Back to school. Back to craziness. With this sweltering heat, the last thing you might want to do is cook, but as I crave some crisp fall days, I can at least write about how to make that task easier and of course enjoyable. We all have our shortcuts in the kitchen. Maybe it's using some prepared ...
Kitchen Chronicles
Lemon Chips from Nuts.com
I'm a chip fiend -- cinnamon, chocolate, butterscotch, white chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, jammy bits -- you name it. So when I found out from one of my students who works at Nuts.com that lemon chips existed, I have to say I was beyond excited. I know, it's amazing that a chip can have such a ...
Zucchini Blossom and Ribbon Summer Salad
I've written much about the sudden and mysterious ways inspiration will strike. Whether it's the taste of something exotic or a new use for the mundane, you never know when or how it might happen but suddenly it will. Working full time, going through the process of a divorce and a big move, I ...
Pumpkin and More Pumpkin
You better like pumpkin or you're in big trouble. Pumpkin is everywhere! Cereal, cookies, cakes, breads, muffins, breakfast treats, ice-cream, Oreos -- It's the flavor of the year! Maybe even the flavor of the century! It seems like there's been a pumpkin explosion in the aisles of every ...
Apple Upside Down Muffins
With a reprieve from the summer heat, I welcome the fall season with open arms. It's apple picking season! For some reason, I never get tired of walking through the apple orchards with my kids, finding trees chock-full apples is like looking for the next clue in a scavenger hunt. Once you get there, ...
Vintage Canning Cone Sieve Colander Strainer Wood Masher Rolling Pin Pestle
Sometimes something from the past deserves a reinvention for a new time. Take this vintage cone sieve with wood masher which finishes your tomato sauce better than any sieve with a hand crank. I used it this afternoon to get the most puree out of the remaining seeds and skins which were leftover ...
Blueberry Cake with Lemon Glaze
This blueberry cake recipe is for Debbie and of course all of you! During our massive cooking date last week, the grease was splattering, pots of water boiling and the mixer was whirling as Debbie and I made Maryland crab cakes (the real stuff), blueberry cake (with Jersey berries) and a large vat ...
Farm Fresh Tomato Sauce
It's that time of year when I've always got a pot of sauce simmering on the stove. This past week, I made farm fresh tomato sauce three times. One batch for a bunch of hungry teens, another to break in my friend Debbie's new kitchen and another batch for the freezer. I've got the process down to ...
Creamy Corn Empanadas
Another fabulous freezer friendly (say that three times!) use for sweet summer corn, these crispy Corn Empanadas are filled with a blend of flavors which place corn on the pedestal it deserves. I love to stuff ingredients into some kind of wrapper -- dumplings, spring rolls and empanadas are my ...
Notes from Vacation: Fabulous Figs
Wild, verdant, growing through sand and wind swept hills, perched on rugged cliff ledges and gathered in fields; all bearing bell shaped fruit, plump and ripening amidst a saturating sun. Mature trees, with caterpillar green leaves larger than a grown man's hands, offering fruit to a cloudless azure ...