Over the summer, my husband and I took turns taking our son out for dinner one a week night to give him a break from (I mean, not to point fingers or anything) the occasional yelling/food-flinging dinnertime antics of The Interloper, a.k.a. his younger sister. On one of my evenings, he pointed to the top of one of the many mirror-covered walls at the restaurant with the menu scrawled over it and said “What’s a Baked Alaska?”
“Well, son,” I began because let’s not even pretend I don’t live for this kind of stuff, “It’s a dessert in which ice cream is wrapped in cake and then covered in a marshmallow-y frosting that’s toasted and then they light it on fire…” “CAN WE GET ONE OF THOSE?” Look, I don’t know what stuff you’re made of, but I consider telling a 6 year-old that ice cream wrapped in cake, frosting and fire exists but not for them is cruel and unusual punishment. And so we ordered it and I tried to warn him that they might not do the fire thing and maybe it won’t be as cool as I made it sound and then this happened.
And don’t worry, I didn’t, like, text my husband the video and say “You can probably quit now because I just won at Dinner With Jacob” or anything unbecoming and immature like that, nope nope nope. The joke was on me because I bet you know what came next, don’t you? “Mom, can you make me one of these for my birthday?” [Gulp.] “Sure?” [Note to self: Learn how to make Baked Alaska.]
Fast-forward a couple months and boom, his birthday week was here and somehow I hadn’t gotten far on this beyond thinking, what did I get myself into? I started looking at recipes that involved homemade ice cream and that’s great and all if you wish but as my son is perfectly happy with a good old-fashioned chocolate-vanilla-strawberry trifecta from the store, I decided to save my energies. Many recipes either had you either make a cake from scratch or box mix or use a storebought pound cake, but we here have a fondness for frozen brownies (extra chewy and fudgy!) and my favorite recipe is one-bowl and so I made that instead. The frosting is just a meringue and we’ve totally got that down. Plus, I learned you can frost it and freeze it hours and more before you need it, meaning that it was easy to get a lead on this. Wait, was this… easy?
Wait for it.
Birthday candle time arrived and the lights were dimmed while everyone waited for this masterpiece to emerge from the kitchen, my husband and I were frantically watching YouTube videos on our phones about how to flambé a dessert because — like everything else in parenting and also probably life — we had no idea what we were doing. The cake was melting on the counter. I was trying to figure out how to warm brandy without cooking the flammable alcohol off, and of course putting a lit match to a cup of alcohol is terrifying (I rather like my eyebrows and also my home. “How was your 7th birthday, kid?” “My mom burst into flames.”) but it turned out to be a veritable kitten of a flame and you guys, it turns out if you set a whole cake on fire for a kid to blow out, nobody even notices that you forgot to buy birthday candles.
Now, I understand that Turning Seven and Setting Cakes On Fire is pretty exciting stuff. We could stop right here! But we’re not because I’ve been fidgeting in the background all month trying to figure out how to tell you something cool was happening but couldn’t decide how. [Oh my god I am NOT PREGNANT. Just stop it.]
Smitten Kitchen is a decade old. This little website I started in 2006 fully planning for it to be over within 6 months because whhhy would anyone want to hear what a total non-expert had to say about cooking, turned 10 this month. I tried so hard to come up with the perfect way to celebrate this and then got flummoxed and picked 4.
I have questions.
You are what makes this site awesome. Without you, well, I don’t know what I’d be doing but it certainly wouldn’t be getting to write songs of fire and ice cream all day. Will you tell me something about yourself? Who are you? I’m assuming you’re on the internet for the reason the internet exists, to procrastinate — what does everyone think you’re doing right now? Most importantly: What’s your favorite thing to do cook? Least favorite? (I’ll settle for an answer to any of the above.)
Let’s have a chat/Q&A.
It’s been way too since our last Q&A — almost two years (gulp). Let’s fix this. I want to hang out. I’ve been dabbling in Snapchat (@smittenkitchen) since the summer because it turns out they’ll basically let anyone on and thought it might be fun to try the next Q&A over there next Friday afternoon, September 30th. Snap me all your questions you have and I’ll do my best to answer them before my kids find me and demand I make them dinner.
I wrote some stuff + Come watch me cook live today!
Food52 invited me to be their newest Writer In Residence this month, which is fun enough, but given the big anniversary over here, I’ve been writing on the topic of 10 years of blogging, if you ever wanted to read more behind-the-scenes stuff. Here’s the first piece. Here’s the second and it comes with a… bonus demo! At 4:15 today (I’ll pause while you put this on your calendar), hop on over to Food52’s Facebook page while I hop on over to their offices to demo my Mom’s Apple Cake and take questions. (Stuck at work at 4:15? No worries, the video is available indefinitely for later viewing later right here.)
THE BEST OF
Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions
Ethereally Smooth Hummus
Lazy Pizza Dough + Favorite Margherita Pizza
Lasagna Bolognese
Shakshuka
Rich Homemade Ricotta
Best Challah (Egg Bread)
Mushroom Lasagna
One-Pan Farro with Tomatoes
Buttermilk Roast Chicken
Apple Cider Caramels
Best Birthday Cake
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
Thick Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mom’s Apple Cake
Best Cocoa Brownies
Strawberry Summer Cake
Thick, Chewy Granola Bars
Red Wine Chocolate Cake
Raspberry Buttermilk Cake
Baked Alaska
While this could theoretically be done over a few hours, especially if you have a freezer that’s pretty good, I found it a lot easier to do over 2 days, mostly because at each step that you have the ice cream out of the freezer — first, to scoop it into the bowl mold, next to unmold it onto the brownie base and third when you’re frosting it in meringue, your ice cream is going to want to soften so you’re going to want to get it back in the freezer for a bit. You can also fully finish the cake long before you’ll need it; the toasted meringue keeps really well in the freezer, even for several days (as long as ours lasted, but probably even longer).
- Nonstick spray oil, to coat the bowl
- 6 cups (from 3 pints) ice cream, one flavor or a mix of flavors you like
- 3 ounces (85 grams) unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1 stick (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
- 1 1/3 cups (265 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt (about 2 grams)
- 2/3 cup (85 grams) all-purpose flour
- 3 large egg whites
- Pinch of cream of tartar
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch or two of salt
- 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) brandy or kirsch
Ice Cream Center
Brownie Base
Meringue Frosting
Flambé Finish (optional)
Scoop ice cream into bowl in any pattern or non-pattern you wish. Use the overhang to cover exposed ice cream and press it mostly flat. Place this ice cream bowl in the freezer for 3 to 6 hours, or overnight, until fully firm again.
Make the brownie base: Heat oven to 350°F. Line a round baking pan slightly larger than the diameter of your ice cream bowl (i.e. 8 to 9 inches) with parchment paper and butter the parchment and sides of the pan.
In a medium heatproof bowl over gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter together until only a couple unmelted bits remain. Off the heat, stir until smooth and fully melted. You can also do this in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between each. Whisk in sugar, then eggs, one at a time, then vanilla and salt. Stir in flour with a spoon or flexible spatula and scrape batter into prepared pan, spread until even. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out batter-free.
Let cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes then run a knife around the brownie to loosen it and flip out of pan onto the cooling rack. You might need to bang it around a little but it will come out best while it is still warm. (Read: The first time I wait until it was totally cold and nope. Put the cooling rack with the brownie right into the freezer to fully cool and firm up, about 30 minutes.
Place brownie on cake serving plate. Use the outline of the ice cream bowl to mark the size you want to trim the brownie to, and then cut away — don’t forget to share the scraps (or not). Use the plastic covering the bowl/mold as handles to yank the firm ice cream out of the bowl and onto the brownie. Trim the brownie further if needed. Return the ice cream-topped brownie cake to the freezer to firm again, 1 to 2 hours.
Make the meringue: Beat the egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar in an electric mixer until satiny peaks form and then beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time — I do spoonful, pause, spoonful, pause until all of the sugar has been added and then keep running the mixer until the meringue is stiff and shiny. Beat in the salt and vanilla.
Frost the cake Spread the meringue in big, messy swirls over the ice cream and brownie base. Return the cake to the freezer for as long as needed — you can use it right away, but it’s best to let it re-firm freeze for another hour. You can also leave it in for a full day.
Toast the meringue: You can do this one of two ways.
Oven method: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Bake the cake until the meringue peaks are golden, about 4 minutes.
Blowtorch method: Torch the cake until toasted all over.
Both methods: If you’re not going to need the cake right now, return it to the freezer until needed. Take out 5 minutes before serving.
Flambé finish (optional): [Please note: I have done this twice, ever. It works but I’m hardly an expert and if there are more helpful tips offered in the comments, I’ll be happy to point you to them.] Fill a mug halfway with very hot water. Place alcohol in a shot glass and set it inside the hot water (not letting the water spill in) until the alcohol is very warm to the touch, about 5 minutes. Remove the now-warm cup of alcohol from the water; discard the water.
Take a deep breath. Hold the hot cup of alcohol in a oven mitt-ed hand. Light a match with the other. With the cake below you, begin to tip the alcohol as slowly as possible to the edge of the cup. Light the alcohol with the match — it’s going to be a low, blueish kitten of a flame, promise. Drizzle this burning alcohol over the cake. You can let it flame out or it can be blown out. (Ours lasted 15 to 30 seconds.)
To serve: Serve cake in thin wedges, cutting with a very sharp or serrated knife as frozen brownie is quite dense, chewy and all the more rewarding because of it. Cake keeps in the freezer for easily a week (and probably longer); the meringue holds up surprisingly well.
1. It’s not just kids: I both gasped and giggled when the server POURED FIRE ONTO A DESSERT, because reasons.
2. I am so excited for you. I’ve been reading since fairly early on -— certainly 2008, but probably earlier — and this blog has meant a lot to me. (And it excites me enough that I actually have a new-post alert set up, which is why I so frequently end up toward the top of the comments pile.) I’ve long trusted it/you for both delicious flavors and great testing and quality control, but also for your voice and your willingness to share [parts of] your life with us. When I finally got over my perfectionist worries of “but I have to do it right!” and started my own blog, yours was (and continues to be) one of the ones I looked to for good modeling on style and content — in fact, I’ve used SK as an example text when teaching food writing. Thanks for ten tasty years, and here’s to many years more.
Congratulations!!! and we’re missing the Milk Bar here in Toronto :-)
Um. Birthday cake win. Love love love.
You’re the best mom ever. If I’d done this for any of my three kids on their 7th birthdays, it would have been an unforgettable moment. And that flame…yikes! Kudos—and congrats on 10 years.
Congratulations on 10 years! I am an internal medicine resident, currently not working on research about how to help patients taper off their chronic narcotic medications. I may have single-handedly gotten the lazy pizza dough recipe into the top 10 savory recipes, as we make that crust so often. Looking forward to many more years of Smitten Kitchen!
I owe my 11 year old grandson a birthday cake. He’ll be here with weekend with Mom, her BFF and a passel of kids. I’ll let him light it!
Thanks for encouragement and recipe!
Baked Alaska was actually one of the first things I made when I really started getting into baking a few years ago! My brother was returning from a summer in Alaska, and I made it for the day he came back. It was surprisingly easy; I did an easy homemade cake, storebought ice cream, homemade meringue, and just put the whole thing under the broiler for a few (very nervous) minutes and it turned out great! Moral: no one be intimidated by Baked Alaska!
Who I am: a 19-year-old college student who runs 70 miles per week and consumes a million grams of sugar per week. I’ve baked dozens of your recipes and have been delighted every single time. My personal favorites have been the Everyday Chocolate Cake, Date Oatmeal Squares, Pink Lemonade Bars, and Spicy Gingerbread Cookies (now a Christmas tradition in my home).
Ten years?! Mazel Tov! And win on not burning down the house with the flambee!
I make something on your website every week, because after awhile, I was in a rut of pasta, tacos, and BLT’s. Now, I plan to make something different, just to get out of the dreaded rut. Thanks!
I’ve been reading your site for 9 years, and I swear it is mostly responsible for making me obsessed with food! When I started following in college, I didn’t really cook or have any desire to, and now it’s basically all I talk and think about. Have absolutely loved following you all these years, and your new posts are always the highlight of my week! Happy 10 years!
many many mazels for the big milestone. you have been such a huge inspiration to so many of us. since finding your blog, I have seriously upped my game in the kitchen — branching out to try new preparations and combinations, and challenging my baking skills.
just about every time someone compliments my food, i shrug and say “smitten kitchen,” because it’s almost always something I’ve found here.
looking forward to the next 10 years of delicious ideas! <3
I tried to make this several times during my middle school years. The recipe I had I think from Joy of Cooking had you putting it in a hot oven for a bit to brown the meringue. You had to make sure ice cream and cake were very frozen. I always failed at it as we didn’t have a mixer and my arms were too weak to whip the egg whites into stiff peaks.
Now I am able to whip egg whites by hand and also have a mixer but have as of yet to fulfill my childhood dream of Baked Alaska. Maybe now I will…
I read exactly one blog on a daily basis. The idea of turning a recipe that calls for 4 bowls into a one-bowl cake is what got me started. Then I discovered Broccoli Slaw. I’m way past the point of being pregnant, but I am helpless in front of it. Your pictures are beautiful, your prose is both informative and amusing, and your recipes are delicious. Also, I love the web site re-design. So — raise a frozen hot chocolate to the next ten years!
Happy Birthday, I will share the Cake!
My mom made this for my birthday when I was about 10. Thanks for the lovely memory. She used the broiler method. She also did a brownie base. Maybe the oven method makes it easier to cut? I think she did the meringue right before serving–she whipped it up (it only takes a few minutes) and spread it around then popped it straight into the oven. Clearly this made an impression because it was long ago!
As for flambé, I’ve only ever done it with sauce and crêpes. So you warm the alcohol on the stove at very low temp. Then you take a spoon of the alcohol and light that, then pour that onto the pot of alcohol and pour it into your sauce or over your crêpes.
I have long been a devoted reader (under a different alias) and love not only the recipes but your intricately drawn scenes of domestic life. Congrats on the anniversary!
maybe your best writing yet!
AAAAAH CONGRATULATIONS DEB! Smitten Kitchen has taught me so much and served as a wonderful foundation for my own repertoire as I went from being a penniless and incapable grad student (living off tuna and mac and cheese) to being an adult who actually manages to cook for herself most nights. Many of my favorite recipes come straight from this site: the spinach and chickpeas is a great weeknight dinner, the apple and cheddar scones are my favorite harbinger of fall, and the blondies (with browned butter, of course) are the best sweet to bust out whenever I need a cookie immediately. When I need a recipe this site is usually the first place I look. Thank you so much for all the wonderful ideas and delicious meals. (And for the adorable baby pictures.)
Yes!! My sis-in-law was the pastry chef at DBGB and whenever we visited we got flooded with their amazing desserts. They covered the whole table for just 2 people- luckily for my waistline we live in TX so the visits weren’t often. I’d be curious to hear her notes if I attempted to make this at home… I always get so nervous when I cook for her.
Cheers to 10 years!
Thank you. Btw, I found this explainer on how it is made. A bit more work, you could say… ;)
If only I owned Baked Alaska molds…
Congrats Deb! We have many vegetarian favorites from your site and always look forward to the desserts :)
You are just so totally the best. Many happy happy returns!
I started reading Smitten Kitchen at the recommendation of Molly of Orangette. I started following her because my sister told me “everything she makes is good, and it’s mostly easy.” Well, ok then! And then she pointed over here, for some recipe or other, and LO! Everything *you* make is good! and pretty easy! I love hearing about how other peoples’ lives interact around food. It’s nice to know I’m not the only weirdo out there who rushes home to recreate something she had on vacation. But also, I like knowing what other peoples’ home cooking looks like. Fancy celebrity chefs are great, but their recipes have this nasty habit of taking hours longer than they claim, or requiring special equipment, or weird ingredients. Your recipes are things that are totally manageable at home, on a weeknight, and that is beyond valuable.
I’m a polyamorous 34 year old bicyclist/rock climber and reluctant bookkeeper (it pays the bills, but it’s kinda…boring). I teach bicycle safety with my local Bicycle Coalition on the weekends. I love to cook basically all the things, but I especially love making extravagant layer cakes. They’re deeply impractical, since I often make them and take them to parties via bicycle (city-dweller, here, no car), but they’re so darn stunning that I can’t resist.
I really dislike cooking a new recipe that claims to be fast but actually takes three hours of prep. I’m looking at you, Food Network. I swear their prep times are based on “With the help of 2 sous chefs”
And to end on a happy note: My friend’s birthday is on Monday, and I think he might be getting Cake On Fire. It’ll be totally Metal to go with all the extremely bad-ass RockBand we’ll be playing. ^_^
I can’t help but think of Great British Bake-Off and Baked Alaska together. GBBO had me turned away from ever trying one again. Granted, the first and only time I made one was in Home-ec in 7th grade and of course my favorite part was lighting it on fire (which to this day, I’m still surprised they let us do).
Now I just need to clear space out of my freezer…..
But for your questions, I’m Sarah, a PhD student in the PNW who uses cooking as her down time activity. I also love to garden and now have chickens which is really fun. My favorite of your recipes is the Chicken Marsala although I always add WAY more mushrooms and onions than called for but always turns out amazing. Also, the brown butter rice crispy treats are my go-to for any grad student get together. I’ve been following your page for at least 6 years and always love your commentary and experiences so thank you for that. Congrats on 10 years!
Hi!!! Long time reader here. I discovered the blog in 2008 when I was in between jobs and have been hooked since. I love reading/researching recipes and the writing (and endless linking) just does it for me! Lol. Congrats on 10 years.
Right now, my colleagues think I am replying to a very serious email… Hahaha!
Oh by the way, I am writing all the way from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
Who am I? An occupational therapist and contra dancer, living and working in NYC. I love food and love to cook and bake but don’t bake much anymore in order to keep my weight down and my health and energy up as time drags me kicking and screaming out of my 50’s. I get a lot of vicarious pleasure from your posts and photos. Please don’t ever go paleo on us!
My favorite things to make? Probably my favorite summer dessert is Amanda Hesser’s peach tart. Favorite winter dessert is a pumpkin spice bundt cake I’ve been making ever since I begged the recipe from a physical therapist in Phoenix in 1989 when I was visiting a clinic there. Favorite holiday treat that I can’t live without is buttery pan rolls from a Sunset cookbook I bought at a library discard sale for two dollars in the early 80’s. What do I make for myself for dinner most nights? Tuscan kale sprinkled with nutritional yeast and olive oil and wilted on a cookie sheet, or raw veg sliced on a mandoline and dressed with fish sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, hot pepper, lime juice, and a little raw sugar.
Happiest of blogiversaries to you and here’s to 10 more!
Deb! Congratulations on 10 wonderful years. I’ve been following you for about half that time, and you are just my go-to, fool-proof, A+, favorite resource for all things cooking + life. I tell all of my friends and family about you – when they compliment my cooking (I am now under legal requirement to bring Alex’s mom’s apple cake to EVERY family party), I tell them you are my #1 resource. If they need an idea for a weeknight dinner, a fab birthday cake, or a dish to share at a potluck or picnic, I always tell them to get Smitten in the Kitchen. :) Right now, I’m supposed to be working on website edits and social media blurbs in Philadelphia, but I’m eating lunch at my desk (a rather disappointing taco salad – why did I not use one of YOURS, DEB?), so I figured I can get away with a few minutes on non-work related activity. Anyhow – congrats on being awesome! And come back to Philly soon!
Holy cow I’m impressed! And strangely feeling challenged. I might be insane. What a birthday this was!
I read you because your recipes seem well-tested and I trust I can make them for guests or a crowd without worrying too much that it will suck. I appreciate that you explain your thought process, what other options you considered, how you could modify, etc. I also appreciate that you work out of a small space and find it gives me motivation to get into my own semi-small kitchen and turn out something yummy. I like to cook anything that has robust and surprising flavors, nothing savory is too rich for me. My least favorite thing to do in the kitchen is bake anything complicated. I love your one-bowl desserts!
Yay, ten years!
I live in a different Manhattan that is slightly smaller than yours, and spend my days architecting and peeking to see if you have posted a new recipe. I also had a baby last July!
I love love love making your chicken pho! I hate breaking down chickens… but your recipes have made new cuisines and techniques seem doable for an inexperienced home cook. I consistently find things here that I make (1) right away and (2) over and over!
Congratulations on 10 years! I’m a 33 year old mom and lawyer living in Westchester County with my dessert loving man and a baby boy who was born just 10 days before your curly haired little lady. I started reading this blog last year right around the time I found out I was pregnant, and became an avid and loyal fan in my 30th week when I finally got my taste for food back and made your salted chocolate chunk cookies, not derby pie bars, and saltine crack all on the same Friday afternoon. It’s not a coincidence that my little guy has a rabid sweet tooth and has never met a cookie he didn’t need to devour, immediately. As long as you keep writing, I’ll keep reading (and cooking).
I know that 4+ years after your comment was written, my question may not be seen, but I have to ask: was “saltine crack” a typo (understandable) or an actual recipe (sounds delicious)?
Thanks!
It’s this — but I don’t use the word crack anymore. You can make it with matzo or saltines.
Congrats on 10 years! I’ve been reading you since 2012, but let’s be honest, every day at lunch I come on over and hit the “surprise” button so I’ve probably read every entry ever posted. I’m an investment consultant in my mid-thirties in Boston and when I’m not cooking, I like travelling, reading and all sorts of artsy-fartsy pursuits. As for favorite recipes – I know everyone loves your dessert section and I do too (plum torte! peanut butter cookies! and basically I make your favorite brownies several times a season.) but I have to say the dishes I make most often are from your amazing savory archives – the one-pan tomato & farro dish, your egg salad, the pizza dough, the sandwich bread and all those amazing salads (I particularly like the grains + roasted vegetables + awesome dressing formula.) Also, as a city dweller without a grill, those oven-ribs are AMAZING. I think probably the highest compliment I can pay is that you’re basically the blogging equivalent of Melissa Clark – recipes that have had the heck tested out of them and that are approachable without being unsophisticated. Can’t wait for the next cookbook btw :)
Congrats Deb! I have been reading your site for about seven years, it has served me wonderfully – procrastinating (with a purpose) my way through law school, bar study and the first few years of my law career. My FAVORITE thing to make is all your veggie fritters, cauliflower and zucchini, and in fact I will be making your Indian veg fritters for the first time this evening at a dinner party we are hosting. The fritters always impress. I have memorized your pate brisee quiche crust recipe, and you inspired my love for quiches, which sent my S.O. and I on a yearlong quiche bender. I have the fondest memory of crying over my red velvet cream cheese cake in my 100 degree kitchen (in Seattle nonetheless) when the frosting wouldn’t sit because it was too hot. It eventually turned out great. My sisters and I all know that blueberry boybait is everything it proclaims to be, and that your chocolate chip cookies will entice even the coldest of coworker. Thank you so much for being you! Can’t wait to see what’s next for you and your family!
Congrats on 10 years, and hooray about a flaming cake! What a great combination.
I’m a college student, and I started reading your blog a couple of years ago while I was stuck eating horrible dining room food every day. This year I have an apartment, so I’ve been cooking and baking all the recipes I hoarded in my wish-list for years. My favorite thing to cook (currently) is a pie; I just mastered pie crusts this summer, and am kind of elated that I can make something so flaky and wonderful and previously out of reach. Your pie tutorial was a huge part of that, as is all your practical and un-pretentious advice. Thank you for being wonderful!
Congratulations on 10 years! I think you were the very first food blog I ever found. You are my go-to for recipes for all events, including this weekend when I’m having my future in-laws over for dinner for the very first time!
I am a mid-30s-something assistant professor in chemistry in the middle of the Midwest. I’ve also successfully turned my fiancé into a Smitten Kitchen fan, so much that he just asks me what he should make from your site and cookbook now. I have 2 (soon to be 3) dogs, and 1 (soon to be 2) cat(s). Everyone thinks I am writing an exam right now, but really I am going to convince my fiancé to make this for me for my birthday! My favorite thing to make are the Apple Cider caramels!
Congratulations Deb! You are a constant source of inspiration, your site is the first one I go to for any recipe and your writing is just wonderful. I feel like you’re a friend💗
We met on your book tour in Santa Cruz, CA – I was with my parents and we had just suffered a house fire a week earlier, I didn’t think I’d be able to make it to your book signing because things were so messy at the time, but my wonderful mom remembered it was coming and she got my dad, our dogs and me all in the car and we went together. It was the first bright spot in a terrible time and I’ll never forget how much it meant to me that I was with my family, we were having some fun and that I got to meet you (not to mention leave with a signed copy of what turned out to be the most beautiful cookbook, ever!).
Fast forward three years, I went to culinary school, did an internship at America’s Test Kitchen, met my now fiancé and live in Vermont. We are getting married next year and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I work at a chocolate shop, Lake Champlain Chocolates, and I hope if your ever in Burlington you’ll stop by for a factory tour 😊At the moment I have your oat and wheat sandwich bread proofing and tonight I’m making your lentil and sausage soup. My favorite things to cook are thin, crispy pizzas and big, fat, chewy chocolate chip cookies! Perhaps they are just my favorite things to eat.
Thank you for all the beauty you’ve created, both with your words, photography and your sweet babies you share with us. I have a true love for Smitten Kitchen, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your wisdom, humor and for continuing to create such fabulous recipes. Cheers Deb!
my sister and i were in new england last year for vacation. we stopped by lake champlain chocolates for a tour and shopping. it was so much fun. the guide we had was fairly new there and really excited about everything in the tour.
I remember that, and your whole family; I was so honored you’d made it. I am glad you’re in better times. I love Lake Champlain Chocolates — they’re kosher, right? I am (obviously) not but have spent time in places that are and they’re like a well-kept secret.
I love your blog! My favorite thing to cook is definitely carrot cake with whipped cream cheese frosting, but probably just because it’s also one of my favorite things to eat. Unfortunately the rest of my family doesn’t agree, so I don’t make it much. I also love baking bread, because it’s like a fun science experiment.
I’ve tried a number of your recipes and almost always been thrilled with the result (that brownie ice cream sandwich number is at the forefront of my mind at the moment, even though it’s been at least a year since I made it!). I’m remembering some pistachio-covered lamb chops that were a big dinner party hit too. And LOTS of crispy eggs…. and the fun thing is there are so many more recipes left to try! Thanks for all the great eats. Happy Blog Birthday!
Hi Deb, congrats on 10 years! I’ve been reading since 2009-ish and I basically credit you with teaching me to cook! One of my favorite New York memories was when I was about 10 weeks pregnant in November of 2014 I ran into you at City Bakery. It was the perfect meeting because I had been feeling really torn apart by living in the city (and consistently not getting a seat on the subway…) and then I saw you sitting there at City Bakery and we chatted about Thanksgiving recipes and I was reminded how much I love this city!
To answer your questions: Right now, I *should* be preparing my lesson for my musical theater class (it starts in an hour, it’s fine). I’m an educator for an arts education non profit in midtown and LOVE it. My favorite dinner to cook is roasted chicken (spatchcocked like in the cookbook) and brussel sprouts/asparagus/seasonal vegetable and dessert is anything with salted caramel and dark chocolate. My top recipe from the site is the Swiss Chard and White Bean Stew. I make that all the time (though, honestly, everything I make is from your site!)
Congratulations Deb! 10 years, wow! This cake looks so lovely and your kids are the luckiest in the world :) I wanted to say that I’ve tried sooo many recipes from the Smitten Kitchen and have never, ever been disappointed. I love reading each and every one of your posts because they’re just so fun! Thank you for making cooking such a fabulous experience. I think my emails sent in the past might have landed in your spam (sent from thedessertedgirl@gmail.com) but I’m from India, I love chocolate more than I should publicly admit and I work as a copywriter when I’m not blogging :) Thank you once again for this incredible creation and here’s to the next 10!
Hi Deb!!
I’m a loyalty marketing + program strategist – totally random, I know. I’ve been following your blog for at least 7 of those 10 years and I truly have to say, this little space on the internet is my little corner of happy. Funnily, I’ve always thought of your blog as my secret weapon, where I disappear to unearth incredible recipes to wow all my friends and family. The first thing I ever made was the chocolate peanut butter behemoth cake and it’s become my Dad’s yearly birthday request. To say that I’ve enjoyed following along with your antics is an understatement. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the good times.
Favorite thing to make: Carbonara (duh-sies), it’s the easiest thing on the planet and everyone that I feed it to thinks I’m a total rock star.
Least favorite thing to make: Homemade pasta. It’s a travesty considering I’m Italian, and my pasta skills were half the reason my husband married me. But, it still stands, I freaking hate the dough-y rubble that sticks to your fingers and running that shit through a press. THE WORST!
Oh boy oh boy.
I fantasize about Baked Alaska Hedgehogs, and this may just tip me over to it, because Individual Baked Alaska Hedgehogs ON FIRE is probably going to mean I have to do this.
When I have a kitchen, instead of things in boxes and no cabinets or counters. Sigh.
And the blog? I think I’ve been reading this for, oh, nine years? Enough that cakes from here are now our favorites, and have graced things like Eldest’s Graduation, all the birthdays, college cooking triumphs, and so much more.
My favorite thing to make? Cake. Thing to eat? Probably roasted broccoli. . . I really love to make cakes, but don’t want, or certainly, need, to eat any. Pure creation.
Congratulations on the anniversary and good on you.
Happy decade! This is a great recipe to celebrate with, too – one that looks and sounds incredibly impressive, but is a lot easier than one thinks when it’s broken down as clearly as you always do.
A minor typographical note for you – the last line of the second-to-last paragraph says “We found the gentle on the cake to last 15 to 30 seconds.” I’m guessing that should be ‘flame’ instead of ‘gentle’?
Oops — thank you, now fixed.
So many congratulations on the anniversary! I’ve been reading your blog for ages, probably since just after you started, but this is probably my first time commenting. I’m an attorney in San Francisco who should be working. I have too many favorite things to cook to name, but Marcella’s tomato sauce is an all-time favorite in the savory category, as is your cauliflower pesto and the Mint/Pea/Feta/Chili-Pine Nut Oil Pasta from Jerusalem [apparently I’m craving pasta]. On the sweet end of the spectrum, I put a tube cake pan on our wedding registry for the sole purpose of finally being able to make your Mom’s Apple Cake. Can’t wait. Love this blog and your pictures, recipes, writing, all of it.
This baked Alaska is just gorgeous. Happy birthday to your little one and to this lovely blog that I feel like I’ve been visiting and enjoying/benefitting from for so long! I started looking at food blogs probably about 7-8 years ago when, as a stay at home mom, my son was getting a little older and I found I had a little more time to do things and pursue hobbies. Cooking/baking/learning & reading about food has always been a big interest of mine. I started a food blog, just journaling the recipes that I found and talking about the results. I still do it to this day and I’m still learning a ton. I love being inspired by seeing a recipe I never knew I wanted to cook, and I get that feeling here a lot. Thank you, Deb, for helping make our life a little more delicious. xo
Congrats on 10 years! I’ve been reading this blog since around 2010. I was introduced by my lovely roommates; we consulted you often for party appetizers, pancake recipes for Saturday mornings, and comfort food dishes to make during the cold Minnesota winters. 6 years later and this is still my number one go-to for recipes. I’ve converted my partner to it as well (we love love love the homesick texan carnitas and the butternut squash salad with farro among many others). I moved to Austin in 2012 and shortly after you stopped by on your book tour. It was so lovely to meet you, and I consider my signed copy of your cookbook one of my prized possessions. In fact I pulled it out this week because my friend started a cookbook club and we chose yours as the first to pull recipes from, so we’ll have a dinner party to your honor this Sunday :)
1) Something about myself? I’m originally from the Midwest, grew up in Iowa, lived in Minneapolis for many years, and now I live in Austin. As a result, my true loves are: the Iowa State Fair, driving up the North Shore this time of year, and breakfast tacos.
2) What am I doing? everyone thinks I’m working, toiling over spreadsheets, and answering emails, but really I’m just dreaming about this baked alaska.
3) Favorite thing to cook? Aforementioned carnitas, squash pizza (or any pizza really), AND your zucchini bread pancakes.
Congratulations Deb!!
I actually learned how to cook via your blog. I was a disaster teenager who set her sleeve on fire while reheating a pot of soup, somehow messed up baking a cake from a box, and almost killing her friends from sodium overdose when I misread 2 teaspoons of salt to 2 tablespoons of salt from a recipe.
My first actual real culinary success was your baked chicken meatballs and I followed with Ratatouille’s ratatouille, mosaic apple tart, pretty much all the cakes in your repertoire, and many others.
Your book also made the trans-Pacific move with me and served as kind of a homesickness cure when I came to Korea.
Without you and your blog, I could be a grown ass women who was still setting thigs on fire in the kitchen, none of which would be incredible ice cream cakes.
Thank you so much not only for your recipes but your incredible writing, passion, and humor.
Congratulations! I found you on a snowy snowy day when my kid, between time outs, wanted to bake banana bread. You put bourbon in yours and won my heart forever (it’s bad luck to put some in a recipe and not take a swig for yourself, right? Even at 7AM? Especially if you’re two time outs into a snow day and it’s only 7AM?). He was 3 then and is 6 next week, and this remains my favorite place to find recipes (I’m super picky/judgy about recipes). Thank you for keeping common sense in cooking, and for admitting it takes practice, and for paying attention to what your readers have to say. I love to bake bread and I love to make soup, especially when fancy beans from Rancho Gordo are involved. I despise, and am terrible at, handwork–any of that beautiful stuff you turn out so well. I can’t wait to see what you’re making 10 years from now!
I work at an ad agency, and everyone thinks I’m writing a whitepaper right now, but I’m secretly (as I am most Fridays for a half hour or so) making my master plan for what SK treat(s) to bake this weekend. I’m 27. I love your boozy ‘nana (as we call it in my family) bread, all of your brownie recipes, and same as another commenter make your gingerbread (but the cake one) as many Christmases as the recipe has been here. The peach sandie crumble and raw tomato sauce both recently blew my mind. Love your oat sandwich bread, easy meatballs, the red wine chocolate cake, and I’ll go to the grave clutching one of your oreos in each hand. And probably with one down my bra. Thanks, Deb, for all you do! (My cooking nemesis? Chicken.)
Pretty much the only thing I remember from grade 8 cooking class was that we had to make baked Alaska. And for years and years this struck me as the most useless skill to teach a bunch of 13 year olds. But now, after reading this, I might need to dust off that skill because this just looks yummy.
For the record, my favorite thing to cook is dessert, but I rarely do it (especially now that I have kids). My most recent cooking ventures have been in figuring out how to cook meals for toddlers that I will also like that involve a minimum of effort and the fewest number of dirty dishes.
It’s the combination of your stellar photos, interesting and relatable prose, and easy to follow instructions (that allow mere mortals like me to occasionally be mistaken for a kitchen goddess) that keep us coming back for more! Congrats on 10 years!
Phenomenal post for anyone whose favorite birthday cake is ice cream (me).
Congratulations on turning 10! I am a 25 year old person who has always had a leaning towards baking since teen-hood but never had any parental guidance in the kitchen, but all the freedom to do whatever I wanted regardless of how terrible it turned would turn out (I.e. substituting baking soda for yeast – what could go wrong!?). Smitten kitchen was the first website that I felt I could read, understand, and maybe make a good meal out of. It gave me way more confidence in the kitchen and I am infinitely grateful. I have been a loyal follower since circa 2009 and have never looked back – thank you Deb!
So awesome, and you totally won Dinner with Son (no offense to the hubby). Hopefully said son will remember this moment in ~10 years when you’re inevitably ruining …something :)
Who am I? Mediocre cyclist and triathlete, champion eater, curious home cook. I’ve been reading your blog religiously for about seven years, and between you and Annies-Eats.com my boyfriend and coworkers have been extremely well-fed! I so appreciate your simple instructions, your fearlessness (and lack of apology) in making a recipe even easier than its original instructions may have requested, and the variety of seasonal options you post.
My favorite things to cook are those that look way more complicated than they actually were – various roast chicken recipes, bar desserts – that feed an army and please the crowd. Food is social and it’s nice to impress people with something so simple, yet so delicious! Least favorite things to cook: anything that requires more than 3 bowls for prep. Ain’t nobody got time for that… and this girl doesn’t have a dishwasher.
Congrats on 10 years, and thanks for everything so far! You’re inspiring many people like me, I’m sure, to do more than they probably thought they could. Cheers to that!
Just to let you know that your demographic includes some of us ‘older folks’ as well (I’m 61). I first learned about you when I happened to be in Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, DC when you were doing the book tour for your (first) cookbook. I went home, checked out your blog, went back, bought your book, and have been a faithful follower of the blog ever since. I love your writing, and your recipes have appeared on the table for every day meals, sports events, potlucks and celebrations. Thank you so much — looking forward to your 20th (gulp!) anniversary!
Congratuations on 10 years and the birthday of the oldest kid!
I have been reading for a lot of those 10 years – to sure how long exactly other that it was quite a while before kid #1. Don’t recall how I found you. I am a 57 year old scientist with two teen boys (17 and 14) who eat a lot. Live in Boston. Love to cook and am always having people over. I am a vegetarian who cooks meat for friends – like your site because I have tried enough of your recipes to know that they will be great. I like the pictures and your instructions and I just like all of the little day to day stuff you mention along the way!
Hi Deb! A very happy 10 years to you and this blog. I’ve been reading since about 2009, and obsessed since Summer 2010 once I started cooking for myself and graduated from college. I’m 27 and live in the SF Bay Area, work in education, and last year for your thousandth recipe had the rather OCD idea to write down every unique recipe of yours that I’ve made. I just hit 200 this summer, though I’m sure I’m well into the thousands if you include repeats because I get happily stuck in my ruts. My favorite things to cook are the forehead-smacking “now WHY didn’t I think of that?!” combinations like the frico grilled cheese and chili lime melon salad, and I make a pizza with your lazy dough every Tuesday since it’s at that point in the week where I’d rather not deal with groceries. The raspberry buttermilk cake was my go-to cake this whole summer (for breakfast, for dessert, for afternoon get-togethers). I don’t know that I have a least-favorite thing to cook– or at least, I never realize it until it’s 10 pots/pans/bowls later and the outcome is mediocre, and then it’s my least favorite recipe of all time. But usually I declare it as such in a fit of frustration and then eat it anyway because of all that hard work.
This blog is a triple whammy win, as far as I’m concerned – hilarious (and good) writing, fabulous recipes that actually work, and interesting photography. Definitely worth wasting time…um, getting educated…oh heck, just being entertained with. Took a quick look at your “mom’s apple cake” and that too was one of those wtf moments for me – it’s my mom’s apple cake recipe as well, written in her handwriting on one of those little recipe cards everyone used in the day – she still makes it. And since I’m a geezer as well, that recipe’s been around for almost centuries, I’m thinking. And to top it all off, I have an old set of cookbooks, Time Life’s “The Good Cook” series, and that recipe is in there, attributed to Jean Hewitt at the New York Times, New England Heritage Cookbook. So there. Something else to add to the list of “where the heck did this come from.” So congratulations to you on your 10th anniversary, may there be many more to come!!
Thank you for a decade of delight, and here’s to many more!
Who are you? A long time reader who basically learned to cook between you and all of Good Eats being up for free on Youtube. A fellow New Yorker with a major food allergy.
I’m assuming you’re on the internet for the reason the internet exists, to procrastinate — what does everyone think you’re doing right now?
I’m a tech/administrator at a hospital (it’s actually a pretty neat job, at the intersection of data analysis, public service, patient safety, and regulatory services). I should be poking around in the electronic medical record, but I couldn’t help but stop and celebrate!
Most importantly: What’s your favorite thing to do cook?
Probably my throw-it-in soup, roughly based off of your tomato/lentil/chard/sausage one. (I throw in just about anything else as long as it has the tomatoes and lentils.) Or carrot cake, carrot cake is great.
Least favorite?
I can never get ribs right. Sigh.
Hi Deb! Thank you for ten wonderful years of smitten kitchen. I’m a 25-year-old living in San Francisco that doesn’t cook *too* often these days (these dang tech companies feed us all the time), but when I do, it’s usually one of your recipes. I probably started reading your blog in 2008? I’ve seen every recipe you’ve posted since then. :) When I need to cook something for an occasion, I come to your website and click “surprise me” until I find something that works. Your mushroom gallettes were featured at my family’s most recent Thanksgiving as a vegetarian option. And your pie crust is always my go-to. When I was nervous to make my first pie, your step-by-step pie posts were a huge help. People close to me (the ones I might end up cooking for) know that when I say “Deb”, it means you. It was a huge pro for my current boyfriend that, when we met, he already knew who Deb was. Anyways — thank you!
