Every Thanksgiving (or most, anyway), I attempt a new side dish. There are so many, and, as I’ve heard recently, as much fuss as people make of the turkey, the Thanksgiving meal is really about the sides. I love the “auditioning” of a potential new favorite…in the past, this has […]
I have a long history with scones — and a good one. One of my first entries for this blog was about the first scone I ever made (see entry of September 2010), and I took the scone name for my blog from a play on a certain “scornful†phrase. […]
[I] began taking comfort in crackers early. We always had a big box (or two) of saltines in the cupboard, the pale, salty little squares ever-constant companions to soups and chili. But I made them my own snack, more than anything. Sometimes plain, but often spread with butter and jam, […]
[I]t was long ago when I first ran across a recipe for “Welsh rarebit†or “Welsh rabbit,†as it is sometimes called. As a girl who studied cookbooks, I couldn’t have been that old, but I was certainly intrigued and excited by a melty cheese sauce dish that was named […]
[R]ecipes can come from surprising sources. The backs of boxes or packages, coupon inserts, obscure Internet sites and offbeat cookbooks. If you had told me even a year ago that, upon seeing a copy of “The Disney Princess Cookbook,†(2013) I had gotten for my nieces that I would have […]
[I]’ve long been obsessed with cream puffs. I learned to make them as a child, watching my mother and then whipping them up myself. It’s a strange process, puff-making, strange in its doing and even stranger in its simplicity. I continue to be baffled that the same ingredients, cooked in […]
[I] believe in good recipes, ,those tried-and-true reliables we turn to when we want something we know we can count on. I have a few of these now in the cornbread realm, but, I’ll be honest, when it comes to cornbread, I’m always open to a new variation or version. […]
“Food is not fuel. It is not nutrition. It is fun, educational, horizon expanding, delightful. It is consoling, transporting and a comfort. If you want a happy eater, run a happy kitchen. These things take time, but so do all good things.†— Laurie Colwin, “More Home Cooking: A Writer […]
[T]here are some folks who just get the job done. Others say they will do this or that, and don’t — they simply collapse back on themselves, and just thinking about the thing they aim to do tires them. Then there are people like Glen Lamontagne, who charge ahead tirelessly, […]
[M]ove over peanut butter and jelly. Apples and cheese go together almost as well, maybe even better. I’ve long revered this pairing, whether on a simple fruit and cheese board, or a melted wedge of golden cheddar atop warm apple pie. It just works…the cold, tart, crisp sweetness of the […]