Adopt-a-Blogger event. There are so many great recipes on Coconut & Lime, but given that Fall is upon us, I decided to feature Rachel's Apple Cider Cupcakes. I took these to a pumpkin-carving party last weekend and boy, were they tasty!

I'll show you how to make these wonderful Fall cupcakes step-by-step...

Organizing recipes with Evernote

There are countless ways to organize your recipes online and off. I want to share with you a method that automatically syncs my recipes between a website, my home Mac, my work PC and my iPhone. And best of all, I'm doing this all with a single tool: a free version of a program called Evernote.

The reason I'm so thrilled with this system is that it lets me plan meals where ever I happen to be: at home, at work, out and about. If I see something at the market that catches my eye - a seasonal goodie or an item on special - I can easily type in the ingredient and pull up recipe options on my iPhone. But even if you don't have an iPhone, Evernote has the advantage of giving you both online and off-line access to your recipes.

I'd like to step you through my system, step-by-step...

Potato Focaccia

As the weather turns cooler, I'm loving the chance to get back to baking, which I normally limit during the summer (except for pies; pies are always the exception!). And nothin' says lovin' like focaccia in the oven. I make it in a 9x13 pan, which I prefer to a round or larger, thinner rectangular shape. This gives me the flexibility to cut it into squares, which I can split for sandwiches--or cut it into narrow strips (breadstick-like). One of my all-time favorite meals is square lamb-burgers served on homemade focaccia.

I make a potato focaccia because I am particularly found of soft and moist potato yeast breads.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make it step-by-step...