(Also, your hot fudge sundae cake is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I talk about it all the time — so much so that my friend Anjali [who also loves you] surprised me and made it for my birthday once. https://www.instagram.com/p/rTZJ-yLF8n/?taken-by=arbitton)
Hi! I’ve been reading your blog for about 6 years. I used to only believe in meat and potatoes and was SO picky and didnt cook. I think possibly the first recipe I made from this blog was the peanut butter chocolate cake which I made for about 10 people and it looked like a ridiculous mess and I was so embarrassed, but the TASTE was amazing. So I read all your cake tips and made it again a few days later and forced more people to eat it and my pride was salvaged a bit. Now I have three kids but still cook dinner just about every night as cooking has turned out to be my favorite thing to do and makes me feel so good on days where otherwise I’ve only wipes noses and butts and had two year olds yell at me. I’ve cooked a ridiculous amount of the recipes in this blog and feel like we have a similar palate as we seem to love all the same foods. Probably my favorite recipes of yours are the roasted carrot, farro, tahini salad from the cookbook, your sizzling fajitas, and green bean tomato salad with almond pesto. But seriously.. I could go on and on. I love to try new recipes, but those are on repeat. When I married my husband 7 years ago, he never, ever ate any vegetables, now he eats everything and even requests a lot of our vegetarian meals. Oh, also the wild rice soup with blue cheese toasts, oh my and the raspberry buttermilk cake.
I live in Minnesota, cook recipes you’ve created probably 4-5 times a week, stay home with my three kids.
Thank you for always making it seem possible to make complicated food, and making me laugh on a regular basis. Happy anniversary!!!!!
Happy Anniversary! I am your East Village neighbor who used to exclaim “Smitten Kitchen!” when I saw you on Avenue A or on the bus (thanks for the homemade candy). I don’t visit Smitten Kitchen from work. I visit countless food blogs from my home laptop and you and David Leibovitz are my 2 favorites. While I’ve made recipes from both of you, I mostly visit for the writing, the laughs, the specificity of your voices and the chance to tag along on your travels and adventures without ever feeling condescended to or ashamed that I could never juggle all the balls that you juggle while making it look so easy and fun. Thank you!
Ah! I remember that! I told my friends (re: having candy in my purse to give to strangers, something that’s never happened before or since) that “I am literally the internet’s grandmother.” Thank you.
I have been reading your site for many years – maybe since 2008, I can’t claim to be a reader since day 1 – and I am so, so glad you’ve been on the internet that long. In the time I’ve been reading, I’ve lived in three states and left my 20s, and your recipes are a fixture in our kitchen. These days, whenever I take something of yours to a party, people say “oh, smitten kitchen always has the BEST recipes, doesn’t she?” I don’t think I’ve ever commented before, but I wanted you to know.
I’m a 31-year-old former journalist/copyeditor/screenprinter who just – finally – started grad school to pursue my actual dream, becoming a historian. My favorite thing to cook is Asian dumplings of any kind, though I don’t have as much time for cooking projects lately. My least favorite thing isn’t a specific meal, but more like the relentless fact of dinner having to be made night after night. Cooking is so much more fun when it doesn’t have to be done.
I love baked Alaska – on New Year’s Eve, my family does individual ones on big sugar cookies. A brownie base is a genius idea. And that video is totally priceless. In middle school home ec we make baked Alaska, and my disappointment when we baked them in the oven, instead of a brandy flambe, was palpable.
Thank you for all you do!
Congratulations! I’ve only been following you around for 2 years (when I had a broken foot and suddenly found loads of time to cruise the net). I stumbled upon you by accident. I wish I’d met you sooner. I enjoy your company. Since then I’ve spent many happy hours in the kitchen and on the sofa with you. I’m looking forward to our future together. Cheers!
A few favorite things “to do cook”:
Bread. It’s a bit of a commitment, esp. if there are multiple rising stages. I love Cook’s Illustrated’s multigrain sandwich bread, with the soaked 7-grain mix (better than their whole wheat). Not only tasty but it’s a big yield (2 full loaves, though I put half into mini loaf pans) — it feels like an accomplishment.
Soup. James Peterson’s sweet potato-chili-lime comes to mind, but something simple and brothy with a vegetable (like Marcella Hazan’s spinach soup with garlic) is also good.
I also fell in love with romesco the first few times I made it but wasn’t as happy with it this summer.
And my favorite recipe (to eat after cooking) is pasta with asparagus, prosciutto, and smoked mozzarella. Plus lots of garlic and basil. Om nom nom. Also love farfalle with tarragon, basil, lemon, peas, and ricotta salata (epicurious).
That squash-caramelized onion-cheese toast you had was awesome.
Also to eat, just about anything with avocado. Toast usually is awesome, chilaquiles are pretty good. Huevos rancheros (with the roasted jalapenos, tomatoes, and onions).
And chocolate chip cookies. The big chewy classic Cook’s Illustrated ones from 1996. Yum.
I’ll stop now.
Only to resume later.
I forgot passionfruit curd and Mark Bittman’s hard cider-poached halibut with mushrooms and apples (have not yet tried bacon variant, but it’s awesome without it).
This post made me laugh because, for some reason, Baked Alaska was set firmly in my mind as a child as The Most Wondrous Thing. It became the punchline of jokes because it was my stock response to, “What would you like for supper?” I really haven’t a clue where I heard of it, or why I was obsessed with it, but I finally found the recipe in my father’s cookbook and begged him to help me make it when I was probably about 10. I remember the experience as involving a great deal of stress and the results being underwhelming, but maybe it’s time to take another stab at it.
The fact that my two favorites of your savory recipes–the scalloped tomatoes and the leek toasts–did not make the top 10 makes me ask myself two questions. 1. What is everyone else THINKING? They are missing greatness. and 2. WHAT AM I MISSING? Must try these others stat! Happy 10th anniversary!!
Wow, ten years!
Happy birthday to Jacob (good name) and happy blogaversary to you.
I’m a freelance writer living in NYC and I’ve been inspired by your blog for years (lots of bookmarked recipes). I started cooking at age 2 or 3. My first “masterpiece” was My-T-Fine chocolate pudding. Mom plopped me on a high stool in front of the stove and told me to stir.
I’ve been cooking ever since, even though my kitchen is even smaller than yours! I call it the “one tushie kitchen.”
I’ve moved on from My-T-Fine and now use your chocolate pudding recipe instead. Your pizza dough recipe really is easy (the hardest part is waiting while it rises). My first attempt at your challah recipe didn’t work out quite right, but with the holidays coming, I think it’s time to try again!
I’m 51, live outside of Toronto, commute to Toronto to work. Originally from Nova Scotia. I’m in health care. I love my kitchen time. I’d rather mow the lawn than vacuum the floor. I have no kids. My kitchen is jammed with more cooking and baking stuff than I need. I refuse to get rid of any of it. I’m keeping all of it until I die. I may even take it all with me. Thanks for always being there when I need you.
Congratulations!! I only know how to cook stuff because of you and you’re also one of my bestest friends in the whole world! So I totally get to eat right out of Smittens actual kitchen from time to time. (Don’t be jealous, ha ha)
My favorite food is your brisket recipe which we flip into tacos which you also taught me at Dougs and the pickled onion trick is the BEST.
If I had known you’d be setting fires to cakes I mightof changed my vacation plans.
Anyway, happy, happy, happy anniversary and look forward to many more. You rule. 😘😘😘
I LOVE YOU.
Congrats on 10 years! This is one of my favorite blogs–for your wit and the reliability of your recipes. Reliability can be hard to come by on the internets. Thank you!
Me: I’m an attorney. I’m supposed to be doing lawyerly things right now but–it’s Friday, and I’m tired. I procrastinate with food blogs.
Favorite thing to cook: bread. I make it weekly. Least fav: pan fried things i.e. crab cakes, etc. Too impatient.
Happy Birthday! I love this site, and would be lost without it. I’m a lecturer at an small arts college outside Dublin in Ireland, and I’m writing a book. The recipes here make my very busy life easier. Broccoli slaw, sesame noodles and cocoa brownies (best ever!!!!) got me through this very stressful week feeling cared for and nourished during difficult days. The taco torte waiting in the fridge let me collapse and chat with my honey instead of working out what to make. I love your recipes, your attitude, and the way you think about food. I also love that my co-workers look enviously at my lunches while they eat chips from the canteen! Thanks for all you do – I know you know we’re all out here, but I’m not sure you know how much you mean to us all! XO
This is the first food blog I found- 8 years ago. It was the gateway drug. I have sense found many but this one has always remained the constant go to. What’s so great about it is that I know you have done the research so I don’t have to (otherwise I get sucked into the internet rabbit hole of which recipe is the best).
Who am I: part time physician with kid number 3 under 4 coming up soon. Love baking more than cooking but tend to follow your philosophy (however unwise it may be) to try and make things myself as opposed to buy them (why not make almond paste to make cookies with? Bc I’m crazy). Things I have made numerous times from this website- lighter, airy pound cake, blue sky bran muffins, and those consummate chocolate chip cookies.
Please I love this site. Don’t stop anytime soon.
Congrats on 10 years! I am so happy you are still here.
I first pulled up a stool to the Smitten Kitchen counter in about 2008, give or take. I feel like that party guest who just can’t leave lest I miss the rest of the conversation; 8 years later, it’s still going on. I was sort of an indifferent cook (truth is, I still kind of am) but was inspired by your cooking style because it’s eclectic and your enthusiasm, contagious. It reminds me of my daughter when on a ride at the amusement park; pleased she got on, enjoys the moment all while scoping out the next one. It got me off the rotation style of meal making and let me see I have a lot of options and the freedom to interpret what can be the center piece of a given meal. My family and I thank you for that.
My favorite thing to do? I like to bake. I enjoy baking interesting breads. I learned along with you then obsessed for a while. It was so liberating to learn through your fearlessness, that yeast is such a wus. It’s not nearly as touchy and fussy as everyone seems to think and it only requires flour and water as its main meal. Hell, what’s could be less fussy? All iterations of bread still have this at its base. Seasonings and such allow you to make it your own creation. Being the staff of life, as they say, makes it a rewarding endeavor.
Oh, and sweets are not to be dismissed, we love cookies, cake, pastry; you name it, if it has sugar and vanilla I am all over it. ..so more please!
Such a fan,
Susan
Congratulations on 10 years! I’ve been reading for over half that time, although I can’t quite remember when or how I first discovered the blog. I’ve made dozens upon dozens of your recipes and not a single one has ever turned out badly, so thank you – truly – for helping me learn to cook and impress all my friends with birthday cakes and dinner parties.
Happy Anniversary Smitten Kitchen!
I think I’ve only been reading you for about 7 years but it’s been a great 7 years. You are my favorite online food blog.
I can’t think of just one favorite thing I like to cook but I do know what I like about your website especially.
1) I can always find a recipe that pops, one with special or unusual ingredients or an old favorite that’s been re-worked. I know what I make will impress everybody with its great taste.
2) I reaaaalllly appreciate the time you take to optimize and perfect the recipe. “This is what I did to increase the chocolate flavor.” “I tried it this way but it didn’t work”. Sometimes I read other peoples’ recipes and think “Oh no. That won’t work at all“. I mean, Pinterest is just one lie after another. But you bring the receipts! “This is why you need to do it like this.” I LOVE THAT.
Thank you, Smitten Kitchen, for 10 wonderful years. Here’s to many more.
This is incredible Deb – I live in Scotland and we had a major cultural incident a few years ago when a contestant on The Great British Bake Off sabotaged another contestant’s Baked Alaska – I think there’s even a Wikipedia entry on it!
I’m a PhD researcher in Archaeology and had a squidgy baby daughter 10 months ago. I started reading your blog in about 2009 I think – came for one recipe, stayed for the lovely narratives and stunning photos! I love that you make it seem accessible – I’ve made stuff from your archives that I’d never have attempted in a million years (the Dobos Torte was a particular success!). Now I like to liven up our cooking ruts with your veggie recipes. Even better, my daughter is loving your stuff! The broccoli wild rice casserole went straight into our weekly rotation, and I’m making her Jacob’s monkey cake for her 1st birthday :)
Oh my gosh, congratulations! I don’t know how long I’ve been following you and your recipes but it’s been at least half that time – it takes me so long between baking tries it’s ridiculous, haha. Thank you so much for sharing your awesomeness with us and here’s to many more years!
Happy birthday to Jacob and SK!
I applaud anyone who can set anything on fire in the kitchen and not have to call 911 during or after, so that goes into the Win Category for sure, and the fact that you set a 7 y/o bday cake on fire and not him, well– double win! Lucky boy to have a mama like you, true story. A bday he’ll remember forever, I’m sure.
In terms of your first Q…I am a writer, a teacher and fill so many other roles but beyond the roles, I am just a very curious being, and your site inspires confidence in areas I once had very little. I think cooking, like much of life, is 95% confidence, even if you don’t know what you are doing. If you have confidence in yourself, somehow that allows for mistakes to be made and curiosity can always win. One ends up with some tasty morsels in life that way, cooked or otherwise.
Deb, you are a good teacher. Enjoy all the fruits of your labor!
Happy Ten Year Anniversary! I have been reading you since the beginning and remember running in to you at the old Ben and Jerry’s on 3rd Avenue when you were pregnant with Jacob. We talked for a little as you were leaving and I was so happy that one of my favorite bloggers was so sweet. My family and I have made many of your recipes over the years.
I now live in LA with my boyfriend, who is a lucky recipient of many of your recipes. I miss NY terribly but love seeing the seasons change through your Greenmarket photos! Thank you for all that you do!
I started reading your site at the recommendation of a few friends in grad school and have been diligently following along for the past eight years. Now I’m a librarian/former musicologist/dedicated pie baker/sourdough enthusiast who swears by your all-butter flaky pie crust recipe and strawberry biscuits (while my husband is devoted to your salted peanut butter cookies). And don’t tell my parents, but I now use your brisket recipe instead of my grandma’s!
So I’ve heard the term Baked Alaska before but never knew what it was. Reading the description I had the same reaction as your son, it sounds so fun, and you make baking it seem less scary. I’m totally going to try this.
And congrats! I started reading when I was in college around 2010 and figured I should learn to cook. I love that you love artichokes like me, it’s the best vegetable ever. Also I have discovered I love and am super good at baking despite having a tiny sweet tooth and your recipes have really helped.
Deb, I’ve been reading your blog since my roommates introduced it to me in 2010. I think I learned to love to cook from them and you. I love both the recipes and your writing. My favorite go-to recipes are the lasagna bolognese, one pan farro with tomatoes, and curried lentils and sweet potatoes. Thank you SO MUCH for everything you do, and congrats on 10 years!
I’m a lurker (sorry). I’m a 24 year-old recent grad who’s been reading your site since, I think, High Holiday Season 2011? My mom and I wanted to make a Ratatouille’s ratatouille for Sukkot and we googled around until we found your site, and I’ve read regularly since!
My favourite things to cook are glamorous tortes and cakes–your bee-sting cake has been a hit, but what I cook most regularly are legume-based stews. Onion and garlic in oil, add cut vegetables, beans, veggie broth, and herbs. My absolute least favourite thing is cutting fruit for a fruit plate. I don’t know why. But I hate it.
I keep reading your site (and you’re the only food site I read) for the following reasons:
1) Your recipes are delicious and they WORK—and you talk about the testing process, so I learn what doesn’t work.
2) Your recipes are great for people with limited time, who want to eat well with the ingredients they can find at a local grocery store, and who don’t want to clean ten dishes afterwards. Excellent food for everyday folk!
3) Your writing is hilarious, relate-able, and encouraging. Somehow, you make us all feel that we would *certainly* be your friend.
4) Your recipes are almost all kosher-izable. I don’t really get much from food blogs where the flavour base of everything is bacon and the protein is always from meat.
6) You’re a mainstream writer with recipes for Jewish holidays! Be still my heart!
5) You focus on vegetables, and your recipes are healthy.
To another ten years!
I’ve been following you since 2009, when I was a college first-year seeking food relief online from a very rigorous university program.
That being said, I’ve continued to follow as I taught for three years through Teach For America and now am pursuing a dual Master’s degree program. Needless to say, I’ve turned to your website literally countless times for relief from stress!
I love to bake, especially anything with chocolate. There’s really nothing I don’t like to cook/bake but, when I’m creating with my younger sister who I rarely get to see, I’m at my happiest.
Congratulations on 10 years!
Congratulations on 10 years! I’m not sure if I’ve laughed harder at one of your posts, this was a great story to celebrate with.
I think I started reading regularly about when Jacob came on the scene. I am a bit older, kid-less, have a kitchen that’s somewhat larger than a shoebox, a huge vegetable garden, and to be honest, a bit of Midwestern skepticism of big city folks (sorry!), and yet every time I searched the internets for a solid recipe, the google kept turning to you. Then I came to realize you had searched through all those same recipes, picked one, and straightforwardly adapted it and/or relayed how it worked (or didn’t) for real home cooks in a real kitchen (large or small). We had the same sensibilities about process, tools, and ingredients, and now you’re like my personal vetting system for new recipes. And the fact that our daily lives are so dissimilar actually makes it even more fun for me (who wants to read about their own kind of life all the time?). When I look back at older recipes I can see how much more confident and skilled you’ve gotten, but you still approach dinnertime with an eye to real ingredients, reasonable amounts of time, and for cooks who are experienced or not.
As for a favorite, I like to cook and bake everything, but I’ve made your potato fritatta from the book a bazillion times, and your galette crust/pot pie lid is the only version I will ever make again. Thanks!
PS: Your commenters are great and helpful too (so rare these days), I’m having fun reading about who everybody is!
Congrats on this momentous occasion (and for not setting yourself on fire…)
I stumbled upon your site exactly 7 years ago last week. I was a senior in college in Wisconsin (decidedly not a cook, though I enjoyed baking from time to time), and on a creative whim searched for an apple tart recipe. Well, Google gifted me the link to your Simplest Apple Tart and I never turned back. I’d never seen a food blog before (“Why is this woman talking about her husband and her job and things other than APPLE TART?? Isn’t this supposed to be a recipe??”) but I was instantly captured by your recipes, your photos, and your down-to-earth prose (plus, Jacob had just been born [!!] and the regular baby photos were pretty great). In the weeks that followed, you literally taught me how to cook. I remember making pumpkin black bean soup for my roommates, tomato corn pie for an apartment of boys across the street, and roasted cippolini for myself that fall, although I’m sure there were many others. Seven years later, this is still my first stop when I’m looking for something great to make (or, something great to read). Thank you!
Happy 10th birthday! I am a longtime consistent lurker, but huge fan of your site :-) I work full-time, have three kids ages 12,10 and 7 so it doesn’t leave a lot of time to cook, but I do what I can and I really enjoy cooking. Your blog is one of my all time favs. All your recipes are spot on! The first recipe of yours that I made were homemade oreos and it was love at first bite! Keep on doing your thing and thank you for all the inspiration over the years!
Congratulations on ten years!
I started reading your blog when I was searching for a chocolate stout cake to make my husband for a wedding anniversary dinner when I was pregnant with our first. Due to whatever combination of poor judgment and hormones that rule my life I paired it with burgers on grilled cheese buns with bacon. It was….regrettable. But the cake was a winner and I couldn’t stop reading your site, while also not being able to fathom cooking anything from it until I was in the second trimester. Blah blah blah pregnancy is weird.
I now have two little girls and am on maternity leave from my job as a physician. I actually started systematically reading your blog posts from day one as I’m nursing the new kid, who is 5 months old. Current favourites around here are the chard pancakes, your blue cheese salad, the spiced turkey meatballs, blue sky bran muffins, shakshuka, tomato risotto, and and and… I am a reformed vegetarian but the two year old and husband are voracious carnivorous so I appreciate the balance of meat and veggies options on your site. I love making ridiculously indulgent food and i still kind of dislike cooking any meat that isn’t bacon. I also like the balance of weeknight friendly family dinners on your site, which is a problem that occupies 90 % of my conscious thought when I am working.
I’d also like to tell you I have been impatiently waiting for Jacob’s birthday cake post all week. It’s so generous of you to share snapshots of your families life with us and I find myself noting the respective birthday weeks and anticipating the celebration cakes. Although we’ve never met and likely won’t, I feel like you’ve kept me company through potentially lonely-ish times with small kiddos and new moves (thanks Internet!)
So thanks for all your time and effort and hopefully you’re basking in all the well earned love and adoration in these comments!
One of my fondest, most distinct birthday memories (And I’m nearly 36, so that’s a lot of birthdays!) is the year my mom made a baked alaska for my birthday. It was glorious. I have been reading here for a long time and have made many, many of your recipes. It’s hard to pick a favorite: I love many of the cakes – I just made your chocolate caramel cheesecake for hubby’s birthday last week – and think your kale salad is divine. I probably use your lazy pizza recipe more than any other, although anytime a recipe includes a poached egg, I am usually game for it. Congrats on making 10 years. I’m a mom of 3, family practice doctor and wife who enjoys cooking and crafting in my spare time.
Such a joyous post to celebrate both happy occasions! Congratulations!
I’m a 70-year-old retired foreign language prof in the Midwest, mom of two and grandma of two, who are about the same age as your little ones. Because of a chronic illness and disability, I’m mostly housebound and limited in my activities, but one thing I can still do is cook, and trying out new recipes (for which I rely heavily on SK) keeps me feeling engaged and creative. Even though I’d already been cooking family dinners for 40-some years when I found your site, there were dishes I never would have attempted without your encouraging guidance (galettes, tarts, babka, pizza, cacio e pepe…) and preparations that would never have occurred to me (crispy egg!). I appreciate it that many of your recipes can be prepared in stages throughout the day, making the dinner hour much easier for me. Favorites: broccoli slaw, zucchini rice gratin, rhubarb bars, cacio e pepe, kale salad. What I should be doing now: napping :)
Congratulations!!! What a huge accomplishment. You are one of the bloggers I admire the most, and appreciate your recipes in our family so so much. Thank you for doing what you do and also, any version of ice-cream cake is a huge hit in these parts. Baked Alaska is no exception. I love this methodology too! How very clever:)
Hello! I’ve been reading your column since bright and early in 2006! Way back then I was a newly minted college student with my own first apartment kitchen and the ability to cook things more than the pasta puttanesca I had been “perfecting” for five years based on obsessive Food Network watching. Your recipes were some of the first I cooked for my college friends starving for a home cooked meal. Ten years later, I just graduated with a master’s degree in education and I *still* cook from your blog, except now I’m known as the go-to friend to cook for you in my little group. Thanks for the years, the recipes, and helping me be a better cook, as well as distracted graduate student! Fun fact: that puttanesca is still my favorite thing to cook, but your caesar salad deviled eggs are quite possibly my most requested dish, and recently won a deviled egg contest at my local VFW! With full credit of course.
Congrats, Deb! I’ve been a faithful reader for about a year and a half now, I discovered you through Cup of Jo. I can honestly say that your website has been a game-changer for me in this phase of my life (full time job and young one under 2). I have found so many great recipes that I can actually get done after work, like honest-to-goodness “get home at 5 and sit down to eat at 6” recipes that don’t make me want to cry with the sheer amount of chopping or prep. Also, a HUGE thank you for having such an amazing array of vegetarian recipes! My husband is a longtime vegetarian and it can be occasionally frustrating trying to find new and fun things to cook.
Keep up the great work!
Happy anniversary!!!
I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you do the thing that you do– you have made me an infinitely better, more confident, and more adventurous cook and eater. Your recipes have found their way into my cooking repertoire and also, as an extension, into my family’s life. There are seasonal cues that come from your recipes: I know it’s summer when there’s corn and tomato pie. I know it’s fall when I reduce a quart of apple cider and make caramels (happening right now!)
I think I have no fewer than six sk recipes on the cooking docket for this week, and this isn’t really unusual. (In case you were wondering: the baked ziti, Nancy’s chopped salad, the aforementioned caramels, the overnight waffles, the black bean and feta slaw tacos, the garlic butter roasted mushrooms). What an amazing gift you are to all of us.
I’m the person who fishes you (universal-ish you) out of trouble when you get caught in a war zone, which happens with alarming frequency.
I’ve loved SK for years because a) the recipes are unerringly reliable and I cook to relax at the end of a frustrating week, and b) your inner monologue sounds so much like mine that I sometimes giggle out loud.
Congratulations, Deb! 10 years is huge and I can only hope I once reach that milestone. You’re the first food blogger I started reading and coming here after all these years still makes me feel the same way – hungry, excited for cooking and chatty, because of the way you write… I see myself wanting to reply all the time, lol. :)
And me? Wellll,first of all I am on the other side of the Atlantic. Have no idea how many miles that is, but the time difference is 6 hours! I have a food blog too, a total baby compared to yours. Okay, maybe it’s more of a toddler now, not so much a baby anymore.
What I’m doing right now? Waiting for my pizza dough to rise! :) Love making that… can’t think of a recipe I dislike doing right now, but I’m sure there is a dish on this Earth that annoys me in some way.
Here’s to 10 more years! *pretends to clink a glass with the computer screen*
Your One-Pan Farro With Tomatoes is my favorite savory recipe. I’m sorry but the sweet list is totally off. The strawberry cake is a favorite, I’ve been making it since Martha published it and your version is close to mine. But how can the list not include Blondies, Infinitely Adaptable? Everyday Chocolate Cake? Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake? Those three are with the strawberry cake in my top 5 desserts that I make every year. Which means 4 of my 5 top desserts are yours. Yeah, that’s about right. I’ve loved your blog since I discovered it almost 10 years ago. The post where the bird is in your apartment is probably my all-time favorite. You are the only blog I follow religiously, and your cookbook is a delight. Love you! Mazel Tov on the anniversary!
Thank you. I agree that the chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake never gets enough love, IMHO. I think it needs better photos. :)
Congratulations! I can’t remember how I found your blog, but I’ve been following it ever since and have cooked a lot from it. Just tonight the Summer Squash Pasta Bake, I made it for the first time. It is really delicious! Probably the best I’ve ever eaten involving zucchini. I love your veggie casseroles, your chilis and everything I can freeze. The cantina at work is so bad I have to bring my own food. I also love your popsicle recipes!
I’m a medical doctor with a specialization in radiology and nuclear medicine. And tonight I am on duty, so I am basically sitting at home, and waiting for three big hospitals to call me to have a look at their emergencies. Cooking can be tough at those nights, you never know when you can get back to the kitchen. But easy recipes are usually safe to try.
I hope you’ll go on with the blog for a long time! I love reading your stories, and the recipes of course.
i’m such a longtime fan of your site and your recipes. i love cooking and baking and do most of the weeknight cooking in my house. i love that your home life and your cooking are intertwined, because that’s what cooking IS in real life. i like that SK has jewish recipes and culture but isn’t only about those. the zucchini ricotta pizza is one of my favorites, the corn & tomato pie, the tortilla. pavlova is my superstar passover dessert. when we throw a party, my wife and i always rely on your recipes, because they’re easy and reliable and delicious. so thank you.
since you asked, i’m a gay jewish married lady, and i love food and music and theater and the outdoors. i work from home so no can see if i’m sneaking over to see what’s new on the internet. :)
Long-time reader, first-time commenter. (I think.) Congratulations on ten wonderful years! I’ve been reading since at least around the time you announced Jacob’s impending arrival, possibly a little longer. That makes around eightish years. You are the ONLY blog I read eight years ago that I still read today. You honestly feel like a friend!
I’m a gal who has always loved to cook and bake, though these days I’m navigating my way around gluten and dairy allergies that have robbed me of my former joy in things like bread, pizza, and mac and cheese. My favorite things to cook are all autumn foods, so I’m a happy girl in September and October. (Now if only the weather would get with the program!)
Congratulations! I have no idea when I started reading – but you didn’t have any children yet…..so more than 7 years? I am a lawyer with three kiddos of my own, and a husband who’s a great cook (but I am also a food enthusiast – and I’m the baker and the “anything that requires slow stirring and should not be just be turned up to get it over with” expert.) Our favorites of your recipes include (but are not limited to): spiced applesauce cake (made into muffins and without the frosting), brownie roll out cookies, the roll out cookies with the maple and the nutmeg (topped with the spiced applesauce cake cream cheese frosting) and the pumpkin break pudding (custard doubled – because PUMPKIN!! ) served with bourbon whipped cream and pecans on the side (I can’t remember if that’s your idea or ours but people LOVE it.) As you can see – your recipes feature prominently in our holidays (Christmas and Thanksgiving!). My very favorite thing to cook any time anywhere is risotto.
My least favorite thing to cook is spinach because it’s just so damn disappointing to start out with a big ol’ pile, and end up with barely any. (Please note that I do not cook things I don’t like – and my children benefit thereby as well.) I did not fully realize until you asked just how aggravating I find the spinach thing.
Hi Deb! I love your site and am still following it after 4 years because you haven’t stopped sharing recipes! There are a couple food blogs I started following, but have lost interest in because they share mostly links or opinion pieces. I love how you write- the mix of humor, your life story, and creative recipes are what keep me coming back. Right now my favorite thing to make is a roasted salmon with asparagus and pistachio gremolata from Molly Gilbert’s Sheet Pan Suppers cookbook (she calls for arctic char, but I prefer salmon). My least favorite thing to make are chicken nuggets- my 4 & 2 year old children are embarrassingly picky eaters. I especially love to bake, and value your detailed instructions. I have made your apple pie a number of times (apple pie is my husband’s very favorite dessert and until I found your recipe every single one I made was a failure, so thank you, thank you). And, I’m excited to make your chocolate peanut butter cake for my birthday cake next month.
Happy birthday!! I started reading your blog in 2010 while I was working at my first job, looking for a chickpea recipe for my then boyfriend “spinach and chickpeas” was the result and I was literally smitten- I spent the next two weeks reading up on all previous recipes and have been following your blog ever since.
I am 32, originally from Austria but have been living in London since 2009- I am married and work as a management consultant. Actually my husband knows that I always read cooking blogs in the evening, so he knows what I am up to :-)
My favourite things to cook are semi-improvised weekday meals and pasta bakes; I don’t like/eat eggs so I suppose egg dishes are my least favourite things to cook.
I loved this post – the description of lighting the birthday cake had me laughing out loud. Here’s to the next 10 years! :)
Happy 10th birthday SK and happy 7th to JP! What an awesome birthday cake!
I’ve been following your blog since 2007. Back then I was doing my MA in translation. Now I’m 31, working in publishing and have a gorgeous 21-month-old daughter. I live in Devon, UK and had the pleasure of meeting you in Bath on your book tour (I gave you some fudge). I love cooking any kind of cake and your pasta with pangratto. I have a mortal fear of deep frying. Right now I’m watching GBBO and drinking tea before having an early night. Rock and roll!
Congratulations on 10 years! I can’t even remember when I started reading your site, but it was one of the first when I really started getting into cooking and following food blogs, and it’s definitely the one that’s stuck around in my reader the longest.
To answer some questions – I’m Stacy, 31, living in central Florida. I work Sunday through Thursday, so today is the weekend for me but I should probably be outside cutting the grass instead of interneting. I’ll get to it eventually…I love to cook most things but I’m a baker at heart, and I have you to thank for the revelation that is frozen brownies. Have you ever tried freezing fruit curds? For eating that way, not just for storage. The Kitchn has an amazing cranberry curd and walnut shortbread bar, and it is FANTASTIC when frozen.
Thank you for putting so much time and effort into this space – I know it’s your job but it’s clear that you love it. I’ve never made a recipe (from your site or cookbook) that I was in any way unhappy with, and you’re the first blog I recommend to anyone who shows an interest in learning to cook. Here’s to 10 more years!
Congratulations on 10 years! A adore your site and regularly make meals using your recipes.
I’m an editor of NGO reports, journal articles, and occasional books. I should be working on a major policy doc for my latest project right now, but I’m exhausted from a 45-minute swim this morning. My favorite recipe of yours is the everyday meatballs, which I make a double recipe of every time it is our turn to host the neighborhood’s weekly potluck. I love baking but don’t do it as often as I’d like due to the danger having baked goods in the house poses for people who work at home. Your apple slab pie is on our Thanksgiving table every year. Thanks for being a bright corner of the web!
You never let me down. Every recipe of yours I’ve ever made is fantastic, delicious, not fussy yet still looks/tastes like it was. I truly became a fan during the 3-years I lived in Germany. I had the absolute tiniest, galley-like kitchen ever. My sink was so small, a 9×13 inch pan did not fit inside of it. But, I knew I could do it, because you did too. So I made dinner. I hosted a two baby showers for over 25 people and multiple dinner parties. I baked my daughter her first birthday cake (with berry buttercream frosting!). Despite the inconveniences of having to use transformers to plug in my American spec kitchen appliances and lugging my large pans and cooking vessels upstairs to the bathtub to wash, I made it work. Thank you for the inspiration, Deb. You are my favorite.
May I just say WOW! You are a rockstar!
Congrats on 10 years! Has it really been that long?
I’m a 48 yr old mom of three in the Boston burbs (tried to buy tickets for your kitchen demo in Wellesley, but it sold out so fast!!), and have been following you on-line for at least 12 years. I started reading your first blog, The Smitten, and have stayed with you ever since because I enjoy your recipes, the stories you tell, and your beautiful photos. Yours is the first blog I search when I need dinner inspiration, and your wedding cake tutorial enabled me to make a grand, three layer chocolate cake for my daughter’s bat mitzvah. Cheers!
I hop onto SK to break up the monotony…I do inside sales for a language services company, so I spend a lot of time (or should!) writing estimates and and reviewing documents in many different languages. Someone commented on what fun it is to learn about our fellow readers with this post & comments– I agree! I vividly recall the first recipe I read that hooked me: the potato chip cookies. How cool! I made lots of your recipes to woo my boyfriend when we first started dating, i.e. the red wine chocolate cake, lasagna bolognese, upside down apple gingerbread cake, stuffed eggplant, key lime cheesecake, lentil sausage & chard soup, ice cream cake (I went the ‘Crazy Deb’ route and insisted upon making EVERY SINGLE ingredient with that one, it was a blast). When I refer to Deb, he knows exactly who I mean. I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but I was so broke when we were dating long distance, I bought your cookbook with practically the last $35 I had in my checking account one week because we wanted to go to your book signing together at Politics & Prose when I was visiting him in DC. One time we made your herbed summer squash pasta bake together for a friend and his 9 m.o. going through the loss of their wife/mom, and they loved it…it’s a really special food memory for me now. Geez, I didn’t think I’d get all choked up with this! Thanks for sharing a piece of your heart & soul with us, Deb. Congratulations!
You just gave me all the feels — I loved that event (crazy as it was) and if I had known, I would have scraped up a book for you. But thank you.
Hi Deb! Congratulations on 10 years – it is such a huge accomplishment and something to be incredible proud of!
I’m Ellie. I’m 28 and I live in Chicago with my husband where I design novel simulation devices for medical education and research for Northwestern’s medical school. Essentially I make fake body parts for people to practice on (http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/dme/simulation/innovations-lab1.html). It’s pretty cool!
Smitten Kitchen was the first food blog that I read religiously. It’s my bible. SK is always my first stop when I have a cooking question or am in need of a recipe. THANK YOU. My all-time favorite recipe is your tomato and sausage risotto. It’s heavenly and something I have made over and over again. It is because of you, and others like you, that made me want to share my love for food with others. And one year ago, I started my blog – Hungry by Nature.
Thank you for being an inspiration to me and so many others in the kitchen! Cheers to ten years and many more!
As for the brandy fire, before you brown the meringue gently press half an empty egg shell into the meringue until it is level with the top. After browning, pour warmed brandy into the eggshell and light it. Voila —
Genius!
Congratulations on a decade of awesomeness! I have been reading for a long time – probably not quite 10 years, but at least 9. Back then I was a grad student, baking for stress relief; I’ve kept following through a transatlantic move, and the addition of a husband, a baby and a real job (I’m a research scientist, and am supposed to be working on a grant proposal right now…) I still get excited when a new post shows up in my feed! I have never commented before, because apparently I’m a dedicated lurker/internet-introvert. But (in a non-creepy way) you’ve become a pretty integral part of my life – when I want to make something, I always check your archives first to see if you have a recipe. If anyone ever asks me for a recipe recommendation, I will automatically direct them to your site. When your cookbook came out, my husband and I made a New Years resolution to make every single recipe – 2013 was a delicious year! 2/3 of the cake layers for my wedding cake were your recipes, and my husband requests your carrot cake for his birthday cake every year! Thank you for your consistently awesome recipes, and your engaging writing style, and for being one of my favorite places on the internet!
Baked Alaska! This was the most ambitious project my 12 year old self attempted at Home Economics for the Mother’s Morning Tea. The one and only time I made it and ate it.
I’m following your blog because I really love your cooking, your writing, your pictures, and (most particularly now) the red-head pictures on insta. I pin lots of your stuff, and I read your tips and other poster’s comments. I cook the stuff I pin.
I’m a New Zealander, living in New Zealand (lots of us emigrate). I cook seasonally. I grow about 20% of the fruit and vegetables I eat, but aim to increase that. I keep hens on my 1/4 acre paradise and use their eggs in cooking.
Keep up the good work. I hope to still be reading your blog in another 10 years
I guess I’ve been reading you for about 9 of those 10 years, because Jacob wasn’t even a twinkle in the eye yet. Ezra Klein (now of Vox) wanted somebody to make him some of the Chili Brownies. I lived in Nashville at the time, so it wasn’t to be, but I was hooked.
I have half a Red Wine Chocolate cake in the kitchen right now. I also swear by Black Bean & Pumpkin Soup, Tzaziki Potato Salad, Spinach & Cheese Strata, and probably a few others I can’t rattle off the top of my head.
Congratulations on a decade, and my tummy hopes for decades more!
10 years! I’ve been reading your blog since before it was a food blog- I think I stumbled across it a few months after you and Alex started dating, way way back. Anyway, I’m 37, with a husband and a kid and I do freelance web consulting. We make the greens/mushrooms/cheese with toast we found on your site like, all the time. When we start seeing greens at the farmer’s market in the early spring, we make it once or twice a week, with a crispy egg, of course.
Wow! You do. Thank you for sticking around. :)
I have been a non-commenting reader for years. I left for college almost ten years ago a complete non-cook (could not boil a pot of water to save my soul–seriously), despite the best efforts of my mom to teach me base-level survival skills. I lived with roommates who are both fantastic cooks and that got me started, but my real cooking life began in law school, when I began to read Smitten Kitchen religiously and to cook my own lunches and dinners.
My favourite recipes are: three-ingredient tomato sauce; white bean, pancetta and chard pot pie (probably one of my favourite recipes EVER – I make it all.the.time.); jacked-up banana bread; zucchini, corn and tomato galette (I actually made this for the first time this weekend but it was to diieeee for and definitely a favourite); strawberry rhubarb oat bars; strawberry rhubarb hand pies; pan sheet chicken; all of the panzanellas (spring! summer! fall! I don’t discriminate against any bread-based salad)… is that too many to have as favourites??
Anyway, thanks to you and Ina Garten, I now consider myself a very good home cook. Whenever I make something new, my husband has one of two guesses as to where it came from: here, or NYT Cooking. Cooking is an immense source of joy in my life. So: thank you.
Bravo on ten years. Here’s to many more!
My husband made baked alaska for my now step-son’s 10th birthday. We were dating at the time, and he was a single dad doing an A+ job at raising a kid. What single dad attempts baked alaska for a bunch or goofy 10 year olds?! It’s one of the things that sealed the deal for me.
Anyway, I’m a mom and former special ed teacher who lives in Northern California. I think I first heard about you from Joy the Baker, either through her website or podcast. I’ve been reading your website for over 4 years now and just appreciate what you create out of a normal kitchen, with kids, etc. The one pot tomato farro is a consistent favorite in our home. Thanks for inspiring me in the kitchen!
I make something called busy day cake. It’s a yellow cake that is so simple- like your excellent brownies – and it has been a staple in this house forever. I raised seven kids (yup) whose ages spanned 20 years (all born to us, with the same great husband). This yellow cake was for birthdays, or just a regular old Wednesday night. Now my grandkids help make it, because it’s almost impossible to mess up.
I started reading your blog about three years ago, and several of your dishes have become favorites. Mornings often start by chatting with my daughter who calls on her way to the T. “What did you do for dinner last night?” Oh I made the chicken fajitas from smitten kitchen.” “Well, we had the summer squash pizza.” Yes, we raised a family of people who love to cook.
Thanks for all the great recipes and glimpses into your family life. Really, with all that great stuff, who has time for politics?
Dating myself here! in my 7th grade year Home Ec class our last recipe we made was … BAKED ALASKA! That was the ONE and ONLY time I made this lovely recipe. Now I need an occasion to try it again. But honestly I really really want my very own kitchen blow torch! Weeeeee!
