One day you wake up and you look around you and you think “I can’t do this.” You break the bonds of many years and say no. People are upset. They are angry. You are alone. You drink too much. You play word games in the middle of the night and a friend in London or Texas asks you why you are up. Your cat sleeps on your stomach and his warmth is the closest thing you have to a human touch. But you keep on. You work on changing yourself. Learn to say no and learn to say yes. Learn to listen. Learn to ask about other’s feelings and to talk about yours. Don’t react. ...
BANANA BREAD LIKE MAMA USED TO MAKE
It has taken me some time, and I have eaten a lot of banana bread, but I have finally come up with a recipe that produces a loaf like my mother used to make. It is moist and rich with the flavor of banana, studded with good sized chunks of apricot and a faint bite from pecans. It was a childhood treat and a grown-up’s memory until my sister told me she thought the recipe came from the Joy of Cooking. My mother’s edition of The Joy Cooking would have been a very old one. The original was published in 1931 and, while my mother may not have had the first edition, she would ...
MUSHROOM BOLOGNESE SAUCE — BROWN FOOD TASTES GOOD
Mushrooms, carrots and onions come together in a delicious vegetarian Mushroom Bolognese Sauce which proves the saying that "Brown food tastes good." It just doesn't photograph well! I watch a lot of cooking shows and one of my favorites is “The Worst Cooks In America”. In this show Chef Anne Burrell takes a group of people, who hide their feelings about not being able to cook behind jokes and ridiculous (sometimes outrageous) behavior, and she turns them into decent home chefs. As their cooking gets better, they drop a lot of the façade and become increasing involved in learning a craft. I ...
JANUARY DUMP COOKIES
I don’t know about you but I am sweeping the remains of this January out! Cold, snowy, disease ridden, oh-my-god-will-covid-never-be done-with-us-January is history. And in celebration I went through my cupboard and made some cookies out of every remnant I could find of the previous month. They started with my Murray cookie recipe and ended up somewhere in the next stratosphere. I dumped January into a bowl and sweetened it up. Two fats: butter for flavor and Crisco (vegetable shortening) for texture. Two sugars: brown sugar gives depth and cane sugar gives a little extra ...
VEGETARIAN CHILI: WHO NEEDS MEAT?
A Rich, Satisfying Vegetarian Chili made with Beans, Corn, and Tomatoes Two weeks into my vegetarian experiment, I have learned a few things. Namely there is a difference between eating the occasional meat free meal (pasta with fresh tomato sauce, cheese omelets for example) and making a day-to-day commitment to it. It involves cooking. It’s easy to throw some chicken in the oven or a chop on the grill, but vegetarianism done properly involves combining proteins in order to get all the nutrients you need. In the same way that one learns which flavors work well when combined with ...
SCONES FOR JANUARY
It’s the first week of January and my cupboard is full of the detritus of holiday baking. Miscellaneous bags of dried fruit vie for space with walnuts and pecans. Spice mixes prepared for mincemeat and plum pudding need to be used up as they will not last until next December. In my fridge I have buttermilk and cream crammed in next to an absurd number of eggs. What to do with this mess? I opt for scones. Scones are the British cousin to a biscuit. Unlike muffins or quick bread, they have a gravitas to them. Slightly dense and crumbly, they suit the cold, dark days of January. The ...
BRING ON THE HOLIDAYS! CRANBERRY CHOCOLATE TART
I'm taking a break but I couldn't leave you without a fabulous dessert for the Holidays. I posted this blog last year and will be making it again this year. Tart from cranberries, rich with chocolate and lovely to look at, it's a sure winner! It’s November 29th, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My tree is up and decorated. The outdoor lights are on. My house smells like cinnamon and pine. For the first time in my life I bought my Christmas tree before Thanksgiving and decorated it on Thanksgiving Day. I went for a walk this evening. The glow of lights on many of the houses and ...
FRENCH 84’s: ALMOND, STRAWBERRY AND TOFFEE COOKIES
Inspired by a walk through the markets of Paris in the Spring of 1984, these thin cookies snap when bitten revealing an interior filled with the flavors of almond, strawberry and toffee. Thanksgiving 2021 was very special at my house. All three of my daughters were present, each with a lovely baby boy born this year. And as if that weren’t special enough, we were also joined by my middle daughter’s British in-laws who were seeing them for the first time since 2019. Gratitude was definitely on the table! It was such a treat to be able to feed all of them and host them at my ...
PRALINE PUMKPIN PIE
Every Thanksgiving I find myself faced with people who actively want a pumpkin pie. And every Thanksgiving I search for a way to make it better because I’m not a big fan of pumpkin pie. Last year I experimented with a homemade squash puree. It was good but not, to my mind, memorable. This year I decided to use some of the skills I learned in my Master Class with Christina Tosi; specifically, how to test a number of options and flavors without having to make four or five different pies. I combed through cookbooks and magazine for suggestion then refined the ideas into ...
WHY YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A FRUITCAKE THIS YEAR
I hear you. Fruitcake is awful. It's a hard rock of weirdly colored candied fruits which doesn't taste much like fruit. In addition, most commercial fruitcakes are sickeningly sweet. No one wants to make that! But what if it wasn't? What if fruitcake was a joyous celebration of dried fruits: pineapple, golden raisins, cranberries, along with pecans, candied ginger and delicate candied peel? What if the cake was moistened with apple brandy, heady with the taste of fall? Would you make it then? Gather your fruits and nuts in a bowl and toss them together. If you like a bit more ...
