The Hungry Mouse

Years ago now, I used to hang around a little cafe that a friend of mine owned. One day, she charged me with keeping an eye on a couple of cakes that were in the oven. Easy as pie (err, cake), right? The batter was made. I just had to yank them out when they were ready. "Sure thing," I chirped....

Hello, Willy Wonka! Making candy is just delightful. There's no two ways about it. And making marshmallows? From scratch? That's downright magical. I mean, take a handful of regular old ingredients through a few very simple steps, and...presto! Marshmallows. I've done this dozens of times over the years, and it never fails to amaze me. Homemade gifts with heart Pack up some homemade marshmallows with...

We woke up to more snow this weekend. It put me in serious cooking mode, so The Angry Chef dug out the car and intrepidly made his way to McKinnon's, our local butcher shop. He came home with a couple of bags, including a package of gorgeous beef short ribs. I quickly set about preparing them in one of my favorite cold-weather...

Fried ravioli! These are so yummy, it's almost ridiculous. They're oh-so-crispy on the outside, and oozing with creamy, molten cheese on the inside. Start with fresh ravioli. (Frozen will work, too. Just thaw them completely in the fridge first.) For this recipe, I used a four-cheese ravioli made locally. Use any quality ravioli that you like. Nowadays, you can find all...

This is fast food, Mouse House style. We eat a lot of rice. It's almost always our starch of choice over pasta. This rice is bursting with fresh spinach flavor. It's salty, garlicky, and laced with a heavenly amount of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. And hey, with a little bit of fresh garlic and all that spinach, it's *almost* health food. Spinach...

In keeping with our mission to save a few pennies this year—and help you guys do the same—here are 2 fabulous deals I spotted this morning on Amazon.com. Both of these pans retail for $80, are on sale for $29.99 (that's $50 off!). Not bad, especially since they're made by Cuisinart and are constructed from heavy-duty 18/10 stainless steel. Both...

We're in serious winter hibernation mode at The Mouse House. Baking bread. Roasting meat. Flouncing about in all manners of fleecy attire. The whole happy and delicious nine yards. Since the last storm, Boston is basically frozen over. The snow's long been shoveled, but it's still too cold for it to melt. It's just hardened into miniature glaciers all over...

We're kicking off our Basic Cooking series with a toast! (The makings of a toast, to be more precise.) Simple syrup is gloriously useful stuff. It's one of the building blocks of many cocktails—from classic to contemporary—and, really, it couldn't get any simpler to make. Also known as "sugar syrup," "simple sugar syrup," and "bar syrup," it's quite literally sugar water....

Technically, this is half-a-pound cake, since it only uses about a half-a-pound of each of the key ingredients. (Pound cake gets its name from the pound each of butter, sugar, and flour originally used to make it.) However you slice it, though, this cake is moist, dense, rich, and buttery. I prefer mine plain with a cup or two of strong...

When you start with fabulously fresh ingredients, it's easy to make a delicious meal in no time flat. The main thing to know about cod is that you don't want to overcook it. (Don't worry, I'll explain how.) For this dish, fresh cod is coated in rubbed sage, salt, and white pepper, then browned quickly in a mixture of buttery...