Congratulations! I started reading your wonderful blog before you had kids. I’m a redhead mom to two redhead kids who always checks out the adorable kid pics before the recipe. I’ve made many of the recipes on your site, read all posts, and your comments section is the best!
Happy 10th! As for what I’m doing right now…it’s 4:14 on a Friday, and I’m at work reading your lovely tale of fire and cake.
Hi! I’m Beth, I live outside Boston, and I’ve been reading your blog for probably 6+ years. It’s my favorite one out there! One of my favorite things to “cook” is a salad of black beans, corn off the cob, cherry tomatoes, hearts of palm, crab, basil, and avocado with just oil and red wine vinegar. It’s so good and so easy. Least favorite to cook? Anything with more than 10+ ingredients.
Thanks for all your delightful recipes and stories. I’m looking forward to many more years here!
Happy Anniversary! I’m not one to comment but couldn’t resist since you so nicely asked. I read you because a) your recipes read like a short story, which I love and b) your recipes don’t fail me. Whether it is the age-old question “what’s for dinner” or the many times I have tested your recipes on dinner guests, I am never worried that they will not be loved. That’s pure talent, Deb. I trust your brand and you. Thanks for sharing your recipes and life with us!
Janelle, Lawyer, Sydney Australia. I’ve been reading and loving your blog since 2008 when a colleague introduced it to me. At first I read it religiously for the stories and pics of your adorable kids and didn’t make many recipes, now your blog/book has become my go-to starting point for all recipes/events. People OFTEN ask me to remake your recipes: apple cake(!!!), burnt butter marshmallow bars, potato rosti…etc. You bring a lot of joy to my life and those lives around me through your food. Im off after this to make your spinach quiche and blueberry muffins for a brunch! Yum can’t wait to try the muffins for the first time. You are wonderful and one of a kind Deb! Im so very glad you have kept going over all these years! Happy birthday SK! Big love from Sydney xo
I’m making pizza (waiting for the timer) and it is my favourite thing to cook because everyone loves it! (though refried beans are such a close second for the same reason). I’m a housewife/stay-at-home-mom (my 2 boys are in 4th and 7th grade) and I live in VT but am Canadian. I knit. A lot. I don’t like making Swedish meatballs, Sloppy Joes or lasagne because they’re all labour intensive, but I DO on occasion because they’re delicious. I’ve only made Latke’s once because the work/delicious balance just isn’t there.
Congratulations! Although it is no surprise you have lasted this long, you have become one of the most trusted voices in my kitchen and many others. Thank you for all your hard work and brilliant recipes! Happy Anniversary!
I can’t believe your boy is 7 years old; I remember when he was announced on the blog, snuck into a post about cinnamon buns. I can’t believe also that I’ve been reading this blog for like 8+ years, and that you still have this lasting effect on the foods I make for my family and friends. Your blog inspires me!!
To answer the questions: I’m a food lover! I’m Canadian, a boring desk jockey type who has been long absurd hunt to find work that makes me feel good, and still going. My favorite things to cook are things that require using up random whatever-is-in-the-fridge; it’s like the best game trying to make use of everything. Fall is the awesome because there are always too many apples, too many potatoes, too many tomatoes, too many whatever and I can take on big projects and learn things too. I haven’t found a least favorite yet. Thanks for asking :)
Happy 10 year anniversary and to many more!
Hi Deb! Thanks for keeping this great blog up! I have been reading for the better part of 8 years (since starting undergrad) and am now finishing up a doctorate in neuroscience who uses her free time between science (and being an amateur musician) to cook. Your blog has always been the first one I turn to for new ideas or help! This has been so true that even our dept head knows about your cookbook. (We were given prize money to select books of our choosing and I requested that they order it as part of my prize… needless to say, I received some strange looks).
When you light the alcohol- is there still water in the mug? I got confused between the cup of water and the shot glass of alcohol- I am imagining dumping water on the cake. Could you clarify or add a (faked) photo? Thanks!
I believe what she is saying is that the mug of water is just there to warm up the alcohol. You take the shot glass out of the warm water before pouring it onto the cake.
Sorry, that could have been more clear, but yes to what sydthomps says. I use the hot water to heat the alcohol, then remove the alcohol and discard the hot water.
Sorry for the confusion. I added another line, making it clear that you remove the cup from the water and ditch the water. You’re just using it to get the brandy very hot. Hope that helps.
Hi, Deb! Happy Anniversary to Smitten Kitchen! I actually can’t for the life of me remember when I started reading the blog, but I’m pretty sure it was before Jacob was born, because I remember that announcement. Anyway, I’m an opera singer and currently a grad student at Indiana University, and I love to cook; your recipes have been huge hits in my world!
Two weeks ago I had a Wednesday meltdown and I made your salted chocolate chunk cookies. I ate a few and then froze the rest into a log, slice-and-baked it, brought it into work at the voice department office, and then sent an e-mail to the whole department letting them know there were cookies in the office. I had people coming in all morning, and a text from my voice teacher dubbing me the queen of the cookies. So thank you for helping me make friends and influence people! ;)
Other recipes that have gone over famously: summer strawberry cake (my personal favorite cake ever), chana masala, cold sesame noodles (tasted just like my upbringing in New Jersey!), hot and sour soup (see “cold sesame noodles”), blood orange, almond and ricotta cake (my roommate said it was the best thing he had ever tasted), zucchini bread, cocoa brownies, carrot tahini muffins (my roommate–who is my best customer–took the leftovers to work with him and everybody raved), and most recently the burrata with lentils and basil vinaigrette, which was really delicious.
Anyway, thank you for the inspiration all these years! Some of the most delicious things have come out of my kitchens (of varying sizes and amenities) thanks to you!
Anne
Also, my favorite thing to cook is pasta sauce, because it’s delicious every single time, lasts forever, and makes the world smell excellent. Recently discovered puttanesca sauce and cannot get enough!
And I completely forgot Molly’s Tarte Tatin, which was the first thing I baked in my new kitchen even though it was 90 degrees outside and my kitchen was sweltering. It was divine, and the voice department at IU thought so too!
Happy birthday! I can’t remember how long I’ve been reading this site – maybe since 2008? I like getting inspiration to make (usually quicker/simpler) versions of your new recipes, and I appreciate there is no sponsored content. I’m Scottish, moved to Brussels 7 years ago and promptly discovered I’m allergic to mussels. Otherwise I’ll eat anything: I adore cooking at the weekends and hate it during the week. I make a lot of your shakshuka, broccoli slaw, favourite brownies, salted chocolate chunk cookies, jacked up banana bread, granola bars, spiced apple cake and bakewell tart. If I don’t know what to cook I’ll make a pot of chilli or fajitas. Your post 5 years ago with the red wine chocolate cake (also a favourite) was a really beautiful piece of writing. Thanks for a great blog, here’s to the next 10.
I’ve never commented on your blog before, but happy 10th! I started following you to get through grad school in 2006 or maybeeee 2007. Wow. Still turn to you for many staple favorites and the novel recipe or two. I’m also now 2 kids wearier, but I hope I can light a cake on fire for next year’s birthdays. Congratulations!
Hi Deb! I’m a long-time reader and, since I started reading, have had 3 kids so my cooking has gone from “What is new and sounds good? Doesn’t matter how long it takes!” to “What will all my people eat with minimal fuss and minimal prep time on my part?” Over the years, I have so appreciated how careful you are to vet great recipes and tweak them to perfection. Really, you’re my first stop when I have an idea I need to put a recipe to. Congrats on 10 years and I hope you keep it up!
Fire cake!? Yes please.
So many congrats on the decade of Smitten Kitchen! It is my go to recipe site as well as my go to happy internet location. Kitten videos are overrated compared to this.
I’m a 21 year-old kayak guide/biology student/long distance runner/bike commuter in northern California. I’ve also been struggling with anorexia for the past few years and one way I have found to make that better is by making myself good food (like anything on this blog). Some things that have helped me through the roughest times (one savory and one sweet to follow your lead): the corn and tomato pie (everyone loves it always), and your peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (can’t count how many batches of those I have made). Anyways, thanks for being here, on the internet, to provide us all with happy feelings and happy food :)
Yay! 10 years of incredible talent in this here corner of the Internet! I’m from Boston, I have a daughter close to age as yours, and I absolutely HATE recipes that don’t work. I trust you, you are sooooo funny and smart and awesome, you make delicious food, it’s a good partnership you and me (ha). I love roasting anything, it’s like magic flavor. I hate making pie crust. And anything with 3 different things that need to be fully cleaned (not like rinse cleaned and dishwashed). Wouldn’t it be amazing if you found a recipe for pie crust as easy as your recipe for pizza dough that is AMAZING AND SUCH A LIFE SAVER. What else? Every time I bake something of yours and people explain how amazing it is, I always say “it’s deb’s recipe.” You know… My friend deb. You’re the best! Congrats and thank you for keeping at it!!!!
I started following you in university, so basically since the beginning. Definitely in the first year. You and Cup of Jo are the only holdovers from that time period (and deservingly so!)
I’m at stay at home mom of three kids five and under who loves cooking and trying new recipes and once attempted a blog (like you say, it was the thing to do!) and lasted three posts before realizing I’d rather just spend that time reading blogs :) Usually I’m hiding in the kitchen with my laptop on my counter perusing recipes and falling down the rabbit hole. Disappointingly, I’m in a cooking funk right now, but for a while this year my favourite thing to make was varying flavours of ice cream, sour cherry & almond with dark chocolate chunks being my favourite. My least favourite thing to make is boxed mac’n’cheese but occasionally I do it anyway for my husband…and the kids.
I have been following this blog for the last three years. This week we enjoyed the baked chicken meatballs, chicken and mushroom Marsala and the fruit cobbler( I used Ontaro nectarines). I am a retired college professor, age 62, who will be moving into a west end condo in Toronto in October. The easy to follow instructions and inspiring results are such a welcome addition to our dinner table.
I’m a biology professor, mom of three girls, runner, and someone who loves good food. My husband and I make so many of your recipes all the time: shashuka, chana masala, smooth hummus (I actually hated hummus until I tried that recipe), your pizza dough, and several things out of the cookbook. I like to cook and trust your recipes! The only thing is that I recently gave up sugar. That’s kind of a bummer, but I actually don’t crave it anymore and it doesn’t taste good, so it’s only sad when I think about how much I used to enjoy sweets. Oh well! I still have butter and goat cheese. I’m a sucker for chevre. If there’s something with chevre on the menu when we’re (rarely) eating out, my husband knows that’s what I’m going to order, for sure. What else? I can’t remember how long I’ve been reading Smitten Kitchen, but probably about seven years. I live in Iowa and have never been to NYC. (Though banish your stereotypes, I’ve lived abroad in Europe and traveled many places in the USA, including CA, CO, FL, Maine, NC, MT, etc. Just haven’t made it to NYC. Big cities aren’t my favorite places.) We got a puppy this summer and a canoe last week, and the puppy likes canoeing! We also like camping. Anyway, that’s about all about me! Thanks for all the great recipes and stories!
If you make it all the way down here…
I bought my first laptop (I’m on #2) about 10 years ago, and started reading the occasional blog. Next thing, I’m reading ALL the blogs, and depend on Reeder (now I use Feedly) and RSS to know when there’s something new to read. I’ve totally trimmed back to 3 or 4 scifi authors, the NY Times, two cooks (hello, SmittenKitchen!) some tech sites, and a bunch of knitters. I’m an overweight, nearing 60 mother of two college age kids, an out of control house, and you impress the hell out of me with your site!
I’m the mom of three, soon to be four kids, and have married to a great guy for 10 years. My oldest is just a few weeks older than Jacob, so it’s been fun watch him grown him along with my son. I should be cleaning up the dinner mess in the kitchen right now, but that’s no fun… My favorite thing to cook is dessert, but I make that far less than I make dinner, so I suppose my real favorite should be anything that is quick, easy and has easy to find and prep ingredients that tastes awesome that I can serve for dinner. I like to try new things and thankfully, my family enjoys eating a wide variety of foods, so I’m not limited on what I can make. I had a reputation of being a picky eater as a child, which I thought meant that I didn’t like a lot of things. As I got older I realized that for me picky means that I don’t like a lot of repetition and I like things a certain way. As much as I get tired of cooking, I’m a lot happier now that I’m in charge of my food.
I haven’t ever made a Baked Alaska, but I have set many a Christmas pudding on fire. The easiest (and safest) way, IMHO, is to put whatever alcohol you are gong to use in the base of a metal ladle. Heat over a gas flame until warm and then tilt the ladle toward the flame. The booze will catch fire and will already be in the handiest (and longest-handled) vessel to pour it over whatever you want to set on fire.
This is such a better idea, thank you.
Congratulations, Deb!!! I think I began reading your blog about six or seven years ago when my friend presented me with your homemade Oreos and I died. You are entirely responsible for my love of cooking and baking, as well as the spare 10 pounds I carry around. #sorrynotsorry
I discovered what a joy it was to feed delicious food to my family through your blog (your writing voice is just perfect in every way!). Whenever I’m planning meals for the week I always head to SK first to see what I should make.
Number 1 favorites:
– Our Favorite Choc Chip Cookies
– Everyday Chocolate Cake
– Broccoli slaw tacos
– Lentil soup with chard
Kudos to you and your efforts. You’re the best and we love love love you!!!!!
Happy Anniversary! Yours is my favorite website to check, and I call it “food porn” because I try not to eat too much dessert but I love to look at the recipes and plan for the future… I love your site, thought I think it’s actually your writing and photos more than my own love of, or interest in, cooking. That said, your recipes always work! My favorite is Japanese vegetable pancakes. They are the best and low carb and perfect for Chanukah! I am a middle aged mother and physician in the midwest.
I don’t have the foggiest idea how long I’ve been reading, but definitely years. At least four, probably more. I’ll echo what everyone else has said: you provide solid recipes, most of which are made of things I already have, and the rest are worth buying the ingredients; my favorite was the shakshuka.
As for me, I’m a vegetarian, mother of two boys under the age of four (who eat ALL OF THE TIME), proofreader by trade, quilter/spinner/knitter by hobby, living on the south shore of Massachusetts. My favorite thing to make is bread (with a good soup to go with it). My least favorite thing is… probably anything that requires delicate work to make it look pretty.
Congrats! Reading this post made me realize I have been following SK for more than 6 years, the only blog I have stayed with and read diligently. I can’t even count how many of your recipes I’ve made! When I first discovered Smitten Kitchen I was newly engaged to my now husband, in school, and was happy to read the exploits of a fellow obsessive home cook. I’m now a stay-at-home mom pregnant with my second baby in my hometown of Ottawa, ON, and I still love reading about what you’re up to and trying out the new recipes! I was a vegetarian when I started reading SK, and am not any longer, although I often find myself preferring vegetarian meals because I just love veggies that much. I love baking too, and your Apple Honey Challah might be the best thing in the world. Oh, tonight I made the Everyday Meatballs and my 2-year-old went nuts for them! Thanks for being you, I look forward to many more awesome recipes.
HI! Congrats on ten years! I first found your site thru your iced coffee recipe. I am a Catholic nun living in the rural midwest. We aren’t near a Starbucks and your coffee was a big hit it the convent. Since then I’ve made a lot of your recipes and they always turn out well and taste delicious! I particularly love the many vegetarian options that are full of veggies and so flavorful.
I enjoy your humor and the little pics of your adorable kids. Thanks for giving us ten years of your life in this little corner of the internet. I am looking forward to the next ten!
Congrats on 10 years! I’m a former archivist turned stay-at-home mom and I’ve been reading your blog since probably 2008. It’s largely because of you that I’ve learned to love cooking. I chafe under the grind of the daily dinner, but I love when I can spend time lounging around in one of your recipes, maybe trying a new food or a new technique, and always creating something wonderful. Your blog is my first stop when I need a recipe. First. No matter what it is. Funny story – you were on book tour way back when I was pregnant with my first. I live outside LA and I so wanted to go and meet you and have you sign my book. However, I was due right when you were supposed to be there and there was the very real possibility that I would get stuck in three hour traffic just to get to your signing. Knowing my luck, I’d end up going into labor on the 405 freeway, so I sadly decided to skip your book tour. It would figure that the baby would decide not to come for a couple more weeks (yes, you read that right), so I could have gone and met you. Sigh. Hindsight, right? Maybe there will be a next time. ;-) Anyway, congrats again on 10 years! :-)
Aw, I hope there will be a next time too. To be fair, I heard from a lot of people that 1 p.m. on a Friday in Beverly Hills is a nightmare to get to. :) (Yes, I still remember every detail!)
Ten years! Congrats! I’ve been reading since 2008, and I actually went poking in the archives to figure out how I got here. It was pumpkin cupcakes. I was twenty years old, just getting my legs cooking for myself, and craving fall-spiced treats something terrible. I kept coming back for more. It turned out to be far more interesting than my English lit and creative writing homework.
Now I’m twenty-eight, and earlier this year ended a three-year stint as a pastry cook (and pastry chef, towards the end). I’m still in restaurants, but serving instead of cooking, and still as in love with food as ever. I usually come here for inspiration when I’m in a home cooking rut, and my husband always loves when I surprise him with something he’s never heard of before. Just yesterday, when some friends gave us a bottle of piri piri sauce from Portugal, I said “I know exactly where I can find a recipe to use this!” From new cuisines to budget meals, you’ve never failed me, SK.
My favorite thing to cook is dessert, in all forms. I also make a mean batch of buttermilk biscuits. I honestly don’t know if there’s anything I don’t love to cook, unless you count “food with a deadline.” (I always volunteer to bring things to functions, gatherings, and holidays, and then I hem and haw and never really love what I make.)
It’s been so wonderful to follow you for eight years. Can’t wait for more.
“Food with a deadline.” YESS. This. This explains why so many of us love to cook but not necessarily dinner. ;) And thank you.
I became entranced with the idea of making Baked Alaska when I was about 13. I have no idea why, but my mother let me try it, probably to stave off summer break boredom. It was somehow both easier and harder than I expected and I was ‘one and done’. Maybe we’ll revisit this now that it’s only my own kitchen I would burn down.
My least favorite thing to make is breakfast. Mostly because I’d just as soon have pizza for breakfast as any traditional breakfast food. Congrats on 10 years!
Why am I here? Looking at your pictures, reading your writing, and dreaming of what I can make someday is my relaxation–the internet equivalent of yoga pants and tea. This website is my go-to after the longest, most stressful days (I’m a teacher). I’ve made a few of your recipes (always excellent) and dream of cooking my way through the archives, but I come here as much for the mental health benefits as for anything else.
Congratulations on 10 years! I started reading your blog almost that long ago when an undergrad in a graduate seminar I was taking told me about making bagels and gave me the link to your site. Let’s be honest, it’s the only thing I remember about that seminar class! I love that I can make anything off your blog without worrying whether it will turn out, and your desserts always have the perfect amount of sugar. It seems banal but I love knowing that I don’t need to adjust spices, salt or sugar unless you warn us about it. My husband and I don’t bother with google searches before we’ve checked what Smitten Kitchen has in the archives. Also, I love how you blend an emphasis on keeping cooking attainable with a penchant for making things fancy. :) Not to mention your hilarious, spot-on writing about cooking and life! Here’s to the next 10 years!!
I began reading smitten kitchen way back in the day. I remember when you broke your arm and still had to cook every day of November. Back then I was a grad student getting a PhD. Today, I’m a stay at home mom to two boys, ages three and one (the one year old is two days younger than your firey redhead).
My favorite thing to cook is celebration cakes. My favorite cake I’ve ever made is the pistachio marzipan cake in your celebration cakes section. But I’ve made pretty much all of them. I’m officially know as the birthday cake lady.
My least favorite thing to make is dinner. They always want it and no one ever eats it.
Congrats on 10 years! You’re my favorite cooking website and I can’t wait for the next ten years!
You made me chuckle with “My least favorite thing to make is dinner. They always want it and no one ever eats it.” I feel this way all too often! Thank you.
Hello! Congratulations on the 10 year mark. I’m so glad you have stuck around and shared so much with us all. Over time I’ve used and recommended more of your recipes than just about anyone else’s; I think your kitchen style and humor (!) feel good and familiar to me, and we like a lot of the same things. I’m Katherine, and I live in Tucson. I have a great husband who also cooks, two boys who used to be small seemingly forever, and now are suddenly big (13 and 11), and THANK HEAVEN it’s finally starting to cool off a bit here so I can turn the appliances back on. I love to cook and especially bake, and it can be hard to like making hot food in the summer. My very favorite thing to make may be pie. Mostly fruit pie, but custard ones too. My least favorite? Almost anything that takes a million ingredients or steps. I enjoy process up to a point, but my main thing is enjoying the food, and if it is really intensive I don’t enjoy myself nearly as much. Nice of you to ask about these things! It’s easy to forget you don’t know us as well as we know you. I wish you many more years of good food and laughter!
Congratulations!
I’ve been following since your ivillage days, I remember when you took the leap and started the independent SK website. I’ve made.dozens if not hundreds of your recipes over the years. Years ago the homemade Oreos, cinnamon buns, pretzel buns, the peanut butter chocolate cake, the wedding cake, pie dough, the list goes on and on.
It has been really cool to see you go from hobby blogger to noted and popular cookbook author, from single girl in the city, to married mother of two. Congratulations again
I have been reading your blog for about 8 years now, and I’m embarrassed to say have never posted. But my colleagues could vouch for me being a longtime reader: it’s become an office joke that every recipe I share with my food-loving office comes from SK. It’s actually not much of a joke; too close to the truth!
I live in the Boston area and work in student services for a university. I have two young kids almost exactly the same age as Jacob and Anna (a 7 year old girl and 2 year old boy). Beyond your awesome cooking and writing, I love reading little vignettes from someone the same stage, but not packaged as all that dramatic mommy blogging rife on the internet. I love your broccoli slaw, strawberry rhubarb crumble, and the white/brown chocolate valentine’s day brownies … among many other things.
You know what I’d love? A tag for your kids’ favorites. I know each kid is different, but you’ve got to start somewhere.
Thanks so much for your creativity, voice, recipes … and for keepin’ it real!
Oh, and I forgot to add – I love cooking all sorts of things, but I still have a fear of pie crust. And I really, really, really, really hate packing school lunch. So much. Tell me you do too?
I hate packing school lunch! I start dreading it in the morning a full 12 hours before I do the deed. I would rather do literally any other household task. I would rather unclog toilets.
My love affair with SmitKitch can be summarized with this story: I once sold my old washer & dryer to a co-worker, and when she asked the price I said “A cake! Any cake on smittenkitchen.com” She choose the choc-pb cake. I clearly got the best end of that deal.
You, Deb, have long been my not-so-secret weapon is what to make for any gathering. Or dinner tonight. or celebration. Thank you!!
The recipes I make all the time are one pot Farro with Tomatoes, 3 bean chili, and the avocado -cucumber salad. And my family loves loves the shaved asparagus pizza! The peach sour cream pancakes and zucchini bread pancakes are just perfect. But my favorite thing to cook is celebration cakes and pies. I make one of yours for mine and my husband’s bdays every year! And my daughter got monkey cake for her first bday!! However I’m a mom and I work full time as an arborist/program manager and so am more likely to make 40 min nap time brownies… mmm. (BTW all of your brownies are my favorite and have basically ruined the majority of store bought brownies for me, which is an OK problem really).
My least favorite things to cook are meat (I’m Veggie), but I let my husband choose a carnivorous recipe from your book/site on Valentine’s day and his bday (the things you do for love!).
I am cheering you on from Northern California! here’s to many more delicious and witty years with Smitten Kitchen!
Congrats! I may try my hand at fire, I know I can do the rest! How cool is that video? I’d be right with him with wide eyes and amazement.
I always recommend this site! When I got your book for a birthday, I ended up turning around and purchasing it for my father for Christmas (whom I had got it from) as he was so enamored of it. (He still can’t believe how small a New York kitchen is). Your peanut butter cookies helped me win one of my first blue ribbons at a county fair- I’ve won multiple ribbons at county and state fair level now! I love your peach jam, whiskey cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, banana bread, and pear bread among all sorts of other recipes. (The pear bread just last week rocked my workplace- between the astonishing idea of cooking pears like banana bread and the taste, it was a major hit). A lot of my first attempts at a fancy or new level of cooking or baking technique are because I saw how simple you could make it look. I love that you talk through a recipe, finding what works and what doesn’t to help us feel a bit stronger about breaking out and trying something new. And of course, those cute kiddos don’t hurt, either. Even if I don’t make a recipe, I love seeing the photos and reading about something new or something I’ve always wondered about.
Oh wow, congrats!!!! What a huge milestone.
I’m a Canadian internal medicine specialist, just finished residency. I’m usually on here after work, shutting my brain off, relaxing, and of course daydreaming about my next meal.
I first found this blog probably somewhere around 2010. I distinctly remember hiding away on an underwhelming medical student rotation, tucked into an office pressing “Surprise me” endlessly, earmarking everything, when I should have been reading charts. Since then, your blog has been my absolute favourite, a huge source of inspiration and happiness, because we all know good food = pure joy. Your recipes are always, literally without fail, perfect. You are my go-to for any cooking or baking query, desire or inkling I ever have. I’ve gotten many friends and even my mother (the toughest critic around) hooked- she makes your apple cake yearly now for the High Holidays! I can’t thank you enough for all the countless incredible meals you’ve contributed to- it feels like you are part of my home!
Congrats! I’ve loved your site since about 2010 when I found it! My favorite recipes from it are the lemon bars, goat cheese lemon squash pizza, and the mushroom lasagne. Also love your book and met you in Napa! I’m 33, an engineer in California, and my son is about 10 days older than your daughter. I’m so excited you have continued the blog. I always joke that my husband and Rachael Ray taught me how to cook, but you showed me how to be a much better cook!
Happy 10th Birthday to Smitten Kitchen! Deb, you are an amazing food blogger and nearly every single recipe that I’ve tried on this site (and it’s probably close to 100 at this point) have been truly delicious. What I love most about Smitten Kitchen is how real and unapologetic you are about your personal tastes. I know when you give us a recipe, it’s because it’s delicious, not because it’s the latest trendy thing, or because it has $75 worth of ingredients which must mean it’s good, right?Some of my favorites of yours are the Caramelized Onion and Butternut Squash Galette 2.0 from your cookbook, Crispy Broccoli with Lemon and Garlic, Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Crispy Peach Cobbler, Bee Sting Cake, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake, Plum Poppyseed Muffins, Fresh Spinach Pasta, Everyday Meatballs, and your revolutionary Gnocchi!
I’m Allison, I’m 22 and I live in Memphis, Tennessee. I’m currently getting my Master’s in Social Work. My favorite things to make are fresh pasta, pretty much all pastries, and I hate, hate, hate, cooking dried beans! I never manage to plan ahead and soak them overnight, so they take 2 hours on the stovetop most of the time and what’s supposed to be a cheap, convenient food item becomes a chore. I suppose I could just suck it up buy canned beans or just soak them for god’s sake!, but then I would have one less thing to whine about.
Anyway, thank you so much for all that you do. I’ve always loved cooking and food, but when I stumbled on your site in 2013 (yeah, I was a little late to the party), I found that I was able to come into my own as a home cook, and I’m really proud of myself for becoming more confident and even fearless in the kitchen. I never thought I would be making most things, especially desserts, completely from scratch without melting into a puddle of stress. Thanks to you, I never think, “I can’t” when I’m in my kitchen. I just think “the sky’s the limit because I have Deb to talk me through this.” I look forward to many more years of Smitten Kitchen and I wish you the best with everything in your life. And congrats on the new gig at Food52! They are so lucky to have you.
Who am I? Sorry, this is gonna get a little sappy and maybe a lot weird for you.
I’m a prep cook, saving up for culinary school. This is a career change I’ve made within the year. I’m still a little terrified, still very sore every day after work, but I love it.
I think I started reading Smitten Kitchen in 2011, when I first had access to a kitchen of my own, in my last year of college. I’d been interested in cooking most of my life and had finally outgrown (most of) the last of my picky eater habits, and you made your recipes were approachable and tended to add a lot of helpful notes. Reading and cooking from Smitten Kitchen was an undeniable contributor to my growth and confidence-building as a home cook. I feel happier and more like myself than I have in years now that I’m pursuing a food career, and I honestly can’t say whether I would have made it this far if Smitten Kitchen hadn’t been woven into my foundation. So, you know, thanks! And congratulations on ten years!
Anyway, my favorite thing to cook might be the Alice Medrich recipe for cocoa brownies.
Who am I?
A first time commenter, 29 years old, and have been reading since I was baking Christmas cookies over Christmas break in college and was linked to your page of cookie recipes from the New York Times. I am a teacher, and currently supposed to be writing my reflection paper (due tonight…) for a course I’m taking this semester.
Your lazy pizza dough is our go-to, and yours is the first site I check when I am looking for a recipe. Thank you for being a respite from the day-to-day-busy-weeknight-family-dinner-cooking that too often happens. It is a treat whenever I get to bust out of routine and try one of your recipes. In my fridge right now: a big bowl of tzatziki potato salad for my son’s baptism on Sunday. Thank you for sharing your kitchen!!
I’m so pleased for you Deb! I have been reading your blog for 7 years and a lot of your recipes are family traditions now – especially the cheesecake brownies. Thanks for sharing your life, writing and slightly-obsessive-and-neurotic-in-a-delicious-way style of cooking with us – I always get super excited every time there is a new post.
I live in Alaska! I started reading in 2008 while in grad school. I only had a hot plate to cook on back then! Now we live in a small apartment and cook every night. I love your honesty- you say it if a recipe will take a long time! We have several of your recipes in our dinner idea notebook…veggie potstickers, the tomato farro, party bread, and our all-time favorite, chickpea salad sandwiches. They are the center if weekly summer picnics. Thanks for so many years of friendly, tasty writing!
I’m a mom, teacher, and home cook who has been reading your blog since Sept 2011 when my first son was born (even though this is my first time commenting!). At the time, I was online reading SK a lot (while nursing) wishing that I actually had time to cook. I loved getting lost in your writing, dreaming of cooking the recipes you wrote about, and reading about your journey as a mom (and “watching” Jacob grow through pictures) as I learned about being a mother too. I started from the beginning and spent a few months reading your blog posts like a book of short stories!
I’m about to make this Baked Alaska for my son’s 5th birthday. I was going to make the ice cream sundae cake (AGAIN – this is the most requested cake in my house since I made it for the first time shortly after you posted it. I make the ice cream and cookies homemade, but it still feels so much easier to me than baking!), but I showed him this and he requested it “without the frosting”… ha! I’m actually procrastinating baking the brownie right now.
My favorite thing to cook is… hmmm… most things! However, I’m intimidated by two things: meat/poultry and baking bread. I know I shouldn’t be “afraid” of these things, but they continue to be the most challenging for me. Bread – probably because I haven’t had enough experience to get it right (and always am unsure of the rising time/texture/etc.) so I shy away from trying it. And with two young kids, it feels like more planning and thought than I can manage right now! I’m intimidated by meat because I rarely feel like I get it cooked perfectly… and overdone meat is so unappetizing, disappointing, and feels like such a waste.
Thank you so much for sharing your passion for food, your beautiful family, and your eloquent writing for the past 10 years. SK is like part of our family!!
Congratulations Deb! When I read through your post, it stuck me that this was such a mom thing to do :) I mean Jacob probably would’ve been happy with any cake you made him but since he asked for it 2 months back and you agreed, you had to. I am the same but don’t really commit to big projects ;) If my 3 year old asked me for a piece of chocolate and I told her she can have after it dinner, I’d remember to give it to her later even if she’s already forgotten about it, just because I said I would :)
Anyway, yours was probably the first blog I started reading regularly when I came to this country 7 years ago (I had no idea that food blogs existed prior to that). Up until 3 years ago, I was mostly reading your blog because I found your writing interesting and funny (my co-worker joked that I was probably the only person who bought your book as a nice night-time read). If you posted a recipe that had me craving about it for the rest of the day, I’d search on yelp to find a restaurant that made something similar (only to be disappointed that it wasn’t what I expected it to taste like). After my daughter was born, I was motivated to experiment more in the kitchen; and after a few basic successes I was hooked! My most gratifying moment was when I made your pear hazelnut muffins (with apples) for my 12 year old neighbor’s birthday and the look on her face after she tasted them! Not even an ice cream cake could’ve matched that :)
Those muffins in various forms is my most favorite thing to make. I must’ve made them at least 9 times using different variations each time with great success!
I have been reading the comments here intermittently and it feels like am sitting around a campfire with people all over the world sharing their stories and experiences, thanks for giving us a common thread! :)
Who am I? An American ex-pat living in Northern Germany, working as an interior designer in California (the internet is a cool thing). I love-love-love your blog because your writing is funny, heartfelt, honest and warm. Before my daughter up and left us (okay, she went off to study in Holland) we would often spend Saturday mornings under my big down comforter, lattes in one hand, iPads in the other, dog snoring at the foot of the bed. More times than not I laughed/giggled/snorted at something you’d written and she’d be all, “what, what?” and I’d have to read it out loud, which makes it even better! Rather selfishly, I wish you AT LEAST another 10 years of success. Oh, and the recipes are awesome…I am in the throes of a cumin addiction, thanks to you (that’s not a bad thing)! Congratulations…and don’t stop!
PS: I fogot to add that in the comment before mine, Sowmya remarked on reading other people’s comments and how it felt like sitting around a campfire – what a great image! I just spent my latte-time (alas, alone…) reading them. It really is wonderful to see what an interesting and diverse crowd you’ve brought together…thank-you!
For more than eight years I can’t seem to figure out what is better, your brilliant writing or your recipes. You are so talented! Thank you for making me laugh again this morning. Happy Birthday to the cute little chap.
Congratulations on ten years! I’ve been reading since before Jacob was a bun in the oven, so at least eight years(!). Your blog is, hands down, the best cooking blog I read. Your writing is never stale, your recipes generally succeed, and the pictures and directions are always clear. Thank you for such a wonderful blog.
I’m a 31yo stay-at-home, unschooling mom in Portland, OR. My sons are 5.5 and 3. I cook most of our meals, but I’m coming out of a low spot in my cooking. I think I was waiting for fall! Right now, I’m waiting on the last tray of peanut butter oatmeal apple cookies to come out of the oven. This is a new recipe for me, and let’s just say…I’m really, really glad I doubled the batch. It’s possible half a dozen cookies are already missing.
I spend most of my time with my children, accompanying them while they do the things they need to do to grow up — riding bikes, climbing trees, reading, drawing, playing, watching TV. When I’m not doing that or housework, I’m cooking or sewing. I just made a pair of jeans for the first time!
My two favorite things to cook are:
1) My morning fried eggs. I fry two eggs every morning and put them on toast. The ritual of frying the eggs and making sure they’re over medium is really comforting to me.
2) Almost anything for people I care about. Most Monday nights, I make dinner for my family and the family of dear friends. Sharing food with them is such a gift. They’re always appreciative, and because it’s a relaxed audience, it’s a great excuse to try new recipes. (I generally turn to SK first to find something interesting…) Tonight, I threw together a simple, lovely meal for my mother-in-law, and I’m really proud of having learned to do that: both to serve a guest good food, and to come up with a good meal on short notice.
Congratulations on 10 years of Smitten Kitchen! My favorite thing to make is spaghetti (also my favorite thing to eat) and my least favorite is pie crust. I have only followed you for 1 and 1/2 years. And I’ve only made a few of your recipes. What makes me such a devoted fan is your writing! I love the way you write about your cooking and your family. I hope you keep on writing for many years to come!
I am a clothes designer, mom of two kids and three dogs living in Israel.
Loved your site from the first moment I discovered it and my kids are crazy about my cooking from your site.
Our favorites are blueberry boy bait and chana masala and many more.
If I am looking for a recipe I will come here first and get lost in your funny stories and dinner will be late. Thank you for sharing your talent with us all.
Thank you! Your son looks so happy with his Baked Alaska dessert. I live in Alaska and I haven’t made one of these since I turned 21, like 40 years ago! You have inspired me to give it a try again. My kids have grown up without even knowing what the dessert tasted like.
I love your blog (and cookbook!) – been following for probably the best part of 7 years I think. You’re my go-to when I want a reliable recipe. You, and Jamie Oliver.
I’m a medieval historian in England and just finishing a PhD (like literally. I’m procrastinating from doing the final edits and sending it to the printers. That’s what my fiance upstairs thinks I’m doing right now).
My favourite thing to cook is a roast chicken as it’s so versatile. My least, boiled gammon and potatoes because it’s so simple. The menfolk in my life adore it, and the praise received for a dish so simple continually frustrates me. I’ve tried snazzing it up but no, slow cooked in plain old water is all they desire.
Congratulations on ten years. I live in London and so your blog appears during the night and it is the first thing that greets me on my phone in bed after the alarm goes off and often sets the mood for my day.
I am particularly grateful that you consider a non-US reader (what the hell is a stick of butter?) as many a present from your compatriots has remained unopened as it would take an hour to decode the amounts of ingredients.
And I love your very generous window on your family. Happy birthday Jacob.
Well done from the Smoke across the Pond.
Congratulations!
I’m a 40 yo mother of 3 from Vancouver, Canada and I’ve been reading your blog for most of those 10 years. It was the first food blog I started following, and it helped me get over my fear of cooking. I enjoy your writing style very much, and the detailed photos are great.
My favorite thing to make is your challah which is the centrepiece of our Rosh Hashanah dinner every year. I printed the recipe and my boys read me the braiding instructions – it’s a family tradition!
As a long time vegetarian I have found many good recipes here over the years. However since going vegan about 2 years ago I visit less often… I don’t like to tell people how to live their lives, but If ever you happen to go vegan – I would be over the moon (would settle for a vegan recipe every once in a while too). All the best to you and your loved ones! :-)
Wowwww! That looks divine!! & Happy 10th birthday :)
I have never even considered the possibility of making baked Alaska, but you make it seem like something worth considering! Congratulations on 10 years!
I’ve been a rarely-commenting reader since before Jacob was born. I remember when you announced you were expecting, and how excited I was for someone I’d never met!
I’m a mid-thirties American living in the UK, and I LOVE that you include weights with your recipes. Most of my go-to recipes that I can think of have come from you. For weeknights, the wholemeal pasta with cauliflower, walnuts & feta is a regular (so easy! so healthy! so tasty!) as is the butternut squash with chickpeas and tahini sauce. I just this second realised that I have let the whole summer go by without making the tomato and corn pie that I love so dearly–I must check if there are any lingering tomatoes at the market this morning. I also use that biscuit dough crust for every savoury pie I make. Also a favourite in summer: the peach dumplings. Dear Lord. The peach dumplings. I once made them for a baking & book group full of foodies, and one of them sighed and said she thought maybe that was her favourite thing we’d ever had (and we had some delectable treats over the years).
There’s nothing I can think of that I dislike making necessarily, but I hate it when a recipe leaves too much to my judgement without at least offering a little guidance. I trust my judgement better now than I used to, but I never mind a little hand-holding!
You make me smile,giggle, and all the rest. I feel like we’re friends and I’m fairly new to blogging – three years this February. I was scared spitless the first time I hit publish but I love doing this.
You’re adventures in the kitchen and outside are so well written, that’s actually why I started reading you — because I enjoyed reading what you wrote and I wanted to study your style. Your style? Simply you and you’re are unique :-) Have a wonderful weekend.
I made a baked Alaska back in the day, back when it celebrated the statehood of Alaska (you told your son that, too, right? Even though that claim has since been debunked?) and decided it was one of those cakes you make just once in a lifetime and that’s fine. (My brownie base froze too hard. Nobody could eat it.)
So that would make me a grandmother except that I never got married or had children or grandchildren, but I’m a pretty good aunt; a lesser Auntie Mame, I’d call myself.
I don’t cook much anymore, although I used to cook for boyfriends. I read your blog for the same reason I still read Peg Bracken (The I Hate to Cook Book, et al.) and Betty McDonald (The Egg and I, et al.) … you’re funny! And cooking is fun to read about.
Congratulations on your 10th! I started reading SK in 2007. Over the years we’ve eaten a lot of SK dinners, too many to list but rigatoni with tiny meatballs and the Southwestern pulled brisket are recurring faves. The Best Birthday Cake (younger kid) and Fudgy Chocolate Sheet Cake (older kid) became classics. This year I sent my eldest off to college. Hope it doesn’t make you feel ancient but considering how many SK recipes she consumed over the last decade, your blog sort of raised her, too :)
This looks fantastic–thanks for breaking it down to less-than-scary steps. Looking forward to giving it a try for our next birthday celebration!
