TermiNatetor Kitchen

11.21.2016

Brandy, Pear & Buckwheat Pound Cake + a Spiced Pear Brandy Sidecar

Hello, friend.

Thanksgiving is just a few days away. In my last post I talked all about what to make for the perfect holiday feast, everything from the sides, to the entrée, and even the dessert. Though I forgot one VERY important part of any great gathering: the cocktail! But fear not, I have swooped in to save the day with another cocktail + dessert pairing using another mixer from Powell & Mahoney. With autumn slowly coming to an end I wanted to highlight the seasonality of one of its great fruits, the Bosc pear. I also wanting to snag the chance at baking with/drink some brandy (because it’s my favorite of any hard liquor. So good!). The holidays are a hectic, crazy, stressful, but ultimately fun time of year me. Plus, with final exams in the next couple of weeks, I think I'm in need of a cake and cocktail break. Who here is up for that??

How to host an Egg-cellent Thanksgiving dinner: four recipes + a whole lot of egg puns

For Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, or any other holiday gathering you might be hosting, don’t fret because this dinner party master post has got you covered. I’ve teamed up with Eggland’s Best to bring you a simple, easy, and delicious holiday spread. I’m not egg-aggerating here, these recipes are tasty! Included are savory sides such as ‘rosemary biscuits with spiced butternut squash butter’, ‘deviled eggs with honeyed jalapenos’, and ‘herb butter stuffing’. The main event is a ‘lemon thyme hay-roasted chicken’, and for dessert is a ‘pumpkin & brown butter cheesecake with candied bourbon pecans’. The holidays never tasted so good!

Warning: This post contains an exuberant amount of egg puns. Enjoy :)

Hello, friends.

It’s less than a week until Thanksgiving. Are you ready?! When you’re reading this, I will have already left my apartment and will be at my parent's home for the holiday break. I’m pretty excited for this time off. I am in need of a break from higher education. Senior year has been a rigorous semester so far, but I’m making it through. With final exams just around the corner, I’m looking forward to this period of rejuvenation before hitting the books for the final home stretch. For me, thanksgiving break always means two very important things: No classes and a whole lot of baking! Weeks before the holiday gathering, Momma Crawford and I will sit down and brainstorm recipe ideas for the festive dinner. We think of ways to reimagine traditional side dishes or create healthy dessert alternatives that will still taste delicious. It’s always so much fun planning and prepping the Thanksgiving dinner menu with her. Lots of laughs and cups of coffee are shared. But this year, Eggland’s Best reached out to me and challenged me to create a thanksgiving/Friendsgiving dinner all by myself. You can say I was pretty egg-cited to accept this challenge.

Chocolate & Cold Brew Coffee Croissant Buns

Hello, friends.

Little known fact: I love croissants! They’re just the better-looking older sibling of the yeast dough family. A warm croissant with a thin layer of butter, a cup of coffee, and a good book, and you have my idea of paradise (or a perfect Sunday afternoon). With Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks, I have teamed with Califia Farms to bring you a sweet, chocolatey treat which is just the thing to get you through the holiday's emotionally sane. I’m talking about two things: coffee and chocolate. If you follow my Instagram, you know that I am obsessed with coffee. So, when Califia asked me to develop a recipe with their Black Label Cold Brew, my imagination started racing with possibilities and I knew I needed to get back in the kitchen ASAP. Originally for this recipe, I set out to make a savory ‘cold brew coffee croissant’, adding the cold brew into the dough, with an expresso chocolate butter as a sweet element on the side, but the first batch of croissants sadly failed. Feeling bad about myself, I tightened my apron, did some research, and went back into the kitchen for take number two. I decided that I wanted to create a hybrid between croissants and Eva’s chocolate swirled brioche buns because too much chocolate is never a bad thing, right?!

Dutch Apple Pie Cookies with a Caramel Apple Glaze | #TheMagicofTea

Dutch Apple Pie Cookies with a Caramel-Apple Glaze | TermiNatetor Kitchen

Hello, friend.

Halloween is over and November is in full swing! The days are colder and the nights are longer. During this time of year when I’m not spending my time in class or in the library studying, I can be found baking my little heart out in my tiny apartment kitchen. There is something therapeutic about coming home after a long day of school, out from the biting autumn winds of Illinois, and just baking my feelings. After I am all said and done, I take a deep sigh, brew myself a steaming cup of tea, sit down at my desk and proceed to go on a photo editing binge, the sounds of smooth jazz acoustics playing softly in the background.

As I've gotten older, tea has become one of those drinks that has ever so quickly grown on me. Coffee has always had my heart (or at least since freshman year of college when I started drinking it), but there is something so powerful about the calming, floral flavors that tea provides. It's this which has recently gotten my hooked, the warm brew trickling down my throat with each savored sip. Tea reminds of late night study sessions at my or my friend's apartments, our laughter proceeded late into the evening. Happy memories and funny moments, all over a cup of tea, and more specifically, Celestial Seasonings tea.

Blackberry, Blueberry & Honey Lattice Pie + a Blackberry Honey Basil Julep

Blackberry, Blueberry & Honey Lattice Pie + A Blackberry Basil Honey Julep | TermiNatetor Kitchen

One bite of this blackberry, blueberry, & honey lattice pie and I was immediately transported to the holidays back at home. The crust is warm, buttery, and flaky while the filling is the perfect mixture of sweet and tart. The berry filling has a secret ingredient, a splash of Powell & Mahoney’s Blackberry Basil Mixer, which gives the filling an herbal and aromatic sense of depth and flavor. The honey adds a subtle warmth and sweetness to the contrast of the tart berries, reminding me of the berry pies my Grandma Cooley would make every holiday gathering.

Hello, friend.

