Category Archives: Eating or Cooking

The Holiday Table (Recipes and Photos)

Posted on December 7, 2006 | Leave a comment

It’s 7:30 on Christmas Eve. Grandma and I have already made the Christmas cookies. She watched over me earlier in the week as I lightly rolled the date balls, still warm from the oven, in a thin layer of confectioner’s sugar on the counter top.

The almond crescent cookies took me a few Christmases to master, but on this particular year I had gotten the hang of shaping them without handling them too much. If you heat the dough up with your fingers too often, the dough hardens and the cookies become both hard and brittle. Continue reading →

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Pork Medallions in Cranberry Chutney (Recipe post)

Posted on October 5, 2006 | Leave a comment

If you do not like pork because you’re one of those people who has “texture issues,” or because a piece of pork truly traumatized you at some point in your life, you can skip this one.

On the other hand, if you don’t like pork because every time your mom made you pork chops growing up, they turned out like black bricks of death and you had to smother them in ketchup just to make it to dessert, well then this is for you. My friend “Jennamafer” falls into this latter group and came to my place for dinner a couple weeks ago. When I told her what I was making, she said, “I don’t like pork.” Now she likey. Continue reading →

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We still have pancakes. (Recipe post)

Posted on September 3, 2006 | Leave a comment

For those of you who recommended movies for me for my sick day yesterday, I watched “Like Water for Chocolate,” and “Big Fish,” on Saturday. I liked them both, but I’m kind of pissed because “Big Fish” made me cry. Yesterday, I made cherry-vanilla pancakes and watched “You, Me and Everyone We Know.” It’s about the connections between neighbors and the greater community. Great movie. I give it two pancakes up.

The pancake recipe is below this here photo. Yes, my pathological obsession with pink continues. And yes, I used honey instead of maple syrup, despite the fact that the streets where I live are lined with Maple trees. Continue reading →

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Tastes So Good, You’ll Want the Recipe (Plus Pics)

Posted on July 10, 2006 | Leave a comment

I awoke Sunday morning to a lovely predicament. I hadn’t yet given any thought as to what dish I would bring to my dear friend’s wedding shower that afternoon.

Now, I’m not going to lie to you or make any attempt to be humble here. I f-ing rock in the kitchen. I am the person you look forward to having at your parties because you know I’m going to bring something unexpected and awesome. Usually, I start planning a mini-feast the second I open an invitation. Continue reading →

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Secret Passions and a Quick Fix

Posted on May 31, 2006 | Leave a comment

This is just a quick hit of things that have been turning me on or giving me a bit of amusement lately.

I am thisclose to being diagnosed with a clinical obsession with food and cooking. Obsessed. In a previous professional incarnation, I was a restaurant critic for a major newspaper. It gives me great joy to walk into restaurants I now frequent and see reviews I’ve written framed on the wall.

In addition to watching more food-related TV than is reasonable or healthy, I read about food, cooking equipment and techniques voraciously. I adore Alton Brown and the Iron Chef. I consider Giada de Laurentiis a personal friend. I own “Cupboard Love” (a “dictionary of culinary curiousities”) by Mark Morton, “How to Peel a Peach,” by Perla Meyers, a few of the “Best Food Writing” annual anthologies and subscribe to Gourmet Magazine. Continue reading →

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