I am a mom of 4 in Ohio, and a preschool director. I’ve been following SK for about 8 years, and it’s truly about my favorite way to procrastinate. Congrats on 10 years!
Congrats on 10 years! I have no idea how long I’ve been reading, but long enough that some of your recipes have become “mine”–definitely Mom’s apple cake, which I routinely bring to parties, and also several of the cold noodle salads (this year’s miso-lime one was a big winner). I also just made piri-piri chicken twice in one week, so thanks for that one! And I definitely went through a crispy egg thing with you. But I think it might have been home-made pop tarts that was my first SK recipe, and that was for a while my signature pot luck treat (must have had a little more time in those days!). Thanks for all the great cooking–looking forward to the next ten years!
(Oh–I’m a mid-50s academic in VA, and it seems like when I bring one of your dishes to a potluck someone will ask me if it’s yours…so you’ve got quite a following here!)
Happy Anniversary to your awesome blog!
I’m from Germany, studying in Vienna. Actually I’m sitting in the national library right now, so I guess I’m kind of procrastinating.
But I read your blog also when I’m not procrastinating, because it’s so well written and the recipes look amazing. I did some of them (of which I’m really proud).
My favorite thing to cook is mushroom risotto. That’s the first dish I learned to cook from my dad (who is as passionate about cooking than you) so when I get homesick nothing helps more than that rich creamy taste of hot risotto.
I hope you will never stop blogging!
Thank you very much and lots of love.
Hi Deb!
I’ve been following your blog since 2008. I was in college at the time, and needed a combination of a) practical recipes that wouldn’t shatter my budget and didn’t fail when I substituted whatever I had for whatever the recipe called for, b) a picture:content ratio high enough to satisfy a toddler (no, I have no kids, I’m the toddler), and c) I didn’t want to get bombarded with ads, pop ups, side-bar stories, banners, crazy patterns, and all the other crap that sometimes exists to muddy up a perfectly simple story about a woman’s blueberry boy bait.
You taught me so much about cooking, and specifically how to substitute things in a recipe. Once you understand that a yogurt cake can just as easily have orange and vanilla as it can have grapefruit and lime zest or cocoa and chocolate chips… your pantry doors fling open with a burst of light and you realize that you can make anything you want right now because recipes aren’t rules, they’re ideas! You want chicken marsala? But don’t have chicken? Fine. Use mushrooms and onions and skip the chicken and put it over pasta and if you’re a broke college kid and don’t have marsala wine, use what’s in your fridge. It won’t be quote-unquote chicken marsala, but it will be delicious, nutritious, empowering, and your boyfriend won’t care what you call it.
You showed me how to cook on intuition, which is ironic since your job is to create the very recipes that I often abandon. But because of you, I am regularly referred to as “a MacGyver in the kitchen” by my husband. I can always make something for dinner. I am always asked to bring to dinner whatever I brought last time, and that thing I brought was almost always your recipe.
I had all these things I was going to tell you about your blog, but instead I just want to thank you. For years, my recipe resources were first you, second Ina, and third the Joy of Cooking my mom gave me. But mainly, you. I appreciate the hard work that I’m sure goes in to this, although you always feel so carefree that it’s hard to believe how much effort this friendly space must require. I appreciate that your recipes, like your photography style, like your content, are as relaxed as they are. No highly composed, carefully plated shots–instead, you show in-process shots, shots of the ingredients laid out clearly but not fanatically arranged, and pictures of the end product creatively (but simply) displayed for our viewing pleasure. You nailed it, for me. Some food is couture–appetizers at a gala supporting Blah Fancy Thing. Sure. But the food that I want to fit into MY life is more like that magical sweatshirt I have that looks great but is super extra comfy. Your food makes my life easier, healthier, tastier, and my husband happier. Thanks for that, Deb.
Happy 10 years!!
Nicole
💓
Dear Deb,
Congratulations! Please let me know if you’re ever planning an Italian visit. I’d like to invite you to do a book presentation and talk about food blogging for an audience of UN families in Rome.
Shonagh
Hi Shonagh!
Love this idea! There are currently no plans for Deb to visit Italy, but I’d love to stay in touch about this possibility. Can you email me? sara@smittenkitchen.com
Thank you!,
Sara
hi Deb. I’ll answer your questions, presuming it’s of some service to this wonderful project of yours which is my go-to place for inspiration when I’m not sure what’s next but also great staples. I discovered you through cauliflower fritters, which I didn’t realize I could even make and which marks a sort of a cooking turning point for me; and then your pie crust is my most successful ever and I spent a summer getting to know a local farmer and bringing him slices of pie and galette in exchange for his peaches. I very recently moved from Utah to Toulouse, France with my family of 3 (we’ve a 5-year-old) and am excited to cook and discover food here; this summer it’s been simplest recipes, lots of salads. I love cooking vegetarian and I love grains — like lots of veggies and farro with a nice dressing and then a lovely runny egg on top. Occasionally I explore the world of meat and it’s gratifying but a little intimidating. Fish, yes. And I love to bake but for some reason I’ve never dared go close to yeast. I’d like to try. I’m an artist and I’ve blogged off & on; I’m starting a blog here and so would be REALLY interested in hearing about how you keep up both the blog and the cooking — obviously the cooking’s the thing it’s about, but your writing’s so great and engaging. (How long does it take you to draft and edit and then post a post? Has that changed over time? How do you keep your focus on the cooking, and not let it get overtaken by the writing and/or photos — or do you? Do you ever have to rein yourself in? Do you have a structure to your day? Ha ha.) Thank you for what you do and for keeping it simple and funny and warm and for organizing your recipes and past posts and I for one hope you keep it up! x x
Wow. I love hearing your story, thank you. Let’s see… writing can go very quickly or it can take a few “shifts” to get it the way I want. My strongest writing is done very quickly, basically a full draft in one quick go, and then I try to edit it over a few more rereads over the next day. This hasn’t changed much over time. I don’t spend a lot of time on photos and while I enjoy taking pictures, editing them, uploading them, sorting through and trying to pick the photos the can share the important bits as effectively as possible in the fewest photos is my least favorite part. I tend to write and edit in the morning and prefer cooking in the afternoon, however, even a 30-minute recipe can take me a few hours because I work very slowly (measuring, weighing, taking notes, re-researching as I go). When I’m bogged down with a freelance project or book edits and don’t cook in the afternoon, spending it staring at the laptop instead, I’m rather crabby by dinnertime. ;) I like the variety that this “job” allows, the mix of sitting, standing, creating, researching and checking out new things. I started using Citibikes to run errands over the summer and love it. I look forward to running errands and going to the further-away butcher shop or bread bakery in a way I absolutely did not before.
‘re clambering the Alaska.
We had a baked Alaska many years ago in a restaurant in Dublin (in the Liberties, a name I love).
The elderly waiter said ‘ you’ll see me running in with my arm on fire now’s. Then, after the Alaska had been successfully delivered, he told us that the trick was to put the spirit’s into a half eggshell balanced on the meringue – you could make a little declivity for the purpose. I’ve never tried it but I’m happy to pass the tip on.
Incidentally, a rather eccentric teacher once told his class of 14 year olds that the way to a girl’s heart, and presumably other parts of her anatomy, was through baking her a baked Alaska. My son wanted the recipe.
I’ve been reading since close to the start. This is, then and now, my favorite food blog – love the pictues, love the recipes, made lots of them with great success (including my stepdaughter’s wedding cake!), and most of all, love the pics of your kids! I’m also Facebook friends since that time way back when you invited everyone to friend you :-)
There are so many things I love to cook its hard to pin down. I guess short ribs, since there is so little work involved and it comes out so well. Least favorite include giant layers of wedding cake and ? There’s not a lot that I don’t enjoy cooking.
Happy 10 years and hope for 10 more!
gosh – so very glad that you have “fixed” your read more button, as I could
NOT read more when I clicked on it. Love your Smitten Kitchen, always
have. You are an original ! Congratulations and felicitations on turning 10
Congrats on 10 years! I am a U.S. foreign service officer who has been reading smitten kitchen since 2011, when I was posted to Jordan and used your challah recipe to teach myself how to bake bread (I love pita, but two and a half years of not much but pita took it a bit far.) I love to bake and have been especially obsessed with fruit crumbles, crisps, and cobblers since the peaches, plums, and nectarines here in Algeria have been out of control gorgeous recently. I cook so much off your blog because it’s not fussy and tied to make or break ingredients- I have been able to replicate your stuff in strange kitchens filled with random equipment from Amman to Washington to Algiers. So thanks!
Wow!! I can’t believe it’s been 10 years!
My name is Melissa, and I’m a 24 year old working in engineering, fresh out of college (just celebrated my first year in the working world!). I love your blog. I love it so much, Deb!!
I rave about your recipes, and I love that your stories/blogging that go along with your recipes are 100% relatable. You make cooking easy and so un-scary, and even though I’m living in the middle of nowhere (read: the grocery store employees had never heard of pita chips) for my first rotation with my company, you’ve made your recipes so welcoming, I’ve still been able to happily cook nearly all your recipes. I’ve made so many of your recipes and while I’ve never commented on your posts before, I want to take advantage of you asking us who we are to tell you a HUGE thank you for inspiring me to cook. I love cooking, no small part in thanks to the wild success your recipes are at my dinner table. Thank you!!
Hello Deb! I’m a third year medical student in Detroit and your blog is one of the 3 food sites I always go to first when I need inspiration. School doesn’t always leave a lot of time to cook, so thanks for your emphasis on the quick and the interesting. I must say, my go to dinners mostly fall into the category of “stuff on toast”, but you’d be amazed how many of your recipes can fall into this category :)
Thanks for all your hard work!
Congrats on 10 years! I’ve been following as long as I can remember. A foodie, a pastry chef for nearly 10 years, I confess my obsession for being in the kitchen has been overtaken with my obsession with quilting. Not proud of that, but whatever. Your posts are always interesting, entertaining, and beautiful. And dare I say, I’m proud today because I’ve made Baked Alaska many times. ;-)
Congrats on ten years!
Many bloggers/celebrity chefs do not cook to eat, but you have never disappointed. All of the recipes I have tried have tasted great. And you always make me smile!
Being from the Midwest, I have to say my family’s new favorite dish is this summer’s pasta with fresh corn and bacon. Although Mom’s apple cake is delicious. I love to cook relatively easy main dish meals and sweet treats; I do not enjoy making bread. Maybe after I retire from my day job as a lawyer. Can I do that soon?
I learned to cook from Betty Crocker in the 1950’s. Betty had always been my go to whenever I needed a recipe. I have just realized you have replaced Betty in my life. My favorite to bake from your site are the seasonal fruit desserts. Most recently I baked your blueberry muffins, raspberry cake, and pear muffins. I am a retired Iowa farm wife who loves to cook for my family. I remember making Baked Alaska in Girl Scouts! Thanks so much for all the recipes, great photos, and fun narrative. From my 1950 edition of Betty Crocker: https://www.instagram.com/p/BKvtba6Awjl/?taken-by=suzzannecooks
Congratulations on the decade!
I’ve been reading since approximately 2007 so I’ve long enjoyed your style and writing (primarily as a lurker) but since I was an undergrad, it wasn’t really until I moved to the UK that I got to actually try your recipes on a regular basis. I have continued to try out your recipes even as I moved to Greece (I’m a prehistoric archaeologist btw). I prefer to bake but the variety of things you make always keeps me on my toes. I set aside a weekend once to make your babka (and its variants) the best I could. My coworkers were confused about what I was making/doing. They loved the results though!
I found you, Deb, through a comment on my favorite garden blog, A Way to Garden. I think this was around the time that Jacob was born. I am a librarian old enough to remember when we used to type catalog cards, and I also garden and do needlepoint.
I love all of your savory recipes, but one of my favorite recipes is the infinitely variable blondies. Never the same way twice!
Blog on in good health!
Congrats on the 10 years! It’s hard to believe this blog has been around so long — it was one of the first I ever found!
I first discovered your blog in 2008 while looking for a recipe for honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, I was in 8th grade then. (I actually have it saved on a tab on my computer right now, since It’s That Time Again.) Now, I’m 21 and about to graduate college with a dual degree in Computer Science and Journalism. This blog has always been one of my favorites because of your sense of humor and appreciation of seasoning! I’ve only been able to cook a few recipes due to kitchen constraints — you make it seem so easy! — but the Majestic and Moist Honey Cake will always have a special place in my heart. Other than that I cook a lot of vegetarian meals that don’t require too many ingredients (shakshuka is a fave). Also desserts. Lots of desserts. :)
Congratulations on turning 10!
I’m a lawyer living in Cambridgeshire, England. I have been reading your site since 2006 or 2007.
I’m not sure if you’re asking for recipes or not, but the one I’m currently obsessed with is lime and garlic chicken thighs so I’m going to put it here anyway. Thighs are my favourite cut of meat (skin on, bone-in), because they’re so tasty and versatile and cheap. This recipe is for 4 thighs and takes about an hour. I serve it with long grain rice cooked in chicken stock diluted with water:
Preheat oven to 220 C. Put the 4 thighs in a roasting tin, skin up. Mix together 1.5 tsp ground cumin, 0.5 tsp dried oregano (I use Italian seasoning because it mainly tastes like oregano to me), 1.5 tsp crushed or minced garlic, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp ground black pepper and 1 tbsp lime juice. Coat the skin of the chicken thighs evenly with this mixture and set the timer for 20 mins.
When the time’s up, take the chicken out of the oven and brush a little olive oil over the skin of the thighs (the spices by this time will have blackened and the skin will have crisped a little so the spices won’t come off when you brush the oil on). Put them back in the oven and set the timer for another 20 minutes.
Whilst you wait, put 1 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar and 3 tbsp chicken stock in a small saucepan, bring to the boil and remove from the heat. When 20 minutes is up, take the chicken out of the oven and pour this sauce over the chicken. Don’t wash up the saucepan. Put the thighs back in the oven and set the timer for another 20 minutes.
When the timer is up, remove the thighs to a plate and pour/scrape all the sauce from the tin into the saucepan. Reduce it to taste – I like it not to be too reduced and sticky so that there’s enough to coat the rice. Drizzle it over the thighs and the rice and serve.
(Adapted from this recipe)
Congratulations on 10 years! You are a food blog inspiration. I stumbled upon this site 5 or 6 years ago when putting together a vegetarian cookbook for my little sister and having no idea how to cook vegetarian at all. It stuck in my head thanks to the adorable name and helped me through learning to feed myself post-college.
I just moved to California to attempt to get my PhD in Neuroscience and I’m super excited to get maximum use out of your “budget” “freezer meals” and “weeknight favorites” sections. Our favorites are the one-bowl brownies, Shakshuka, better chocolate babka, crispy broccoli, ethereal hummus, sesame chicken…the list goes on.
Thanks for 10 years of amazing recipes! Looking forward to more to come (:
Congratulations and THANK YOU for 10 years! I think I’ve been here since 2008/2009ish -definitely pre-Jacob. I’m a postdoc research fellow in psychology who has followed you through many phases of (my) life and geographic relocations (CT–>Santa Cruz–>NY–>Vancouver–>RI–>UT–>?). I love the warmth and kindness that emanates from your site (and the thoughtful readers and commenters it attracts), the helpful tips, thinking through the questions many of us are likely asking in our heads, and of course the beautiful, creative, and delicious recipes you come up with or adapt. The easiest way for me to remember my favorites was to search for “smitten kitchen” in my email and see which ones I’d forwarded on to dozens of friends in an attempt to share the love. They include 1-bowl brownies, cold rice noodles with peanut lime chicken, 3-bean chili (the original), all the puddings, and multiple kale salads. I’d imagine sharing your life and work and passions in such a public form is a bit scary sometimes, so that you for taking that leap and trusting us! Here’s to many more culinary and life adventures!
10 years — wow! Mazel tov! I’m a Massachusetts twenty-something who’s always loved to cook, but this site has really helped me develop my skills over the past year (my first with my own kitchen!). I’m also an embarrassingly picky eater, and this website has helped me with that, too. I trust your tastes absolutely (okay, there are still exceptions, but I’ve really stepped up my eating game). I’ve made so many of your recipes over the past year. Two that really stand out were your tomato broth, which tastes to me like imbibing angels’ wings, and your lighter-than-air chocolate cake, which I made for my roommate’s birthday. We raved about it for weeks afterward. You also inspired me to visit the Sullivan Street Bakery on a recent trip to NYC, as well as i Sodi (can’t remember if that was actually in your recommendations list, or whether you only listed restaurants by the same proprietors? In any case, it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had). When my job was slow in the first few months I was there, I spent all day going through your archives. Just wanted to let you know of a few ways that your kind, funny, and thoughtful words have impacted me (and countless others!). Hope you & the family are having a lovely first weekend of fall!
Thank you for posting this — as I, too, have had a 7 year old birthday girl ask this year (and received in April) a Baked Alaska for her birthday cake. After explaining what her great-grandfather’s favorite birthday cake was for years, she exclaimed, “I want that for MY birthday.” Just wish she wasn’t a few months older than Jacob, and I could have used YOUR recipe! ;) (BTW, her friends were totally confused and had no idea what they were getting for the birthday cake at the party. Only some of the parents had any clue what it was…) Many thanks for years and years of great pictures, even better recipes, and the best stories.
Congratulations on ten wonderful years! I’ve been a reader for probably the past 6 or 7 years—first intermittently as a middle school Spanish teacher, and now more consistently as a stay-at-home mom with young girls (my youngest daughter and Anna are three months apart).
I feel like we’re close friends (I occasionally start conversations with my mother-in-law, “Have you made Deb’s…), but I guess it’s just my creepily one-sided adoration. I found out a few years ago that I am a quarter Jewish and went on a bender of all of your Jewish-inspired recipes in order to connect with my people—I routinely make the challah, latkes, and apple cake. It really was a turning point in our relationship. :)
Other favorites that I make all the time are your double chocolate banana bread, salted chocolate chip cookies, carnitas, brisket (and Bobby Flay’s slaw—I love that green onion sauce so much), everyday meatballs (LIFE-CHANGING), buttermilk biscuits (we love having lazy dinner parties featuring breakfast sandwiches on these—everyone goes crazy, and it’s really low-stress/prep for me), spatchcocked chicken, leek fritters, the list could go on (don’t you dare take away that Surprise Me button—it’s my favorite!).
Something that I really admire about you is that you treat your ingredients with integrity (in all of your fruit desserts, they’re not ambushed with sugar, you let grapefruit be grapefruit and allow rhubarb to shine in its most rhubarbiness), and you have a curiosity that makes cooking fun. Food is such an integral part of our lives, but it’s a really delicate balance between allowing it to be an everyday, nourishing, yummy experience and turning it into some sort of weird pedestal of calorie-worship that is not healthy for the mind or the body. I feel like you do the first one so well.
Happy birthday to Jacob, and thanks for many years of tasty entertainment!
I’m in my thirties, partnered up but no kids/pets. We both cycle/do triathlon and can have slightly unpredictable meal times (he’s a doc, I’m a volunteer firefighter) but usually try and eat together. I love cooking meals that scale up and will yield me freezables so that I get two meals for the effort of one; like your ziti, pot pie, summer squash pasta, galette dough – you get the picture. I call them my “winning at life” meals.
I hate cooking fish.
And I’m here because I have a few minutes to kill while some veggies roast and some meat sauce for lasagne simmers.
Is it rude to ask (really, demand), when book 2 will be available?!
Congratulations! I love your writing and your recipes!
Congratulations on ten years!
I discovered your site via your homemade Oreos and probably made those three times before I decided to try something else. Back then I literally didn’t eat anything green if I could help it. Since then I have bought so many vegetables, grains, and spices for the first time because of your recipes – sometimes things I had never eaten before. My husband and I (who were merely alums of the same college marching band and friends-of-friends back in those Oreo days) cook from scratch almost every day now and have been mostly vegetarian for over a year. I love how easy you make it to cook seasonally and how much care you give to things like not using too many bowls. We made your potato blue cheese tart four times this summer and probably would have made it more but it’s too much fun to try new recipes instead!
Of all the cooking lessons I’ve learned from this site, the most important is to be brave and try new things. “If Deb says it will work, it must be true,” I tell myself. Thank you so much for sharing your food and your stories with us. Can’t wait to see what I’ll be cooking next month.
Deb,
Congrats on 10 years! A friend sent me a link to your site in 2008, just after I retired from 31 years of teaching first grade. I was a fan from your first paragraph! Your writing is so superb and your photos so inspiring! My favorite is finding the hidden gems which are your beautiful children. I am so happy to see your name in my in-box! Makes my week!
I find your recipes to be inspired and so reliable. My family loves your food, and I proudly use recipes from your site for all occasions. Have plums in my fridge to use in the magic apple plum cobbler for my book club meeting on Monday. I never hesitate to try any of your new recipes for a crowd! Now that’s true confidence!
I remember making a good meat sauce for lasagna out of a magazine when I was 15. I’ve been making that lasagna for 50 years, with a few tweaks to the recipe. Your zucchini fritters are a family favorite, and between you and Ina Garten, I cook most days.
I look forward to seeing your posts and watching your family grow. You are an inspiration to so many (just look how many responses on this post!).
Many more years of happiness, success and recipes!
It is always a pleasure to read your posts, look at the pictures, and dream of the food you prepare. These days I am, for the most part, a vegan so I don”t cook much from SK, but I still love the site.
I’m an ex-New Yorker, now living in Israel. My sister lives in Murray Hill in Manhattan, and whenever I visit her, I always hope/think/imagine that maybe, just maybe, I’ll bump into you in a restaurant or store. So far, it hasn’t happened, but maybe on my next visit?
Anything with tomato is my favorite to cook or eat. Yesterday I made your piri-piri chicken for my husband who is from South Africa and he loved it. I slathered the separate sauce on my food and also loved it. I’ve actually made your slab apple cake for a big party and the passover macaroons, and both were amazing hits.
Please continue forever!
Baked Alaska is such a treat. I wish more restaurants served it. I’ve only had it when I made it.
It is awesome you and your husband take your son out. As a 26 year old, I can tell you that I have such different experiences even now when I am with only my mom, only my dad, or both parents, and they all make me whole as a person. My favorites are still one on one time with either parent.
As for me, I’m a dreamer and doer trying to grow my blog, though that’s not really working and getting one or more of my novels published and scripts made into movies, hopefully that will go better than the blogging. I cook dinner pretty much every day, though mostly easy meals, fish, salads. I bake sometimes. Cakes and pies are my favorite things to make.
I read your website because you expand my (vegetarian) culinary horizons and have a lovely writing style that is informative, friendly and respectful of the history of the recipe. Kudos for inventing but also for attributing (so many thieves out there), for suggesting variations that encourage me to find my own version, and for evocative finished dish photos that always draw me in.
And I bloody love the Apple Sharlotka (which I made my own by adding cardamon).
Regarding flaming desserts:
Here in Germany I make Feuerzangenbowle every year at Christmas. If anyone is unfamiliar with it, it’s a fancy, theatrical and much more boozy version of Glühwein.
54% dark rum is poured over and soaked into a large cone of compressed sugar which is balanced on a special metal holder over a saucepan or punchbowl of warmed, unsweetened Glühwein.
When the cone is set alight, the sugar caramelizes and drips into the bowl taking the rum with it and the end result is a rich, sweet/tangy and very grown-up drink.
I usually need to add more rum to the cone as it is caramelizing to keep it all going (the flame can burn out if the sugar is a bit slow), so I’ve found it easiest to use a long handled metal soup or gravy ladle that has a pouring lip.
I use 3/4 ladle of the rum (slightly warmed in a small saucepan is a good combo with the ladle), light it using a long match or one of those long necked lighters, and then can safely pour it slowly.
If I pour the rum without lighting it directly onto the already lit cone it tends to flare up very suddenly due to the increased surface area, but if I light it first, it seems to be more under control when I pour it. There is still flare, but it’s not a sudden WHOOSH and that makes me much less likely to jump in surprise, or quickly pull away, risking spilling.
Most importantly, make sure to have as many room lights turned off as is safe/possible to get the full effect of the blue flame.
Thank you. This sounds wonderful and I now have even more reasons I want to experience a German Christmas firsthand!
I started actually cooking when I got married ten years ago, but didn’t discover your blog until my now 5 year old was born. I’d nurse him in the middle of the night and click surprise me to read as many recipes as I could until he was done. I love my sleep, but I do miss that time! I appreciate your site, because if I think of something I want to eat, the likelihood is high that you’ve shared a recipe for it that I think I can tackle. I’m looking at you, wonderful blueberry crumble bars! I love your stories and when you share family and travel pics, too. Thanks!
Wow, congrats on the 10 years! FABulous and persistent!
I started reading your blog probably about 5 years ago and I know for sure the first thing I ever made was the browned butter krispie treats- which we all know we can never make them the other way again. Though I have been cooking a long time, I love your blog, your recipes and your writing! I LOVE that much of your recipe box is vegetarian, since I am of that bent- just normal food without meat in it- fabulous. And seeing your kids grow up is just so so sweet.
I have been cooking since I was about 8 and that makes it 50 years, I guess. I have always like baking, but now I like to just make delicious things with fresh ingredients and a twist of something different. Your pizza dough is divine- I use it frequently! I usually cook without a recipe, but you know, sometimes you just have to.
I am an art teacher from northern wisconsin, and I just love reading about what your life is like in NYC! Thanks for sharing your humor, family and passion with us.
The photo of Jacob with his first Baked Alaska is so precious! You are such a good Mom.
Hi, Deb! Congratulations on 10 years! I’m a 27-year-old graduate student getting my PhD in child clinical psychology. Right now I’m (taking a break from) preparing for my candidacy exams. I’ve been reading your blog since 2011, and your posts have been cherished breaks and rewards for work since then. I first found your site because I had just gotten back from Spain, and I wanted to recreate the garbanzos y espinacas that I had so loved there. Your recipe did the trick and ever since then, I’ve been hooked! I’ve savored every single one of your recipes- sometimes I cook them for special occasions, and more often I just imagine eating them and save them for when I have more free time. My favorites are your red wine chocolate cake, spinach quiche, crisp black bean tacos with feta and slaw, tiramisu cake, chopped salad with feta, lime, and mint, and cauliflower-feta fritters. Above all, what I most appreciate about your blog is the humor and approachability that shines through in your writing. You’re also a model for me in terms of body image and healthy but balanced eating. Please keep it up!!
Congratulations Deb on 10 years! Still remember meeting you in Wales at the Abergavenny Food Festival – well worth the drive! And you patiently wrote individually in 3 of your books for 1 daughter, 1 friend, and me!
Made your Choc Pavlova last week – a real winner with the added choc chips!
Thank you!
!!! I am so happy you made it, too. What an incredible day that was. I still pinch myself that I got to see Wales, even briefly. :)
Deb,
Let’s just say that my kids (boys, aged 13 and 15) know that if it’s a Smitten recipe, it’s all good. The strawberry rhubarb breakfast bars have been through innumerable permutations of fruit combinations and are made every Sunday night, at this point from memory, because we put them in our lunches all week (sometimes we even need to make a mid-week batch). My students are regularly making saltine crackle (with and without the ice cream) for their families. In other words, you are legend. Perhaps the biggest tribute is that the lemon square recipe my baking buddy and I have been relying on for at least 10 years of holiday baking got changed to yours last year, and we’re not going back. Here’s to the next 10.
Well Deb, I’m a fast-approaching retirement age RN living in Seattle (sorry I couldn’t attend your book signing a few years ago). I’ve been reading your blog since early 2010 after being pointed in this direction (just as another reader) by Molly of Orangette and Delancey, et al fame. And you’ve been a favorite ever since. This blog has been a constant for me through all the major events of my life (graduate schools for both myself and my child), the ending of a marriage, a new found love, three job changes, the sale of a home where I lived for decades and the purchase of my new home (and the subsequent chaos that downsizing and renovations brings). Through it all I keep coming back to your blog ( that’s right, your’s my dear) to get inspired, to laugh and to generally catch my breath before I start my next big adventure. And, in navigating all those major milestones and adjustments you’ve kept me baking, cooking and laughing. Thank you for that and for sharing yourself here (and those salted chocolate chunk cookies which are a perennial fav) with us all. Blessings to you and your lovely family, and please do keep on cooking while allowing us all to cook and bake along with you.
I’ve been reading Smitten Kitchen for 8 years — which is crazy when you think that I also just turned 20! My food blog obsession may have bemused my parents when I was 12, but it’s paid off with lots of great meals! I actually just made your mushroom marsala pasta bake as my first meal in my new apartment. It’s been awesome to watch you grow, have kids, move, publish, etc. Congratulations on 10 years!
Congrats and thank you for 10 years! Just think, when you started this blog I was a wee freshman in high school. These days I am a second-time undergrad student studying civil engineering (the homework I should be doing right now….), novice home canner, home cook/baker, bike commuter, skier, hiker, and voracious reader.
I found your blog ages ago, and after spending a long time as an avid home baker, your recipes helped me grow into a cook. Your chana masala is one of my faves. I also love the buttermilk roasted chicken, raw tomato sauce pasta, piri piri chicken (that sauce. I put it on everything for a week.), sweet and spicy candied nuts (AKA danger zone), zucchini bread, and have made your snickerdoodles more times than I can count. The apple honey challah is divine and the white russian is perfect. And the CRISPY EGG!! My love for that fine fried specimen knows no bounds.
I’ve got a looooooong list of recipes from your site I can’t wait to make one day (mostly the spaghetti pie, because pasta). I know I can always find something here that’s tasty, easy, and cheap. So THANK YOU for being relatable, reliable, and real!
Congratulations on a wonderful 10 years Deb. I am so glad you kept going after the 6 month spot. I have been following you for at least 9 years. I was not there at the beginning but found you pretty soon after.
I begged my mother for Baked Alaska for my 10th birthday and she came through. She made it with a yellow cake and took me to a local ice cream shop to pick out the ice cream. I know there were three kinds but all I can remember now was the French Vanilla. I am going to be lax with myself on that as it was 48 years ago. She toasted the meringue under the broiler. Our oven did have a glass door and I stood in front of it the entire time.
My husband and I also celebrated an anniversary this week…our 36th wedding anniversary. We have 2 children and 4 grandchildren, 9, 5, 18 mo and 4 mo. I stalk your flickr page every time you post a recipe to get a possible glimpse of that adorable redhead. I am envious. There, I’ve written it for the world to see. My Father-In-Law had bright red hair. My Sister-In-Law and Brother-In-Law have bright red hair. My Son-In-Law and two of his siblings have bright red hair. Do I have a red headed grandchild? No! They are all adorable though.
My husband and I have been vegetarians for 35 years, and goodness Deb, you have some fantastic vegetarian recipes.
My son got married in February. He is a great cook and uses the internet almost exclusively for his recipes. Helping him and his wife set up their apt., I bought them 2 cookbooks. A classic Better Homes and Gardens and your’s. I told them that I knew they didn’t have a lot of room but I felt if they had those two they could do about anything. He then finished up setting up their kitchen after they had moved by using your list in the back of your book.
My mother was wonderful with me in the kitchen. For Christmas when I was in the 2nd grade I got the Betty Crocker’s Children’s Cookbook. I had been following her around the kitchen since I could toddle. The first year I had the cookbook I made things under her supervision, after that the kitchen was mine almost whenever I wanted. I could not understand why my friends were not allowed in the kitchen or didn’t want to be in the kitchen. I loved transforming things. I did not like Home-Ec because they told me I was doing things WRONG. I did things differently. My mother had started me hand sewing at the age of 4, and machine sewing the summer after the 1st grade. By the time I reached the 7th grade and Home-Ec I was settled in how I wanted to do things.
My favorite thing to make would be bread. Least favorite would be a green salad. I prefer baking to cooking but do a whole lot more cooking. We usually seldom go out to eat. We have been eating out or my husband has been bringing in much more than usual since the 2nd week of August when I had major back surgery. I am slowly making my way back into the kitchen. The last thing I made that I thoroughly enjoyed making was your Summer Squash Pizza the day after you posted it. That was a winner!
Deb I am so glad that you decided to blog. Whenever I see a post from you I know I am in for a treat. You have made my life a little brighter these last 9 years. Thank you so much!
Thank you — this was so lovely to read and I’m incredibly honored that my book made the short list you gave your son.
Hello!
I visit this site a few times a week for so many reasons. 1) I absolutely love the way you write! I think that you are so hilarious and honest, every post makes me smile. 2) Your recipes always look crazy delicious and they are the perfect mix of exciting but not crazy complex that you’d have to plans so many days before to make it. I’m in my mid twenties, and recently relocated to the South from New England. My boyfriend and I are living in our first apartment, and I try to make something from your website so that we can have a special homemade dinner at least a few times a week. My favorite thing to cook is a a good bolognese sauce and I love making any sort of chocolate dessert :) Your website brings me so much joy! Thank you :) (also you kids are the cutest!!!!)
Love it! A few years ago my youngest boy was turning 12. I asked what kind of cake he would like….baked Alaska! Oh, and the dog had broken her back and had just come home from surgery. But, I did it! And it was easy!
This looks phenomenally delicious…I’m trying to keep myself from attempting to try it myself right now, but I’ll refrain until I have proper preparations. MAZEL from the ATL! I love, love LOVE everything you do and have done for the culinary interwebs. You’re my most trusted resource and everything that I’ve ever made from you has turned out phenomenally. Keep up the good voice, tone, and heart-warming dishes!
Who are you? Have lived all over, Chicago, northeast Tennessee, now living in the Midwest and love it. Ex-librarian, dog fanatic. That is pretty much me.
2. what does everyone think you’re doing right now? Sleeping.
3. Most importantly: What’s your favorite thing to do cook? Lots of things. Dinner, cornbread, desserts, chicken, salads.
4. Least favorite? (I’ll settle for an answer to any of the above.) Eggplant. Some vegetables. Ok, most of them.
Hi Deb,
Happy 10 yeariversary!
I’ve been reading your blog for about….maybe 4 years now. I have your cookbook and I absolutely love it and have bought it as a gift several times.
I was actually sad when you revamped it because I thought your old blog was perfect and I was legitimately SHOCKED when you added the ‘jump to recipe’ button as most of the time I come for your writing as much as your recipes.
Sometimes I wish you made healthier stuff (stop convincing me white flour is better in every way), but then I remember its homemade and heart made and that you have lots of vegetable recipes that are DELICIOUS so it’s more my fault than yours.
I hope you keep doing this. I love your blog and I’d love to meet you one day.
Ali
P.S – One of my all time favourite relaxation things is lying on the couch with a glass of wine and a cookbook. What’s yours?
Aw, re: Jump to recipe, thank you. And about everything else. Wine and cookbook sounds great. I think if I weren’t around cooking all day, mine might be the same… But my thing is that because I work from home and tend to get back to work at some point after the kids are sleeping (ahem: now! although this is a treat), I am probably at my most relaxed when I’m not here, when have babysitting and get to go out for dinner and drinks for a couple hours.
Congrats Deb!! Your blog has been a favorite of mine for probably 7 or 8 years now? I can’t remember anything I’ve made that’s been a flop and I’ve made a ton of it. Every year my kid’s get birthday cakes that at the very least start out from one of your recipes and when I started eating meat 4 years ago, I started figuring it out from you (roasted chicken with potatoes from your cookbook). My favorite thing to cook depends greatly on the season – in the summer it’s a salad, in the fall it’s a chicken, in the winter it’s some kind of baked good and in the spring it’s whatever vegetables are starting to look good. My least favorite thing is whatever is keeping me tied to the stove whisking or stirring for the entire time. I can’t wait for another cookbook so I can see you and get it signed again. The thing I’m most excited to make next is the PEANUT BUTTER version of your iced box cake because the original is a fan favorite for sure.
I started a love affair with your website when I made your blueberry crumb bars for the first time. After that, pretty much everything I tried worked… Especially the baking… I have your first book, love your way of thinking about food and well, it’s gotten so bad that if I have a cooking question and there isn’t an answer or recipe on smitten kitchen, I will make something else. Congratulations on 10 years, keep it coming.
Congratulations! I’ve only been following you since 2013, but I checked the saved recipes on my computer a minute ago, and found 197 of yours. I make the Blue Sky Bran Muffins regularly, and my boyfriend’s last birthday cake was your I Want Chocolate Cake (made as cupcakes, and presented in a pull-top can that had been opened from the bottom, emptied, washed, wrapped, bowed, and then re-sealed with hot glue with the cupcake – with candle! – inside.) Left to myself, I tend to make a big pot of chili, curry, or a casserole and eat that for a week running, but breakfast could be nearly anything, and must _always_ be different from yesterday or tomorrow.
I’m a 68-year-old (How’d _that_ happen ????) retiree, whose ‘day gig’ was as an aerospace engineer, but I started performing as an actress and singer at the age of 4, and later added designing and building costumes. I never married, but I’ve had some truly excellent adventures in my life, and am still having them. #veryshortbucketlist I started cooking in childhood, and gradually it became my major hobby. And then I started doing cooking classes (with an historical bent; I was with the Renaissance Pleasure Faire for decades…) as fund-raisers for my professional choir, the local historical society, a summer youth musical theater program I work with, a women’s group that sponsors scholarships, pretty much anybody who’ll stand still for it. My niece claims my Thanksgivings are ‘legendary’, and I think I’m getting a similar reputation for dinner parties, brunches and picnics. At least nobody ever seems to turn down an invitation! I’m just checking the internet before bed, but I sang at a memorial service yesterday, and finished making a new dress for myself this evening before firing up the computer.
Oh my goodness, this was a treat to read. Thank you.
Congratulations on 10y SK!
I have been following your blog for the past four years and it is still the first source I consult when in need for inspiration. Some of my favorites are the avocado shrimp salsa, cheese straws, stuffed tomatoes, key lime pie and the apricot pistaccio squares. And as a Belgian I congratulate you on your authentic mousse au chocolat.
The way you have been providing such great recipes, wrapped in beautiful personal stories is impressive and I hope you will continue the blog for many years.
Congratulations on 10 years Deb! I don’t comment much but your site is the first one I come to when I’m looking for any cake/cookie/scone and other baked goods recipes. Yours are fail safe! I blog over at onesmallpot.com and am kind of pleased that I finally got a post up after months of inactivity. So I’m rewarding myself by reading other blog posts….like this one!
Congratulations on TEN years! I rarely comment but read smittenkitchen frequently. Thank you so much for providing us with varied, wonderful, well-tested recipes. As an earlier commenter said, your recipes are straightforward but not unsophisticated. I think I’ve been reading regularly since 2008 or so.
About me: I’m a 35-year-old divorced prosecutor, no kids. Between my job – which makes me horrified by people – and some curveballs in my personal life, the kitchen has remained my place of solace. And you and your delightful commenters also restore my faith in humanity.
Cooking/Future cooking: I love to bake bread, cakes, and complicated desserts. But I really try to eat more healthful, low-carb meals on a daily basis. Please consider future posts on sourdough starter, various types of meringue buttercream, and/or cauliflower pizza crust. :)
Congratulations on 10 years of blogging, and on not burning down your house! What a great post. My family loves any dessert that is flambeed or torched LOL! Thank you for the awesome recipes and the laughs. I hope you have many, many more years of great blogging……and making great birthday cakes!
There’s a baked Alaska in Julia Child v. II called “La Surprise de Vesuve” (maybe le surprise? my h.s. French is gone, really) — Vesuvius’s Surprise. Same thing — but shaped like a mountain, with a half eggshell in the top so there’s a crater for the flaming brandy to rest in and flow out of. Quite the spectacle.
Congratulations on 10 years! I keep coming back to SK for ideas for what to make for dinner when I am stuck for ideas, but then you convince me I have to try making 3 other things as well.
I’m writing a math curriculum, so what I’m usually supposed to be doing is proofreading diagrams or coming up with activities that will make mathematics joyful for middle school cherubs. My favorite things to cook are things that take several hours on a Sunday and make the house smell good.
re: burning cakes. For my oldest’s 9th birthday he wanted a dinosaur theme, and I did a diorama cake complete with volcano with sparlkers. The volcano was stiff paper covered in frosting, Cake was lovely, sparklers lit and all are singing…and the the hot metal ignites the fat soaked paper and we now have a VERY spectacular cake. No pictures, enthralled 9 year old boys and a lesson learned. I am sure yours was a much more controlled AND expected result. Congrats on the 10 years, love your blog!
