I’m ready to declare Brussels sprouts “the new asparagus.” I’ve always bought them in cute little paper cups or sometimes on the stalk, so I was surprised last Friday to see them in a factory-sealed two-pound cellophane bag in a mainstream grocery store’s produce department. Clearly someone’s noticed we consumers are starting to warm up

Simply put: I love coconut–everything from the coconut cakes and pies my southern grandparents brought me up with to the toasted coconut ice cream and Filipino Biko my friend Erika introduced me to. I love the savory almost as much as the sweet. My favorite appetizer is Mom’s famous coconut shrimp without which Christmas would not be complete. I love the coconut

A few weeks ago I ordered Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook, Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi. In addition to being one of the most beautiful cookbooks I have ever seen, the recipes are inspired. In an era where recipes tend to feel like an ever-so-slightly-modified version of someone else’s work, his recipes immediately struck me as

Inspiration for this recipe comes from the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council whose booth we visited at the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) Culinary Expo. Mom and I made sure to have a heaping salad lunch before parading through aisles of tempting treats, but the pea and lentil trail mix they were serving

Anyone who’s been to my house for a nice dinner knows I nearly always offer a cheese course. I used to pass around a big board of cheeses, but I’d find myself with lots of leftover expensive cheese which sometimes found their way onto a pizza or into a pan of mac and cheese, but

I debated about what to post this Good Friday. Buckwheat Blini Bites with Smoked Salmon and Crème Fraîche felt a little extravagant, but I ultimately decided they were a good choice. As many of you know, my husband David is an Episcopal minister. I don’t fast on Good Friday, but David does–at least until after the

Except for when Maggy and Sharon were sick, I never made jello, and I didn’t go to a college where jello shots were a regular on the weekend menu. All of that changed a few days ago when I was planning the menu for a nice dinner party and decided to include a palate cleanser,

This guest post is brought to you by our dear friend, the wonderful and talented Kirsty Hughan of The Good Taste Guide!  It is inevitable that our holiday traditions change.  When I was young, my family and I would spend every Thanksgiving at my aunt Suzanne’s, her house filled chock-a-block with our large family.  As

This recipe comes from Mom’s latest book, Cook without a Book: Meatless Meals which I have been cooking from several nights a week since the fall. It was at that time that I first started watching films like Forks Over Knives, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, Food Inc, and Robyn O’Brien’s 2011 TED Talk about the link

I got this green bean casserole recipe from my chef friend, Michelle Bernstein last Thanksgiving, but there just wasn’t enough time to run it back then. But with Easter next week,  I realized this is the perfect holiday side dish to that ham or lamb many of us are planning to serve. I also wanted

It’s been cloudy and spitting rain all day.  Just a few minutes ago the sun came out, and I looked back in my archives and found this Lemon Cooler Shot Glass Dessert that’s never been seen until now. I’m down in Florida with my parents this Easter and we’ll be getting together with my two

A couple weeks ago, we were at the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago. I snapped some photos of things that I really loved, so I thought I’d share them with you here. We spent a long time at Emile Henry booth. We were taken with the simple design and beautiful colors. Bright and vibrant,

Here’s another quick little hors d’oeuvre for tomorrow’s Mad Men dinner, another recipe I adapted from The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook. To freshen up this period recipe, I used crystalized ginger rather than preserved and unsweetened coconut in place of sweetened flaked. Then I gave it a little color with sliced scallions greens and chopped

I’m updating a few period recipes as I prepare for my Mad Men dinner this Sunday night— Chex Mix was my first project. Check out the classic recipe. It calls for 3 cups each: Corn Chex, Wheat Chex, and Rice Chex. That’s a lot of Chex! If I owned a cereal company and were developing