We started talking at work about what we make for Easter supper, and three people on the staff said they always make this Pineapple Bake recipe from the Silver Palate cookbook. It’s especially delicious with ham! Megan, our new food writer, says she even adds bourbon. That sounds like a… Read More →
Baking with Sam! I like making little sweets for Samantha. I don’t mind that she has a little sugar now and then, especially if it’s something I’ve made at home and I know exactly what went into it. This coconut tea cake is a great example. Sure, it has sugar… Read More →
“Bringing Up Bebe,” a book about French childrearing by an American living abroad, has its controversies. Is Pamela Druckerman, the author, making sweeping statements about a culture she barely understands? Or is she a keen observer of a phenomenon that families living in it are too close to it to… Read More →
Dorie Greenspan’s Baking book is a real treasure. Take this little gem, for instance, which gets its name from her friend Ingela’s mother, who used to “claim that you could start making it when you saw guests coming up the road and have it ready by the time they were… Read More →
I promised on my Pinterest page: I will make this Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake recipe! Here it is. Not hard at all and well worth the 20 minutes it took. Sam even helped. Related posts: Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies Recipe: Orange-Olive Oil Pound Cake With Thyme Recipe: Scallops with Orange… Read More →
What a sweet winter treat. With all the Red Cooper grapefruit we’ve been eating — and drinking — I took a cue from Irene and candied some of the peel. What a way to make the citrus season last even longer! Irene’s recipe is to boil the peels in water,… Read More →
I’m a huge fan of Dorie Greenspan’s recipes. So when I came across one that sounded just perfect for this Christmas — do-ahead but still festive — I jumped. Her Honey-Spiced Madeleines, found in Around My French Table, also have just the right lovely warm spices to make you think… Read More →
You’d never expect to find great food in a strip mall near the railroad tracks in Blauvelt. But there you have it. At Lanie Lou’s, they roast their own turkey, bake their own bread and make desserts from scratch. And it shows. The food is just terrific. Simple, but terrific…. Read More →
SCF fans might say, “What? Another plum tart recipe? The one from Ina Garten isn’t good enough?” Well, indeed it is. But like any curious cook, sometime we like to see what else is out there. Some people might call this philandering. I like to say we’re expanding our horizons…. Read More →
This fancy lemon tart with a surprise layer of chocolate hiding beneath its sheen has become somewhat of a tradition at Easter dinner. It’s just so darn festive, isn’t it? The original recipe, from Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Suppers at Lucques, calls for Meyer lemon juice, but since we so rarely… Read More →
Pâte Sucrée is a sweet, short — that is, it doesn’t rise — pastry that’s buttery, flaky and a little brittle — perfect for filling with custards and meringues. It’s nice to use as a base for fresh fruit with a little whipped cream, but I use it most for… Read More →
Just in case my Boozy Orange-Vanilla Flan was a failure, I wanted a back-up dessert to take to Irene’s Seder. I came across this recipe for Decadent Fudge Brownies on Epicurious, and Wow. Wow is it easy, wow is it delicious. It would be great even if you weren’t avoiding… Read More →
I wonder, really, if there’s anything I love the taste more of than burnt sugar. I think the first time I realized this — besides my many instances with packaged caramels and cotton candy — was at age 11 at Tavern on the Green, when, in an otherwise horrific meal… Read More →
So we had a lovely little dessert the other night at the Ranch: “Peggy’s Pound Cake.” I loved the texture, and the flavor had just a little extra oomph that I found really livened it up. I posted about it, naturally. The post went over to Facebook, where Jim —… Read More →
I think I must have a thing for baking pastel vasco in January. I did it last year almost to the day! It’s a recipe from one of favorite books, “Sunday Suppers at Lucques,” and it’s kind of like a really buttery pound cake with fruit in the middle —… Read More →
We have Meredith to thank for introducing us to this great recipe for baba au rhum. It was a cold New Year’s Day weekend at Michael’s in 2008-9, where we made cassoulet and watched movies and baked. All weekend. After the cassoulet, Meredith served this baba au rhum, which she… Read More →
This December, I worked with a chef at the Culinary Institute of America to put together a holiday cookie article. He came up with the recipes, and we asked for variations on those. So with three basic doughs, you ended up with more than 15 different cookies. Rugelach was one… Read More →
These are very easy and fast to put together. The recipe comes from Martha Stewart, and it’s really tasty. I skimped on the cayenne, afraid some people would find them too spicy. Don’t. It barely registered. You need the full amount. Related posts: Recipe: Chocolate Toffee Cookies Roasted Chestnut Cookies Recipe:… Read More →
I have found a gold standard for crisps: a nutty, dark topping with plenty of oats and nuts, and a snappy, bright filling with lemon and ginger. I just love the contrasts of both tastes — high notes of lemon and ginger, a baseline of brown sugar and walnuts and… Read More →
The first blueberry cobbler I did this summer was completely made from our own blueberries. Of course that one was the best; not even the farmers market berries taste as good as ones you grow yourself. But this recipe is so good you could use storebought berries and it would… Read More →
I got a bee in my bonnet about having some creme fraiche ice cream to go with all the good fruit and pies we’ve been having, and that’s not something they have in the freezer aisle at the store. So I got out my eggs, cream, milk, sugar and, yes,… Read More →