I like to cook with color any time of year, but especially during Christmas holidays. Red and green food is festive and delicious. Have a Christmas cookie! Christmas Shortbread To the shortbread and linzer cookie dough I write about elsewhere in this book, add 3/4 cup (3.5 ounces) finely chopped pistachios and 3/4 cup (4.25…
Category: Desserts
After the Feast
Thanksgiving is over, and it was good. We started the morning with Pumpkin Scones, served with a little cinnamon butter on the side. These were tender and delicious, and I’ll make them again. (Note for next time: try freezing the unbaked wedges overnight, and adjust the baking time accordingly. Might hold their shape a little…
Halloween 2014 Wrap-Up
Halloween is a Big Deal in my neighborhood. I bought 30 pounds of chocolate candy last week and prayed it would be enough for an expected 350-400 trick-or-treaters. And I prayed harder as temptation caused the chocoholics in my household (in other words, everybody) to dip into the supply again and again. Pretty soon, 27…
Magic Chocolate Frosting
It was a week of unintended consequences. I loaned my daughter my car, and her sweet cat peed and pooped in it. I made cookies jammed with expensive ingredients (gluten-free flour, dried cherries, chunks of good-quality bittersweet chocolate, large coconut flakes), but the pepitas also called for turned out to be tough and stale and…
Bakewell Tart
I should have been looking at street signs on that summer day in Spitalfields, London, but my attention was diverted by the treasure in my hand: a generous slice of the best Bakewell tart I’d ever tasted. I broke off bits to eat as I strolled. A triangle of pastry holding frangipane and a thin…
Lemon Cake 2.0
I made two loaf-sized lemon cakes yesterday, requiring lemons galore. Juice and zest permeate every aspect of the recipe, from batter to hot syrup to sugar glaze, with tangy, tender, delicious results. A day later, the cake is nearly all gone. So now I have a lemon cake situation, because my craving for the stuff…
Cheesecake with a walnut crust
August 20, 1964 – Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho Today is the 50th anniversary of my third birthday. Birthday cakes are the subject of intense consideration in my family, always homemade unless the cook has a doctor’s note, and always of a type and flavor chosen by the guest of honor. I wear two…
Mea Culpa Cookies
I got a haircut a few weeks ago. Sitting in a pneumatic chair, draped in a cape, I had a good view of the salon’s centerpiece, a circular settee crowned with a large, elaborate flower arrangement. I asked my hair stylist, a stylish and pretty young mother, how often her salon’s fancy flower arrangement was…
Birthday Cake
I’m a big fan of back-of-the-box recipes, and not just those on food products. My favorite baking pans come wrapped in cardboard sleeves that each feature a recipe using that particular pan, and every one has been a keeper. When Last born said she wanted a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for her recent…
Christmas and the Non-Chocolate Offering
I can’t have been the only person in America balancing a ham on my hip on Christmas Day, reliving a memory. With a little imagination, ignoring the refrigerator chill, an 11-pound smoked ham feels a lot like a bundled baby. I took a few steps between the stove and sink and stove again, fully immersed…
Cookbook Wall 