Category: desserts & drinks
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Whole Grain Apple Crumb Pie with Buttermilk Crust & Thanks
This pie is cousin to the tart tatin, lover of the tart, delicate sister of the traditional apple pie or apple crumb cake. It’s also what I created when all but three of the apples in my house were consumed by my children and cooked-fruit-loathing husband. In terms of the buttermilk powder, let me explain…I… Read more
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Whole Grain Pumpkin Bread & Parenting Pre-teens
My bedroom door swings open. “Jamie, please knock next time,” my husband tells our 12 1/2 year old. A shrug. “So, you want to know something weird?” This is one of Jamie’s lead-ins. He appears most nights, often remembering to knock, after the other kids are asleep. Sometimes he has a specific question (“Can you… Read more
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Pumpkin Pudding (Persian Halwa) & Falling in Love
I might be falling in love. Never met the person, never will. And yet. The mix tapes! I was always a sucker for a great mix and my basement can prove it – boxes of cassettes titled “Driving Mix ’92” or “Is She Really Going Out with Him?” or the ambiguous “Let’s See.” There are… Read more
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Fig-Apricot Compote & Giving Thanks
It’s difficult to make the transition from talking about someone in the present tense to the past. Grandma Ruth likes liked likes liked to bake. She made chocolate bit cookies the size of a half-dollar, taught me how to make coffee-vanilla-caramel puddings from scratch, and always whipped up a banana bread with lemon icing for… Read more
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Whole Grain Pumpkin Twists with Maple Glaze & Welcome to the Well-Cooked Life
Whole Grain Pumpkin Twists with Maple Glaze & Welcome to the Well-Cooked Life Those who know me (either personally or through my books or blog) know that I love fall. Autumn colors make me look like I have food poisoning, but the foods of fall – apples, pumpkins, seeds, kale – are perfect for cooking… Read more
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Whole Grain Double Apple Breakfast Cake & Parenting
You know you want this. We have a two snack per day rule in our house (gasp!) and one of those snacks must be fruit (double gasp!). We started this when the kids were very young and now that 3 of the 4 are old enough to be in charge of their own school or… Read more
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Recipes for Rosh Hashanah Part 1 & Faith & Multi-tasking
This morning Will, 4, asks for paper so he can make a book about “Evan the Horse.” He knows no one named Evan nor do we have a horse. The paper comes from my office and the book involves wobbly letters written in no particular order and lots of tape. Julia has a fever and… Read more
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Strawberry Sundae Sauce & Summer Siesta
Actually, it’s not a siesta at all. It’s the anti-siesta. No lounging, no meandering, just lots of work. I’m busy stocking up the Pantry for falls orders. Today is Strawberry Jam and Strawberry Sundae Sauce. I’m also nearly ready to unveil my new website! The Well-Cooked Life will launch soon and you’ll be able to… Read more
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Apricot-Ginger Chocolate Chip Scones & Teaching Small
“Uh, Mom? How do you close an ironing board?” This, from Jamie, age 12. I remember how this action baffled me as a kid. You press where? And do what? Perhaps I was or still am challenged by the mechanics. Or maybe no one showed me. I remember my mother teaching me how to iron… Read more
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Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies & Lost & Found
Have I mentioned that I love a good yard sale? That flea markets are second only to food and farmer’s markets for me? History, humor, treasures all in one place. This spring my son Daniel and I went to a flea market fundraiser at his school. He sorted through albums (“I mean, what would you… Read more
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Frozen Banana Pops & My Slutty Past
I used to get around a little. One time here, another there. Always the dream of what the next guy could do, how he could fulfill my desires. No, not that way! I was…a hair slut. My friend, Jen, was a jean whore. She’d constantly covet the jeans I wore, or the jeans on that… Read more
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Cottage Blueberry Crumb Cake & Broken Hearts
My 12-year-old holds a heart in his hands. “Do you like the blue?” he asks. We’re in Venice, a place known for glass beads and tiny fragile animals. I nod. Jamie has always associated me with blue as he knows it’s my favorite color. “Who is the necklace for?” Jamie’s dad asks him and Jamie… Read more
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Italian Plum Tart (Crostata alla Confettura di Prugne) & Finding Treasures
This is a classic southern Italian dessert, though my favorite time to eat this is in the morning. I especially like the crisp pastry and the tart plum when we’re down to the last few slices and the very last one is a bit stale, and thus crunchy and I can peck at the crumbs… Read more
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Stone Fruit Crumble with Shortbread Topping & The Perfect Chair
For my father’s birthday, he asked for a fruit dessert. This is partly because he has always loved tarte tatin and other sugared fruits but also because he knows I like to cook with what’s available. Right now, we have cherries, small green sour plums that shine bright as limes when rubbed on your shirt… Read more
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Rustic Plum Tart & Italian Morning
Tips for a quiet Sunday morning: Wake up while everyone else is still asleep (hooray for jet-lag!). Make coffee and take your mug down to the chicken coop. Stop to play with the new puppy and her friend the tame lamb who allowed to wander everywhere. Collect eggs. note their speckles, their shades of sand,… Read more