PANTRY

Poaching pears, cranberries for a festive pie

[E]very year I try to try out at least one new pie recipe at Thanksgiving. Despite all our warm weather fresh ripe fruits and berries really laying the groundwork for summer to be the season of pie, it is the Thanksgiving holiday, like no other, where pies are the star […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Making whoopie pies with pumpkin

[F]or those of us with limited experience — eating or baking — whoopie pies, we may wonder what all the fuss is about. Sure, they look terribly inviting — plump-soft cookie-cakes sealed together with a creamy filling…a whole lot to love. I had perhaps resisted in making them because they […]

Fulfilling an apple dumpling destiny

[W]hy do we prolong the things we want most? I’ve read that fear keeps us at bay from fulfilling the dreams we desire most intensely, and that being fearful of the thing is proof that it is the thing we should be doing. [I] don’t know that I have been […]

Baked Sunday Mornings: Marveling a Marble Bundt Cake

[M]arble cake offers the best of both worlds, well, at least the best of both flavors — vanilla and chocolate cake batters are swirled together to bring two favorite tastes in one. I confess it’s been a long time since I’ve marbled anything — cake or otherwise. I do believe […]

Pleasing the plum palate

[I]s it possible I’ve been hypnotized by a fruit? If so, it is the plum that has seduced me, once again. Fortunately — or not, really — the season is woefully short, but during it, I find myself drawn, again and again, to the stunning array of plums, pluots and […]

Harvesting late-summer creativity with ratatouille

[I]f you’ve never seen the movie “Ratatouille,” you should. And if you’ve never made the vegetable dish that, in part, inspired the film’s name, you should go there, too. Both exemplify the best of what I love about art, cooking and creativity and the hope inspired in one’s passions. Both […]