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 […]
The Fourth of July has always had even my reclusive nature upended, getting into the spirit of potlucks and family or community gatherings. For the last several years, I’ve trotted out some dessert recipes with Independence Day flair and ventured out of my house for a neighborhood potluck, resplendently held […]
Sometimes I make scones for special occasions. Sometimes the scones — and their accompaniments — are special occasions. The month of May, as well as a good dose of “Downton Abbey,†had kept teatime heavily on my mind and on my radar, although I’m never very far from scones and […]
Not long ago, I looked up and another year at my blog — and in my life — had passed. We’d taken another 365 1/4 days of a circular trip around the sun. It was hard to believe I’d been at the blog for nine years and going on my […]
Self-reflection — in life, in recipes — can be an inspiring thing. I sometimes feel very unoriginal, one of those gals who has always colored inside the lines and followed other people’s recipes. I’m very capable of coming up with my own concepts and witticisms, and I definitely trust my […]
[O]ccasionally (well, perhaps more often than occasionally), I become mesmerized by little cooking videos on the Internet. You know the ones, where an overhead camera view captures the step-by-step process (often sped up to keep the video short) that makes whatever is being made look like a snap. Maybe sometimes […]
[E]very year, I get a kick out of the parade of homemade Halloween treats in magazines, on websites and blog posts. From the most creative (cupcakes topped with “skeletons†made of yogurt pretzels and marshmallows) to the least (a full-sized fake plastic skeleton whose ribcage was merely loaded with sausages […]
[W]hen I was a kid, I had all the cool chores. I got to shell the peas, gathered to the brim of a bottomless five-gallon paint bucket. I got to guard the rows of cabbages with a swatter, set to strike down any moths fluttering along. I got to lie […]
[I]t seems like every summer I become fixed on a particular fruit. In the past, it’s been strawberries, blueberries or cherries. I’ve been fanatic for apricots and peaches. This year, it’s been “plummy,†as the deeply jeweled and juicy fruit began appearing in my mind before it ever arrived on […]
“The Heart wants what it wants, “ poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “– or else it does not care.†[M]y heart, or at least the scones I made into hearts, wanted jam, and who was I to deny them? Scones and jam have gone together since the clocks could strike three […]