Holy moly, this is so impressive! Such a fun recipe. Thanks for sharing- I’ll have to give it a try. I love most any dessert. :)
I’ve been a reader since just after you and Alex got engaged, if you can believe it. I can’t recall the exact circumstances that led me to your blog, but your writing drew me in and I’ve followed ever since! We’re close in age, and your writing “voice” is so similar to me, it seems like you’re a familiar old friend, though we’ve never met. I’ve made a lot of dishes from you over the years, and I always look forward to seeing what’s next. You’ve inspired a lot of food introduction and experimentation for me, so much so that I’m generally attributed as fearless in the trying-new-foods-and-recipes category amongst my friends and family. Thanks so much for the blog, the book, the patient instruction in the kitchen, and the glimpses into the window of your life through the years! Oh, and when it comes down to it, my favorite thing to cook is a classic, hearty lasagne: mom’s recipe never disappoints.
You really go back! Thank you; thank you for reading.
Anything that allows me to use a blow torch and/or pour flaming alcohol over dessert sounds like an immediate win! I am a 29 year old nurse anesthesia student, currently believed by others to be studying for a physiology exam. I started following back in 2009 when a friend recommended your blog for a cake recipe and I jumped down the recipe archives rabbit hole and have been baking and cooking along with you ever since. Fast forward to today, your food blog is the only one I consistently read (food or otherwise) and the only place I blindly trust every single recipe. In case you need more comments from non-internet commenters, your recipes have resulted in: my book club requesting consideration that I make all the cookies for the annual cookie exchange, a request from someone I had met once for your sticky toffee pudding recipe a full year after I served it, annual requests for strawberry rhubarb pie from loose acquaintances, and friends who just pop over with wine asking what we’re having for dinner that night. Out of the piles of recipes, the lasagna bolognese and red wine chocolate cake are my two favorite recipes to make. One for the adventure of making it and the other for the absolute simple elegance. Thank you for ten years’ worth of recipes, please keep them coming!
Congrats on 10 years, Deb!
I’m a 32-year-old children’s librarian living in the Triangle area of North Carolina with my adorable 9-year-old mutt dog. I can’t remember when I first found your blog (sometime after you met Alex and before you had Jacob… so at least seven years ago). Your snickerdoodles are my boyfriend’s favorite dessert and whenever I have an ingredient in the fridge but don’t know what to do with it and it’s 6:00 PM and my budget won’t allow me to order out, your blog is my first stop.
Your blog has helped me immensely in my journey of learning how to cook. Now, I don’t mean to say that I grew up with zero knowledge of cooking – my mother was and remains an excellent cook who made dinner night in and night out, year after year, with take-out and restaurant dinners only on rare occasions. But she was more about DOING the cooking and less about TEACHING the cooking, so while I was very self-motivated as a child and teenager to learn how to bake, I was much less so about day-to-day cooking. As you say in your recipe for pasta with garlicky broccoli rabe, we all need to know how to do the kind of cooking our mothers and grandmothers did (and still do): where you stare into the cupboards and make it work even with a few sad ingredients. I’m so glad your blog has helped turn me into that kind of cook!
I really feel like I’m solely responsible for the Apple Cider Caramels coming in at the top of the sweet section because of all the times I’ve made them. First, I decided I would prefer them as toffee so I reduced the cream and butter and cooked them up to hard crack… well, that is basically autumnal crack for Jessica. So I made them over and over. Then I shared and they were crack for others…. so many others that now I’m making (and wrapping) 400 of them to have on the cocktail tables and gift bags at my sister’s fall themed wedding. So, my apologies.
But the strawberry summer cake is totally a top 10!
Big congratulations to you on the success of your blog, the reliability of the recipes, the humor and the wonderful cookbook!
I started following along in 2009 and have never looked back. Grapefruit yogurt cake, beesting cake, chicken milanese and that fabulous escarole salad, sticky toffee cake, japanese vegetable pancakes, cold noodle salads, slaws, simple chicken noodle soup…I could go on forever. Most of my favourite things to cook and eat have come from Smitten Kitchen. I have made your I Want Chocolate Cake once a month throughout my pregnancy. I ate the blueberry multigrain pancakes for breakfast just this morning.
Many many thanks to you for the great food and great food ideas.
Congrats on your ten year blog-iversary! I have been reading your blog for five or six years, and you are my go-to for any and every recipe. I don’t remember which recipe led me to your blog, but I know that it was when I was first cooking for myself and wanted to find more ways to incorporate vegetarian meals into my diet. I love your focus on vegetables and eggs and your “meat as a side-dish” mentality. You’ve changed the way I eat for the better, so thank you!
Who am I? A 30-year-old high school English teacher from a city outside of Toronto. I love to cook, and grew up helping my dad in the kitchen, but as an adult I was always scared to cook for other people. What if the food I made only tasted good to me? Well, your site has totally changed that! Reading your posts about dinner parties and brunch parties and how to best prepare in advance for those events gave me the skills and confidence to entertain. Last month I made your southwestern brisket with coleslaw, mac’n’cheese, baked beans, a tomato salad, and crispy peach cobbler for a group of friends, and it was the most incredible meal.
What should I be doing now? Lesson planning and marking assignments, but Sunday afternoon is always by meal-planning time. I have the ingredients for your squash and farro salad in my fridge, so that’s lunch for tomorrow. Yesterday I made my first ever layer cake — the carrot-graham one — and it was soooo good, and surprisingly easy! Your directions and photos make complex baking seem manageable.
My fav things to cook? I love breakfast dishes that feel like dessert, like your apricot crisp, because they last me several days and make the mornings feel special; I could eat tacos and other Tex-Mex dishes daily, and the cauliflower quesadillas are on heavy rotation in my meal planning. Your mushroom marsala pasta bake is always in my freezer for days when I don’t have time to cook dinner, and I love your baked chickpea “nachos”.
Thanks again for Smitten Kitchen — I really appreciate your ability to find the best recipes, and to break them down into easy-to-understand steps. Can’t wait to see what you’re cooking next!
Happy birthday, Smitten Kitchen!
Deb, thank you so much for this blog. It is my favorite food blog and I have been reading it for many years – since well before Jacob so at least 8 I guess? We cook from you ALL the time: out of my last five meals, we’ve made two breakfasts and one dinner side dish from your recipes, FYI. (Another meal was tuna melts and the last one was brunch out, so you might get a sense of how much you influence our cooking! I check you first for anything I’m going to cook!) My favorite recipes of yours are the even more perfect blueberry muffins (breakfast yesterday), the broccoli-rice-sweet potato-miso bowls, and the roasted broccoli with lemon/roasted cauliflower (side dish last night!). So simple, SO FREAKING DELICIOUS. I think those are my favorites. There are probably others I’m not thinking of.
About me, I’m a 38-year-old public health professional in Western MA, working on improving patient safety. We have a two year old; she is currently napping and I should be catching up on stuff around the house or using the time to sew but instead I am goofing off on the internet. My absolute favorite thing to cook is pie. It is such a thing around here that I promised to make it regularly in my wedding vows. My specialty is apple, but my favorite is blueberry.
Hi Deb,
I’m usually reading your site when I should be working or while at home sautéing something in the skillet. I love a recipe that involves eggs for dinner (we make yours all the time). Fruit in a savory dish, sign me up for that too! Congrats on 10 years!
All I can say is Wow! If my granddaughter ever gets over her egg allergy, we are making this together!
OK. Two and a half years ago I was in Marks and Spencers (a good place) in Watford (not a good place) and I found myself face to face with a book with the most fascinating looking small tarts on the cover ‘The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook’ it said. Never heard of it. It came with endorsements from Rachel Khoo (never heard of her either) and Yotam Ottolenghi (yeah, knew about him). I had to know what these tarts were, so I took down the book and started drooling. I tracked down the pastries: rhubarb triangles (this is the UK edition, remember) but the other things I fell over on the way – gooey cinnamon squares; blueberry polenta butter cake; rosemary, Gruyere and sea salt biscuits… I bought two copies straightaway.
What I got home I looked at the blog. I can spend an afternoon hitting ‘Surprise me’ and bookmarking results. It’s the only blog I ever deliberately look out for – and after a time signed up for the weekly newsletter to make sure I never missed an instalment of the chronicle. I read every recipe, however little interested I am in the food (cannot stand meringue: didn’t mean I missed a word of the Pavlova or the Baked Alaska) and watched with anguish when the baby was ill at the beginning of the year. And everything I’ve made has led to ‘wherever did you find that recipe?’ so I email it on, or I show them the web page.
My thing is baking, I make your New York Deli rye bread; your flaky pastry (especially with strawberry and rhubarb); your blueberry muffins; dreamy cream scones; oat, raisin and chocolate chip cookies. Week night suppers, too: the one pot farro; anything with broccoli; last week ratatouille went down a storm with a conference of surgeons we had here, some of the most professional eaters I know.
Here is, well, it’s a lot further north than most people realise Britain goes: if you get an atlas and a magnifying glass and look for the 60th parallel, that’s pretty much exactly it: there isn’t enough space to miss me.
I’ve never made those hamantaschen yet, by the way: there’s never room in my freezer for baking trays.
Here’s to the next ten years!
Hi Deb! I’m a yoga instructor and full-time mom to an 8.5 month old, and wifey to a software developer/casual Frisbee player. We live outside of Boston. Hubs is sitting/dozing next to me on the couch while the little guy naps on him… If the kid knew I was playing with my phone he’d be all over it. I think my favorite thing to cook is whatever I’m making for people – I love to feed people. Cookies, dinner, cake, whatever. Least favorite is probably the “oh crap hubs is home and today’s been a complete sh*tshow and I can’t think straight” dinner.
Personal favorite accomplishments include the Hot Fudge Sundae Cake (all from scratch) for my birthday a few years ago, Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (eternal crowd pleaser and I’ve almost memorized the recipe), and the cake portion of the Flag Cake – my MIL has requested it for her birthday next year after tasting the one I made for my brother in law this year!
Happy anniversary, SK!
Congrats on your 10 years Deb. I’ve been with you for about 9.5 of them. I usually bake one new recipe a week and mostly they are yours. Tonight your zucchini pizza, which isn’t for the first time, DH hates zucs but loves this dish.
What I hate is the ‘tyranny of lunch’; it is always there, every day, demanding attention, agh!
Hi Deb! I’m also a long-time reader. I started when I was in college and realized that nobody was going to cook for me – rude! – so that puts it sometime before 2008. Believe it or not I’m still in training of sorts – a fellowship in pediatric oncology. Right now, people think I’m studying for my boards exam, which is a deception I hope I don’t live to regret. Anyway, congratulations on 10 years. I consider your recipes to be absolutely fail-safe. When I’m making a dish for anyone outside my immediate family, your archives are the first and usually last place I look! Thanks for keeping it real and awesome around here… Cheers to another 10!!
I discovered you by seeing your cookbook at my public library, took it out and couldn’t put it down like it was a novel. Renewed it the maximum 3 times and after 9 nine weeks had to buy my own copy. And copies for my friends. From there found your blog. Every thing I want to make I look on your site for the recipe first. I love feeling like I am challenged (smores cake twice!) but knowing that its attainable… if that makes sense. Looking forward to your next post and your new cook book to follow!
Hi Deb! Congrats on 10 years!
I’m 27, live in the SF Bay area, work in finance, and have been following your blog since at least 2008. I have no recollection of how I stumbled upon it, but you’ve really taught me everything I know about cooking and baking and I’m so thankful! My husband and I most enjoy your shakshuka, cheesecake-marbled brownies, NY style cheesecake, sesame turkey meatballs, corn risotto (I die), bourbon pumpkin cheesecake, red wine chocolate cake, and so many more. I met you in Napa on your book tour and we chatted about cheesecake and it was lovely.
I agree with other commenters that reading through your thought process is so helpful. It’s your recipes that always receive the highest praise at dinner parties and I always just shrug and say, “Smitten Kitchen, duh.” They always just have that little extra twist or step to make a recipe extra delicious. Reading through others’ comments only makes me want to cook more of your recipes!
And now I’ll go grab a piece of your summer strawberry cake. Here’s to another 10 years!
I’m a 33-year-old RN in Minneapolis. My signed copy of the “Smitten Kitchen Cookbook” is one my prized possessions. I hope to one day cook through it, but with work and having a four-year-old and near-two-year-old, my cooking these days mostly consists of heating things up from Trader Joe’s! I do have my priorities, though and currently have some all butter, really flaky pie dough in fridge… waiting to be made into apple pie with Halverson apples from the farmer’s market.
I must let you know that this blog inspired my mom to create a photo-filled, story-filled, heritage cookbook. When my mom first began the project, it was a simple word document with all of our favorite family recipes. I had just started reading your blog and I suggested finding old pictures of us eating our favorites and taking new pictures of the food by itself. I also suggested she add a little paragraph ahead of each recipe explaining where it came from and why it was such a favorite. A few years later, she finally had it printed and it is an absolute treasure. So thank you for your inspiration and for all of your wonderful recipes!
What a beautiful story, thank you for sharing. Did we meet in Minneapolis?
We did indeed!
Fun looking through these comments and seeing that everyone has a personal set of SK favorites that he or she cannot live without.
I love to bake but, to be honest, don’t really love to cook. Your blog satisfies my sweet tooth and helps me a lot with necessary meal planning. I am a married lawyer with two boys (ages 14 and 11). Everyone in my house eats a lot and needs meat… So I try to cook in quantity. My favorites: everyday meatballs, baked ziti, grilled chicken with tzatziki, most casseroles.
For me (well, and to share) I make a *lot* of your baked goods: blueberry muffins, carrot tahini muffins, challah for Rosh Hashanah (the best!), granola bars, chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake (YUM), corn muffins, strawberry cake, pink lemonade bars.
You are my go to site when I need a break from working and want to think about happier things– like carbohydrates. Thanks and happy anniversary!!
Congratulations! On ten years and this amazing dessert. I have been reading for many years since I discovered the joy of reading blogs during my sad desk lunches. Your recipes are rock solid and I’ve made so many of them. I always hope you know how much your hours of recipe testing and tweaking are appreciated!
I am from New Zealand and currently a stay at home mum to a 3 month old. I love to read your blog, having done so for at least 8 years now and am especially grateful for the “other side of the world” recipes since it’s too hard to remember all the yummy sounding food you made 6 months ago when our seasons catch up. I have made so many sk recipes, it’s hard to choose a favorite, but the confetti cookies regularly appear, as do your lamb kofta and tomato with farro. I hate to cook meat, so I make my husband grill outside all year round (luckily it doesn’t snow here!).
Deb, I am a foodie who enjoys good prose and I’m blessed with four small children. Three of which, refuse to eat anything I make that is not “chicken nuggets and french fries” which leaves me banging my proverbial head into the wall. So, I read your blog for hope and inspiration and good ideas. My husband and one well-fed child enjoys it. Thanks for creating such a fun blog to follow.
Thank you and I hope you don’t hate me if I do a chicken nuggets recipe one day because I do, for better or worse, adore a good one. ;)
I have zero interest in watching cooking shows, and read just one blog – this one (have tried others, all disappointing after SK). I am a busy professional in Australia, with a big job but – now – just two of us at home after raising 3 kids now in their 30s. Not all SK recipes are to my taste (some are a bit too … American!), but every recipe I’ve tried has been successful and gone straight into my ‘repeat’ repertoire. I love cooking: sourdough bread; tasty everyday ‘suppers’ with lots of veges; larger ‘suppers’ for family and friends. Oddly enough, I’ve developed a love of baking cakes since the kids left home. Now I bake and we take the results to work. Don’t like: anything too fiddly; anything that interferes with natural flavours; anything that imposes strict rules (e.g. No sugar, no dairy, no gluten, no fun). Keep up the good work!
Thank you for your site, which I love and a very Happy Birthday.
A fan in Brussels Belgium
Congratulations! I have been reading since 2008 and although I am ashamed to say I have probably never commented, I never miss a post and I cook from your blog and book on a weekly basis. You are my go-to reference, hands down. I have followed along from the US, then Africa and now Europe…. Sometimes just to day dream about the next time I’ll have access to an oven and ingredients (oh hey, Sudan!) and sometimes to bring tastes of home to life abroad (brunch!). Usually I read when I need a moment to relax, at the end of the day, or to escape my research… Smitten Kitchen is my happy place on the internet. Thank you, thank you!
Happy 10th! I’ve been reading your blog since about 2007 and love the writing as much as the recipes. My sister and I refer to you as Deb, much to our adult children’s disgust. On the other hand, the kids get very excited when they know a Smitten Kitchen recipe is on the menu!
I’m an underemployed teacher and translator living in the Paris suburbs; I should probably be sending out ads rather than reading 236 comments from your delightful readers.
I don’t do a lot of repeat recipes, but your blondies and brown butter krispie treats are go-tos in our house. And when my kids want to bake a treat, they come to your site (my daughter with limited cooking skills impressed the heck out of her boyfriend’s mom with your raspberry cheesecake).
I love baking and trying new recipes; I hate making green salad.
DEEEEEEEB I’m so happy for you and proud of you!! I’m a LONGTIME reader and lurker (I think I’ve only commented twice in my nine years of reading this site). Yes, NINE years, meaning I started reading SK as a young, impressionable eighteen-year-old missing home cooking while away at college. You have absolutely and utterly shaped my relationship with cooking and with food, and I am so, so grateful to you for putting yourself on the big, scary internet for all the world to see and enjoy!
P.S. I’m at work and am totally supposed to be writing a grant right now. Oops…
I’ve been scared to make Baked Alaska ever since i saw it in a cookbook my mom used to cook from. Sticking icecream in an oven?! I’m a lot more bolder now that i’ve read your description. Since you asked, I’m a marketing head at a publishing house in India. I LOVE YOUR BLOG. I’ve read it religiously for almost 8-9 years now. I’ve cooked so many dishes from your recipes that i owe my reputation as a good cook entirely to you! SmittenKitchen is a source of abiding happiness to me and my sister. Don’t ever stop, or change (much). There is something about the way you write that makes me think even the most tough recipe is worth a shot. Congratulations on turning 10. Here’s to many many more years!
Hi Deb – I’m a 41 year old real estate agent from Toronto and I’ve been reading Smitten since you were Smitten the blog (back when we ALL had blogs and seemingly a LOT of spare time to write blogs/etc). I loved your new site when you started, had never really read a food blog before, and started making your recipes right away. I love your recipes, they are amazing, veggie friendly (even though I am an omnivore), and appreciate that they are practical and always fairly easy to cook. Your recipes have come to friend celebrations, family events, now-passed-away Grandma’s birthdays (she LOVED your walnut cake, it elicited a rare compliment from her), become favourites in my own home for my husband and I, and sustained friends for months in the hospital with a sick baby (bonus – you have a number of recipies that can modify to no-refrigeration-needed). Thanks for starting the site and all the unpaid hours you put in before this became a business for you. Hope that knowing how deeply your work intertwines with people’s lives makes you happy, I know that would mean something to me!
Ahhh I so want to make one of these for my Halloween party now! Perfect place for a fiery cake!
I started reading this blog in 2008, back in college. My mom was never big on cooking so I’d never really learned growing up and I was living in an apartment for the first time and I’d just gotten a job at a farmer’s market so I had all this produce and no clue what to do with it so started looking at cooking blogs. I’m not sure how I found my way here but I’m so glad I did! Since then I graduated with my degree in chemistry, moved to Chicago, traveled a ton, cooked more food than I care to think about, worked various lab jobs and am now hoping to get into dental school next fall ’cause I’m finally ready to go back to school! My favourite thing to make is bread. I borrowed Bouchon Bakery from the library and was completely captivated by the bread section and since then I’ve collected so many books and articles on the subject and taken classes and have baked so much freaking bread (my coworkers super appreciate it though they wish I’d focus more on brownies and such) but it’s just so fascinating to me. Thanks so much for this blog, it’s been so wonderful growing up with you and it and I can’t wait to see what comes next for all of us!
Deb, you have been essential in helping me overcome my life long fear of pie crusts, or pretty much any dough that needs to be rolled out with a rolling pin. You have changed my life (really, not exaggerating). This past weekend I made puff pastry from scratch for the apple salted caramel tart. So what do I love or hate to make? I used to hate pie crusts because they were so stressful. I do not love them, but I feel a huge sense of satisfaction when I do make them. The scalloped tomato recipe has been a go to this summer with the 10+ pounds of tomatoes that I have gotten from my CSA more than once.
You are a friend who has an endless supply of good recipes that are reasonable to make. When my husband asks where a recipe is from, when I say “Deb,” he knows I mean you. You are in good company with Marcela (Hazin) and Suzanne (Goin). (Ottolenghi and Bittmann go by their last names in our house.) Your food blog is the first one that I read regularly and your cookbook is on the special shelf in the kitchen for four cookbooks that never really leave the kitchen. Thank you for all of the inspiration.
“… took turns taking our son to out for dinner one a week night to give him a break from…”
I think you meant “… took turns taking our son out for dinner one night a week to give him a break from…” instead?
Thanks — now fixed.
Wow! I was younger than Jacob when this blog first started.
Per your questions. I am an ex-baker working towards becoming a therapist(maybe all the kitchen drama inspired me ;) My favorite thing to cook is something new, complicated, and from a culture that isn’t my own. I’m generally happy to cook for people though, people are the best part. My least favorite is wedding cakes. While I’d love to swear them off, I know I’ll get a request in the near future. It’s so much pressure for one person.
I want to thank you for your blog. You are the place I come when I need a legit guaranteed drool-worthy recipe. I have literally had dinner parties that were comprised of only your recipes. When I plan to try something new I look to Cooks Illustrated and you for guidance. You may not be “a professional”, but you are honest about your recipes. How complicated, what they taste like, and how to sub cheaper things when possible. I don’t have to wonder if the recipe is REALLY good or if the website just claims it is. You’ll tell me if it’s a letdown. Thank you for being a resource. For making fancy food accessible and homey food a little nicer. Thank you for sharing your family with us and for being a real human. You are awesome.
Love that you each do separate dinners with your son, so considerate!
I have a rather picky request but it sort of pokes me in the eye ever since the redesign: I’ve read your blog for over 5 years weekly at least 90% for the friendly, absolutely rock solid intelligence of the writing, (I’m vegan, etc). And it may be asking a lot of a blog but since the redesign, posts are uncharacteristically full of proofreading errors which was virtually never the case before. What changed? I still enjoy your site, but I just loved, and miss, the perfection of the previous posts!
I agree. Mistakes are expected but there seems to have been an increase in the amount of errors, and subsequent edits, in recent posts. This has been the most obvious concerning sentence structure or misuse of various words (a la auto-correct) rather than spelling. What seems to be the trouble?
I’m sorry you both feel this way. SK has always been riddled with errors because I’m a highly imperfect person putting out thousands of words a week without an editor or staff to make sure they’re as they should be. It’s my least favorite part of the site, and I’d of course prefer that it is a distraction-free experience for everyone who comes here, but it is the reality of a one-person operation. In all cases, I welcome and appreciate when errors are spotted to let me know and I will fix them asap.
Deb, I love you just the way you are. I’ll bet most people don’t notice and don’t care about grammer or spelling . I’m here for the pleasure of your company, not to grade a term paper. You’ll always get a gold star from me.
Deb, love the idea of baked Alaska for kids — why have we previously saved this for adults? Will make this asap. I am a mother of three and a lawyer. I visit Smitten Kitchen not to procrastinate, but because it is such a pleasure. You usually make me laugh, but sometimes make me tear up (in a good way). I love your style of writing, your self-deprecation, watching your family grow up, and your food ideas. I love to cook desserts, but have made so many of your recipes. Your first book is splattered and dog eared in my kitchen, and I can’t wait for the second. Congratulations on ten years, and here’s to many more.
I’ve been reading your blog for at least 7 years, maybe longer, I’m bad with time. I’m a photographer, & I’m supposed to be editing, but I have to check for blog posts every morning, in case there’s something I need to plan for dinner!
I love all the vegetarian friendly recipes on your site. That was one of the major draws for me, really! I love your casual writing style, & that you make everything so doable! I think the two things I make most often are the mushroom Marsala, & the galette dough – the fillings depend on what I have to use up.
My favorite birthday cake is from here too. I’m a July birthday, so I requested my sister to make the chocolate wafer icebox cake one year. She couldn’t find the wafers, so she made them from scratch. And then dropped them on the floor. So, she made more. I think in all, over 3 dozen wafers were made. The cake was amazing, & she’s made it for me twice since then.
Congratulations on 10 years, I am so happy for you (& the rest of us)!
“what does everyone think you’re doing right now?” is the most insightful question I’ve ever seen on the internet. I’m “reading emails” obvs.
Ditto. ;)
Congratulations, Deb! Smitten Kitchen has, on so many occasions, made me feel inspired and capable in the kitchen. I never get sick of hearing friends and family raving about the food, and much credit goes to you!
Favorite thing(s) to cook: Marinara with August tomatoes, mango coconut chicken curry, chicken noodle soup, fish tacos…upon reflection, it is not coincidental that these are meals my 11 and 3-year-old get excited about. My favorite thing to cook is whatever all four members of my family will happily eat. The end. ;)
Least favorite thing to cook: Anything requiring more than two burners and the oven going at once WHILE I STILL GET BOWLS DIRTY. Deal-breaker.
You encouraged me to create my own food blog with your honesty, humor and wisdom. We’re all so lucky to have you share your talents with us. Cheers!
Deb, congrats on the milestone! I’ve been reading long enough that I feel like we’re old friends, which is probably weird coming from a stranger but you have such a welcoming writing style that I can’t help it.
I’m a young woman about to finish her master’s degree (9 weeks!) who works in Development and Alumni Relations for a large university. I like what I do and I like the university atmosphere, but it’s definitely not groundbreaking or fascinating work. In my spare time I like to clean, bake, and garden. If I wasn’t supporting my husband while he’s in grad school full time, I would definitely want to be a housewife and blog about domestic arts. What can I say, I’m a nester!
I’m about to hit my first wedding anniversary and will be making something from your site for a special meal, but don’t know what yet. I’m open to recommendations! Maybe this baked Alaska for dessert?
Keep up the great work! Your site is always a bright spot in my day.
Your writing style has me smitten for sure. Not everything suits my household (three picky teens), but I can’t resist a fabulous read about my favorite subject. Between your site and The Skimm, my mornings are complete (with coffee, of course). Thank you for elevating the match between cooking and family.
Thanks for introducing me to The Skimm!
Hey that’s cool! Sk and the skimm are my top two reads every day too! My lunch routine is always the same. First I check my emails (skimm and sk newsletter on Mon). Then I go thru my spending on mint (another fave site). Next is my ig feed. Then comes my food blogs to check what’s new. Sk first then the cake blog, style sweet CA, Liv for cake, oh and the food lab @ serious eats. I love anything written by Kenji! Curious if you’ve read his stuff Deb, I’d imagine his style would be right up your ally 😃
Congratulations! I have been reading this forever. You are my go-to and honestly the only person I trust on the internet. Because with you everything works out.
I love this blog so wholehearted that several years ago I read pretty much your entire original smitten blog. Yes, that one. <3
I've surely made over 50 of these recipes or at least used them as bases.
Hugs! from this artist and curator (who loves to cook) living in Columbus, Ohio
Happy 10th! I’m Karen-the-rocket-scientist from Denver. Right now people think I’m building a spaceship but I’m actually trying to come up with my family’s recipe list for this week. I don’t know if you remember me, but I gave you a letter when you were on your book tour telling you how much your honest, simple, seasonal cooking inspires me. I have a binder overflowing with recipes I’ve printed from your site. You are my north star. I can’t believe the brown butter rice krispie treats didn’t make the Top Sweet List, though! I recently took a guided trip in Iceland and I brought a batch to share as an “American treat” with my fellow travelers. They were an international hit and I owe it all to you.
Congratulations 10 years wow! Your brownie recipe alone is worth the price of admission. They have saved me many, many times. You have traveled with my little family through Arizona, Kentucky, the Florida Keys, all the way to Australia and now back to Louisiana; serving many people along the way. My favorite recipes are quick cakes, sweets and I really like your salads. I tend to cook for groups so those are just always a winner. Thank you.
Congratulations on all your success these last ten years! I’m a stay at home mom of a large family that loves to make delicious meals. I found your blog when I decided if I can make an amazing chocolate cake from scratch there must be a good yellow cake recipe out there and it was found on smitten kitchen. My kids like when I make your double chocolate banana bread but my favorite I food to prepare is comfort food like pasta sauce simmering all day or a nice bowl of chicken and (homemade) noodles. I just wish somehow our kitchens could magically clean themselves in preparation for the next day and more good food.
I will probably never make this because I am a firm believer in having things you only enjoy while eating out, but it is beautiful! Also what an incredible birthday memory (you have ruined him for future significant others trying to make/buy his birthday cakes!). My favorite thing—since I made my first cake from scratch on my 28th birthday (I cried a little, it wasn’t very good)—is baking cakes! I love the process and the promise of maybe having a beautiful, delicious pile of impressive baked good. It doesn’t always turn out beautiful or delicious, but the act of making it, and finally climbing the hurdle of being intimidated to make a cake from scratch, is enough.
To answer your other question, my boss thinks I’m working right now instead of taking an afternoon coffee break. I love coming here to see what you’ve made for your family and friends, as that is the main reason I bake and cook at all. I and most of my friends have said at one point or another “Deb never fails me”. You have built something special here, that I expect fills the void for those who don’t have or are far away from their loved ones (as I am) who can share a love of cooking or new recipes they discovered or made up. Also, I love your emails!
You’ve been such a part of our family kitchen adventures since 2008 or so. We have several of your recipes memorized, even by my 10 year old oldest girl, such as the lazy pizza crust and German pancakes. I love the recipes, storytelling, links, and pictures. I’m a SAHM in West Texas expecting my 5th, and your beautiful redhead was born on my birthday last year! I’ve learned so much from you. I’m definitely looking forward to another decade, and I want to thank you so much for taking a chance and starting a blog. Our lives are happier and better off because of it. If I could just learn to feed the family a few square meals a week instead of getting lost in the kitchen for several hours always trying something new…
Your son is one of the luckiest kids alive. I’ve never actually had Baked Alaska (may have to try now!) but I loved having my Sims make it in The Sims 2, occasionally setting themselves on fire in the process.
My favorite thing to make is probably cream puffs. Something about the almost magical way in which the dough comes together then poofs in the oven…
I didn’t see my question in the “question” section, and I haven’t yet waded through all the comments, so please forgive me if this is a repeat. To clarify – you can go all the way through the toasting step (ie. everything but the boozy fire) and stick it back in the freezer for a day or so? That would be ideal – I could pull it out of my freezer and light it on fire in front of guests like some kind of kitchen magician! :)
Yes, absolutely. I couldn’t find reference to this in other recipes, but we had the leftover cake with the toasted edges in the freezer for a week and now the second one too and the meringue is holding up fantastically.
Hi Deb! I’m a PhD student from the UK but I’ve been reading your blog since … not that long compared to some of your other readers probably but since undergrad so it feels like you’ve come a way on my life-journey with me (2010/11 or so?). And by the way, major thanks for putting ingredients in grams and stuff now because I have cups but I don’t understand them (like how am I meant to know how many apples to buy when the instruction is 2 cups of chopped apple???).
My favourite thing to cook is anything that requires almost no special equipment because I live in a hall of residence (dorm) and my stuff regularly gets stolen/broken by the 50 other people who have access to my kitchen. I did buy a tube pan specially to make your mom’s apple cake though and it was totally worth it. But I don’t have an electric mixer, a food processor, a blender, a casserole dish … so anything that can be made with only saucepans, bowls and elbow grease is my friend. Especially cookies.
My least favourite thing RIGHT NOW is grown-up balanced meals, because here we actually only have to cook for ourselves at weekends, and when you’re only in charge of your own food two days a week it’s pretty easy to eat brunch, takeaway noodles and a stack of cookies and be done. I CAN cook my own meals (because I have done in the past) but it usually involves me eating the same huge batch of pasta 3 days in a row because I don’t really understand food-budgeting. I’m not a real adult. BUT I want you to continue with those recipes because you know, one day I’m going to need them. All of them, in my freezer. When I have my own freezer, because right now I have one drawer in a communal freezer which contains only a half-eaten tub of peanut butter cup Ben & Jerry’s.
Anyway thanks so much for your blog – I’ve cooked from a bunch of food blogs and your recipes never let me down. One day I’ll go to New York and eat at some of those bakeries you mention (but not yet, because I don’t have any money. Ha, grad school!).
Deb! You are an accomplice in crime! Look how many professional people are reading your blog instead of working! :) Seriously, it is amazing how many doctors, lawyers, Ph.D.’s, etc. read your blog…I guess this should not be a real surprise because, obviously, only people who can afford a computer can read your blog. Not so, your book, however, that I have single handed kept in our library. I believe I have used your cookbook (oh! those leek fritters!) more often than the recipes on the blog, but I read the blog (and have since before Jacob was born when I went back to the oldest date I could find and read forward) for pure enjoyment. You write so well and so honestly. I am a pre- school teacher and even though I am old enough to be your mother, I still feel like I could be your friend. I cook, almost completely, from Cook’s Illustrated or Cook’s Country, but now and again, I will try something from your blog like I Want Chocolate Cake. It is when I do not want to hassle with too many dishes, too many ingredients, costs too much and takes too much time that I look for something on your blog.
I am not interested in non-dairy, gluten free, allergy free, or coconut oil, vegan or trendy. I want real ingredients that taste good that I can get and afford.
I can only imagine how satisfying it must be to read these comments and realize that you are loved the world over. You have made it and you deserve it! Best wishes on this your tenth anniversary!
Congratulations, Deb! It takes a lot of perseverance to keep a blog going for 10 years and remain so consistent with creating and sharing recipes with your cyberspace fans. I appreciate the labor of love that you create for us each week.
I’m a fellow New Yorker from the other end of the island (Washington Heights). I found you through the other food blog I read religiously–Joy the Baker. I have always been unable to create a pie, but I was brave enough to try your burst tomato and summer vegetable galette and was so happy that I successfully made something “pie-like.” I also really appreciate how you organize your recipes by season. Cooking seasonally is something I’ve been exploring since I found your blog, and I love it.
I love to bake challah (still scared of your 6-strand braid, though). I fill mine with jam so that when you slice into it, there’s a ribbon of jam running throughout. Makes the perfect packed lunch. I still hate to make pie, but I feel comfortable with myself now that I can now pull off a pretty decent galette, thanks to you.
Right at this very moment, I should be writing lesson plans, but I needed a brain break. Thanks for giving me one! Enjoy the lovely NYC fall weather. :)
Congratulations to both! Your son on his seventh. And to you and your blog to your tenth.
Now, I’ve been reading your blog from the very beginning and loved it and cannot believe it’s been ten! years. The thing is, I am not even that fascinated by or enamoured with cooking. But you really do have great recipes (I’ve learned a lot) and gosh, can you write. I am so happy for you that you have achieved so much success with this blog here. You fully deserve it. Well done. And thank you!
What does “everyone” think I’m doing? Taking care of two small children. Which am I, very well– they are asleep. After sleeping myself, I turn to the internet for a message from my husband and ideas on what to do with this thing called “carne picada” that sits on my fridge, bought half-off at Aldi because it was well-priced beef.
Currently, I am about 90% homemaker and 10% freelance writer; this breakdown slides between there and 70/30, but intentionally never more as this is what is best for our family right now. I like to cook just about everything, ranging from complete Marcella Hazan menus to sourdough bread to simple roast chicken and veggies, as long as I am cooking something appropriate to the time and attention situation I have. I am not very good at decorating cakes but as I love to make delicious cakes, don’t have the ability to eat them all myself, and, therefore, end up making them for birthday parties and baby showers (etc), I am learning to make them passably pretty.
I started reading your site about 6 months ago and have thoroughly enjoyed every recipe I’ve made from it, as well as from your book (still on loan from the library but also on the birthday wishlist). I used to follow other food sites but never seemed inspired enough to actually cook from them, so in my internet detox this and Elizabeth Minicilli in Rome* are the only one that made the cut to continue to visit regularly.
The first thing I made was the breakfast crisp, which I immediately modifies to fit the in-season berries abundant at my local grocery store. When time allows, I hope to tackle that delicious looking lemon braided bread! (NOT today.)
*Answers many of my questions about authentic Italian food, of which I am slightly obsessed.
Wow, ten years, congrats! We’ve always referred to you as Smitten Kitten Or just, The Kitten, but maybe that was the poor lighting pre-kitchen remodel. Imagine our surprise when the book arrived. (btw, I’m not the only one, the Crew at Rancho Gordo calls you Smitten Kitten, or just The Kitten, too. “Oh you heard about us from The Kitten?”) One of the more popular dishes (as my husband made it when I was recuperating, nothing serious, but kept me in bed ;-) was Ratatouille’s Ratatouille. He used Nancy Silverton’s Mozza tomato sauce recipe (using the hand-cranked food mill for the tomatoes) omitting most but a pinch of salt and no goat cheese. To die for (your recipe w the sauce.) We have every tool you can imagine & everytime you mention a cookbook, Amazon prime delivers it. Those heirloom beans & hot sauce? fabulous. Great recommendations, please keep them coming. I’d have to go through all the wrinkled pages in our signed cookbook to find the oldies but goodies, but the Rat has been made at least 50x.
Xoxo 2Alexs
Thank you (and now I’m going to die happy because my favorite bean people have a nickname for me).
Mazel tov, Deb! I don’t know how long I’ve been reading Smitten Kitchen, but I know that the Marcella Hazan three ingredient tomato sauce is the very first thing I made from your site, and the very recipe that got me into cooking when I moved into my first apartment. You made it seem so easy and non-intimidating – and now, I’ll make pretty much anything if you post it! My favorite recipes now are the desserts – the apple cake and the peanut butter cookies and the salted chocolate chunk cookies… I also make the cacio e pepe once a week in the winter, pretty much. Again, many mazels, and to the next 10 years!
Congratulations and thank you for all you do. I have been following you for most of these 10 years!
My name is Colleen. I’m a producer at a motion capture studio in Los Angeles. My hobbies are making costumes and baking. One of my favorite activities is to go to costumed (like Victorian) picnics, where you get to dress up AND show off culinary skills. Yours is one of my favorite websites. Your photography and your charming descriptions are great! I love when you are sarcastic about your lifestyle. :)
One of my favorite recipes is your apple cider caramels. People bring me apple cider when they go apple picking in order to get just a few of these candies! (Apple picking here requires 1.5 hours of driving each way at the very least.)
Thank you for 10 years! Here’s hoping for many more!
Hello Deb! Congratulations on 10 years! I think the excellent writing, beautiful photography and wonderful recipes are what makes this site awesome, but thanks for the shout-out =)
As far as a reader profile: I am a 34 year old mom, who didn’t really decide to take learning to cook seriously until my late 20s after I was married. (So I’m not exactly a foodie/gourmand type- used to be content with pretty simple fare and/or impulsively eating out, also in NYC). Now I live in the Midwest, and deal more with realities of budgeting, planning, trying to feed hangry little ones after work and before bedtime etc. (In this vein, anytime you want to bulk up your weeknight meals, make ahead meals type section, that would be great!). I visit your website frequently, and definitely look to it when I want a home-run recipe for a party, entertaining, etc., and also love the inspiration for new seasonal foods, international foods etc. I appreciate that you obviously know what you are doing, but don’t have a pretentious or condescending tone at all, or a “food-is-my-religion” vibe, which are the two biggest things that turn me off about some other websites/blogs.
One other suggestions before I stop blabbing: I would love more instructional/how-to posts about cooking/baking in general. (Your pie crust ones are enormously helpful, for example.)
Thanks for all the work you’ve put in to creating this site, which so many of us enjoy.
Congratulations on a wonderful decade! I have been an avid fan of your blog for half of that time, having discovered your blog while I was in university and intensely procrastinating writing a paper. The recipe was for homemade pop tarts and I loved it immediately as it was insane and something I would do. I live in Toronto, so my kitchens have always been tiny and I’ve had to be resourceful, so I appreciate your usage of quarter sheet pans. I cook from your blog and book weekly (some favourites are the spaghetti squash tacos, the miso sweet potato bowl, your adjusted Jim Lahey pizza dough – and all of your pizza combinations – and the red wine chocolate cake). I find the timing of this anniversary particularly charming as I met you two years ago this weekend at the Word on the Street Festival. I adore your writing and I look forward to every dish you create. Thank you for all of your creative ingenuity and honesty in your blog.
I work in politics; your blog is a welcome retreat from reality! I laughed out loud reading the 5th paragraph – food blogging at it’s finest! Keep up the great work, I can’t wait for another 10 years of SK!
Congratulations on ten wonderful years Deb! I wouldn’t eat nearly as well if it weren’t for you. I’ve been reading and cooking since 2008 – first as a college student and now as a fellow alumni of your fair alma mater (there’s a small contingency of alumni who believe you should have an honorary degree of sorts at this point). I bring your carrot and feta salad to almost every potluck I attend. It’s always a hit, and people never seem to bring vegetables to potlucks. I’m not a grad student and am loving your sheet pan meals, chicken chili, and sweet potato/chickpea dish. Thanks for all your hard work!
