A post-holiday visit over a cup of tea

January 16, 2012

It’s been a while since we talked, and since then the holidays have come and gone. Whew. Can’t believe how fast that always happens.

In all the hubbub, I didn’t get a chance to wish you a merry Christmas, or Hanukkah or kwanza, or a happy New Year. Which is not so much a reflection on how much I wish you all those things as a reflection of how quickly they all got by me.

So how about the next best thing – a post-holiday visit over a cup of (virtual) tea?

Trendy twists for the holidays

December 15, 2011

It’s the same every year. I want to make the nostalgic holiday foods that the season inspires, yet I also want to branch out, jazz things up, and enjoy dishes other than the same-old, same-old.

According to the National Pork Board, I’m not alone. Their recent “Holiday Table Trends” survey revealed that, while tradition is important, it’s continuing to take a back seat in holiday cooking. The survey went on to identify six food trends for the season – and not too coincidentally, they asked me to develop a recipe to celebrate each of them.

Great Cookbooks for Holiday Gifts

December 6, 2011

Welcome to my virtual holiday potluck. Well, not my virtual holiday potluck, but our virtual potluck—meaning you, me, and a bunch of my cookbook author pals.

The idea is, to help celebrate and promote each others’ books, we each write about another’s book , including a recipe and links to all the others’ posts. So you get to virtually experience a potluck of recipes and, perhaps, become inspired to add one (or more) of our books to your holiday gift list.

Cool, eh?

The hows and whys of brining, take two

November 15, 2011

Last year’s Thanksgiving post was about the hows and whys of brining. But it was a video. A seven-minute video. So I doubt you watched it.

My bad.

I don’t doubt, however, that brining will make a huge difference in your Thanksgiving turkey. So I thought I’d ‘splain it again, but in a way that doesn’t take seven minutes of your time. Promise.

Yay for Chardonnay

November 8, 2011

Chardonnay is kind of the Coke of wines. It’s popular. It’s easy to drink. And it goes with a lot of great foods.

That popularity, however, has led some to look down on Chardonnay. I think the logic is that if it’s that popular, it couldn’t possibly be cool.

The great pumpkin!

October 24, 2011

One of the easiest ways to make your cooking festive is to use it to celebrate what’s in season – serve asparagus in the springtime, tomatoes in the summer, and citrus in the winter.

To me, nothing says fall like pumpkin. And it’s delicious in so many dishes, savory and sweet. Pumpkin also comes in several different forms, giving you plenty of opportunities to include it in your fall cooking.

Perfect pairings for fall favorites

October 19, 2011

Brrr.

There’s a chill in the air. And the lighter, brighter foods of summer – salads, summer veggies, grilled chicken – are giving way to the heavier and more intense foods of fall – earthy vegetables, soups and stews, roasts and braises. You might even be starting to crave Thanksgiving dinner.

Some really cool treats, in plenty of time for Halloween

October 12, 2011

I want to tell you about a really cool gig I had, which led me to discover some really cool treats that I think you’ll enjoy knowing about.

Last January, I was hired by Cooking Light magazine to help with their annual Taste Test Awards. My job was to nominate five artisanal food products from the northwest, which basically meant that I got to contact the northwest’s best specialty food producers, ask them to send samples of their products, taste them, and pick my favorites.

How fun is that, right?

Belated New Year’s wishes – and Nana’s honey cake

October 5, 2011

Truth is, I don’t do a very good job acknowledging any of the Jewish holidays. I grew up celebrating only the basic few and after my grandparents died, even that pretty much faded away.

Writing last week’s post about my grandmother’s pickled green tomatoes, though, combined with Rosh Hashanah items in the news and on some of my favorite blogs (like this one by my friend Jennie Schacht, author of “Farmers’ Market Desserts”) got me to thinking about holidays at Nana’s table.

Fall project: Preserve something

September 28, 2011

I know I can’t keep time from marching on, nor can I stop summer from turning into fall. But I can make the flavors of summer last all year long. And you can, too. By preserving them.

It’s no special trick. Cooks have been salting, curing, brining, fermenting, canning, jamming, freezing, and drying foods for eons. Home preserving sort of fell out of favor for a while there – mid-century cooks newly had people like Del Monte to can their tomatoes, so why not let them? – but today we know that no Del Monte tomato will ever taste as good as ones from your own back yard.