With every recipe, I learn something new I hadn’t known before. That is something I most love about working with food. Each recipe is a new beginning, a new story to be told. Every ingredient plays an integral part in creating the overall feeling or emotion of the meal. It’s a powerful sensation. So, what did I learn with this recipe? Well quite simply: Lattice pies are freaking hard to master! This was my second attempt at making this pie. During the first attempt, I made three mistakes: 1). I made the cocktail BEFORE I started baking, 2). I forgot to add the cold water at the right time (must have been a strong cocktail!) which left me with a tough and crumbly dough, and 3). I ran out of tin foil and I didn’t have any pie guards. Long story short there, I burnt the edges of the crust to a charcoal colored crisp and the lattice weave was slightly tacky and doughy. Tis was a sad day for sure. I took a moment to feel sorry for myself before tightening up my apron once more and heading back into the kitchen for trial number two.

Whole Wheat, Pumpkin & Brown Sugar Brioche {w/th Lime and Cilantro}

Produce from First Farms Homestead // TermiNatetor Kitchen

Whole Wheat Pumpkin & Brown Sugar Brioche | TermiNatetor Kitchen

Hello, friend.

This recipe for whole wheat pumpkin & brown sugar brioche has been a freaking journey in the making, let me just tell you. I have been actively developing this recipe and its variants for little over a week now. Failed attempt after failed attempt has left me disheartened and run-down. Thankfully, I was able to break away from my bread making disasters and spend a few days in Fort Wayne for the Breadsense summit. Getting out of dodge and spending time away from my kitchen, with the trashcan of faulty bread attempts beginning to overflow, helped inspire my creativity and boost my confidence to get back in there and finish developing the dang recipe. With my bag of Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Graham flour in hand, I started on my bread baking adventure. Eight days and four attempts later, I finally produce a loaf worthy of the blogosphere!

Update: I was invited by Erin from Cloudy Kitchen to be apart of Sara's and Aimee's #VitrualPumpkinParty. Essentially, it's a big group of food bloggers from around the world coming together and collaborating by sharing recipes for all things pumpkin. How cool is that?! I thought it was only fitting that I would share this particular recipe for the occasion! When you're done reading this post, be sure to check out some of the other incredibly talented bloggers from the list at the end of this post. Tell them TK sent you!

Hummingbird Cake with a Goat Cheese & Chamomile Tea Frosting

Hello, friend

Hummingbird Cake is a Southern classic, and rightfully so. This is an incredible cake. I adapted from the original cream cheese frosting recipe by making a creamy goat cheese & crème fraiche frosting infused with chamomile tea to add a decadent yet subtle compliment to the rich, moist, tenderness of the cake.

I apologize for the late posting. I’ve been out of town all weekend attending the Breadsense summit for Aunt Millie’s in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which was a complete success! It was my first time at Aunt Millie’s, so it was exciting being able to meet all the creators, marketers, and individuals involved with the Breadsense program. We toured the Aunt Millie’s plant, talked about audience and market segmentation, and even got to play with puppets. All I can say is that there are some exciting new things coming in 2017 that I cannot wait to share with all of you. Plus, on my way back home, I got to stop in Indianapolis and have lunch of Lauren (of the Saveur-nominated food blog Harvest and Honey), which was absolutely delightful! We ate at this adorable little brunch café Eggshell Bistro, which was outstanding, to say the least. Over cups of coffee, we talked about all things blogging, food, and photography. We gawked over our favorite bloggers as we chowed down on plates of shakshuka and rosemary & ham tarts. It was so wonderful being able to meet a fellow blogger who is just a stone's throw away regionally. Being able to connect with other content creators like Lauren makes me appreciate this little food community even more than ever.

Bourbon & Buttermilk Biscuit Apple Cobbler {w/th The Macadames}

Bourbon & Buttermilk Biscuit Apple Cobbler || TermiNatetor Kitchen

HEY! Hey, you. Yes, you. I have a quick thing to share with you before you continue reading. First of all, this post is in collaboration with Anisa of The Macadames. With her living Australia and me here in the states, my fall is just beginning while hers is ending. We decided to bridge the gap and make some delicious recipes using the seasons favorite; apples. After you’re done reading this post, head over to her site for a delicious baked apple recipe, which wink, wink looks to die to for! But firsts, this post. This post is a bit different from the traditional blog posts I write. To be frank, I hate writing blog posts and I need a change of pace. A few weeks ago, I had the idea to combine my love of fiction writing and food writing, and this is what came about. My thought for this is to write short little scenes involving the recipes I’m posting about. I hope to capture the art of culinary storytelling even further by creating my own stories. Disclaimer: these are far from Pulitzer Prize-winning pieces or anything, so take it for what it is, a young man’s fictitious anthology of food.

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A photo posted by Nathaniel Crawford (@terminatetor) on Sep 2, 2016 at 9:45am PDT

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11.21.2016

Brandy, Pear & Buckwheat Pound Cake + a Spiced Pear Brandy Sidecar

11.18.2016

How to host an Egg-cellent Thanksgiving dinner: four recipes + a whole lot of egg puns

11.12.2016

Chocolate & Cold Brew Coffee Croissant Buns

11.05.2016

Dutch Apple Pie Cookies with a Caramel Apple Glaze | #TheMagicofTea

10.21.2016

Blackberry, Blueberry & Honey Lattice Pie + a Blackberry Honey Basil Julep

10.14.2016

Whole Wheat, Pumpkin & Brown Sugar Brioche {w/th Lime and Cilantro}

10.03.2016

Hummingbird Cake with a Goat Cheese & Chamomile Tea Frosting

9.23.2016

Bourbon & Buttermilk Biscuit Apple Cobbler {w/th The Macadames}