Hi Deb, I’m a 40 year old accountant, wife and mom of 2 kids living in Alberta, Canada; love to travel, cook and eat. I found your site around when my daughter was born, almost exactly a year before your son. When people ask where I got the recipe for something delicious I’ve made, 95% of the time my husband chimes in that it’s Smitten Kitchen. Thank you for making my life so much easier – I can come here and find a recipe that I know will work, taste good, and is usually pretty healthy (I love your desserts – not always healthy, but tasty). I don’t have to waste my time tracking down new recipes to try. Yours have never steered me wrong.
Favorites are: ricotta (just made yesterday), blondies, carnitas, raspberry cake, chocolate birthday cake (the one with coffee – I’ve never had someone that doesn’t love it), Italian cabbage rolls……I could go on and on! Thanks so much Deb. You’re my secret ingredient!
Congratulations on 10 years of inspiring people to cook! I don’t remember exactly when I first found your blog but it was at least 4 years ago; I was looking for a recipe of blueberry boy bait (having read about it in a book and not being able to imagine what it would be). I’m currently supposed to be at work in my job as a clinical trial doctor, but I’ve caught the flu so it’s a stay home and drool over wonderful recipes day today.
The blueberry boy bait was wonderful by the way. My husband made it for me when he planned a surprise visit while I was on an away rotation (he had picked several things I’d bookmarked on our shared computer). The bell (of my tiny dorm room) rang unexpectedly and there he was, with a basket filled with cake.
Hey Deb! Congrats on the 10 years anniversary!
I am a 34 years old biologist living currently in Germany. My colleagues think I research chimpanzee habitat and diet, but I might be spending more time “researching” recipes on internet…don’t tell! I’ve been following you for quite some years, probably 2009/2010. I enjoy your posts and the easiness of your recipes. I always come back here for your brunch tips, so useful!, two weeks ago I made your baked eggs with spinach and mushroom, that was a big hit! I also looooove your garlic bread recipe. Over the years I don’t remember all that I made that came from you but I certainly do not remember being disappointed. Thank you so very much for the inspiration! (already trying to find an occasion to make this impressive Baked Alaska)
Actually I just remembered which one of your recipes is my ever favorite : your dijon braised brussel sprouts. I’ve done it time and time again. It is so fantastically delicious! Definitely cooking it over the week-end!
10 years?! Really? Thank you for sharing all these incredible recipes and your life. Congratulations!
– A long time reader from Malaysia
p/s: I just had a sudden recollection of a picture of Jacob next to (or on?) a can of Crisco
Still not sorry. :) (And thank you.)
hey this was the first site i started reading and my fav still. top 1. :) whenever i freeze ieccream with brownies it becomes so hardi cant even cut it and sofetning it softens the ieccream too…any help or tips to get icecream and chewy brownie together? thanks
Deb! Happy tenth! I’ve been reading this blog for about six years now.
When I started college I was really nervous and stressed out a lot of the time, and I found cooking blogs calmed me down (If for no other reason than to fantasize about having more than a tiny dorm kitchen to share with the approximately 25 other women on my floor). I stumbled on your blog and loved your writing and photographs. As soon as I had access to a better kitchen I tried the banana bread crepe cake, then the gougeres, then the red wine chocolate cake, and by then decided that this website could do no wrong and everything you make is delicious.
I’m getting my doctorate now and I have a real kitchen! The most recent recipe I made was the summer squash pizza which was a huge hit.
Thank you for providing a place of peace, inspiration, and deliciousness all these years! Hopefully I’ll make it to a signing for your next (right??) cookbook.
All the best,
Jess
10! Woah! You’re like the Grand High Priestess of Blogging, which I knew you were but… 10! Congrats! This post is everything – I have never had baked Alaska but its my bday in 2 days so… #hintHintHubby
Congratulations on the 10th anniversary Deb! Your blog is my favorite food blog bar none. When I need a break from work or from real life, I often come here to look for interesting things to cook (which i mostly never end up actually cooking…but a girl can dream).
I love the way you write! Its not just recipes…its the snippets of life and home truths that makes me come back from more. Have recommended this blog to many many friends :)
Who am I? CPA doing product design for a living. I have kids aged the same as Jacob and Anna…and I know exactly what you mean about the food throwing and screaming shenanigans.
I mostly cook Indian food (since I am one) but my true love is Mediterranean food. I could probably live on that (the family wont, so …).
I’m favorite aunt for a few little ones….thanks to the chocolate peanut spread on your site. My dad loves it too :)
Happy anniversary! I’m a 29-year-old woman living in the East Village with my husband, and I’ve been following for at least the last five years. One of our first dates was to DBGB for the Baked Alaska. At this point I make one of your recipes at least once a week – last night’s dinner was the lentil & sausage soup. I love to bake, and I think my favorite recipe on the site is the fig challah, the first bread I ever attempted – getting ready to make it again for Rosh Hashanah.
Thank you for making me a better and braver cook, and for feeding my family these last five years! Love to you and yours.
Congratulations on ten years, Deb! I love your site. I’ve mentioned this before, but no cooking site is even close to as well written…honestly I come for the prose as much as for the recipes! Your most frequent recipe in our home is the salted chocolate chunk cookie. There are always, always, always dough balls in our freezer so we can bake two every day for coffee. I am currently nursing my daughter, who was born the day after yours! And I’m a poet and postdoctoral fellow at Valparaiso University. Cheers to you!
Regarding tips for flambé: when we set the christmas pudding on fire, we use a metal ladle (with a wooden handle), pour a small amount of brandy in it, then heat it over the hob till it spontaneously combusts – no injuries yet! XD
I love this story and your take on baked Alaska. What a perfect no-candles-needed birthday cake!
Congratulations on the blog anniversary Deb!! I am a long time reader of your blog and your blog is the first place I check to see if you already have a recipe for the dish/ingredient that I want to make. I so appreciate the effort you put into testing recipes. I am a 37 year old working mom of two, work in IT and love my job. My daughter is also 7 like Jacob and still remember Jacob’s baby pics (he was such a delicious baby). Cooking for my family is the one thing I can control and love doing it. I moved from India to Texas over 12 years ago and love living in the US. I recently made your Ratatouille’s ratatouille after my kids begged me to after watching the movie. It was a hit, they inhaled it all, it was the first time they tried eggplant. Your sticky toffee pudding is my dish for potlucks and is always a hit. Thank you for all that you do!
Ten years! Congrats on an amazing achievement. I found your blog in 2007 when I moved into my first apartment after college and realized I had no more dining hall and no more roommates to cook for me. I taught myself to cook using your recipes. Nine years later I still turn to your site when I need dinner ideas and inspiration, and I’m the proud owner of a signed copy of your cook book. I now live in DC and work in the public health sector.
Honestly, I found your blog not when looking for healthy dinner recipes for newbie cooks, but when Googling cookie recipes because I love to bake. My favorite recipes are your salted white chocolate oatmeal cookies and pretty much every single cake in your “everyday cakes” category, the chocolate banana bread, raspberry buttermilk cake, and I Want Chocolate Cake cake being my personal favorites. Oh, and the vanilla cake recipe from your flag cake. OK I have lots of favorites.
Your sweet potato and Swiss chard gratin is my fall/winter favorite and the burst tomato galette is my go-to summer meal.
Deb, I’ve been reading since year one. I used to have time for cooking – being 21, working three part time jobs and going to school left way more time (actually probably just energy) for cooking than being 31 and running ones own business does, but I still consider things like the zucchini ricotta galette, homemade pizza dough, black bean ragout and that crazy good mango slaw from way back to be old faithfuls. Thanks for sticking it out through 10 years and 2 kids.
Hi Deb,
I’ve been reading you for close to seven years now. One of my coworkers recommended your blog as I was starting “adult life” – aka trying to figure out how to make dinner after a long day at work for my new husband, who was a wee bit picky. I’ve made soups and pastas and brownies (OMG the brownies), cheesecakes and vegetable dishes and slumps/crisps/boybaits. I get rave reviews on every single recipe. Every. Single. One. Your homemade lasagna was on my culinary ‘bucket list’ and it was worth every bit of time it took. I’m not a frequent commenter, but just want to say thank you for all the hard work, effort and magic. This blog (and your cookbook) have helped me celebrate, mourn, relax and re-energize, and your recipes have a seat at the table for some of my most treasured memories.
Hi Deb! Congratulations on your milestone! I am a (nearly) 29 year old healthcare analyst who likes to read about, think about, and watch people make food. In the time that I’ve been responsible to providing my own foods, I’ve moved from the pretty standard American diet to cooking most things from scratch, although I haven’t committed to baking all my owns breads/crackers yet. I like to can (jams and various tomato things) and bake (totally on the chocolate and peanut butter train) and cook dinners that are healthy and good. Some of my favorites of yours are bacon corn hash, tomato and sausage risotto, baked pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage, your favorite brownies, and the strawberry summer cake.
Your site is my favorite food blog because your recipes are foolproof (they only turn out wrong when I’ve done something wrong) and your recipe index is perfectly …indexed? Also I love seeing pictures of your little peanuts and was, of course, very pleased with your daughter’s name.
Thanks for all the time and effort you put in to being such a wonderful resource. You’ve made the world a tastier place!
i can no longer remember what search first led me to your website, but i’m so glad i found this blog. we are about the same age, and i love your voice. my mom and sister were always the bakers, while i was the cook, but over the years i’ve begun to tackle backing, partially spurred on by your site, and now i’m known for me desserts both at work and church.
i work in pittsburgh, pa’s police records department. i largely get paid to read police reports. i tend to use my time in the kitchen as “kitchen therapy,” both because of some difficult coworkers and some of the things i have to read. i’ve been vegetarian for almost 22 years, and i don’t know of a single cuisine i don’t like. as long as it’s vegetarian, i’m open to trying anything. my favorite recipes change constantly, though i switch between your sweet potato and swiss chard casserole and a vegetarian version of your white bean and chard pot pie for my birthday week every year.
I’m a 35 year old engineering professor with two daughters (1 and 3). I love your recipes because I know they’re going to be good and also that you won’t include fussy steps and more dish washing unless they are actually necessary. I also trust your judgement and there are a number of times where you’ve highly recommended recipes that I would have flipped past in cookbooks, but they turn out to be phenomenal and I’m glad I trusted you. The zucchini and rice gratin and the lentil burrata dish are two that come to mind.
Favorite recipes: butternut squash and caramelized onion galette, crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies, baked pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage.
I’m a math professor who loves cooking/baking. I refuse to pick favorites, but I’ll tell you my SK story and list several fantastic recipes along the way. My mom got me hooked to your site with the Buttermilk Roast Chicken, followed shortly by Apple Cider Caramels, both made when I was visiting for Christmas. Through a mix-up, my mom ended up with two copies of your cookbook for Christmas that year, and I got to take one home only weeks after learning about the site. Since then, you’ve inspired me to make my own bread (pizza crust may have been my gateway drug), something I was doing at least every couple of weeks until this summer when I learned I have a wheat allergy. Now I’m mourning the loss of bread, and discovering new things I enjoy – the Indian-Spiced Cauliflower Soup looks fantastic (btw). I love that you’re suggesting brownie in this particular recipe instead of cake because I know brownies have little enough flour that it can easily be swapped with almond meal or oat flour with no adverse consequences. Oh! And how could I finish a post about exciting things on your site without mentioning that the granola recipe in the cookbook I eat for breakfast almost daily with yogurt, and my friends started missing your Pink Lemonade Bars when I moved last summer. I’m missing the wheat germ in the granola though. Any ideas on what wheat-free ingredient might fill in the flavor and texture my granola is not getting any more?
Deb, I’ve loved your blog since a friend pointed me to it in 2006, and I’ve recommended you to many others! Your funny, self-deprecating stories and your recipes and your beautiful photos all draw me back over and over again! You are one of my favorite trusted sources for recipes – thank you so much for all of the effort that you put into this site. I’m really glad that you have found success and I hope that it continues – you very much deserve it!
Happy birthday Smitten Kitchen!
I’ve been reading since I think 2007 and of course am procrastinating. I avidly followed your wedding cake adventure and my favorite recipe of yours is the butternut squash and caramelized onion galette (major fall win!). I work full time, have a seven year old and a two year old and love your quick dinner ideas. All the best for the next decade of SK.
Congrats on 10 years, Deb! What I love most about your blog is how accessible you make scary recipes. Case in point- 4 years ago my husband thought that grilled cheese was made in a microwave. Baking from a boxed cake mix was too overwhelming for him. Fast forward a couple years: last weekend he made gorgeous, braided challah completely on his ownew. With all three rises!
That’s amazing! Similar to my (previously non-cooking) husband selecting the recipe Ratatouille’s Ratatouille & making it from scratch all the way. Just wish we had a picture!
It’s been such a relief to find a recipe site that’s consistent and reliable, both in terms of ease of execution and producing quality final results. I would make a recipe from your site every once in a while but was still using other sources for recipes; a year or two ago I started exclusively using your website for all my recipe needs because they’re pretty much fail-proof and you have recipes for almost everything I’ve ever wanted to make. I’m a recent college graduate who really enjoys cooking and finds it to be a therapeutic post-work activity (most of the time). It’s fun once or twice a week to procrastinate at work and find a recipe on your site to cook for dinner–gives me something to look forward to. So, thank you for all that you’re doing and please keep it up!
Congrats on ten years! It is my possibly my favourite thing on the Internet. So great.
I am 38, live in Toronto, have a three year old and another boy due any day now. All anyone is expecting me to do right now is nap and nest which is just about perfect. I rarely bake but love simple vegetarian recipes. My favourite thing to cook right now is a variation on your soba salad with the egg strips, with a simpler dressing (1/3 ea soy, mirin and rice wine vinegar) and lots of sushi ginger. I’m very excited to make the cauliflower you just posted though sadly my son won’t eat it. Some days you just have to go with that :).
My mother was a wonderful cook. She had a passion and love for it that was reflected in every bite of food she made. Even into my adulthood, she would still have me over for dinners and make plenty of leftovers so I would have something to eat during the week. Sadly, she passed away a few years ago from cancer. Given that I was so spoiled by her meals, I was pretty clueless on how to cook. Now I was stuck with takeout and frozen meals and that just wasn’t cutting it. When I found your site and started making your recipes, I discovered my own passion for cooking. Nothing I have made from your site has ever let me down. So thank you for all that you do.
And as a side note, my mother’s name was Deb too. It’s almost like finding you wonderful website was a sign.
Hi Deb! I’m a midwesterner with a masters degree in library and information studies but working as an instructional designer for a software company (I’ll be a librarian someday! Hopefully!). Totally writing this comment from my desk at work. I started reading your blog in early 2009, when my sister emailed me to look at this cute foodie blog with really good pictures she found! We’ve both been reading ever since. I don’t think I’ve ever had one of your recipe fail me. Some of my favorites are the peanut butter cookies (2007 version, using just chocolate chips, no pb chips), double chocolate banana bread, takeout-style sesame noodles, and lazy pizza dough. But so hard to pick just a few to list! I could go on and on. Congratulations on 10 years! (But am I crazy? I was looking for the 10 year post over the summer. Your first post here was from June, and the first that included a recipe was in July. Did those get imported from the previous blog?)
Oh, I almost forgot the Dobos Torte! I’ve only made it once, and my layers weren’t as beautifully straight as yours (and I just did circles for the caramelized decoration, and they ended up looking like egg yolks instead of cute polka dots), but damn if that wasn’t one of the best-tasting things I’ve ever made. That frosting with the egg yolks in it… my mouth is watering from the memory of it.
If you liked the dobos torte, I think we’re in for a treat next week…
Is it that awesome-looking many-layered honey cake concoction from your instagram? Oh boy!
You are very astute! And thank you. You see, I don’t believe in launching a site with only one article on it so before I officially said I was going to be focusing my energies over here now, I was quietly getting a feel for it with a few recipes and posts. Technically speaking, it was more of an early-September anniversary but I’ve decided I’m allowed to pick any week in the month that works better with my schedule. :)
Congratulations on 10 years! I have been reading your blog since it was the Smitten blog, so I feel like I actually know you. You started writing while I was in law school and I graduated from law school in 2005. Now I’m a Director and General Counsel at a company, have moved across the country, and I still read here. Funnily enough, my next door neighbor loves your blog, too, and we’ve definitely talked about how much we like your recipes. Can’t wait to see the new cookbook!
Congrats on 10 years Deb! Now I really feel old because I first started following this site in 2008 when I was still a bright eyed little junior in college learning how to feed myself for the first time. And now I have my own tiny urban kitchen and leaky dishwasher! Your site and your recipes have been a constant in my life as I’ve been figuring out this whole adult-ing thing. Thank you for starting this. Looking forward to many more years! Mazel!
(p.s. Once, in college, I made your Pink Lady cake for a friend’s 21st birthday and it was so beloved that people actually paid me to make more for other parties! My brief career as a “caterer.”)
Hi, Deb! I’m 35 and I live in Southern California. I have a husband and two daughters, and currently stay at home. I found your site the day Jacob’s birth was announced. I’ve been following ever since, and your site is hands-down my very favorite. You always make me laugh, and I cook along with you nearly every time you post something. My favorite meal to cook and eat is falafels stuffed in pitas with yogurt and cucumber (ultimate comfort food!). Happy 10 year anniversary – you’ve made the Internet a better place, and I look forward to many more years of cooking with you!! Cheers!
Ryan Naraine sent me to your blog in 2008 for the Guiness Chocolate Cake. I was hooked immediately and continue to cook favorites and find new stuff. Like many other readers, when other people like my cooking/baking I say “Smitten Kitchen, of course”.
Thank you for so many wonderful recipes and ideas. I can’t do a list of favorites, but I simply must mention the Cranberry Pinwheels. My daughter serves in the Navy and these (w freeze-dried raspberries and pecans, btw) are her absolute favorite. And her shipmates adored them as well.
Congrats on 10 years, and as we say in Russian – Many Years!
Congratulations on 10 years! I’ve let so many blogs go out of my life because they got stale, or got too heavy on product placement, or got too far removed from their identity trying to please everyone. You are still a delight to read. I look forward to 10 more years.
For your questions, my favorite thing to cook is anything that stores and reheats, well, especially savory vegetarian casseroles. I love cooking but 99% of the time, I am cooking for just me. Lots of steps are okay, as long as I know I’ll get to enjoy all of it over the next few days (or weeks if it freezes).
Thank you for a decade of bloging! It mgight have been your blog that made me start my own food blog (which is not read by anyone exepct myself and maybe 5 other people). I’ve stopped reading a lot of blogs because it’s too time consuming but I will always read yours. Why? First, I love your style of writing. Second, your blog is almost commercial-free and even more important: you separae content from commercials. I hate advetorials and have stopped reading a lot of blogs because of them. I do understand that people have to make a living, but then why not simply accept ads on the side like you do!
My favorite thing to cook are Spätzle, because they are so tasty. My least favorite thing to cook is Spätzle, because I hate cleaning the Spätzleschwob needed to prepare them.
I have lived in New York before and thoroughly miss Manousheh, 193 Bleecker St. Can’t you go there and then replicate their dish on your blog so I can have prepare some in Berlin? Again, thanks for a lovely, ad-free blog
I’m Lindsay. I really love cooking, and because I’m picky and have no patience for wading through Google’s search results for recipes (why are they always from Food.com???? Google, you don’t know me!) I almost always end up here either browsing your recipe index by category (let’s be honest, mostly the Browned Butter category) or hitting the ‘Suprise Me!’ button for hours on end.
But, I’m not just a total snob. It may sound a bit brown-nosey, but you gave me the confidence to try new things in the kitchen, and to even think of myself as a good cook. I never, ever, would have imagined that whipping whole eggs till they’re silky, satiny and look like a yellow pudding would be so rewarding. Or gosh, frying an egg so hot that it comes out part breakfast, part potato chip.
Thank you, thank you, for keeping this website going. Your writing is inspiring, entertaining and so completely real. You do food how everyone should do food – with so much passion and persistence, but without the upturned nose. So, thank you!!!
Congratulations on your 10 years!
If I had to choose just one blog in the Internet to follow, it would be yours. I don’t keep count of how many of your recipes I have tried and every time you publish I’m like: “wow, I want to eat this right now!”. I also totally love your book – I can’t wait to get the second one!
I’m a Spanish girl living in Switzerland. I basically love anything food related: shopping, cooking, going to restaurants, reading cooking blogs, buying cooking gear… I like food so much, I even enjoy the left-overs from last night’s dinner I eat for lunch in the office :)
Right now I would like to give a go to home-made bread (1st attempt was better than expected with lots of room for improvement). And perfect my pizza – the dough comes out too chewy, we need to experiment with the oven. I’m also excited about pumpkin season (I turned your “miso sweet-potatoe and broccoli bowl” into “butternut brussel-sprouts quinoa bowl” – that dressing would go well on ANYTHING!) and soups. And some little sweets for the weekend (your pear hazelnut muffins are on the list!). And cheese fondue :) And, and, and…!
I was in NYC in May and I was secretly hoping I would bump into you. Then I realised I’m not sure I would recognise you :P Anyway, I did go to some of the places you recommend and… your new yorkers are so lucky to live in a city where one can eat so well!
Ok, I sounds like a crazy groupie. I usually don’t leave any comments, but 10 years deserve some crazy time :)
Keep going strong!
Irene
I first discovered you when you went out to Ree, the Pioneer Woman’s place and loved what you talked about there. Been following ever since. I cook a little of everything, not as often as I should and only a little baking or desserts and occasionally some jams or preserves. I was thrilled to meet you and ask a question when you came to Louisville and spoke at the library. You are my go to website for recipes. I get Cooks Illustrated which I know you like too. I use their recipes a lot as well. I own at least 50 cookbooks which is nothing compared to what I’ve seen in your pics. My favorite thing is still looking for the link to the picture of Jacob and Anna. To see them grow up in pictures is a treasure I feel honored you share with us. Congratulations on 10 years. Your pictures and your writing are amazing, especially your writing! Thanks for sharing your gifts!
Happy Anniversary! Thank you so much for 10 years of amazing recipes and stories. I think my husband married me due to your recipes… Everytime I try a new recipe, he asks Smitten Kitchen? And most of the time the answer is yes. SK never steers me wrong! I work in a boring office job so many hours are spent combing through your archives and planning the week’s meals. I think my favorite recipe is your Morning Bread Pudding with Salted Caramel. Just typing that makes my mouth water. I am basically required to bring that bread pudding to every brunch I’m invited to. BUT pretty much anything I’ve tried is always met with such rave reviews! So thank you for making me look good ;) You’re the best!
Congratulations, Deb! I have always been a Smitten Kitchen lurker because commenting on the internet is just Not What I Do, but the momentous occasion of a 10 year anniversary compelled me to post. I’m a doctoral student in human development and education living in Cambridge, MA. I’ve been reading your blog since 2010, when I was preparing to live by myself for the first time and realized that I had incredibly high dining standards (thanks to my mother, a gifted home cook) but incredibly few skills. In the years since I started reading, I’ve (in chronological order) moved, met the love of my life, changed jobs, moved twice, started grad school, moved again, and in just the past few months I’ve gotten married and turned 30. Through all that change and all those kitchens, your recipes have been a constant!
My husband and I both make frequent use of our much beloved, food stained America’s Test Kitchen cookbook and a few other trusted resources, but I rely on a SK recipe at least once a week, and I love that it still feels (to me) like a secret sisterhood of cooking magic…the only person I send your recipes to is my mom. I bought her your cookbook in appreciation for the decades of great meals she has provided for our family, and thanks to your clear and thorough instructions, I now challenge myself to attempt new techniques and tackle recipes that make me feel like I’m finally joining the line of impressive women who have been feeding our family for generations.
My favorite SK recipe is probably the gingersnaps. I brought them to the first Thanksgiving I spent with my now in-laws, and I think they’re part of the reason I’ve been invited back! Thank you for all of the delicious meals and the cherished memories I’ve made while cooking, serving, and eating your food.
Hi Deb, Like so many other readers, there’s a little bit of one-sided adoration going on here. I’ve made so many of your recipes over the years (your jacked-up banana bread over and over again, your carnitas have become a birthday tradition, about to happen again for my husband’s 35th, your farro salad a million different ways, that green bean one inspired by Porsena, and on and on, just so many). Thank you for what you do and put out there.
I also just finished my first cookbook on grilling vegetables, coming out in Spring 2017. I hope you’ll have a look!
Yowza, 10 years. You rule. Deb, you deserve all the fanfare and love– it has been a true joy reading your incredibly funny, insightful, and OH MY GOD SO REAL posts for the past several years. Thank you for continuing to put food and life in perspective– and also food *in* perspective.
As for me, I am a high-school-counselor-by-day, nerdy-bordering-on-obsessive-baker-by-night. My love of shoveling sweet things in my piehole inspired me to start my own baking blog four years ago (stellinasweets.com), and every time I read your posts, I think, “I wish I could write like Deb.” I think of food as a lens for life and a means of learning about myself, so I try to capture that in my blog. (Also sometimes I just want chocolate.) I wish to jump the hurdle of adapting recipes to creating them– that is my long-term goal, and I hope that someday, I too can make a career of food.
I hope to meet you someday on a visit to NYC. I live near San Francisco, so it’s not like I have any shortage of pastries around me, but my heart is in New York when it comes to food. So, you know, next time I visit Zucker Bakery, I’ll just, um, wait for you there, k? ;-)
I read your words with great affection and anticipation and have not really ever commented, but in honor of 10! years! I wanted to share: the Alex peanut butter chocolate cake that broke the internet has become, in the parlance of my friends, just The Cake. I only make The Cake once in a great while because it’s so insanely good but a decent amount of work. But the thing you have to know is that you gave me the courage to try to fulfill the request from two beloved friends to turn The Cake into their wedding cake with TIERS and DECORATIONS. I practiced and practiced, and flew cake layers as a carryon to Colorado from Minnesota and ICED THAT CAKE IN 90 DEGREE WEATHER IN DENVER and it was homely but “the best, most delicious wedding cake” that many of the guests claimed ever to have eaten. There were more than my share of hiccups and even tears but you, Deb, you helped me to give the most special wedding gift to friends I have ever, ever given. THANK YOU.
Congratulations on 10 years! I am a CPA with a passion for cooking, and I have been reading your blog since college (about 7 years). Your blog is the first place I look when I need a recipe, but I also enjoy reading when I’m not looking for anything in particular. My very favorite recipe is the Chicken and Dumplings because it has three of my favorite meal aspects: comfort food, one-pot meal that has all food groups, and the leftovers are to-die-for!
Its funny how this is a ten year anniversary for so many things in my life, but one of the biggest is that it marks ten years at my current job. In the last ten years I have read many a blog; seen many come and many go, but in all that time, the only one I have read consistently is Smitten Kitchen.
Once many moons ago (about ten years) I lived in NYC and worked at the fabulous Two Little Red Hens bakery on 2nd Ave. It was there I became a fan and convert of Swiss Meringue Buttercream. So it was that one day after moving away, I was looking for a recipe for SMB and landed on your site. Since then, this is one of the few sites I check first thing in the morning when I get into work.
Recipes I have loved:
– Carrot Cake with Maple Frosting
– Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
– The “I Want Chocolate Cake” Cake
– Kale Salad with Quinoa
– Decadent Hot Chocolate Mix
Thanks for being a friend in the kitchen all these years!
Deb – congratulations on the anniversary! I don’t even remember how I stumbled on your recipe for homemade pop tarts about six years ago, but I have been coming back ever since. I am a college professor in Milwaukee who loves to bake and who likes to cook. I love the site – the recipes, your writing, the kids – all of it. Your recipes work and are delicious and I love your voice in the writing. Keep doing what you do. We are all here and we need and love what you bring to life!
I found you 10 years ago, searching for orangettes. And I’ve been checking on you many times each week, anxiously awaiting another post. Like other commenters, I love the accessible, delicious recipes, your direct and humorous writing, your real life (even tho you are a cooking/recipe goddess to me now), and the photos of your children that I search for in every post.
I am a homeschooling mom in CA who loves to cook. My children have grown up eating and making your recipes. We are a veggie-based family so I love that you have so many veg-centric recipes. I love all things chocolate, arugula, and cheese. My favorite foods to make are summer veggie salads and hearty winter stews. And I definitely procrastinate by spending time on the web, where I especially enjoy cooking sites.
Congrats on 10 years! I’ll be with you for the next 10, and beyond. Thank you for opening up your life and home to us.
I don’t remember when I started reading Smitten Kitchen, but it was fairly early on. I love that this is your tenth birthday because it’s also ten years since I moved to Scotland from the US, and I feel like your food has been with me the whole time. And it has!
This is seriously the first place I look when I want to make something I’ve never made before, or if I want an idea for something I don’t know I want yet. And you never fail me. I love your totally laid back, things do NOT need to be perfect all the time ok because this is real life and we will be honest if they don’t work but holy hell life is way better with nice food and details are worth it so definitely take the time to make the garlic oil approach to cooking because it matches mine completely.
You are awesome for continuously blogging for 10 years (HARD WORK) and pulling out recipe after recipe of awesome. Your cocoa brownies replaced my mother’s recipe as default brownie and your carrot and feta salad quite literally changes my life every time I make it. When your book came out I was so excited. My sister shipped me the US version before the UK version even happened.
I hope you keep going for another ten years. I point people here all the time. Thank you for rocking my kitchen on the regular!
Congrats on 10 years! I started following SK about 6 years ago when my older sister went of to college. I guess that her friends were already on the SK train and showed it to her. Since we both cook (I was about 12 at the time, just turned 18 this week) she showed it to me. I’ve been making and butchering your recipes since then. (Always delicious but rarely as pretty.)
I moved into the same college dorm my sister was in last month (but with a newly remodeled kitchen) and have been impressing my friends with the knowledge I’ve poached from this site.
Hi! I’m a 31 year old middle school science teacher in Atlanta who has loved your blog for years. I pin lots of your recipes with full intentions of making them all, but that hasn’t happened…yet. I love how you link to recipes via Instagram. I love following along with your life and cooking adventures. I love the variety in your recipes! Thank you for sharing! ❤️
Hi Deb! I am the slightly neurotic young woman that stopped you in Hoboken last weekend and introduced myself. I got a little starry-eyed because I *never* run into celebrities like everyone else I know who seems to always be right-behind-the-mayor at Starbucks or bumping-into-Leo at a party. But, I discovered your blog when I was in my first year of law school, living in my first apartment ever, right after I bought my first set of pots and pans– and there is a part of me that will always think that your blog taught me how to cook. So, I know its bad form in New York to interrupt someone on the street like that– but I just felt like I had to say “thank you” for making cooking seem a lot less scary and a lot more fun. You are a celebrity to me! Congrats on a decade well done.
Congrats!! I love your blog. I found it about 8 or so years ago, fresh out of college. I was already into cooking, but it’s been such an inspiration and source of fun. I’ve made many, many, many of your recipes, always amazing. I’ve just started exploring your cookbook and looking forward to eating my way through it. I don’t know my favorite recipe, but perhaps that simple tomato sauce with san romanos, onions, and butter. I made it for my mom once and now it’s the only tomato sauce she ever makes; it’s become a family staple. Thanks.
Hi Deb! I hope I’m not too late to chime in and say congratulations. I think I found your blog when, years ago, David Liebovitz (on his blog) referred to you and one of your recipes. Around the same time I happened to see a short video of you demonstrating a recipe; I thought you were wonderfully funny, smart, and down to earth. I’ve read your blog pretty regularly ever since, and tried many of your recipes. You’re my inspiration (and sometimes salvation) when I’m putting together a menu for dinner with friends. I often try to sneak a peek at Surprise Me! when I have an idle moment or two – I love it, and usually find at least 10 things I need to make right NOW. Thanks for great writing and great recipes.
I started reading after my mom recommended one of your recipes. Not sure if this was the one she sent my way, but I made your tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons for a special occasion. It was the first meal my boyfriend and I made together, in a college apartment kitchen. 4 years later, we are still together and your recipes and writing make me want to get in the kitchen and make something to share. I’ve made your pizza and taught a friend the technique. I made the over the top peanut butter and chocolate cake to welcome my sister back into the country. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Fave thing to cook: pizza and bread. Carbs forever!
I’m a 29-year old in rural Australia. You are the only cooking idol I have!
I work for the state government here in disability support. My days are emotionally taxing but occasionally rewarding. I live with my lovely husband who’s a fire fighter. That’s a busy kind of job in rural NSW where everything likes to catch fire. We have access to most normal ingredients and what we can’t buy here, my parents find in Melbourne for me and bring them when they visit. It’s a good life.
Your food represents the kind of cook I want to be for my family: everything is impressive, from-scratch and creative. It finds the perfect balance between making me try new techniques while also not being totally achievable. Your writing assumes I know basically what I’m doing, so it guides me without being condescending. I’m at just the right point in my cooking to get maximum benefit from your recipes.
You have made me far, far better in the kitchen. Everyone talks about MY banana bread and MY warm lentil and potato salad, but really they are yours.
Deb– Congratulations. I can’t say enough wonderful things about your blog. You are my go-to when I don’t know what to make for a quick dinner, when I want to make something special for friends or when I need advice on something complicated. I’ve been reading since the very beginning and have celebrated all your milestones from way over here in Milwaukee. Here’s to ten more years!! xoxoxo
Greetings from Austin, Texas, and congratulations on 10 years! I just returned from a long weekend in NY where I kept your restaurant recommendations open on my phone so I could see where to go. We opened our visit with dinner at Barbuto and hit Cafe Gitane the next day. (A few years ago we spent New Year’s Eve at a tapas bar you’d recommended — I’d shared that with you before.) Both were fantastic, as is every recipe I’ve ever cooked from your site. I eat gluten free, and your financiers and coconut mango tapioca have saved many a dinner party dessert. (I also make tarta de Santiago all the time — give it a try!) But yes to the chana masala, the varieties of cabbage salad, soups and stews, chicken dishes. Oh, and the slow roasted tomatoes are a staple of our summers.
I am an educator — I run a nonprofit program offering low-income adults free college humanities classes — and a writer, and your writing brings me back as much as your recipes. You make us feel we’re in a long-running conversation with you, which is quite a gift.
I am a committed home cook who is happiest planning and executing a meal for friends, and I have posted in my kitchen a quote from Nora Ephron someone included in our wedding card: “Their marriage, I suspect, is a lot like my own, and therefore probably consists in large part of life’s great conversation: what we ate yesterday, what we plan to eat today, what we’re eating right this minute, and what we’re going to eat tomorrow.”
Here’s to all the tomorrows of Smitten Kitchen!
I love your site and come here often for go-to recipes. Sometimes I worry/wonder what I’d do if anything ever happened to your recipes archives. I’ve become the family member in charge of birthday cakes – all thanks to your recipes. I even, inspired by your adventures, took charge of the wedding cake for a good friend (never again, but glad I did it)! Thanks for sharing your recipes, opinions ms and life on this site.
Congratulations on 10 years! In a weird way I feel like I grew up with your blog, I started reading it in my dorm room in college (when I didn’t have a kitchen!), then to my first apartment, to moving back home, and now living with a roommate and a very tiny kitchen. I love to cook but because it’s just me, I recipe can last a long time! I just made your eggplant tomato sauce & it lasted almost a week! My all time favorite is the nectarine buckle!
Congrats Deb, and many thanks for your wonderful work and words <3
Your stories and pictures are one of my primary de-stress tools, and I love love love to bake all of your sweet recipes. One of my favourites is the St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake. I've had loads of success sharing it at work, which for the moment is research at a university in Ontario.
Oh my gosh, I’m so late to the game on this, but I’m so excited for ten years! I started reading your blog when someone somewhere posted a photo of the peanut butter chocolate cake that brought so many of us over, and I’ve been following ever since, through college and beyond. I’m now a 29-year-old tech worker who makes things go and I like to make sweet rolls. I don’t often get the chance in Los Angeles without air conditioning, but given the opportunity, I’ll bake the absolute fuck out of yeasted sweet rolls.
Growing up, my mum, a very accomplished home cook, made Baked Alaska for my brother’s birthday because he said it was his favorite. Years later, after his wife had asked my mum for his favorite cake recipe and then sweated over it for a big birthday party (it was a big fiasco; melting ice-cream, burnt meringue sliding all over the place)…he tells me aside that he had just looked up the most elaborate cake for my mum to make. Little stinker! But I’m totally doing this, with my own home-made ice cream, to boot. (Salted caramel, your fennel ice-cream recipe, and…hmm) I’m just not inviting my brother. Congratulations on 10 years, and thank you! How much fun you have brought into our kitchen!
I’m a lawyer living in the bay area with a toddler and a husband who also works. I’ve been reading your blog for a long time. I love your authentic voice, the veg-heavy repertoire, the weeknight toddler-friendly favorites, and the photos of your kids. My favorite thing to cook is a soup & salad. (I love your pumpkin black bean soup; we make it every fall.) My least favorite thing to cook is appetizers and desserts; I’d rather spend my energy on the main course.
Mazel tov! I have to credit my foodie friends in Houston for introducing me to you about 5 years ago. Got your cookbook… realized you write the way I talk, perhaps because we grew up in the same place (Central NJ)… and have been having conversations with you (in my head) ever since. My kids all know you on a first-name basis — we all love to cook and you’re our go-to source. I’ve taken you with me to Scotland when we moved there and now to Copenhagen, Denmark; as we’ve transitioned to buying and cooking in S.I., we’re all appreciative that your recipes are by weight. I love having so many vegetarian dishes. My cooking (and therefore my favorite recipe) varies by season and location, but your salted peanut butter cookies rank pretty high. Most memorable was the s’mores cake: My nephew was visiting, so we decided to celebrate my sister’s birthday; she’s gluten and dairy-free… but wasn’t there, so we could celebrate in grand style and video it for her. Then I twisted my ankle (falling down the library stairs!) and directed the whole cake-baking and torching from the couch! (My husband is also a wonderful cook.) This time of year, of course, it’s apple cake and R.H.-type foods & I’m grateful you have that stuff, too. What does everyone think I’m doing right now? Grading students’ papers (online). When I’m not in the kitchen, I’m a psychology professor.
I started reading in 2007, just before I was diagnosed with cancer. I spent that summer looking at myself and the world — watching my hair fall out, watching Mad Men, staring at the food photos here, food I was too wired and tired to make — but the normalcy of it was soothing; I must be in the land of the living if I’m saving recipes for After This. And even now, whenever I visit your charming online home, I check the posts from nine years ago, the photos of your food that summer as vivid now as they were then. Congrats on ten years — to life.
Hi there! Happy, happy, happy 10th anniversary! I am a blogger too. But also I am a gardener, a chicken breeder, a homeschooling mama and a grandma. Yeah, I know, it’s a miracle that I can figure out this internet doohicky stuff because I’m old enough to be a grandma, but THERE YOU HAVE IT. I Looooooove Smitten Kitchen and hope to have coffee with you someday. It’s on my bucket list, baby! I’m carefully guarding this computer screen, by the way, from my 10-year-old son’s eyes because I’m pretty sure that he’s gonna want Baked Alaska for his next birthday! :) Thanks for all the great recipes and (what’s even better) your cheerful banter which makes them totallllllly worth reading.
Well deserved congratulations to you for being great at what you do and making it so interesting to continue to follow you. I have been reading your posts and using your recipes for all of your ten years without comment but I couldn’t just lurk this time. Although I tried some of your recipes earlier I was officially hooked in 2008. It was just after Rosh Hashanah and I was debriefing family dinners with a friend. I mentioned that I made the BEST honey cake EVER. She disagreed with me saying her honey cake was REALLY the BEST EVER. And so we each produced our recipes and OF COURSE, they were your honey cake!! Thank you for all your great ideas, stories and recipes!! Wishing you many more decades doing what you do so well!
Hi Deb! Right now I am on my last four hours of a 48-hour long trip to your city. I love your characterizations of New York and being here in the fall has been a treat.
I found your site about three days after my son Scott was born in 2011. As he was an interminable nurser, I had ages to myself with only an iPad so I spent hours hitting your Surprise Me button and reading your recipes. I’ve been a loyal fan ever since. I cook a lot of what you post and your favorite brownie recipe is the first thing I taught my boy to cook on his own.
Congrats on the success, love to you and your sweet family! Please never stop blogging.
