Category: desserts & drinks
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The Mother Sauces (Red Wine Poached Pears & Creme Anglaise)
I have a meat cleaver aimed directly at my mother. She and I lock eyes. Despite my mother’s attempts at fixing my hair (“You’re not wearing it like that, are you?”) and her inability to let me decorate my house without input (“You’re keeping the wood trim? Susie’s Macomber’s daughter has a Victorian house and… Read more
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William Carlos Williams, Baked Plums, & Jam
This is just to say I like to eat plums* split and dusted with brown sugar perhaps a squeeze of fresh lemon or cinnamon baked at 400 until the sugars both natural and added begin to brown and bubble If I have them on hand I might also add a drop of creme fraiche or… Read more
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Today is a big day. The youngest is now 4. “Even my shadow is bigger,” he says. There are crayon-streaked cards, homemade gifts wrapped in the lopsided way that kids perfect, and a morning of singing. Tonight he gets to choose the birthday dinner and, of course, the dessert. In process: Does he know that… Read more
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Love Letter to My Soda Stream
Dear SS, It’s late. It’s dark. I’m the only one awake and you’re the only one who knows. I’ve been craving you so much lately – maybe because of the warmer days. Or maybe – maybe – because you embody so much of my longing. You are: eco-friendly, cost-effective, not bad-looking, you taste great and… Read more
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Marbled Berry Cake for Passover and Honey Cake, too
Confession: I’m not a huge cake-lover. My husband grew up on sheet cakes and still gravitates towards their slightly plastic frosting. If I eat cake, it’s more apt to be a coffee cake (my brothers and I used to fight over the crumb topping) or one that somehow beats a great cookie. I love the… Read more
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Mummy, why are you blushing? AKA I have a past…
You might be one of the six people who read my first novel, Liner Notes. If you were, then you know how I soundtrack much of my life. I use “soundtrack” as a verb because it’s an active process for me; I’ve always navigated using music as the backdrop, much the same way film uses… Read more
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Cooking with Leftovers
Waste Not, Want Lots –Or, How I Emptied the Fridge for My Spring Vacation Bizarre child that I was, I loved clipping coupons. I’d grab the shiny inserts from the Sunday papers, cut them with my mother’s special scissors, and arrange them in neat stacks on the counter where my parents would promptly ignore them… Read more