Help! Thanksgiving is 72 hours away and while you have been dog-earing cookbooks for weeks, shopped the weekend before, and even managed to avoid the elbow to your shoulder by the feisty octogenarian who was going to in NO WAY let you have the store’s last quart of whipping cream (this actually happened to me… Continue reading Put it on Toast. 25 ways to start Thanksgiving.
Category: Holidays
Four Fantastic Thanksgiving Hors d’Oeuvres
I have a really lovely huge piece in the current issue of the beautiful Green Door Magazine. It is on hors d’oeuvres for Thanksgiving and fall gatherings–including southeast asian pickled shrimp, turnip soup, mini endive salads, and stuffed fresh figs. Issues can be purchased online, in either print or digital, and some of my food… Continue reading Four Fantastic Thanksgiving Hors d’Oeuvres
Little Neck Clams with White Wine Cream Sauce
Here is an elegant meal or appetizer, that takes not more than minutes to whip up. Warm, rich and creamy, it is a great recipe to keep in mind for winter holidays. Serve it with crusty bread for soaking up the outrageously good sauce left behind, or serve the whole thing over pasta for a… Continue reading Little Neck Clams with White Wine Cream Sauce
Technique Tuesday: How to Clean Clams
Not just for summer fetes on the beach, clams and other bivalves are a spectacular, and traditional, addition to the holiday table, and perhaps even more importantly, the holiday cocktail hour. A few critical steps can help insure a grit-free mouthful, and will dramatically reduce your chances of getting that one bad clam. Buying Buying… Continue reading Technique Tuesday: How to Clean Clams
Pumpkin Seed Brittle
If you are going to rot your teeth out with sweets on this Halloween, why not do it with a sweet, savory, nutty, homemade confection, that also makes use of the often discarded remnants of jack-o-lantern carving?? There are many recipes for pumpkin seed brittle out there, but most use the raw, hulled seeds (or… Continue reading Pumpkin Seed Brittle
Pumpkins: More than a pretty face.
Dame Paula Deen, amid mass fan hysteria (hysteria!), posing next to a pumpkin of her likeness (and Cat Cora’s) at the Food Network festival at Chelsea Market a few years back. We were completely unsuspecting shoppers, caught, literally, in the swell. (Not unlike that terrified-looking couple coming out of the fish market behind her.) I… Continue reading Pumpkins: More than a pretty face.
Buttermilk Honey Wheat English Muffins
I don’t know about you, but I am a tad worn out from all of the high-spirited holidays that have been crammed into the calendar as of late. Earth Day, Easter, Passover, National Eggs Benedict Day (I wish I was kidding), Arbor Day, May Day, Cinco De Mayo, and even a wedding of the… Continue reading Buttermilk Honey Wheat English Muffins
Homemade Irish Cream
Kiss me! I’m nearly 1/4 Irish! The tradition of enjoying a “drop of the hard stuff” on St. Patrick’s Day is an old custom known as Pota Phadraig or Patrick’s Pot. The legend goes that St. Patrick taught a stingy innkeeper a lesson, when served a less than generous portion of whiskey. He threatened the innkeeper,… Continue reading Homemade Irish Cream
Homemade Infused Vodka and Spirits
The flavored vodka market appears to have exploded in the past few years. On a recent trip to the spirits shop, there were shelves upon shelves of vodkas in all imaginable flavors. Whipped cream, bacon, and sweet tea were new ones that caught my eye, but not quite my wallet. Infusing alcohols is an ancient… Continue reading Homemade Infused Vodka and Spirits
Breakfast for your Valentine
I remember the first year freshdirect.com was operating they offered a somewhat genius valentine’s day package. It was something along the lines of ready-to-cook surf and turf, fixings for chocolate fondue, a bottle of bubbly, and then parbaked croissants and orange juice for breakfast the next morning. One click, and you look like an exceedingly… Continue reading Breakfast for your Valentine
Bittersweet Chocolate Souffle
This little love letter in a ramekin is the perfect way to say “I love you enough to learn what stiff peaks are” on Valentine’s Day. And in actuality, the ratio of difficulty to wow-factor is absolutely in your favor. Have you had a chocolate souffle? Have you made your own chocolate souffle? Have you… Continue reading Bittersweet Chocolate Souffle
Flavored Salt
In honor of last week’s National Popcorn Day, I’ve done some tinkering in the kitchen with flavorings. My favorite project was coming up with different flavored salts. It is outrageous that I haven’t done this sooner, and even more outrageous the number of super costly little precious jars of flavored finishing salts that I have sitting… Continue reading Flavored Salt