Your site has become my instinctual go-to when I need a recipe that just works. In the rare event I need a recipe for a specific item that you haven’t put up on the site, my stomach drops because then I have to go searching through my second tier sites, or worse, the General Internet Abyss. It’s not just that though, the tried and true reliability of your well tested recipes. It’s the self-deprecating snark and witty commentary that accompanies each recipe. It’s the hidden baby photo in each post. Your site has truly become one of the corners of the internet that feels like home to me.
I discovered your site when I had just ventured out on my own, I had moved away from home to attend law school and used cooking as a way to escape from contracts and torts and civil procedure (blech). I made a new recipe each Friday night from your site, using the “Surprise Me” feature. Now, I’m a disability rights attorney cooking for my husband in our little Alexandria, VA kitchen. My absolute favorite recipe of yours is your challah. Close seconds include the kale and white bean pot pies, lentil soup with chard and sausage (that garlic oil!), and lazy pizza dough. Also, whenever I make the 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies people go all wide eyed on me, so that one is a definite gem :) Thank you for all of the hard work that you do to bring all these yummy things into our kitchens and bellies.
Congratulations on 10 Delicious Years!!! I began reading your blog in early 2009 and it remains my absolute favorite Food Blog :) Many of my go-to’s are yours and I love the way you write and food and Life <3 I think you'd fit in so well in my tribe of passionate goofballs :) I am an Actor and Freelance Teaching Artist living in Upstate NY and I fill in the job gaps working in Refugee Resettlement/Employment. Right now I should be writing case notes or researching grad programs, but I'm looking soup and slow cooker recipes instead! My favorite things to cook can vary on the time of year; but the first things to pop in my head were Sauce (marinara, bolognese, etc), muffins, biscuits, roasts, brownies, and breads and soups. <3
Happy 10 years! So exciting. I’m an almost 30, Brooklyn native who just (finally!) moved back to the city after two years living in Seattle for grad school. For a little while after I first left New York I couldn’t handle reading your blog because I would get homesick from the beautiful way you write about our city. Other than that brief period, I’ve been reading your blog since just about the beginning. It is such a privilege to be included in your life!
I was a vegetarian for about 20 years. Since I started eating meat again a couple of years ago I have relied on your recipes to help learn how to cook meat. One of the first meat recipes I ever made was the baked chicken meatballs, and the first time I ever roasted a chicken (father’s day 2015!) I used your version of the Zuni Cafe roasted chicken. I’m guessing that the recipes of yours I’ve made the most often is the cocoa brownies- they are delicious and I always have the ingredients on hand so I can get a chocolate fix in under an hour. I also make the gluten-free chocolate financiers a lot as a gluten-free friendly take away dish. As I’m writing this I’m also thinking about the cabbage-lime-peanut slaw, (which I don’t make often enough), the spinach and chickpeas, the barley risotto with beans and greens, and my favorite winter holiday dish, the acorn squash with chile-lime vinaigrette.
Hi Deb and congratulations for 10 years of Smitten Kitchen!
I’ve been reading you since forever, since before my kids were born (so before 2008) and you’ve always been such inspiration! I think I’ve come across your blog via Il Cavoletto di Bruxelles, who once shared a post on perfect pastry and why butter should remain cold and in litttle bits. You know. And through you I’ve discovered Rachel Eats and the Wednesday Chef, my very personal trinity of blogs – I only refer to you three!
I’m italian and I live in Rome, and I’ve sometimes commented on your italian recipes (which I often take inspiration from). Over the years I’ve made quite a few recipes form here, but my absolute favourite – and always a total success – is the New York Cheesecake.
I can’t say I have a favourite thing to cook. Possibly risotto, but my best shot is pasta e fagioli. Least favourite? Banana bread. Never works, I can’t imagine why, Maybe overseas you have different, lighter bananas?
Congratulations on 10 years! I’ve been reading for 7 or 8 and I’ve made dozens of your recipes. I trust you completely and know that anything I make from here will be delicious. I’m an oceanographer, I work part time, and I have two small kids. I cook daily, and some of my favorites are your pho, the fried rice with eggs, the mustard roasted potatoes, and that lime yogurt cake. I’ve sent so many of your recipes to my parents (also wonderful cooks) that for years my dad thought you and I were friends. I wish!
Happy Birthday Jacob and SK! I’ve been reading since right around the time he was born – early on, I read every post whether I wanted to cook it or not because I was searching for the hidden Jacob Flickr photo link! Now I still read them all (even for Baked Alaska, though I’m lactose intolerant) because I always learn something new and because I just enjoy your writing.
About me: I’m 34, work in public health, and I travel a lot both for fun and for work (and I’ve also moved quite a bit since I started reading SK) so I’ve cooked your recipes in many cities – DC, Portland, Accra, Atlanta, Istanbul, New Orleans, New York, Dubai. More often than not, I’m in a kitchen with no dishwasher and a tiny stove, and I often have to do a lot of ingredient substitution and improvisation (either because I’m in a different place, or just because I’m too lazy to go back to the store) – but things still always turn out to be delicious because your recipes are just that reliable. My Favorite Brownies are my #1 all-time food for any occasion (mostly baked, but sometimes just straight batter on the worst/best of days).
Thanks for the dedication and love that you put into this site, for being a perfectionist in your kitchen so that I can not have to think too hard in mine, for minimizing the number of pots and bowls I have to hand wash, for sharing your family with us (or, perhaps I should thank them for sharing you?), and for keeping at this for so many years! Cheers to many more years of SK!
I’m someone who began reading your blog in 2009 when I was working part-time, looking for ways to save money with home-cooked food, and a new hobby that I found in baking and cooking. Now, I’m on the exciting cusp of turning 30 and trying to transition from telecom to the NPO world. Since 2009, I’ve been nurturing my love of food, always thinking about what I’ll have for my next meals and continuing to cook and bake new things. Your site helps keep things fresh in my rotation! My favorite things to cook are soup; vegetarian dishes without cheese and have protein and veggies to go with rice or noodles; and various ethnic foods. On the sweeter side, my favorite things to make are cookies, everyday cakes, pies, and ice cream/sorbet/popsicles. Keep on going. I love, love, love Smitten Kitchen, and you’re doing an amazing job.
Congratulations on 10 years! I’ve been reading along for 8 years now and loving every minute.
I love in Portland, OR but am from a small town in WA. Growing up, The only discussion of food in my house was how many calories something was. I always loved food but was ingrained to feel guilty about it.
Fast forward to a college graduate with no direction in life, I survived a miserable finance job by sneak reading your original blog ( I think it was called the smitten? Can’t find it now) while I should have been working and making smitten kitchen recipes at night. It was so inspiring to see someone with such a zest for life and food and how you found a way to make a living from it. It took me years but I have now landed in a phenomenal job in the wine industry and cooking non stop. Your blog is my first stop for everything and your book is my go to gift. Thank you for giving a small town girl a peek into a phenomenal world and the inspiration to find a job I actually love.
Best wishes for an even better next 10 years!!
Veniero’s? I love that place!
Dear Deb,
You are 2/3 responsible for my good reputation for pie crusts (my mom is the one who taught me the last 1/3). And brownies, come to think of it. Basically, if anyone asks me, I point them your way. Love hanging out and reading your stuff, sometimes just to wind down. Like tonight. I’m in Kampala after a long day of travel from field work/interviews with healthcare professionals here in Uganda. I haven’t had a home cooked meal in days, and I *can’t wait* to get back to my kitchen. In the meanwhile, your blog is a delight as always. My favorite thing to cook is pi-berry pie. My least favorite is eggs when they stick to the pan. CONGRATULATIONS on a milestone well earned!!!
Happy 10th anniversary! I’m a roving Swede – started reading your blog in 2008 when I was living in Oxford and trying to make my then husband-to-be believe that I was a domestic goddess (he particularly enjoyed your apple galette that I casually threw together…). Then you were with me in South Sudan, where I got through a pregnancy by obsessively making your baked French toast and one-pan farro. Now we’re in Geneva and my son seems to have identical taste buds to you (and me). A new generation of Smitten Kitchen fans!
I love to make soup and crumbles. Easy and gets disproportionate amounts of praise.
I love your site, your cookbook and your whole ethos about food. As others have said, it’s our little corner of happy on the world wide webs!
Hi Deb!
Congrats on the blog anniversary! I’ve been here reading everything since nearly the beginning, and have so many favorite recipes that it’s hard to list. I love your site because I can rely on the recipes to be successful, and relatively simple. Who am I? I’m that woman who ran into you a few times in the East Village (buying blueberries, drinking at Back Forty (RIP), and your cookbook signing at Fish Eddys). I always suggested that you try shopping the fruits, veggies and bulk bins at the 4th Street Food Co-Op. Anyways, I moved to Tallahassee FL a couple of years ago, and the local produce here is very meh. The pizza, sadly, is no where close to Motorino levels. I have an 11 month old, so I love cooking recipes that I can throw in the oven before bathtime and they’re done after I put her to bed. The sheet pan chicken is a favorite in my house. I want to make more kinds of casseroles, apart from my mom’s totally 80s tuna noodle one. Despite being a good baker, I’m still generally terrified of pie crust. Eat some xi’an famous noodles for me, I miss them terribly :(
Deb, I wish we could sit and visit, with food and drink in front of us, of course.
I grew up with a family background that is all about food and cooking yet you have managed to give me recipes, tips, ideas and inspiration which have made us love our home cooked food so much that we almost never eat in restaurants any more. In fact, the dough for yet another galette is resting in the fridge right now. Interesting to note that my favourites were not among your list of Most Popular. Thank you for the spatchcocked chicken (my husband could live on this alone, and it is even better because we raise our own chickens.) Thank you for the Really Flaky Pie Dough (having been making pie since before you were born, i should know my crusts, and yours is good.) I could go on, but you should know that you are a daily influence in my kitchen.
I only follow four blogs, and yours is one of those. I spend time sparingly on the interwebs, because life is full (of cooking, writing, painting, dogs, gardening), but I always read the Smitten Kitchen.
My least favourite thing to cook is fish, because I don’t like it. My favourite thing to cook is probably to make a cake (we’re talking layer cakes here) but I like any baking. Thanks for showing me new salads and soups, too.
Your children are adorable. Mine are grown up and cooking their own way through life. Your husband sounds like a good man; hang on to him.
Thank you, Deb.
A bit late to the party here Deb but I wanted to take the time to say, Congrats! This is a huge accomplishment and something that should definitely be celebrated. I must say that of all the food bloggers I’ve followed over the years you really are the only one who, ten years later, is still blogging on a consistent basis despite all of the success and other opportunities that have come your way. Not to boohoo others’ success but I think it’s something that makes Smitten Kitchen unique. Thank you! I love reading your posts and have never been led wrong by one of your recipes–I’m sure the path hasn’t always been easy but the journey has certainly been beautiful!
I remember the first Smitten Kitchen post I ever read, sometime in 2010–a couple years into my English Lit PhD program, shortly after I got married, and perhaps days after I discovered that food blogs were a thing–it was titled “In Which World Peace Eludes Me,” and I made those chocolate sables right away. I have made countless other delicious things from your blog in the many years since, and though other blog-loves have come and gone, you are the first source I look to for advice, whether on easy weeknight dinners or making wedding cakes (which I did in 2014, and it turned out awesome!!). I got your cookbook for Christmas a month before my first child was born and spent my “recovery” time letting my mom hold the baby while I made grapefruit pound cake and brownie roll-out cookies, brisket and parsnips. My second daughter was born fairly close to the time your daughter was born, so I felt like we were preggo-buddies. :) In my house, we are on a first-name basis. I just love everything about what you do and how you do it…you’re thorough and opinionated enough to tell (and tell us!) when food is truly delicious; you comb through and streamline the processes; you explain features of dishes that make them truly special; and your writing is so real–frank and funny, sophisticated but accessible. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do to make all of your readers’ lives more enjoyable, informed and delicious. You rock.
Hey :) Congratulations and Happy Birthday to this website turning 10!
I’m probably a little out of your demographic here. I started reading your blog in 2008-09, I was in middle school! My family was a pretty mobile family, and with moving a lot, there were some times where it got kind of lonely. I got into baking to cope.
I still remember, I stumbled along The Smitten Kitchen looking for a “golden cake with chocolate frosting” recipe for my dad’s birthday. Your Best Birthday Cake recipe came up, and you talked about the same things I was looking for: A cake mix-like flavor and texture, except both of us were too stubborn to give in and use an actual cake mix. Any way, I remember you mentioned your panic at becoming a mother (this was just before Jacob was born) without knowing how to bake the perfect birthday cake, and I cracked up. The rest is history, and I’ve (and my whole family too) been reading ever since. Your tomato sauce with onions and butter even booted our three generations long tomato sauce recipe as the family favorite.
I’m a college junior now, and I still come all the time because your recipes are reliable and your writing is hysterical. I don’t comment often, but I just wanted to say thank you for sticking with us all, and this blog. Over the years is meant a lot personally. This is going to sound weird, but it was kind of like growing up with another cool aunt. I hope this comment finds you and yours well, and the next ten are just as lovely as these ones.
Hi! You are my FIRST source for food inspo when I jump on the internet. I ALWAYS find something or things I want to make and have been following you since 2008. I cant believe that myself! When I make something from your site it comes out just right, I dont know how you do it. But I brag about you to many. Thank you for the pasta salad with roasted tomatoes, thank you for the chicken gyro salad, thank you for the corn chowder salad., thank you for the butternut and chickpea salad. and of course, the brown butter krispy treats. you are a genius :)
Hello from Oklahoma!! I have been reading since 2011, when I was stuck running 1000+ page case files through a scanner for hours on end. I read every. Single. Recipe. And I haven’t missed one since!
I am now a stay at home mommy of 2 littles, who are, thank goodness, excellent eaters!
My very favorite SK recipe for normal dinner cooking is the ginger, garlic, and leek fried rice with fried eggs. Ohmuhgursh we love it! We agree on one important thing: fried eggs belong on or with everything. Makes a meal out of something simple!
I actually don’t like baking much, though you are my go-to when I get the itch or have foolishly offered a treat for a party :) The raspberry breakfast bars are a big hit around here!
Thank you for your humor and for sharing your love of cooking with us!
I enjoy making pizelles, with my family’s ancient pizzelle maker. I could live on eggs cooked in a tomato sauce, which makes your website a good one to have bookmarked. Your zucchini bread pancakes make me very happy, because it’s fun to turn a mountain of vegetables into pancakes.
I don’t like cooking anything that I don’t want to eat, so no red meat, overly rich foods, or meringues (seems like an inappropriate thing to say in the comments section of a recipe for baked Alaska).
Hi Deb and congratulations! I’ve been reading for almost 10 years, and my family and I are all big fans of you and the site. My sister waited in line to get me a cookbook autographed by you when you were in Portland (and got Alex to sign it when she was loitering near the bathrooms, too, which she gloated about!). We have cooked nearly every recipe in the book, and countless from your site (we just had the cookbook’s meatloaves tonight for dinner, which I virtuously made with TVP — something I now regret). We now have long traditions in our family that involve your recipes– my brother-in-law makes your deviled eggs at every special occasion; my older sis makes the spiced nuts (all the cooking she can be trusted with); my dietician little sis makes the kale salad; and I make your mother’s apple cake or the chocolate stout cake (my husband’s favorite cake ever). The whole-wheat apple muffins from your site are my go-to for school events. And lots more! Thank you for bringing so many great recipes and sharing your thoughts with us every week!
Um yummy birthday cake. i just love this.. All these looks fantastic! I get a tad bit obsessed with cake in the winter and will definitely be trying some of these (most of them) out!
That dessert looks ah-mazing! What a lucky boy! And congrats on the 10 year anniversary! The traditional 10 year gift is tin/aluminum so maybe some new baking pans are in order? ;) One type of recipe I’ve been looking for lately (but would definitely not be for everyone) are lactation cookies. I’d love to see your take on them, maybe something in a peanut butter variety. :)
Thank you. I feel like nobody every told me about these cookies when I might have appreciated them — they’re totally new to me.
I’m a sixty-three year old northern California grandmother (reading tutor) that has been reading Smitten Kitchen way before your son was born. I’m not sure how I found out about your site. I’m kind of a terrible cook except for scrambled eggs and French toast. My half Italian husband, who just passed away a week ago, was the real cook in the family. I bake, not because I’m particularly good at it, but because it forces me to actually use a cookbook instead of treating my extensive collection like fictional reading. Your site, NIgella’s and Big Mama are the first things I look to see if something new is on in the morning; like reading the back of a cereal box and comics before school when I was a kid. I love how you simplify things, love reading about your beautiful family and your no nonsense approach to life. So even during this roller coaster phase of grieving and confusion, I’m here at five o’clock in the morning finding solace in how to set a Baked Alaska on fire, which I’ve only had once in my life but I don’t remember it being set on fire. I did live in Alaska when I was sixteen on the Adak naval base island. It was the most magical time of my life. So you may have started this here blog ten years ago to write about cooking and baking but somehow you weave much more into it by just being yourself. Congratulations on ten successful years.
I am so sorry about your husband. I am heartened you find comfort here in such a hard time.
I was given Smitten Kitchen in 2013—as an after surgery present by my childhood friend with whom I learned to cook. Our first creation at age 9 was pinwheel cookies—the chocolate layer augmented by blue food coloring in the vanilla layer. I’m not sure I’ve ever made anything so good since! I’m a,so pretty sure my mom’s kitchen never recovered.
I made almost every recipe out of Smitten Kitchen, loved the food and (being a writer) loved the writing too. I read your blog religiously and enjoy your restless creative spirit, your generosity in introducing other cooks/writers, your lively and intimate writing—-and, yes, I love the recipes. I don’t have a lot of time to cook so only a few things get made each week (if I’m lucky)—–my favorite things change with the seasons. I love to bake but with a gluten free step daughter and a husband who should be low carb, I have to curb my desire for daily chocolate cake. (I make several of your chocolate cakes recipes when I must must have some! Red wine chocolate cake, Valerie’s cake, the I need chocolate cake cake—😃💖) Many of your recipes are my go-to staples now, and I check your blog before deciding what to make. I’m lucky to live in a very farm to table setting here in central Vermont so I have no excuse not to be cooking wonderful, organic things. You and your blog add a big sparkle to my life in the hinterlands! Thank you! Many wishes for blessings, fun, love to you and your family.
Congratulations and thank you so much for all of the amazing recipes over the years! I’m currently a physician currently living, working, and going to grad school in NYC, and cooking and running when there’s time. I remember the exact night I stumbled across your site, about 7 years ago when I was in med school, up way too late studying for a test, stressed out, and needing homemade rice pudding in a very urgent way. So incredibly grateful for google leading me your way that night. To this day my husband and I probably make at least 1 or 2 of your recipes per week (favorites are spicy squash salad w/ lentils, butternut squash galette, and also every single slaw). I don’t think I’ve ever hosted a dinner party without something from your site, and most recently your pie crust has become something my never-baked-anything-in-his-life husband can whip up while I’m on my way home from work and with a sudden need for homemade pie and that in itself is a miracle. Thank you so much for all of the lovely work you do and for helping me to eat so much better, more seasonally, and become braver in the kitchen!!
Cake looks awesome. We’re (hopefully) going to make it for Thanksgiving (we try to make new, festive desserts every year), so I can report back on our results after that.
I really appreciate this blog (and its glorious hyperlinked cross-index), your recipes, and your writing. Your work has enabled me to become a more adventurous cook, and you make complicated recipes seem fun and accessible. I’m indebted.
Congrats on the 10 year anniversary!
And your book, of course! How could I forget. A gift from my significant other that we open up weekly.
I’ve been reading your site religiously since 2007 and I don’t think I’ve missed a single post. I was a junior in college when I found your blog, and I had just spent my first summer in an apartment with my then boyfriend, now husband, struggling to cook anything edible and largely relying on a couple cookbooks borrowed from my parents. Food blogs opened up a new world for me. The photos, the comments on the recipes, the stories – they created a connection to the recipe that made me want to cook and learn and develop my skills in the kitchen.
Recipes from your blog fed me and my husband for the duration of our rocky graduate school years. I can’t even begin to count how many batches of your slow cooker black bean ragout we made. It was the perfect dish for us as we tried to balance grad school with marathon training and still eat good food. Whenever it was my turn to bake for a labmate’s birthday, I’d pick something new from your site. The crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies and the salted white chocolate oatmeal cookies became favorites, and I baked batches of both of them in addition to my mother’s mint chocolate cookies for my wedding picnic.
My favorite thing to cook, by far, is pizza. As East Coasters living in San Francisco during grad school, my husband and I got really good at replicating the pizza we desperately missed, and now that we’ve moved back east, we’re cooking more fresh topping-driven California style pizza. I’ve tried many, many pizza dough recipes and have several books dedicated to pizza, but the quick pizza dough recipe from your book is the one I turn to most often.
Thank you for everything you’ve shared with us, and happy 10!!
My mum never taught me to cook – she was part of a generation of ladies who were born in the 50s and married in the 70s and who believed that cooking was a terrible chore and whatever could be done faster, or not at all, was better.
In 2007, I was getting married to someone who knew even less about cooking than I did, and I was pretty sure if I wanted to make my marriage a success, one of us would need to learn how to cook. Turns out, I was right. Homecooked meals contribute to marital peace!! That, and being nice to each other, I guess.
; )
There is something inherently beautiful about being able to feed yourself and others, and I credit you, Deb, to a large part for giving me a pool of basically never-fail recipes which built my confidence as I was trying to become a skilled cook.
Also, those carrot cake maple cream cheese cupcakes made my in-laws think I am a legit pastry chef.
Thanks for keeping at it, friend. : )
Years ago Mollie Katzen broke all the rules in her first Moosewood Cookbook, a handmade labour of love that resonated with readers, in my view not just for the recipes but for the narrative voice of its author, offering whimsy, (in the little doodles ), encouragement, and stories alongside the soups and stews. When you cooked with that book you felt you had a friend in the kitchen with you. Many years later SK has emerged as that friend and also created a culinary conversation, a community online and emerged a ‘go to’ place not only for the food but for your sense of whimsy, honesty and comedy… In this way your grandmother was right about you being a writer because food writing in the end is about so much more than food: it’s about love, memory, family, holidays, community, longing, sweetness, sadness and rites of passage. In short it’s about life itself.
Shanah Tovah and may next decade bring an abundance of sweetness !
Congrats on 10 years of blogging! I’m a woodworker (spoon carver) and I’m definitely procrastinating right now, but I work for myself, so I’m not exactly fooling the boss into thinking I’m working. If I was working I’d be researching whether there are any extra hoops I have to jump through to legally sell baby spoons. Is there anything more boring than trying to parse legalese?
My favorite things to cook are sour cherry pie–I use James Beard’s recipe except I always cut the sugar by at least half, and goulash. Over the years I’ve made the goulash my own, but it started out as your recipe! My least favorite thing to make (that I still sometimes make, because the end result is amazing) is black walnut cookies. I collect my own nuts at the park, so it’s the hulling and shelling of the nuts that’s a giant pain. I’m obsessed with the flavor of black walnuts though, so I have to do it! One thing that confuses me though, is that everyone writing about black walnuts on the internet seems to describe their flavor as a stronger, more bitter version of regular walnuts. I think they taste totally different. The flavor is intense, yes, but I think it’s reminiscent of vanilla. And I detect none of the bitter flavor of regular walnuts. My theory is that all of the walnuts I’ve ever bought have already started to go bad and that’s what the bitter walnut flavor is. But I don’t know, maybe Wisconsin black walnuts are uniquely good? Or maybe there’s some other bitter flavor in walnuts I’m genetically unable to taste.
I like to think of Smitten Kitchen as the One True Reliable Food Blog; never has it failed me. I’m a 21 year old college student and quite honestly, I’m just waiting for the day when I have the budget to cook/eat everything I’d like to—I think Smitten Kitchen pages must account for at least half of the bookmarks on my browser. Congrats on 10 years!
A college friend clued me in to SK summer 07 when everyone was moving out of the dorms and into apartments off campus. I’m really glad she did, because while we’re no longer friends, I’ve found a valuable resource for my kitchen adventures. I’ve always leaned towards stews and one pot dishes because it’s the biggest bang for my buck. I don’t like to make 1 main, 1 veg, 1 carb dinners; too much work most of the time. I’m also not a fan of baking, too easy to mess up, with limited was to fix it.
My 8yo daughter was reading over my shoulder and demanded this cake for her birthday, which is tomorrow – game on, kid! I am an all-but-40 mama of three, an East coaster transplanted to Seattle, a daytime surgeon who would have gone to culinary school had med school not worked out, and a longtime reader and lover of your blog and cookbook. Love your writing, your pics of your beautiful children, your refusal to take yourself (or any of us!) too seriously, and the ease and reliability of your recipes. Happy 10th, and here’s to many, many more.
I’ve been a reader for at least 8 years from Boston (not originally) so I was thrilled to meet you at your book signing in Brookline, not bothered to stand in line while ~7 mos pregnant (you’re the one that kindly pointed it out to me!). Since I’m not cut out to live in NYC, I’m happy to say at least ATK and Cutty’s among other fine establishments are mere minutes away.
I should be doing documentation for my visits in homecare as an OT. Or sleeping so I can not be grouchy with my two sweet daughters.
I love to bake and it’s my love language. Fig, sea salt and olive oil challah from your book means “I love you a TON.” Graham carrot cake and peanut butter chocolate cake means “you’re my BFF”…just to name a few distinctions. Of course the brown butter sea salt Rice Krispie bars are practically a staple (have you ever roasted the marshmallows?!) and it’s not summer without cherry slab pie and brown butter peach crumb bars…to name just a few favs. Thanks for helping me keep my loved ones feeling loved, and making new friends along the way for the last decade!
I’m a communications professional and mother of two, cooking meals for my family every day in my tiny kitchen in the city of Aarhus, Denmark. Our neigborhood has a farmer’s market that we enjoy visiting all year round. I love cooking with seasonal vegetables and I’ve been a SK follower since 2009. You’re my go-to for recipes on everything vegetable.
Oh – and cakes. We’re probably partly responsible for the popularity of the Double Chcolate Banana Bread recipe (because what else to make with those left-over spotty bananas that no one wants to eat? I secretly suspect my kids to leave the bananas in the fruit bowl on purpose in the hope they be turned into banana bread). And no birthday party without your Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches. Happy anniversary!
I have thought about leaving a comment for years, but didn’t feel I had anything original to say, so I didn’t. This isn’t original either, but I just wanted to say thank you. I’m not a novice cook who desperately seeks recipes; I have my own stable of tried and trues. However, I love having somewhere to look once a week where I can see new things to try making from someone I’ve grown to trust as having an excellent palate (or at least one often similar to mine ;). It’s not just that though – there are plenty of websites with good recipes. I think I, like many, are most pulled in by your personality. At least in writing, you have a light and joy in life that is a magnet, which, combined with an excellent, self-aware sense of humor, is irresistible. I think of Julie Childs and Eleanor Roosevelt a lot when I read posts. Yours is one of the few cookbooks I’ve ever bought.
Anyway, I am an Emergency Medicine resident and thus my hours suck and I see a lot of darkness. Accordingly, during a rough patch last year I started a food blog. It is mostly sadly neglected, but I don’t feel bad about that, because frankly half of the recipes were yours (minimally adapted and, naturally because I’m not a dick, attributed). My favorite recipe, besides the ones on your blog, is currently probably (okay, I’m changeable minute to minute) this because it involves a lot of chopping (therapeutic), but is otherwise easy, and tastes ace:
http://www.theveggiesaurus.com/?p=520#more-520
Anyway, thank you for existing and sharing your light!
I am a 42 year old physician and mom of 3 young kids living in a small city apartment. I started reading your blog when I was pregnant with my first at the same time you were pregnant with Jacob. Your blog is the first place I look for any new recipe. You have rocked my world with your yeasted waffles, lazy pizza dough, fudgy chocolate sheet cake, bran muffins, chicken marsala, plum cake, and especially crispy eggs and the idea of frico grilled cheese (which we translated to quesadillas and eat weekly). I used to love to cook before I had kids (with food allergies) and a demanding job; now I find everyday cooking daunting and can never think what to make. But I still enjoy making birthday cakes for my family. This recipe is timely because my mom just requested baked Alaska for her upcoming milestone birthday. I love your writing and appreciate the trove of ideas that includes easy weeknight recipes.
I’m not sure how long I’ve been reading your blog… after your son’s birth, but not by much… maybe 6 1/2 years then? I’m a costumer (some design, some teaching, and lots of shop management) at a moderately large university. I’m killing time right now in between tech and dress start. I read mostly because I love your writing voice… your humor, your passion for food and discovery, the obvious joy in your family and your city. And because you make it sound so possible as you present these delicious sounding dishes to us. I read and feel like “I could do that”! I don’t cook much anymore (I work long hours and my husband is the cook), but when I did my favorite recipes were the ones I learned to make standing at my mothers side in the kitchen as she fed the seven of us… spaghetti and meatballs, meatloaf, marinaded porkchops. I’m dying to try making some of your slaws though… I LOVE a good slaw!
Congratulations! I love the food, recipes, your writing, pics and stories of the kiddos–everything!! Thank you so much, I wish I found you at the start of it all.
Deb I am late to the party but wanted to thank you so much for this amazing blog. I have been an avid reader since 2008 when I discovered it and I LOVE IT!!! Wonderful reading and exceptional recipes. I can’t tell you how many I’ve made, and how they have literally ALL been a success. (This is coming from someone that might not be considered such a great cook). Your blog is warm, comforting, delicious, and oh so sweet, and I wish you lots and lots of congratulations with the hope that you will write for many years to come :) Best wishes, and Shana Tovah as well! :-)
Oh! I forgot to add – I work in the field of pediatric rehab where I see lots of joy and lots of sadness. Cooking is an escape especially in the cooler weather. My absolute favorite Smitten dishes are the chocolate babka (the reviews were out of control at my house) and your sheet pan chicken tikka, and a vegetable stew you made back in ’07 or ’08? I can’t remember the name and I should like it up..but you served it over couscous and it is SO good! Also the salty chocolate chip cookies and the buttermilk chicken, and, and, and… :)
Happy 10th Anniversary, Deb, from a nearly-70yo retired tech-type from Seattle. I’ve been smitten with your kitchen, your photography, your language, since before Jacob was born. You were my first, and still are my only, cooking blog.
I made my first Baked Alaska just three years ago, a friend’s birthday request. I researched at length, ended up cobbling three recipes together, and produced a flaming wonder. If only I had been able to wait for you to do the work for me!
I like to bake: cakes (Strawberry Chiffon this season’s favorite), tarts (you even improved on Dorie’s Whole Lemon Tart), muffins, cookies, pizza (but I can never get the crust thin enough). Dislike: caramel and pies.
Every one of your recipes turns out company-worthy on the first try! Thank you so much! Here’s to your second decade!
Hi Deb, I’m a 65+ woman who loves to cook and bake. I love your recipes, but perhaps just as much, I love your writing. Your sense of humor cracks me up with each posting. I just get joy out of reading the postings even if they describe a dish I’d never make due to me being a vegetarian and also kosher. The recipes that I do try are wonderful. You’ve widened my horizons, and I even made a pizza this past summer! Now I am vowing for the New Year to learn how to make bread and pizza (improve on the pizza; learn how to bake the bread). I give you credit all the time when I am complimented on a dish. I want to spread the word that your recipes can be trusted. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
I’m in my mid twenties and work for the federal government in DC. I just finished up several hours of GRE studying, and reading SK/scrolling through your Instagram is one of my favorite ways to destress.
My favorite thing to cook? SUCH a hard question, but I live for tomato season! Your zucchini/tomato/rice gratin is one of my favorite recipes ever. My husband is obsessed with it.
My least favorite thing to cook is anything that my mom makes a lot–I can never make my version taste as good as hers does.
I want to echo what everyone else has said here and just say thank you! I first started reading your blog about 5 years ago, when I was just starting to learn to cook. I made a New Years Resolution to cook a new recipe every week. I perused a lot of other cooking blogs, but so many of their recipes turned out terribly. Your blog was different. I love that every recipe you post is something that you serve to your family, in many cases over and over again. Also, you have high standards for tastiness and low tolerance for fussiness, except when absolutely necessary. I think that’s why every single one of your recipes that I’ve ever tried (and there have been many!) has become a go-to for me. Also, I live in a tiny studio apartment with a kitchen that seems to be about the same size as yours, and when I was first learning to cook, it was super encouraging to see someone else excel in such a small space.
Cool, now that you’ve done a Baked Alaska, can you do a bombe please? That’s the half-domed dessert I want to tackle.
I used to live on your site in class (oops), but now the children keep me busy and I sneak peaks when I can. The same has become true of my cooking life–I sneak elaborate meals when I can, but things have simplified. No one has time for all those dishes. My two year old who eats nothing does eat your Marsala mushroom baked pasta so thank you for that!
Who am I? I’m a 22 year old Orthodox Jewish girl, living in New Jersey, happily married with a yummy 9 month old son. Everyone has things that they think are rediculous to spend money on and mine is takeout. It hurts me to spend $40 on supper for me and my husband just cuz we’re hungry. So I really make supper every night, no matter how small, simple or boring. One of my favorite tricks for when I’m busy or not feeling well is to forget about sides- as long as there is one dish we can fill up, I’ve made supper ;) That said, my favorite thing to cook is something new, something that uses a cooking technique I’ve never tried before, something that I’m excited to eat. My least favorite thing to cook is something I have a feeling will end up uneaten- like food for my baby, sigh. My favorite food writing to read is a well researched, perfected version of a basic. Bonus points if it’s dessert :) Thanks for all the great reads Deb- your blog is the first food blog I check every day while I lunch
Congrats on 10 years of this blog! I can’t remember when I started to look at your blog, but I would have to say it has been at least 6-7 years. It has always been something my sister and I can agree on – you have reliable, delicious recipes.
I fight for social justice and more tenant power with a community organization in California. It is important, stressful work and my co-workers love it when I bring in cookies. I also love their compliments.
I love your arugula salad with potatoes and green beans, the coconut brown butter cookies, and so much more.
I’ve been reading the site faithfully since 2008! At that time, I was just starting my senior year of college, and my friends and I had gotten an off-campus apartment together. This site was huge in teaching me how to cook for myself, and I have loved it since then for the variety and reliability of the recipes. I always know that recipes on this site will turn out well for me, usually without being too difficult or overly fussy. Now I’m living in my own NYC tiny-kitchen apartment, and still cooking! My favorite thing to cook is probably pizza, homemade bread, or cookies. Least favorite is meat, because it still kind of freaks me out. Fortunately, my husband has almost opposite cooking preferences, so when we cook, he makes the meat dishes, I make the veggies, and we both end up happy!
A little late to the comments, but happy decade to Smitten Kitchen!
Here’s my SK story: A few years ago, I was struggling with a job I hated, and started a food blog to give myself a creative outlet. A friend introduced me to your blog, which I fell in love with, and we went to your book signing in Chicago (I’m the one with the pickled cranberries). Kept plugging away at the blog for a few years, still at the job I hated.
I started volunteering at a non-profit that teaches people how to grow their own food and runs a cooking school. Grew my first tomatoes! Taught my first cooking class! Standing in front of 25 people to teach them to make paella made me realize this was my passion.
I also wanted a new way to meet fellow food lovers, so I started a cookbook club–and Smitten Kitchen Cookbook was our second (and still the best attended) cookbook club meeting. Those strangers became amazing friends.
Then earlier this summer that non-profit asked if I wanted to leave the job I hated to run their cooking school. Guess what I said?
In the past month, I’ve helped teach a knife skills class for seniors, I’m planning pickle classes and homemade Indian food classes and homemade pierogie classes, I helped film recipe videos on using garden produce…Smitten Kitchen has been my go- to blog through all of it. So thanks for doing what you do! Cheers to many more years :-)
Wow! Thank you for sharing your story.
My pleasure! Next time you’re in Chicago (next cookbook tour?), let me know :-) Would love to invite you to cookbook club and/or the cooking school!
Congrats on your anniversary! I’m a nearly 50 year old living in a wacky, rural Colorado ski town who discovered your blog when bedridden for months about 9 years ago. Blogs became my entertainment and salvation. Since then, I’ve chosen just a few to continue reading, yours included. I enjoy your voice, your humor and your solid, no fuss recipes. If I don’t find a recipe from you on your website, searching online usually brings me back to your site anyway! Now I can’t wait to teach my teenaged son how to fire up a Baked Alaska!
10 years of Smitten Kitchen? Um, YIKES! I’ve been reading since you were Smitten Kitten, WAY before you were married. (I feel a little stalkerish saying that but there it is.) I am a 52 year old woman, living on the south side of Chicago (8 blocks from Obama’s house) with my husband of 24 years (yikes!) and my son of 9 years (how did THAT happen????).
I’ve always liked to cook and I read lots of cooking blogs but I just love your voice. And your combination of perfectionism–wanting to get the recipe the best it can be before gifting it to us–and your calm assurances of all will be well and delicious and feel free to mess about with it.
My favorite thing to cook is probably the last thing that I served to my family and friends that they loved. Whatever that happens to be. My made family has a list of requests that they trot out every holiday and family gathering and sometimes I think that I’m tired of the old standards but I’ll acquiesce to at least a couple of them because they love them so. What do I hate to cook? I guess pies. I bake all the time, can do bread, can cook lots of different things well but dang, that pie crust is never quite what I think it should be. Sometimes I just go the cobbler route and sometimes I try again. Someday the crust will be mine!!!!
It’s astounding sometimes how quickly we seem to pass through time and life. I saw the ten year heading and thought, “Surely not!” but then realized I’ve been reading your recipes and stories since I found your blog in the summer of 2007. I used the treat of reading a few of your posts at a time as the carrot to the stick of studying for the bar exam, and you helped me stay sane (and hungry) during an incredibly stressful time.
I feel a bit embarrassed to not have commented before when you are the very first place I come to when I think of a vague thing I might want to make or a recipe ingredient I have no idea what to do with. I have literally changed dinner and dessert menus upon finding out I might have to go elsewhere for a recipe that I’m not sure I can trust, or upon looking for one thing and becoming enamored with something else you’ve just posted.
(As an aside, I’m pretty sure your homemade oreos are actually addictive. Multiple people, firmly in the “I don’t like desserts or sweets” camp, continue to ask about and request them YEARS after the fact.)
Your thoughtful descriptions, instructions, asides, and follow ups in the comment section have helped me garner more complements than I can count over the past nine and a half years for me. I hope to be able to continue to gift people with your cookbook and with food I’ve made from it and your site for years to come.
Thank you for doing what you do.
Ice cream is my husband’s fav food group, so I was instantly motivated to hop on it and make this for his birthday! Was definitely fairly simple as advertised, and had a fun and impressive reception.
I had some trouble freeing the ice cream in the bowl even with plastic wrap, but wedged it out with an offset spatula after some time. We found the brownie layer yummy, but very challenging to cut. Would it for a softer base next time.
Thank you for wonderful inspiration and motivation to make something new and special. Clear your freezer and make this, folks!
I am a little nervous about undercooked eggs. What do you think about using Italian meringue rather than French?
I am sure it could work too.
Congrats! To answer your question, I’m Jen, I’m currently at work and feeling guilty about it because I’m being a bad Jew by working instead of going to shul today, on Rosh Hashanah. But I’m doctoring, and that’s pretty Jewish, right?
I’m not much for cooking but love to bake, and I will eat s’mores over anything else, any time, any day. I hate bananas.
Mazel tov on 10 years! :)
P.S. That baked Alaska looks amazing and I have a kitchen blow torch that I haven’t used so I’m thinking I might try this sometime soon!
Hi SK,
And just how did you know I was procrastinating? Supposed to be 1 ) at work, but sick with rotten cold, 2) studying for board exam in Thursday…see rotten cold above, 3) resting because of rotten cold. Instead I happily reading your blog. Love it, btw. Everything I’ve tried has been a success. After this exam I am taking the rest of the year off to bake, cook, and knit…your blog will figure prominently in my searches. I’m a clinical pharmacist at a small California hispital, and the board exam is in critical care. To days soup looks like it would help my site throat and sniffles a lot…now to drag my poor husband to the kitchen! Thanks for all you do, it is so appreciated!
Back with yet another question–thanks so much for answering the last. How do you wrap/cover the Baked Alaska in the freezer post application of meringue?
I 100% do not. It sat on a plate.
Congratulations on the tenth anniversary, and on not setting yourself, your kid, or your house on fire in the quest for Baked Alaska Glory!
I’m a person working Just A Job for a while, out in Portland, Oregon. A semi-recent convert to your website (I started visiting maybe two or three years ago), several times a week, usually around my lunch break at work, I find myself on your website, drooling over your recipes and laughing at your stories (your writing style is great!), and enjoying a peek into life on the other side… of the continent. :-)
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I had never even heard of Baked Alaska before reading your post but thanks to your awesome pictures and step by step instructions I was able to make my mother her very own for her 57th birthday (hers was strawberry cake with strawberry and chocolate ice cream). Everyone was so amazed with the setting it on fire part. I can’t wait to do it again. Congratulations on 10 years!
