Friends, Hello! And Happy New Year 🎉 I have been meaning to create this video on how-to-save-your-recipes or such a long time. Nearly every month I get an email from someone asking: "Where are my saved faves?" Apologies to anyone who has found the saving process tricky. I hope the new video is helpful. This week I made two of my favorite recipes — sweet potato taco filling and slow cooker black beans — and found myself eating them together on repeat, often in bowl form like this: I hadn't...
13 days ago • 1 min read
Dearest Friends, hello. I know Thanksgiving is the time to express our gratitude but I always find Thanksgiving comes and goes, leaving no time for reflection: no sooner are we packing up leftovers are we on to the next big feast, drafting menus and shopping lists, hoping to somehow get everything done in the few short weeks we have. It's exhausting! But there is so much to be grateful for, and these past few weeks, I've tried to keep a running list: seedless lemons (such a gift!) English...
20 days ago • 1 min read
Friends, it's here! The season of cinnamon buns and snow scones, egg bakes and breakfast cake, shortbread and rum balls, ham and mustard sauce, glogg and tangerine spritzes. My ham is currently thawing in the fridge, and early next week, I'll make my grandmother's mustard sauce, the condiment that steals the show every year. On Tuesday, I'll make an almond torte or orange and olive oil cake both of which keep well for days and are loved by all. I've included all of my favorite Christmas Eve,...
27 days ago • 1 min read
When I read in Zoe Francois’ latest book, Zoe Bakes Cookies, that the trick to making crinkle cookies is to double dip the dough balls, once in granulated sugar and then in confectioners’ sugar, I was intrigued. I had made crinkle cookies in the past, but never with great success, never with dramatic cracks running across the surfaces, never with the texture I had desired. In the intro to the recipe, Zoe describes these crinkles as both “fudgy and crunchy at the same time,” which sounded...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Friends, A few weeks ago, a woman commented on this chewy chocolate sugar cookie recipe saying she loved all things peppermint and was planning on rolling the unbaked cookies in “peppermint dust.” I had never heard of peppermint dust but quickly learned from an online search it is simply candy canes that have been pulverized into “dust.” I loved the sound of this because I, too, love all things peppermint but I’ve never loved candy canes. A few days later, the woman wrote back saying:...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hello Friends, About this time last year, I demoed how to make cheese sticks and candied pepitas at the Vischer Ferry General Store. It was "Charcuterie Night," and during the class, with our freshly made cheese sticks and pepitas, we assembled a small charcuterie board together. This was just after Thanksgiving and visions of the holiday were still on my mind, namely a stunning photo of a pumpkin pie, which had been garnished with sugared cranberries. Arranged sparingly but artfully over the...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Friends, hello! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you've had your fill of pie and punch. We've been living on the leftovers morning, noon, and night over here at my sister's house. My mom made a double batch of Alice Waters Potato Gratin to satisfy our leftover needs, and I've made the rolls twice more since Thanksgiving. With English Premier League on the tube all morning long, it's been glorious. I hope you all are well! Up on the blog, I've rounded up some gift ideas...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Friends, hello! How are you? This week I made a video of Sister Pie's Salted Maple Pie, which is one of my favorite Thanksgiving pies, but which a number of people have had trouble with over the years. Some found the custard separated during the baking; others found the custard to be too much for their 9-inch plate. I've updated the recipe with new photos and, as of this morning, a new video, which I hope will help with the issues, which I think might come down simply to whisking thoroughly...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
A few weeks ago, while checking out at the grocery store, I impulsively purchased a holiday-bread themed magazine. What caught my attention was a homemade "take-and-bake" roll recipe. It called for baking the rolls at a very low temperature, 300ÂşF, just until the rolls reached an internal temperature of 175ÂşF; then cooling and freezing. When you were ready to bake, you simply popped that pan in the oven. As one of the most frequently asked questions I receive this time of year is "How can I...
2 months ago • 2 min read
