http://www.purelyrandom.com Cooking, Eating and Living in Pittsburgh Sun, 22 Apr 2007 23:20:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Let me start by asserting that Prantl's Bakery in Shadyside has amazing chocolate chip cookies. When I was in grad school, the ECE Department was ordering an assortment of Prantl's treats to inspire grad students to attend a weekly seminar (I believe they still are). I'm a little ashamed to ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2007/04/22/a-chocolate-chip-cookie-success-finally I enjoy yogurt. Being a bit of a health geek (okay, a lot of a health geek), I'm partial to the plain yogurt—typically low fat. In fact, every morning, I start my day by enjoying a little plain yogurt with something crunchy sprinkled on top. Sometimes it's Grape Nuts, sometimes ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2007/04/02/do-not-stir-yogurt One of the more enjoyable side-effects of my recent foray into the realm of baking has been sufficient motivation and experience to churn out a fresh-baked batch of scones with minimal effort. Tonight was my second attempt at scones, and this time I mixed it up a little bit, turning ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2007/03/12/raisin-walnut-scones Yesterday marked an exciting day in the life of Mike Beattie: I made my first trip to the Saturday Cafe at Enrico Biscott. As you my have gathered from my previous effusion, I hold Enrico's in high regard. The Saturday Cafe is an opportunity to experience some of their excitingly ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2007/02/15/enricos-saturday-cafe About 4 months ago, I fell in love with the concept of baking my own bread. Why? It all started with the bread baking "class" from the Enrico Biscotti Company. In just a single-session introduction, I didn't learn all the intricacies of bread, nor was I able to actually reproduce ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2007/02/13/enricos-bread-class This weekend, I'm going to attend PodCamp Pittsburgh. I only heard about the event on NPR while driving home from work yesterday, but it's exactly what I've been looking for lately. PodCamp falls into the genre of the un-conference. These are a big deal in the Silicon Valley and aim ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2006/11/10/podcamp-pittsburgh Have you ever watched a cooking show and thought, "I could do that if I had someone measure out all my ingredients and set them on the counter in little dishes for me." Yes? Then you need to start using prep dishes. You may not have someone to fill them ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2006/10/30/tools-prep-dishes The more people that end up being invited to a dinner party, the less manageable that party becomes. It's inevitable: as you invite more people, the amount of food required grows. Even the variety of food required expands as guests with what I'll call "limited flavor tolerances" become involved. The ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2006/10/22/manageable-dinner-parties Let me step away from the traditional breakfast post for just a moment: today, I'm going to talk about a coffee shop. Realize that I'm a novice coffee drinker at best, but I find that there's a lot of opportunity for variety in that world, and I'd love to become ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2006/10/18/cafe-intermezzo I'm a big fan of tea. I'm sure that's at least partially inspired by my mother, who so frequently has a hot cup of tea in front of her that my first words were, "hot tea!" So, of course, when I came into contact with Wick's and Beans at some ... http://www.purelyrandom.com/2006/09/12/margarets-fine-imports