Bake with abandon!
This is — or rather was — Aunt Hilda’s pastry board. It’s now mine and I’m hoping her tenacity and good baking karma will transfer to me through this well-loved board. Not only was Aunt Hilda a fabulous cook, she never stopped learning. After years …
I’m telling you up front, this cookbook scared me when it arrived. I haven’t the patience to make confit, wouldn’t touch foie gras if you paid me and can’t even begin to tell you where to get quail eggs. Venison, bison and Cornish hens have …
This is me, in all my stick-figure glory. You can tell because a) the caption says so, and b) it ends in disaster. Before you write to inquire how I am, I assure you this drawing depicts a dream, not reality. Although I recently joined …
Pink. I hate it. It’s yet another carry over from my childhood. Every time I wore any shade of fuschia, magenta or bubble-gum some well-meaning adult would put a hand to my forehead and ask me if I was feeling all right. Classmates? They’d just …
This recipe is enough to make me eat my words. I don’t like marzipan, I find Emeril Lagasse’s TV persona annoying (his toothpaste commercials were the final straw for me) and I avoid pre-packaged items on principle. And yet, this recipe, which became a favourite …
A local Indian restaurant makes an addictive appetizer — bite-sized vegetables dipped in a spicy chickpea batter, deep fried and served with a cilantro dipping sauce. Whenever Andrew and I dine there, I pluck all the cauliflower florets from the plate and eat them myself. …
I love wheat. I love chewy cookies, moist cake and bread with great big air bubbles in it. And let’s not forget flaky pastry, decadent squares and booze soaked trifle. With the exception of carob loaf, I don’t think I’ve met a baked good I …
Yesterday I got an email from Julie Van Rosendaal. The collective cookbook Blog Aid: Recipe for Haiti has been nominated for a Gourmand World Cookbook Award in the category of charity cookbooks. The awards will be announced in Paris this coming spring. Ooooohhhh la la. …
If you drop an upside-down cake on its head does it revert to plain old cake? Sadly, no. It just becomes yet another item to file under “Kitchen Disasters.” The only advice I can give you, other than not to drop the final dish, is …