I’ve been reading for a long while although never commented. Love your stuff — the writing, the photos, the recipes, the kids, the vacations, all of it. Two years ago, I was laid flat by an immunosuppressive illness and cheered myself by reading through every recipe and comment (again!). You made me laugh and helped me dream of returning to the kitchen. Your courage and vulnerability as a writer, a business woman, a wife and mother, and a creative being have been my teachers. I live in a community where we cook every day for 15-20 people. We have a chef that does most of the work. I plan the menus and cook a few days a month, and you are my first go-to for ideas. I’m more of a cook than a baker, although recently your tutorial on pie crust (and breakfast slab pie!) encouraged me and helped me master a decent crust. My favorite thing to cook is usually whatever was last in the rota. In addition to enjoying cooking (and eating), I’m also an Episcopal priest and nun (yes, you read that right). I do a little quilting and photography on the side. Thank you for offering yourself here. I am grateful.
Can’t remember how or exactly when I discovered SK, but I’d say it’s been at least 5 years. I’m a married business lawyer in the Detroit area, with a daughter just a couple months younger than yours, so I definitely related to all the pregnancy-related posts last year and all the crazy baby posts this year. I’ve tried so many of your recipes, with the most recent being the plum poppyseed muffins from the cookbook (second time, love those). You’re my go-to food source, along with Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. I don’t think I’ve actually yet made any of the recipes in either of the top 10 lists posted above, so I need to remedy that!
I’ve read this blog for years. It’s one of the only Internet spaces that hasn’t told me how to live my best life, or what the right shade of red lipstick is for me.
Thank you for always being a human — and damn funny one at that.
Also, at least two of your recipes have gotten me laid.
Wow you have a LOT of comments to read through!
I am the mother of a curly haired almost 2 yr old kid (she looks just like Anna only blonde) and can’t remember when I found your site. I DO however remember that I started cooking obsessively from SK when I was pregnant because I do not like meat well-done and I basically became an almost vegetarian and your site provided so many awesome recipes.
These days my husband doesn’t even ask if the recipe is “from that site”- he knows . SK or Food52 so I love the collaboration!
Our all time unexpected favorite is the “charred corn pancakes” recipe served “mexican” style (and always accompanied by an ice cold coke!)
My goal is to conquer the roast chicken. I know it’s simple, apparently, and even though I use a thermometer it’s almost always either still raw or dry in places…so one day I will make the perfect chicken.
I am German so I always whine about the volume vs weights and ask for weights so I can “translate” the recipes better so- sorry about that :)
I really really love your site. Happy 10th, SK!
I have been following you since 2010 at least, I think before that. Anytime I have company over, I make something from your blog or cookbook. Some of my favorites are the rhubarb hamanstaschen and baked eggs ranchero. And who can forget the buckle cakes? I amGF and have been able to easily adapt your delicious food to fit my allergies. Thank you for providing inspiration, encouragement, and great food!
Deb- Congratulations on 10 years of honest, hilarious, delicious recipes and other life events!
I also have to thank you, because I am pretty sure I won my now-husband’s heart by way of feeding him from your site. I made your chicken and dumplings for him on our thrid date. Your cheddar apple scones are his first request when it turns fall (I made them last week!) I impressed his mother by making her bloody mary tomato salad on the 4th of July and the pear/cranberry/gingersnap crumble at Thanksgiving. Shakshuka is our “we have $10 left until pay day” staple. And at our wedding 8 weeks ago, your recipe for all butter pie crust graced all 18 pies on our dessert table. Your work helped us grow closer and more in love and sustains us in that same state now. For all that and so much more, THANK YOU!!
This is crazy!!! I’ve never heard of a baked Alaska until now and my mind is bended.
I’ve been on your site since I think 2011 but honestly can’t remember. I think the first thing I made was your 44 clove garlic soup. You’re my go to for everything I cook at home.
I am a 31 year old married woman with a cat and dog who never plans to have kids.
I work for a university with grad students.
I like good tv.
I’ve never successfully peaked egg whites or even made frosting; hate baking. Love to cook just about everything. Sheet pan dinners are my current favorite thing.
Thank you (and Jacob) for making this so accessible! We’re doing one month of no-restaurants/no prepared foods/no take-out (though I guess ice cream is the exception), and this is going to the top of the dessert list.
I’ve been around since fall of 2008 when my daughter was born, my mom was visiting, and we needed a cake. We found your site and your mom’s cake and we’ve been happily cooking the recipes nested in your witty and wise commentary every since.
I’m here right now since I don’t work on Wednesdays and I need to figure out dinner with some green beans, but I followed your flaming cake down this rabbit hole because it’s beautiful and I’m so happy for your success and the fabulous recipes you’ve brought to my life.
My favorite thing to cook? I make a lot of jam. I make them in house for a local restaurant and at my own house for family and friends. I love building flavors together and sealing them up for safe-keeping. Chocolate pear butter and preserved lemon apricot are my best ideas this year.
What do I get wrong? Seven-minute frosting is supposed to be a sure shot, but for some reason I’ve had some fickle batches. It’s a love/hate relationship, since I’m totally making it again, just so I can master the beast.
Bryan here, from Toronto (so many Torontonians at first glance through the comments! Hooray!) I’ve been reading for a long, long time (I’m 30 now – it’s definitely been over 5+ years for sure!). I love to bake, and you’ve always inspired me to branch out and try new things. And watching the Great British Bake-off helps too (please tell me you watch?!)
My favourite thing to make from your site would be… your key lime pie! It’s become my signature and I started experimenting last winter – turned it into a ginger-mandarin-basil pie (so good!). But then you’ve also helped my dinner repertoire as well – made the roasted grape and olive crostini a few weeks back – heaven!
And side note, I don’t expect you watch RuPaul’s Drag Race or know much about it, but last week one of the girls called Alaska did something very untoward, so now I’m making Baked Alaska and I get to set it on fire with my friends tomorrow night for the next episode and it is fortuitous to say the least :) Thanks for everything you do!
I’ve been reading since before it became Smitten Kitchen, back when I was a newlywed with no children. I was a little disgruntled when the site switched from stories of you and Alex to recipes, but I thought “What the hell?” I’d already invested months of my life in a virtual stranger, and so I followed along and have been so glad I did. I am currently avoiding a stack of essays that I have to grade.
Aw, thank you. I would have run out of non-food stories pretty quick soon anyway, heheh. Married life is boring. :)
Congrats on 10 amazing years! Thanks for the recipes, humor, and kitchen confidence!
I’m a loyal, yet not so timely reader (hence the 2-week comment delay). I first came across SK in my first post-college rental house while living with two judgmental vegetarians I found via Craigslist. I wanted them to like me (new city, no friends) and they didn’t like my Lean Cuisine habit. So I learned how to cook via SmittenKitchen. The roommates/friends didn’t last but the recipes did. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
This is awesome! I’m going to make it for my birthday in November I hope. The video of the pouring flame is very cool, though not sure if I’ll be able to do it myself.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! We have been fans of your website from the beginning and always search your site first for recipes. Also enjoy using your excellent book. Thanks for your entertaining and useful recipes and look forward to the next 10 years!
Dear Deb,
“Joyeux anniversaire!!!” to your lovely smitten kitchen, a sure reference in the ocean of the culinary blogs. My favorite to do is your banana bread “jacked up” version. I, of course, adapted it, my boyfriend sees almost as a major personnality characteristic that I cannot follow a receipe “à la lettre”. I’m telling him it’s called creativity!!! This receipe actually was the one that convinced my little brother to start baking as a student, so big kudos!! And my Dutch step-family liked it so much last week-end that they didn’t let anything to their kids (ooops:) Second is your amazing broccoli pesto!!!
I wish you all the best and again a lot of inspiration!!!
If you ever plan to go to the Netherlands or France, send an e-mail to get insiders tips on specialties to try, bake or cook and bring back!!! Again a big “merci”!!
Congrats on 10 years! I’ve been a reader since 2011, shortly after I made an effort to eat healthier and cook new things, and I made your grapefruit yogurt cake for Easter. Since then SK has become my favorite recipe site and my go-to research spot when I want to make something delicious. I moved to Connecticut around the time I started getting your newsletter, so I’ve also used your blog for restaurant advice when I visit the city. Thanks so much for the decade of recipes, the gorgeous photos, the book, and inspiring another cook with a tiny apartment kitchen! (And please put out another book and tour again because I missed it when you spoke at Darien Library and have been kicking myself ever since!)
I’m late to the party. BUT! Deb. You were the first food blog I found sitting in my dorm room, fall 2009. I was instantly hooked. Your recipe posts have been popping up in my inbox, following me around through 4 years of college, a boring boring job, engagement, marriage, pregnancy, and now a little babe. Everything you cook is delicious, and the way you write about it inspires confience. If I’m craving something, I can always find it on here.
Thank you for existing! You’ve made meal time in the Phillips house (and lunchtime the day after) so infinitely better.
Happy Ten Year Anniversary! I don’t remember how I stumbled across your site, but when I saw the amazing things you were making in your little Manhattan kitchen I was inspired to do the same in my equally tiny Baltimore apartment. I’m pretty sure you helped me snag my boyfriend of two years with your dijon and cognac beef stew.
My favorite thing about your recipes is your writing. Not only do you tell fun stories (I read the smittenkitchen cookbook like a novel), but you also explain exactly what the food will look like at each step. Your thought process written out along with the pictures, makes your recipes foolproof. I’ve never had one fail.
Thank you for all that you do and keep those delicious recipes coming!
I know it is likely too late for this, but these days I read SK when I have the time — which is to say, too infrequently. I first stumbled upon this website in my second semester of college — Spring 2007, but also yesterday — at about midnight in the midst of finals week. I was 3,000 miles away from home, eating food prepped from Sysco cans and dreaming of familiar fresh California produce. I spent the wee hours of the morning browsing through recipes, planning what I would try to cook when I got home the next week instead of writing my Political Science paper.
Since then, Smitten Kitchen has been a very quiet touchstone in my life. Some of the first meals I made for myself and my family were your recipes (crisp black bean tacos with feta) and the first things I baked for my (now) husband were also yours (cream biscuits, which we just ate for dinner tonight) and chocolate souffle cupcakes, for his birthday. The first meal we ate after we got married (essential raised waffles) was your recipe too.
I suppose this is to say thank you — for teaching me how to cook, for feeding me and my family and the people I love most. Preparing food for someone else is one of the most basic expressions of love. Thank you for sharing your kitchen and your love for your family and food with the internet (myself included) so that we may in turn share that love with others. (And with ourselves! I’ve happily prepared a delicious, intricate meal for myself alone. It’s a small, frivolous, occasional luxury.)
Most importantly: thank you for teaching me how to cook eggs well. I definitely could not have figured that one out on my own and it’s had a huge impact on my quality of life. No joke.
Congratulations on 10 years of absolutely wonderful food, humor, and warmth.
Hi Deb! This is my first time commenting, but I just had to congratulate you on your amazing accomplishments, including the creation of this wonderful online space. Reading through these comments made me feel like I was in a special club of like minded friends!
I initially came to your blog about six years ago as a heartbroken single gal, fresh off a terrible break up, and unable to manage any sort of cooking that wasn’t Annie’s Mac and Cheese. Your words cheered me up and your easy to follow recipes helped not only fill my belly, but also heal my heart bit by bit as I gained confidence in the kitchen and in myself.
Cut to present day – I’m going on four years with an amazing man who was wooed in part by your cheddar swirl breakfast buns (who just celebrated his birthday with this Baked Alaska to much fanfare!), and being in the kitchen is now my favorite place to be! Your recipes have helped mark so many occasions and milestones in my life and I know I’m not alone in feeling like you’ve been a sort of kitchen Auntie, guiding me through my culinary adventures! Thank you for all you do and cheers to many more years!
Congratulations on 10 years! I first started reading about 8 years ago, when I was stuck in a boring job, and started whiling away hours dreaming of all the delicious food I’d like to cook. I now have a much more interesting job but still love spending lunchtimes catching up on your latest recipes and revisiting the old favourites (and am still secretly hoping that one day I will find a way of making food into a paying job…).
I’m a 31 year old event manager from London, and consider it amongst my greatest successes that I have converted all my colleagues into cake obsessives due to heavy consumption of my bakes. Over the years I’ve made so many of your recipes and they have all turned out great (one of the many reasons I love this site), it’s so difficult to pick favourites when I love both cooking and eating the whole range from a simple savoury meal to a big elaborate cake. However, when a good friend at work told me she was leaving she immediately asked me to bake your pumpkin cupcakes – her leaving date was still 3 months away but her mind was already made up from sampling them a few years ago. They are a favourite of mine too so I’m keen for the opportunity!
Here’s to another 10 years of amazing recipes!
You are what makes this site awesome. Without you, well, I don’t know what I’d be doing but it certainly wouldn’t be getting to write songs of fire and ice cream all day. Will you tell me something about yourself? Who are you? I’m assuming you’re on the internet for the reason the internet exists, to procrastinate — what does everyone think you’re doing right now? Most importantly: What’s your favorite thing to do cook? Least favorite? (I’ll settle for an answer to any of the above.)
Deb– congrats on ten years! I began cooking from your book around 2007/08 and have been a regular ever since. Your recipes are always reliable, well explained, and open to my little-bit-of-this cooking style.
As for me: I am a 20-some in Chicago. When I am not at my job as a fundraiser, I spend most of my time experimenting with new recipes, knitting, and cycling. One of the first recipes I cooked from your site was Pecan Sandies and it continues to be an old favorite. In the summer I often use your zucchini bread recipe to manage my overflowing garden.
Your site always my go-to when looking for a new recipe or rediscovering an old favorite. I have made countless family meals from your archives.
Hi Deb,
Congratulations on 10 years! This post and recipe weee perfectly timed. My boys had been nagging, I mean asking, to try Baked Alaska for some time. I had said “sure” and had even looked at some recipes. They kept pushing so I said the chest freezer would have to be defrosted first to allow room for such a creation. Freezer defrosted and after some additional delays we were up to my youngest son’s 14th birthday. I followed your recipe, using your cake, and loved the “marbled” ice cream approach. Some additional ‘research’ into flambeeing (a real verb?) led us to heat some Grand Mariner in a small sauté pan in the stove, light it and then pour over the Baked Alaska. It worked great! Possibly less stressful than lighting the alcohol as it is being poured out of a container. Some videos of Baked Alaska flambes in restaurants and thinking about how Crepes Suzette is presented made me think it was the way to go.
Thanks for all your great work, looking forward to more great food and reads from you!
Probably chiming in too late, but: Hi! I’m Nicole, 30, a doctor and in the last six months, also a mother. It’s 4:30 in the afternoon, my son is teething, I’ve been up six times a night for the past three nights and I’m exhausted. So I’m taking 15 minutes to myself to have a cup of tea and I couldn’t think of anyone better to spend this time with than you ;). My favourite thing to cook is a savory pie, any kind really but the pastry must be very buttery; my least favourite is any sweet dessert that takes multiple dishes and multiple hours which maybe isn’t the best thing to have admitted on this of all sites.
I’ve been reading since 2007. Many of your recipes are staples in my repertoire and the only desserts I bother making are yours. Thanks for the last 9 years :)
This looks amazing! I have a tangentially-related question, I see you use a lot of different sized glass bowls in this recipe (and in others), and I’m looking at getting a set of nesting glass bowls for my kitchen. Do you have a brand or set you’d recommend?
What a great good recipe! My husband has jokingly asked for this dessert for all ten years of our marriage, so when he came home from a month long business trip, I surprised him.
I made the cake option instead of brownies, used gelato instead of ice cream (that was a mistake; the lower fat made it melt a bit in the oven but it was barely noticeable. Next time I’ll use ice cream), toasted in the oven and flambeed with cognac at the table.
It was absolutely delicious, even for a guest who doesn’t usually like merengue. Thank you for this great recipe!
Made this over the weekend, with significant modifications, but still – thanks for the inspiration! I would never have thought to make this without seeing your recipe, and it came out really great.
Putting my notes here in case they help someone, but also to remind myself since I will DEFINITELY be making this again. So many potential flavor combinations!
I decided I wanted cake rather than brownies, so I made one layer from your double layer chocolate cake, since that’s my favorite chocolate cake ever. I wouldn’t recommend that approach, though, since a) it’s hard to half, since it calls for three eggs and b) the layer was wayyyy too thick in relation to the ice cream. I ended up splitting it in half, and also split my finger open since I was clumsily cutting it once it was already frozen. Not the best approach.
Though the layer of cake looked way too thick in relation to the ice cream, I actually thought the finished product had too much ice cream in relation to cake. I think next time I would make the cake in a 9×13 and cut a circle for the bottom, and an additional, smaller circle to freeze and put in the middle of the ice cream layer.
We used a propane torch to brown the meringue, and the other (minor) thing that I struggled with is that I assembled it on a plate and froze for an hour as recommended, but then I was concerned about applying the torch too close to the frozen plate, so the meringue on the bottom of the cake did not get fully browned. I think next time I’d assemble on a cake board or something and transfer to the serving plate right before torching it. But maybe I was just being a wuss.
I added crushed Oreos with the ice cream and liked the texture they provided, but I’m a sucker for add-ins. I think next time I might try nuts or mini M&Ms. I’m already thinking about how good this would be for Christmas (with gingerbread and vanilla ice cream? or chocolate cake and peppermint?), and how well it would adapt to being gluten free since the cake portion is less important in the finished product.
Hello, I love your site! This happened to pop up as I’m planning my boyfriend’s 50th birthday, so rather than get bunches of candles, why not just light the whole cake on fire, right?
Questions:
If I’m having cake on the side (as he’s requested pineapple upside-down cake and doesn’t know I’m also doing this) is it strictly necessary to have a cake base on the ice cream? Does it serve a practical purpose?
How particular is the type of alcohol? I’m having to borrow from a friend as I’m not a hard-liquor person, and we’re down between rum, whiskey, and tequila.
Would it be problematic to do this in a bundt pan?
(Also a flavor question–he’s a fan of fruits and citrus flavors–would a combo of vanilla ice cream and multi-flavor sherbet be like a “orange creamsicle” flavor, or is that a terrible idea?)
Thank you!
The cake base provides a movable foundation as well as a little bit of absorption so your cake doesn’t puddle out if you want time to serve it not in a huge rush. For alcohol, I have read that you want a high proof but not too high, hence me using brandy, but I can’t exactly remember why. Other types of alcohol should work. Bundt might look nice. I think you have a better chance of it keeping a nice shape in a tube pan, though. Your flavors sound excellent; I think that raspberry and citrus play off the sweet meringue nicely. (I would love a riff on these peach melba flavors, personally, maybe with pistachio ice cream too.)
Yuuummmm!!!!! I made this for my brother and sister-in-law’s anniversary complete with flaming bourbon, and it was awesome. As a bonus, my sister-in-law used the leftover egg yolks (from the whites for the meringue) to make banana cream pie the next day.
I haven’t heard about baked alaska ever but it definitely seems like something I need to try before my next birthday!
I’m super late to the anniversary celebration, but I just put your roasted yams and chickpeas in the oven, and I’ve been meaning to respond to your plea for a while, so I thought I’d chime in. I’m a single thirtysomething pediatric ICU doctor who is a midwestern transplant to New England. I’ve been following along for the better part of six or seven years now, and nearly everyone I know (and like) has been the beneficiary of some recipe or another off this site – my friends now ask, knowingly, “Deb?” when I show up somewhere with something tasty. I’ve made your mom’s apple cake at least eight times, most recently at a potluck in rural Kenya last month. Your dreamy cream scones have become a staple of my repertoire, and there are at least a dozen nurses on my unit who demand them – in no uncertain terms – when it’s my turn to bring in breakfast on the weekend. Your savories have been instrumental in dinner parties, your sweets have been the foundation of innumerable parties and celebrations. Thanks for having impeccable taste and making it easy for the rest of us to demonstrate the kind of hospitality we want to. Congratulations!
I made this over the weekend for the boyfriend’s birthday and it was AMAZING. I doubled the “I Want Chocolate Cake” recipe into a 9×13 and used 2.5 qts of peppermint stick ice cream, also molded into a 9×13 pyrex. Getting that out of the pan (despite liberal greasing) was a bit of a struggle, but a minute or so of softening and it came out in one piece. I used 8 egg whites for the meringue, but probably could have gotten away with 6. I heated the brandy in a small saucepan with a curved rim for easy pouring. It went great and I didn’t burn my apartment down. In addition, I made WAY too much – we could have fed our party of 11 with half the amount but I guess that just means I get baked Alaska for dinner tonight… Thanks Deb for walking me through a delicious dessert that allowed me to set food on FIRE (twice!). It’s definitely happening again.
Does this come with a free trip to NYC to meet you and get a free meal? Because I’m all for it! And did I win?
Well this is a bit late, but very happy birthday! And one of the reasons that I started reading and didn’t stop was that at first you didn’t use a KitchenAid or a food processor and since I don’t have those I was ecstatic! But things change and so I decided to leave. . . !!??? I’m still here! (Because the site is so good).
Anyway I tend to read late at night or early (iPad). I think I am not procrastinating, but more waking up to good food until I can convince myself to turn on the heat and make my own. But when I write comments, I am procrastinating.
I doubt that I have the most unusual occupation on your site, but it might come close — I am a microbial ecologist. I just got my Ph.D. at a later age than most and I am applying for postdocs right now. It’s taking a lot of time because everyone seems to think that I should work with disease, not ecology. . . :(. (the little dimple in the emoji is not mine.). While I apply for jobs, hoping to get my dream job, I also tutor online.
I (sort of) enjoy cooking. I would be lazy and order in, but I don’t live in a place where it is easy to do that (I live in Montana right now). So I cook from scratch every day. Your recipes help a lot with that.
I forgot: The first thing I made from your site was the spinach strata (which I add mushrooms to) and I still make it regularly!
I just made this for my 34th birthday today! It was lots of fun and tasted delicious.
My feedback:
1. I had trouble getting the ice cream out of the bowl (even though I greased the bowl etc) so I put the ice cream bowl ina bigger bowl with warm water, and it came out easily after short while.
2. I used the chocolate cake rather than brownie recipe and it was really good.
3. I would recommend putting it in the oven then back in the freezer for a bit before setting it on fire with the flambé. The ice cream was rather soft, but I put the left overs back in the freezer and it was a bit more solid eating it after that.
4. The oven mitt for the flambé is a really useful/safe tip – thanks!
All the instructions were great. I’ll make it again.
Hi! So I’m about to make this for my almost-7-year-old’s birthday party & I’ve got questions. Mainly, if I heat the meringue to 160 degrees in a double boiler while making it, will it change the meringue in any bad way for this recipe? Can I still freeze it successfully ahead of time? I kind of don’t want to be famous around first grade parents for being the ‘salmonella mom.’ Yikes – the mere thought strikes fear into my heart :)
Also, if I’m going to flambe it at the party do I still need to brown it first?
Thanks for your wonderful website!
I think you’ll be fine if you first heat the egg whites to 160. You can still freeze it; I was surprised by the fact that freezing has almost no effect whatsoever on the meringue, including making it hard. I would brown it first for even color; the alcohol won’t go everywhere and may not burn long enough to add color even where it does.
My son and I were reading Paddington before bed. I don’t know if you remember Mrs. Smith-Chomlely’s Christmas dinner party, but it ended with a rather terrible misunderstanding resulting in baked elastic instead of baked Alaska. (New recipe?) My son wanted to see a picture, and now that he has skimmed your recipe, wants to give it a go. On Christmas Eve. He’s 7.
Maybe I can talk him into waiting for his birthday.
I made two an really impressed a bunch of six year olds (and their parents) for my New Year’s Eve party!
Instead of softening up the ice cream and scooping it into the bowl to mold it, it’s even easier to slice off the carton and cut it into slices and layer them into the bowl.
The caramel sauce still runs at freezer temperatures, so some will ran out and dripped down my freezer after the ice cream was unmolded onto the brownie. I should’ve built a dam of ice cream around the outside. (It worked well enough but I should’ve made sure the caramel was just in the middle instead of having a place to flow through to the outside). Ganache was delicious and didn’t run at all.
The frozen brownie was good but really difficult to cut through, even with a very sharp heavy knife. I would make this again but with cake as the base.
My good friend and I have a tradition of trying some new and slightly extravagant/experimental recipe for our annual New Year’s Eve dinner together (with spouses and kids). We’ve done risotto, beef Wellington, a croque en bouche, and this year we did your baked Alaska. A triumph! Thanks to the detailed instructions, it was great. We took a video – I’ll send it along when I figure out how to do that!
Cant wait to try this recipe.Looks amazing and brings back memories from Alaska 💕
Congrats on your 10th SK birthday: that is a LOT of posts!
I had a blog for a few years but then couldn’t find the time (around kids, job etc) to keep it up, so really admire you.
I love all your recipes; they are different without being too difficult. And I love your writing style, you somehow take all the pressure of cooking away.
I love to bake, especially Irish soda bread which only takes a few mins (I use a tablespoon for the measuring) and also egg sponge and victoria sponge.
I have frequently come here for dinner inspiration, and you have always rescued me!
Receiving a signed copy of your cookbook is one of the best gifts my mom has ever given me. Thank you for your good, inspiring work. It’s certainly made my world better (tastier).
Yummy and I love Baked Alaska…without getting burnt! :) x
Deb,
I started following you blog in 2010, right after I got married. I discovered my wife did not enjoy cooking, and that she made mostly “truck stop” food. I realized my food menu was very limited too, and needed to be upgraded, for two people that desired to eat together every night as a family. I utilized the internet for ideas and lessons about cooking and found Smitten Kitchen. I was immediately happy/thrilled to see all the “process pictures” on your blog, still my favorite element of your blog. Secondly, I get so much out of reading the numerous comments from other fellow cooks and bakers, it really does offer a wonderful cross-section of experiences to aid in my cooking endeavors. Another inspiring part of your blog, is realizing your kitchen was/is very small, and you don’t have room for every kitchen gadget, or a desire to spend money on every kitchen gadget ever made. I don’t know about you, but I like to have money left over for the actual ingredients for the food! With that being said, over the years I have truly learned to appreciate good heirloom quality kitchen tools and toys, they are wonderful conversation pieces in themselves, add charm to your kitchen and home, will last for years, and friends that like to help in the kitchen quickly begin to appreciate the benefit of a nice sturdy spatula for example. I always appreciate when you recommend a new item for the kitchen. I feel so lucky to live in a large suburban home, with a large kitchen, with so much counter space. It gives me the courage to believe in myself, trust the process, and cook and bake almost anything. I think of you so often when I am working in the kitchen, and know that you would be happy to know that your ten year old business venture has revolutionized the cooking and eating lifestyles of the two happiest people living in the Phoenix Arizona suburbs. I look forward to your next cookbook, and next new recipe.
I made the Baked Alaska and it is amazing! I would let the brownie cool completely overnight in the refrigerator/freezer before joining it with the mold of ice cream. I would not place the ice cream and cake together on a cake stand until after the meringue is applied and toasted, and you are starting your last and final cooling stage before serving. This is my Birthday Cake until further notice.
I want to tell you I love your blog, everything I make turns out amazing! I am going to try making this cake for my husband’s birthday this weekend. However I am wondering if I can do all the steps on Thursday minus the browning of the meringue. Do you think it will keep in the freezer till Saturday?
Hi Deb, I am planning on making this for a friend’s birthday this weekend and I am slightly confused how to transfer the ice cream to the brownie base. Once you get it out of the bowl, how do you flip it over without handling it? Would it work to flip the whole bowl directly onto the brownie and then have someone hold down the plastic wrap while you lift off the bowl?
If you have someone around, absolultely, but remember that you also have the plastic overhang and if I remember correctly, I just held that down and lifted (I had to yank a bit) the bowl off. It’s okay if the bowl shape gets slightly messed up. You can fix/re-mold it with a spatula and of course the meringue hides everything. Enjoy!
Also, I’m assuming the type of alcohol isn’t so important that I can’t use whiskey instead of brandy? Does it impart a taste? Thanks!
You can, the only issue might be color (beige) versus something clear. But it’s really not an issue.
I made this and it was great! I did what another commentator suggested and cut down the sides of the ice cream carton and sliced the ice cream with a knife and layered it in the bowl. There were beautiful layers. I did have to use an extra egg white and almost didn’t have enough, so I must have used a larger bowl. I used whiskey instead of brandy, and it did impart a slight taste, but it was not overpowering. Thanks for the recipe! I would never have tried this otherwise!
I would like to make this Kosher for Passover for a birthday this week. Do you think I could use your “lighter than air chocolate cake” as a base, instead of the brownie base? I’m not sure how the lighter cake will fare in the freezer or whether it will be sturdy enough to hold the ice cream. Thanks! I love your recipes!
I went ahead and tried this, and I would say it worked. I made 1/4 of the lighter-than-air chocolate cake recipe to make one 9″ cake and used that as a base for the Baked Alaska. Because of the weight of the ice cream, the cake layer got squished fairly thin, so I would guess it wasn’t as good as the brownie would be, but it was definitely doable for a flour-free alternative.
Also, I would say this definitely needed more time in the freezer to firm up after the baking step. We served it right away, but the leftovers that got re-frozen served better and looked nicer.
Sorry so late to respond to this comment but great idea! I’m not sure how it would freeze but I don’t think anything bad would happen.
A belated congratulations on turning 10! What I love about smittenkitchen is that not only do you have excellent recipes – you write them with an original voice that is very genuine and relatable. I am 26, married without kids yet, labor & delivery nurse living in New Jersey, and have been following you since 2011ish. Just today, my friends coaxed me into making a baked alaska, which I’ve had down as a bucket list item to bake but haven’t had the guts to do since this recipe was posted. I’m glad they pushed me out of my comfort zone!
1. My brownie got stuck in the pan, likely because I didn’t grease it enough. So I cut it in half and stuck the two halves together. The end result was covered in merengue, so it was okay.
2. The brownie was difficult to cut BUT OH SO WORTH IT.
3. I used Trader Joe’s speculoos ice cream, green tea, and black raspberry gelato. Divine.
4. I chickened out at sticking the whole thing under the 4 minutes and only did 2. It turned out fine, although I might be braver next time and try it for longer.
5. I stuck the whole thing back into the freezer after toasting it under the broiler even though I was serving it right away and flambed it at the table.
Overall, the directions were clear and easy to follow. Will make again!
Oh, you’re the best. For ten years I’ve made the double chocolate layer cake for my boys’ birthdays. My version involves vanilla butter cream with Oreos on top for a cookies and cream style cake. It is a family tradition. Until today when my 15-years-old-tomorrow son asked for Baked Alaska for his birthday dessert! Wait, what? How do I…? Your site is always the first place I look for ideas and once I read this post I remembered it from last year. So thank you Jacob for wanting Baked Alaska last year! The brownie base is brilliant and happens to also be my go to brownie recipe (thank you!), I’ve got eggs and I just sent my husband to the store for ice cream (cookies and cream of course). I can pull this off! Thank you!
I made this tonight for a “cake of fire and ice” while watching the game of thrones finales…thank you, it was easy delicious and thrilled all my guests.
What a fantastic idea! I had to wait a whole extra week to see the finale because I was out of the country but it was so #worthit
I’m not sure how I ended up on this post, but here I am hanging out on the Internet this first fall Saturday morning and my kids are in the other room playing chess and laughing hysterically telling underwear jokes so I’m gonna go ahead and answer your year-old question.
A decade ago I was single mom to the oldest of those said kids. That bitty baby slept all. the. time. Capital-A Alone and with nothing else to do, I managed to stumble upon your Homemade Oreo post and wait what, there are regular people who obsess over tiny kitchen minutiae other than Food Network personalities? Perhaps there are other like-minded folk out there? I fell down a rabbit hole of food blogs, and to this day credit my nap-time immersion in the digital food world as a turning point in my life. Ten years later, and I’m still a bit baffled that people pay me to write about food+family. Who’da thunk it? Thanks, Deb. (We’re on a first name basis, right?)
My favorite thing to cook is some iteration of carbs+mushrooms+cheese because that is my favorite thing to eat. My absolute least favorite kitchen instruction is “finely chop the chocolate” because tedious task plus melty chocolate shards and gah forget this noise I’m sticking with chunks and just waiting longer for it to finally melt.
Love your Baked Alaska recipe. Also your great sense of humour! Fun!
I am going to make it with a white cake base.
So happy that you informed viewers that the meringue can be browned and then put in the freezer. I intend to make it the day before our Christmas party. I wanted it all done so all I have to do is take it out for about 5 minutes and then serve! Not everyone agrees about the freezing part with the meringue already on the ice cream or at least don’t even offer that as an alternative to immediately serving it after covering with that delicious white mounds of fluff!
Question: Is it better to make an Italian or Swiss Meringue where you sort of heat the egg whites (a bit of a bother)! Read that raw egg whites could present a health problem.
Thanks for your reply to my question.
Happy anniversary! To answer your questions –
Who am I? I’m a homeschooling mom of three kids living in Florida, and I’ve been reading SK on and off since I was a know-nothing newlywed in 2009 trying to impress my semi-professional chef husband. What should I be doing right now, eh, probably the never-ending pile of dishes or some work on my computer, but I had a rough day and am soothing myself by looking through your squash recipes. Favorite thing to cook – Kheema from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking. Least favorite – chicken with bones in it. ewwwww. I’m tending more and more towards vegetarian recipes lately which brings me back to soothing myself with your website, looking aspirationally at all these beautiful veggies I could cook and have my children refuse to eat because they’re not plain steamed broccoli or green beans.
The brownies are cooking now. So excited that I found this recipe!
Wow, great. Thnks for sharing the recipe. I haven’t eaten baked Alaska, but Brownies have been favourite every since I tasted first at the Hummingbird bakery in Dubai (http://www.malloftheemirates.com/dining/dining-cafes/the-hummingbird-bakery) I always wanted to bake. I came by this recipe by chance. This brownie looks so delicious and yummy. I will be trying it. But, I would like to know if there is an alternative to Brandy.
I too have tasted at this bakery in Dubai. Wonderful. Thanks.
Made this last night for my husband’s birthday party and it was a HUGE hit!
Suggestion for others – this may be obvious if you’ve made meringues before but you can’t let any fat (butter, oil) or egg yolk get in the meringue. I used the buttered bowl that the ice cream was in (trying to decrease the amount of dishes) and it didn’t thicken the first time. 2nd time with a clean bowl worked like a charm! I used the failed meringue to make some cookies :)
So far I’ve only made the cake and have not made it to the flambeing step, but it’s quite straightforward—except I had to make the brownie twice! You can’t run a knife around the edge of this brownie while warm. It disintegrates. At the second go I made a complete foil sling to lift it cleanly out of the pan. Really good brownie recipe though.
Thank you for posting this Baked Alaska recipe. My son is turning 18. He has never liked any kind of cake, homemade, cheese cakes, strawberry shortcake, angel food cake, ice cream cakes, etc… But he does like brownies.And he likes ice cream. So I thought we could try this for a special occasion. I like that you leave it to the cook to mix and match any kind of ice cream and toppings suit their fancy.
I do have a question. Can I freeze the dessert again even after it has been baked, but before it is served? Or should it be served with a warm meringue? And if we do freeze it first, do you think there is any chance that we can flambe it? I’m wondering if it only flames if the meringue is warm. Thank you
Absolutely. Meringue does not need to be warm and weirdly, the texture directly from the freezer is exactly the same as it is defrosted, i.e. it doesn’t get hard. It flames because of the alcohol, temperature isn’t a factor.
Dear Deb,
I have made it twice but I do have a small problem. I cannot slice the brownie even with my best knife since it gets very hard in the freezer. What do you suggest I do?? I thought of leaving out to defrost but won’t the ice cream melt??
Deb,
I made this for my 5 year old for her birthday today. I am SO glad I came across this recipe. She was so excited, she told everyone at school she was going to have a FLAMING CAKE…
Then she cried the whole time it was burning. It isn’t easy being 5… or 31… :(
It was amazing.
Is your cake plate oven-proof? Especially freezer to 500 degree oven-proof? I had difficulty transferring frozen cake to baking pan then back again to freeze. Not much came off the bottom, but let’s just say it’s not as pretty as when first frosted.
Also, for the meringue, when you say “satiny peaks” initially, is that like a semi-soft peak? Then, “firm peaks” later…I have a semi-rational fear of over-whipping things, and while the meringue seemed pretty thick and glossy, I couldn’t quite get those pretty swirls all over, perhaps because it wasn’t firm enough. Haven’t eaten the cake yet so I can’t attest to the consistency–it’s in the freezer waiting to be flambé-d and eaten after Christmas dinner tonight. Thanks for this awesome recipe! It’s my favorite dessert.
While I don’t think mine is ovenproof to that high of a temperature, I don’t think the plate ever gets that hot, since we’re just doing a quick toasting in the oven, for color. Satiny peaks I think of as a half-steep sooner than firm peaks; I’m with you on the fear, but I don’t think it’s irrational! Too-stiff whites get dry and almost crumbly, and they weep, especially not nice when it’s a meringue topping.
I am looking to make a baked alaska for a dinner party I’m throwing for my birthday this year. I’m planning to do an amaretto meringue for it. Some recipes I have found for baked alaska say to heat the egg whites and sugar over a pot of simmering water while whisking- what are the difference in outcomes if heated or not heated? Did you feel like this meringue held up to the flambe of the alcohol well?
Hi Deb! Making this today, the freezer mash up of ice cream and the brownie base are sitting in my freezer. After the meringue, when you put in oven, does the ice cream melt? Having minor anxiety over the toasting step!
Not after a couple minutes!
Thank you again (for like the thousandth time)! Just made this for my two year olds birthday party (skipped the flambé…because two year old) and it was such a hit! Didn’t have enough baking chocolate in the house for the brownie so used some melted Halloween candy which also worked just fine (busy week at work with no time to go to the store…and also two year old…). Toddler and grown up party guests all adored it and it was so much easier than expected!
Good
Hi, could we cover this with your marshmallow frosting from your ding dong cake instead of the meringue?
Yes, you can. However, they’re really just two approaches to the same thing, i.e. the result should be the same, so just pick the method that’s easier.
I made this for my birthday today. The brownie layer gets really really hard when it’s frozen. It’s usually a cake layer, and now I understand why. Other that that, this was a terrific easy recipe. Plan out your time wisely so everything can freeze. And definitely flambé it. It’s impressive and awesome.
Thanks for your instructions. It was so fun setting a dessert on fire! It makes me wonder why we’ve moved away from that; the 60’s clearly knew how to do it. And something about setting my birthday cake on fire after the events of last week, and 2020, just seems right. Please post more fire desserts!!
I made this and it was a show stopper. I used a full 3quart of each mint choc chip and cookies and cream, flambed and it went really fast. Was easier than most birthday cakes i make since meringue, brownies and storebought ice cream. Warning- was extraordinarily hard to cut- frozen brownies are both delicious and also made of titanium, and given that i put in more ice cream, the meringue was a bit thin- Id double next time.
Hi Deb! My family doesn’t really like chocolate cake (a sin, I know)–do you think a half batch of your brown butter wedding cake recipe would also work here? We’ve been wanting to try both for awhile! Thanks!
Theoretically, but we’d want a cake that tastes good frozen, and that might not be it. I might try a softer cake with oil in it, which doesn’t freeze as hard.
This was absolutely spectacular! I made it with Deb’s chocolate cake recipe (not brownie), and used Cointreau to flambe. For a special occasion I do urge you to try the flambe it looked just amazing, and the burnt off alcohol added another dimension of flavour. The only downside to this dessert was that it melted REALLY fast, so i couldn’t really store any leftovers (it turned into ice cream/meringue soup, which was still tasty though!). So for my family I’m thinking of making mini versions.
An absolute masterpiece! A Baked Alaska isn’t always the easiest to get right, but when it works, your guests will be absolutely mesmerised.
Hello! So late to the party. Have made this kind of sort of but with store-bought chocolate lava cakes as base. They freeze amazingly and are easier to cut into than frozen brownies.
Such perfect timing! My own Jacob will be 25 in a few weeks, and I was just wracking my brain as to a dessert/cake for him! I bake a lot, and have made allll kinds of desserts, but this will be a new one for me! Thank you! Can’t wait to try it!
(Not going to lie, I am a little afraid of the fire, but I showed him your video of your Jacob seeing his baked Alaska, and he said pretty much the same thing, with the same look on his face!)