These cookies are easy to put together, and the colorful glaze can be as easy or painterly as you want. 

8 oz unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Use butter right from the refrigerator- cut it into smallish squares and toss in to a mixer bowl. Add the sugar and mix until the butter is lighter in color and fluffy. This can take 3 or 4 minutes, depending on your mixer. Add the yolks, vanilla and salt, mix in well. Add the flour all at once and slowly mix in. Scrape the dough out onto a floured surface and roll 1/4 inch thick. If the dough is too sticky to cut out shapes well, refrigerate the rolled out dough for a couple of minutes. Bake the cut outs for 12 minutes at 350F.

To make these allergy friendly, you can use Bob's Red Mill 1 To 1 Gluten Free flour, and/or Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer (2 Tablespoons + 4 Tablespoons water). For a totally vegan version, use Miyoko's Vegan butter, too!

Other options- add 1 Tablespoon matcha powder, or 1 Tablespoon Dutch process cocoa

for the glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons milk (dairy free works)
2 or 3 drops of vanilla extract or essential oil

Stir together in a small bowl. Divide into smaller portions for various colors. Gel coloring works best. 
Drizzle the colors together on a plate and dip the cookies in for a swirled effect. You can also spoon the glaze over the cookies. If you want to add sprinkles or sparkle sugar, do it before the glaze hardens. The glaze will fully harden in a couple of hours. 

If there was ever a time to break out your totally under-used grating disk, this is is. Forget trying to pulse cauliflower in your food processor with the "S-blade"! You'll end up with a paste at the bottom and uneven pieces of chopped cauliflower. Remember those big chunks of frozen fruit you used to get in your Jamba smoothies? Same thing. Use the grater and you'll get evenly cut cauliflower that will cook properly. A huge plus is that you can do a whole head without stopping to empty and scrape down the bowl! 

As long as you've dragged the processor out of storage, do a couple of heads. Put the grated cauliflower 'rice' in a couple of zip top bags and freeze flat. Your weeknight dinner will thank you some day.

How about a perfectly soft-boiled, soy marinated egg to upgrade your ramen? 

I'll admit to keeping some instant ramen in the cupboard for that proverbial rainy day. If you are feeling more creative, you can buy some fresh ramen noodles to keep on hand and create your own bowl- like these. But no matter how cheffy and creative you are feeling with your ramen, instant or not, an egg makes the bowl complete!

Start by following my procedure in the blog post below, but only steam the eggs for 7 minutes. Take care when you peel them- since they will have a "jammy" soft yolk, they will be more squishy and easier to break. 

Make the basic marinade for the eggs in a quart jar: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup mirin and 1/4 cup water. I like to add a bit of additional flavor- so I add 1 tablespoon chili garlic paste and 1 teaspoon white miso. Create your own "special blend"- try gochujang, or even a bit of tahini for a twist on tradition. Place the peeled soft boiled eggs in the marinade and keep in the fridge. The salt in the soy sauce will make the eggs tough if left too long. The eggs will be flavorful after about 12 hours, and I'd recommend no longer than 3 days in the marinade to keep the eggs from getting rubbery. 
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I have committment issues when it comes to keeping a journal. No matter how much I enjoy going back and reading my old entries, finding the time to write every day is hard. Even at work- lots of chefs have these cool looking Moleskine bound journals full of amazing findings and daily notes-- I neglect to put my thoughts on paper. (I did make some cool drawings back when I used to stage all over town-- maybe I'll get around to posting some.) So, no surprise that I have a hard time getting my blog to be a functional communication tool!

But recently, several people have told me I should keep writing. It all started with a Facebook post on how to make hard 'boiled' eggs that peel easily.

I made the post because the prior year, some of my friends who celebrate Passover were struggling with peeling all of those eggs for a big seder dinner. If you think deviled eggs are a challenge-- try peeling several dozen eggs that will sit whole in front of hungry people during a long ceremonial dinner, and not try to feel judged! I had a job that involved making cute deviled egg hors d'oeuvres every evening at a posh hotel. My friends asked for my tricks.

The solution is don't boil them-- steam your hard 'boiled' eggs! There is science behind that, and years of restaurant steam-oven experience-- but don't worry about the details, just try it. Steamer baskets are cheap, and you can get them in almost any grocery store utensil aisle.

Put water in a pan (just enough to skim the bottom of the steamer). Bring to a boil. Put the steamer in, add eggs, set the timer for 13 minutes. Cover the pan, and turn the heat down a bit-- you should still see steam coming out from the crack, but you don't want to boil the pan dry.

While you are waiting, prepare a bowl with ice and water. When the timer rings, use tongs to transfer the eggs to the ice water. Boom! Easy to peel eggs! No matter how fresh the eggs are- no matter what the phase of the moon is- no more pitted peeled eggs. Gently tap them all over on a flat surface. If you have trouble with a bit of shell, or getting the shell to start pulling away- put the egg under running tap water. The gentle force of the water will help to get things started.

Last but not least--- 13 minutes will give you a nicely cooked yolk with no nasty green sulfur edge. Don't forget to set the timer!

Food Dreams. I have them all the time. Sometimes, the main components of a dish just keep coming up in my thoughts, or in what I am reading until I am forced to go in the kitchen and make them real. I had that experience with scallops and smoked butter sauce this spring, and last week, I had an obsession with pimento cheese.

What do you dream about??

Roasted beets with pea puree, pea shoots and walnut vinaigrette. The colors are great! Walnut vinaigrette is a great match for the earthy flavor of beets-- winter food meets spring on this plate. My garden is bursting with tender pea shoots.

Roasted peppers need contact with the flame! Don't be afraid to put them right on your burner- or on the grill outside. Let them get completely blackened- they will not only be easier to peel, but the pepper flesh will be cooked, and take on the smokey flavor that well-roasted peppers should have. At the end of summer, peppers are a great deal at the farmer's market and produce stands. You can roast several pounds, and save the left overs covered in olive oil in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. To store them longer, see my favorite recipe from Elise at Simply Recipes: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/marinated_roasted_red_bell_peppers/

"Coca" is translated as pizza or tart, but is really neither- the dough is yeasted, like pizza- but much richer, with lots of oil and egg. I adapted a recipe from Saveur magazine for the coca above-- just one of a endless variety of toppings.
http://www.saveur.com/mallorcan-red-pepper-tart-fabio-trabocchi