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?

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.

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.

6 delicious ways to enjoy tomatoes

September 2, 2011

At my house, this is the time of year when you’re not allowed to eat a meal that doesn’t include tomatoes. We usually have so many, we can barely keep up with them. Here’s how I’m liking them best:

Rootin’ tootin’ Zinfandel

August 24, 2011

As the window on summer begins to close, I’m craving barbecue. I guess I’m wanting my fill before it gets too cool to grill. And with barbecue cravings come Zinfandel cravings – it is most definitely a wine for all manner of smoky, grilled, charred meats.

How to pick a perfect peach

August 17, 2011

Over the weekend I taught a cooking class at Ramekins featuring stone fruits. The students asked me how to pick good fruit, including peaches, and so in the interest of eating a lot of good peaches while they’re still in season, I thought I’d share my answer with you.

Homemade ice cream, part three: Experiments with cherry ice cream with chocolate chips

August 9, 2011

It all started when I saw an online recipe for cherry ice cream with chocolate chips, one of my most favorite flavors. The recipe involved steeping milk with fresh cherries, then pureeing the mixture, then adding cream. This made the ice cream “base” which then got cooled and processed in an ice cream maker, with chocolate chips stirred in at the end.
Right away, I was suspicious.