Put it on Toast. 25 ways to start Thanksgiving.

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.

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

Give the gift of cooking.

Here are a few of my favorite cookbooks ever.  And more than that, they are also my favorite cookbooks to give as gifts.  Each are beautiful to just read and admire the artwork and photos, but also offer unique information, recipes, instruction or skills, that sets them apart from the dozens and dozens and dozens… Continue reading Give the gift of cooking.

Edible Gift Series: Make Your Own Cookie Cutters

I just saw this great tutorial on Instuctables.com on how to make your own cookie cutters. Genius idea.  Particularly for hard-to-shop-for-relatives-with-quirky-interests (you know who you are…).  Make a cutter that suits them, whip up a batch of cookies, bundle up said cookies, and tie their custom cutter on top with a big shiny bow for… Continue reading Edible Gift Series: Make Your Own Cookie Cutters

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding

With homemade vanilla extract on my mind (and growing increasingly darker on my counter), I have found myself craving homespun desserts of yore.  It is certainly this time of year too; our new pine-y tree perfuming the house has me tearing through files of stained recipe cards trying to recreate tins of cookies of my… Continue reading Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding

Edible Gift Series: Homemade Vanilla Extract

There is little that will get me running to the kitchen faster than reading about a new (or most of the time, quite old) culinary trick to produce a food or ingredient that I had never thought about making by hand.  Food and Wine magazine has a great feature this month on the Best Handmade… Continue reading Edible Gift Series: Homemade Vanilla Extract