Just before Thanksgiving, I decided to make one of my favorite cakes, Giada De Laurentiis's orange-ricotta pound cake, substituting oil for the butter. It worked beautifully and best of all, the cake materialized in one bowl very quickly. This made me wonder which other cakes made with butter ...
2018 Gift Guide
What do they say: better late than never? Per usual, I have gotten this gift guide out well later than I had hoped, but should you need any last-minute inspiration, here you go. As always, I am happy to send along a free inscribed "toast" bookplate and a "toaster" notecard to anyone you wish to ...
15 Festive Cookies to Make and Take This Holiday Season
'Tis the season! What can I say, Rebecca Firth's The Cookie Book and its stamped spiced brown butter muscovado sugar cookies have gotten me in the Christmas spirit. Here are 15 cookies — actually 16! — to make and take this holiday season. Happy Baking, Friends! 1. Classic Cream Cheese ...
Stamped Christmas Cookies: Brown Butter Muscovado
When it comes to cookies, I shy away from anything that looks too complicated, anything that might require a piping bag or a frosting tip, anything with ornate detail. But when I saw a photo of an embossed sugar cookie, lightly glazed, looking like a frosted snowflake in Rebecca Firth's The Cookie ...
Saffron-Carrot Soup with Toasted Almond Dukkah
In preparation for my chat with Margaret Roach last week, I made as many dishes as I could from as many of the fall 2018 cookbooks I could get my hands on. One of the first recipes I tested came from the almond chapter of Cal Peternell's Almonds, Anchovies, and Pancetta, and I must say, in the wake ...
12 Days of Cookbooks (!!!) — Chatting About The Season’s New Books with Margaret Roach
♬♬♬ It's the most wonderful time of the year... ♬♬♬ I hum this to myself a lot: When my first CSA arrives in June. When the first good tomatoes all but fall of the vine in early September. When snowflakes the size of golf balls drop from the sky. AND, most of all, when it's time to talk about ...
Apple Orchard Muffins
I haven't made a muffin in ages, and truthfully, muffin recipes rarely call my name anymore. But this "Apple Orchard" muffin, from the Red Truck Bakery cookbook, sounded too good not to make immediately. For one, the recipe calls for all of my favorite ingredients: oil (as opposed to butter), ...
Sister Pie’s Salted Maple Pie
Hi Friends. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm still typing up my after-action report, but in the meantime I wanted to share with you a recipe for Sister Pie's salted maple pie, a perfect fall dessert, a salty-sweet, custardy treat that received rave reviews this past ...
Franny’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Manchego & Toasted Almonds
A few weeks ago, I found myself at the library with Ella looking for yet another Calvin and Hobbes book. Once I found it, I ducked around the corner to the cookbook section for a quick peek and spotted Franny's, a cookbook I did not know existed. I learned about Franny's, a restaurant in ...
Thanksgiving 2018
Friends! One week + one day till Thanksgiving. Are you ready? Are you hosting? I'm hosting a smallish gathering of 9 adults and 8 children. I can't wait. Menu: Thanksgiving 2018 • Philadelphia Fish House Punch (my favorite, what I look forward to most) • Alice Waters's Potato Gratin (my second ...
Favorite All-Purpose Pie Dough Recipe {Video} + 5 Pies and Tarts I Use it For
Friends, Thanksgiving is one week away. Let's review: Dough Making, Pie Baking No matter which pie dough recipe you use, the principles of making it will be the same: keep the ingredients cold, cold, cold. Purists will say that making a pie dough in the food processor is a no-no, but I find it ...
My Favorite Holiday-Preparation Trick
Note: This is NOT a sponsored post. Just a fan of this particular Prosecco. I sampled Lamberti Prosecco at the Niskayuna Wine Store one Friday afternoon last fall and immediately bought a couple of bottles. A few weeks later, I had the brilliant idea of buying a case of it to get the ...
18 Favorite Fall Chicken Recipes (Weeknight-ish)
Hello from Memphis! Some of you know Alexandra's Kitchen was nominated for a Saveur Blog Award in the weeknight cooking category. It was a complete surprise and even more of a surprise to learn last night that Alexandra's Kitchen won the Editors' Choice Award. I can't thank you all enough for ...
9 Favorite Fall Pasta Recipes (Weeknight-ish)
I am a wimp with cold weather. As soon as I feel a chill in the air, I find myself walking around the house clad head-to-toe in winter gear: hat, fleece-lined leggings, slippers, and all. I also find myself craving pasta. Here are a few of my seasonal favorites. And while I love all of them, if ...
12 Favorite Vegetarian Dinners (Weeknight-ish)
As you know, I am not a vegetarian, but as I get older, I find myself drawn more and more to vegetarian meals. Below are twelve of my favorites, regardless of the season, though many are especially good this time of year as well as throughout the winter. PS: 18 Favorite Chicken Recipes PPS: 9 ...