Around the end of May, my usual love and admiration for all things corn amped up a bit. I mean, I’ll put corn in anything, but I took it to an extra corny level as corn season approached, exploring recipes related to my favorite vegetable. Working ahead on my column […]
Sometimes, all the planets (or ingredients and time of the year) align in order to make the right recipe. I was recently thumbing through my original favorite scone book, “Biscuits and Scones,†(Clarkson N. Potter; 1988) by Elizabeth Alston. You would think I had made every recipe in the book, […]
My first snickerdoodle was given to me by a primary schoolmate, not much older than I. The cookie was pale golden perfection, much like its baker, who was, despite her young years, full of enviable poise, confidence and beauty (who later in high school became, of course, quite popular, a […]
There are many mystery recipes in my mom’s little cedar recipe box. The sources of many of the handwritten cards remain unnamed, although I know that if my mom took the time to write down a recipe, it came from someone. More than that mystery, I don’t have a firm […]
During the last year or so, new kinds of gardens began appearing all over food social media. These garden-scapes have continued to grow and blossom, many of them becoming beautiful works of art. They are all edible…and their foundation? A bed of delicious, moist, dimpled, oily and flavorful focaccia, a […]
Lemon bars bring up good memories…they were among the first treats I ever prepared and took to share with others. I was a freshman in high school, in Latin class (yes, Latin…do they teach it anymore?), and since we were (surprisingly) a small group, we often got permission to bring […]
One would assume my April making of Strawberry Banana Muffins came out of a seasonal bent. Strawberries, though found year-round, are often on the docket of spring-to-summer baking projects, coming into prominence as early as April in California. But, to be honest, my muffins came almost completely from a need […]
For me, the whole “back-of-the-bunny†(aka “bunny buttâ€) concept came early, at the kitchen table in marathon Easter egg coloring sessions the day before the big bunny arrived. We had our cups and bowls full of Paas egg dye and crayons to create the wax designs on some of the […]
Hamantaschen, another cookie with Jewish heritage, also falls into the “cookie pastry†category. I would dare say that these little tri-cornered pockets, filled with preserves or homemade fillings, almost seem of their own type of “cookie tart†and could find their place rightfully in that role on any teatime table. […]
Rugelach — little bites of buttery, cream cheese dough rolled up with fillings (jam, fruits, chocolate and nuts) into crescent-like swirls and baked to a golden brown — fall somewhere between a cookie and a pastry. I was excited to run across the term “pastry cookie†recently in my rugelach […]