Knish Me, I'm Jewish

by EP & X

Last weekend we were invited to attend a special event all about knishes.  Yes, this is the glamorous life of food bloggers.  The event was called "Knish History 101: Life and Times of the Knish" and it was held at the Jewish Museum of Maryland as part of their "Chosen Food" exhibit.

Salad Days

by Xani


I never thought I would do two posts on salad. Thought I said it all in the first one. After all, its just salad. We talked dressing, we talked greens, what's left??   Well, another year of salads has allowed me to discover a few more salad secrets. The biggest one is an adjustment in technique for my life-changing vinaigrette master recipe. Want to know how to make dressing one time but have a different flavor every night of the week?  Read on....

Black Coffee and a Facebook

by EP

This past weekend we had an absolutely amazing Mother's Day meal to celebrate our wonderful Mom - and we'll be blogging about that soon!  But, importantly, Mother's Day also is our blog-iversary - we started the little dog and pony show that is BCD by blogging about our Mother's Day feast of 2007.  Yes - May 14, 2007, 5 years ago today.  Can you believe it?!  We certainly can't.

See how far our photography and writing style have come by reliving our first post.

We want to thank all of our friends, family, and other hungry folks trolling the Internet for reading - it means so much to us!  In celebration (?), we have started a Facebook fan page, so please LIKE us on FB and show your true food blog allegiance: http://www.facebook.com/BlackCoffeeAndADonut

Our original logo!  Coming to swag near you...

We've got a few good posts in the queue for you, and maybe, just maybe, some sort of anniversary celebration with GIVE-AWAYS!  Said give-aways may or may not be edible...let's just say we're still in the development phase.

Thank you again, and happy eating to all!

EP & X

Just passing through? A guide to Baltimore eats.

by EP & X


Just passing through Baltimore and looking for something good to eat?  Or a local looking for some new places to try? We've put together this list of great Baltimore eats, some of which you may have heard of or seen on Food Network/Cooking Channel, and some of which you may have no clue about.  That's where we come in: let us be your guide to Charm City noms!

Below is a hodge-podge list of places to check out, ranging from low-brow street food to high-end local and sustainable cuisine.  The list is by no means exclusive and we should probably plan to do a Part II for all the great places we're forgetting.  But until then, check out this list, grab a fork, and get ready to dive into Baltimore's finest eats:

Adventures in Metuchen, NJ: Bodega Blondies

by EP & X


Pimm's Cups and Lauren welcome us to Metuchen, NJ!
Clearly, we are thrilled.

Long-time readers may recall that the BCD girls love them some NYC.  Until recently, we used to go every couple of months, check out the hot new places to eat, see friends and family, drink fancy cocktails, crash in a fancy hotel (or on our best buddy Lauren's Brooklyn couch - either option was tres glamorous), and have a whirlwind Manhattan experience.

Our last visit was in Summer '11 and it was high time for us to visit the NY metropolitan area.  But, instead of actually going into NYC, we instead hung out in Metuchen, NJ.  On purpose.  Yes, folks, we wanted a lounge-y vacation and while NYC is lovely for so many reasons, lounging is not really its forte.  Thusly and forthwith, we went to New Jersey to hang out with Lauren, catch up on all the news (aka gossip), eat pizza and banana cream pie, and watch a heck of a lot of movies.  Oh, and BAKE!

The SHOW Must Go On...

by  EP

BIG NEWS!  We have been invited to participate in a live variety show called SHOW Baltimore!  The event is this Wednesday, March 7 from 7-9 at the Wind Up Space in Baltimore (North Ave area, right across the way from Joe Squared Pizza....mmm).  There is no charge to get in, but if you want to come, save your lunch money for booze - there's a bar and we encourage you to use it.

Here's the snazzy poster for the event:

And here's a blog post by one of the producers, which gives more info on the other acts: http://mobtownblues.com/2012/02/29/show-2-coming-up-on-march-7/

We are so honored and excited for the opportunity to talk a little bit about our blog (which is almost 5 YEARS old if you can believe it) and give some entertaining tips. 

There may or may not be sweet treats for audience members...I can reveal nothing.

Cheers to a great SHOW,
EP & X

Is that a baby in my cake or are you just happy to see me?

by EP & X

Xani and I have been cooking for a long time.  Almost our entire lives.  And we feel pretty confident in our ability to pick a great recipe (or make one up), execute it, navigate around any snafus, and serve it with a smile.  In recent years, we have delved more deeply into the more complicated but arguably more glamorous cousin of cooking: baking.  Xani has been baking breads a lot recently (remember her birthday brunch??), but I am more of a cookie girl.  Give me a party and I'll give you some cookies/bars/treats of some sort.  Maybe this is the only reason I get invited to parties...?

As you might recall, a few weeks ago it was Mardi Gras down in New Orleans, for which we have a great affinity.  I told Xani I wanted to make a King Cake, the traditional sweet danish-like cake associated with Mardi Gras, as a baking adventure.  In truth, I had never had a homemade, authentic King Cake myself - I had only had crappy grocery store versions when I was visiting the New Orleans area to do post-Katrina rebuilding projects.  I wanted a taste of New Orleans and I figured we could handle the semi-complicated task.

Chicago Noms, Part 1: A Girl, A Goat, and 22 Bottles

by EP

At the end of January, 15 people came together in Chicago - yes, Chicago in January - to celebrate a special friend's 30th birthday.  That friend is my dear friend from college, Craig, who you might remember from such posts as this and this.  I was so pleased and honored to be invited to this event, a "destination" birthday party in a fabulous city with an amazing and flourishing food scene.  I had been to Chicago once before back in '04 for a chilly "spring break" road trip from St. Louis, but I was eager to get back and check out the city and the food I'd heard so much about (mostly from Twitter and Xani's various visits).

I will be blogging soon about my other eats with another buddy, Alex, but this post is dedicated to the fabulous meal and overall experience we had at Girl and the Goat, the brainchild of Chef Stephanie Izard, Top Chef Season 3 winner.*