Maybe There Are Some Things I Just Can’t Make Better At Home

These are homemade “Mello-creme pumpkins.”  They are very cute in their pumpkin-y plumpness, aren’t they?  And don’t they have a rustic, artisanal quality rarely to be found in their bland, mass-produced cousins?  These are rich in butter, sweet with best quality corn syrup and fine white sugar, boiled gently, hand-molded, and ridged with a bamboo [...]

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If I Post Once This Month, Can It Still Be Blogtoberfest?

This picture, of course, is from September–La Shanah Tovah, y’all–when we celebrated the new year with round challah, apples and honey, Cornish game hens, and the Rosh Hashanah Cake for which we bought the beehive-shaped bundt pan.  I know that Unclutterer frowns on having any kitchen item which serves only one purpose, but I love digging out this [...]

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Project Project Gutenberg: E and F

This bread pudding is what makes my life as a recipe blogger so difficult:  it is absolutely delicious, but there’s no way to give you the recipe.  This is what happened:  Little Sunshine was sick yesterday, and Joan has joined her on the H1N1 trolley today.   They are just sick enough to want coddling, without [...]

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Mince Pie! Mince Pie!

I’m addicted to “The Hope Chest,” a blog showcasing “Bad news from the Past.”  One of the reasons I love it is that Mr. Parallel, curator of The Hope Chest, is a serious scholar of the mince pie, its connotations and denotations.  If you don’t believe me, follow the tag Hot Mince Pie.
I have an historic mincemeat recipe, one [...]

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Orderly Transition of Power Salad–with homemade chutney!

Despite the scorching heat (we were really pleased when it only got up to 82 F in the upstairs today!), I stood over the stove stirring a pot of boiling fruit, because I had a mad craving for Coronation Salad, or my determinedly Paleo-Fabian version thereof, and the price of store-bought chutney is a scandal.
Coronation [...]

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Curse You, King Arthur! Curse You!

These are the best turnovers ever in the history of that portion of humanity which has evolved sufficiently to devote its energy to turnover making.  Really.  I curse the day I ever starting taking hits off the crackpipe that is King Arthur Flour, because, like that crazy Norwegian folktale where the mill grinds salt (that [...]

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Sweetness

These are Arnheim biscuits.  I found the recipe in a book called Pot on the Fire, by John and Matt Thorne.  It’s an idiosyncratic book, and it rubbed me the wrong way–I’m definitely not what Havi Brooks would call its Right Person.  On the other hand, this recipe made it all worthwhile.  No less a [...]

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It’s Not All Gracious Living Around Here

Hot dog parasites?  Miraculous operation of wind in hurricane?  Alien life form on plate?
Why, no!  It’s just a BoingBoing inspired menu item which delighted the hot-dog eating members of the family.  Except Little Sunshine, who is as opposed to all forms of food-mixing as any member of an ancient Israelite priestly caste could wish. 
I consider it a [...]

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Dirt Cupcakes

I belong to the YWCA–a splendid organization with a fabulous mission (Eliminating racism.  Empowering women.)  I don’t get to every meeting, but I was there last week, when our co-chair told a new member that my cupcakes are are so good that she’d eat one made of dirt if I gave it to her.
Well, I can take [...]

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Another Birthday

Little Sunshine had her birthday recently, and she chose cherry cheesecake for her celebratory dessert–a new departure for her, and one which made her mother very happy.  Joan loves cheesecake.  I don’t, really.  To me, it’s just too reminiscent of the 80s.  Everyone made cheesecake, and they made a big deal about cheesecake in a [...]

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