Theme for the evening: fabulous friends, a film about Julia, and food from Julia. Recently I hosted 13 fabulous women at a Julia Child-themed dinner party. Everyone invited was asked to bring a dish from a Julia Child cookbook that had meaning for them and share why they had chosen it. We started the evening by watching…
This is a lovely fall/winter salad to enjoy when the air turns chilly and the fall walnut harvest has arrived in the market. I crave it when the air turns cool and make it over and over throughout the winter months. Mache, also known as lamb’s lettuce or corn salad, is a small, soft, silken…
In a perfect world, I would always have freshly made stock on hand in my fridge. But in reality I sometimes run out of fresh stock, and so I keep a variety of fill-ins of commercially available products. Here are the products I use and how I use them.
A good stock is a wonderful thing. It provides a lovely foundation and a flavorful, savory enrichment for dishes. On its own, properly seasoned, it forms the basis of delicious soups. I use a lot of stock in my cooking and, whenever possible, I always like to have some homemade stock on hand. I make…
Growing up, my family made only one kind of cookie at Christmas time: cut-out Christmas cookies. MM and I continue the tradition today. This year, by the time we’re done, we’ll have made five batches to eat and give away. Our list of friends and family with whom we share these cookies seems to grow every year! Cut-out cookies take…
We didn’t host Thanksgiving dinner this year, so I didn’t have any turkey leftovers the following day. With only one day of turkey feasting under my belt, I found I was wanting more, so I cooked a turkey breast this past weekend to fulfill my craving. The first night we enjoyed a very straightforward dinner…
Another Thanksgiving favorite of mine is cranberry sauce. I’ve loved it since childhood. However, I have to admit that what I loved in childhood was the canned, jellied kind, which seemed almost magical. My mom would open both ends of the can and then push it out one end. There it would sit on the serving…
This is it: turkey day is approaching. Plenty of cooks who manage very well all year panic when Thanksgiving approaches. How do you cook the perfect turkey? What is stuffing, anyway? Yikes, gravy! How do you make that? I’ve received a request from my sister-in-law DD to help her and the many other anxious cooks out there. So,…
We had our first hard frost last night. Just as the sun was setting I snuck out to the backyard to salvage any last frost-fragile offerings from my garden. I found several sweet peppers: some ripe and red, a couple in transition from green to red, and a few others still green. There were a number…
This recipe was another request. My sister-in-law, DD, compiles a great cookbook every so often that’s comprised of recipes contributed by family and friends. She’s working on the third edition and wanted me to contribute my recipe for Shrimp Butter. The premise of her book is that all of the recipes are very easy, tried and…