What do two racing horses, a handsome chef, and edamame salad have in common? 

I think my fiance Anthony and I went to our first real grown-up dinner party last night. Sure, we’ve been over to friends’ houses for dinner and we’ve hosted quite a few get-togethers at our place. But this was the first time we’ve be invited to someone’s house (who we don’t know that well) to

Not long ago my friend Kathleen Flinn e-mailed that she was doing a book launch event in New York. Not your standard book party, though. Kathleen wanted it to be a dialogue about the power of home cooking. “A subject,” she said, “that doesn’t get talked about near enough these days.” On the eve of

On Sunday, Mom, Andy and I ran the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This was Mom’s tenth marathon. For Andy and me, it was number one. We drove up to Scranton together the afternoon before. We stopped by the Expo, picked up our race numbers, had a relaxing afternoon at the hotel and then went

I’ve always thought of sangria as a summer thing. Which, in most places, it is. But when I think about the fruit I usually see floating in my sangria—apples, oranges, lemons—it seems much more appropriate for fall. In truth, I think you can make it all year round. It can be cool and refreshing or

Baking pumpkin bread at our house on a crisp fall weekend is as strong a tradition as shopping for Halloween candy. For years now, my young adult daughters would just as soon enjoy a slice of pumpkin bread as eat a piece of candy. Last year Maggy reminisced about fall in her post “Ode to

After thirty years of living faithfully with one another, our family friends finally decided to make it legal. My husband David would perform the ceremony. Our family would host the reception at our home.  My daughters, Maggy and Sharon, and I would cater it. Our goal: despite hosting, officiating, and catering the wedding, David, Maggy,

Last Sunday was heavenly. Andy and I were basking in the afterglow of a wonderful wedding the night before and enjoying an early fall day: crisp, bright and blue. As we took the train back to the city, we decided to extend the warm and fuzzy feeling by treating ourselves to a nice brunch. We

When serving a crowd, lasagna often springs to mind, but I often I dismiss it because I want to wow my guests and slab of lasagna isn’t all that attractive. By halving no-bake lasagna noodles lengthwise and rolling a little filling in each strip, this dish morphs from functional to fun. Serving’s easier too!

Fried Apple Hand Pies Makes 16 pies For the ambitious looking to make their own pie dough, you can find my recipe in Sharon’s Perfect Apple Crumble Pie.  If you don’t have the right size cookie cutter, there are plenty of tops around the house that are the about the same size.  The tops to

My grandmother was a good country cook. She was the one who taught me to fry chicken and make biscuits, but she had another specialty I never learned—fried pies. She made them peach in the summer and apple the rest of the year

When you work full time, contribute to a blog, run a small non-profit and and live a frenetic city life, it’s a small victory to get a home-cooked dinner on the table at night. The new sad truth is, most nights I don’t

The idea for a pig roast was born in a hot tub at my nephew’s high school graduation party. His dad (my husband’s brother, John) had recently gotten a very impressive smoker, which John quickly took to like pig to mud. Which was apparently all the two brothers needed to decide they were going to

You know what they say about eating an apple every day and this little roasting technique transforms apple eating from dutiful to pleasurable. Just a small amount of butter and brown sugar mean this apple works any time of day. Served with a dollop of low-fat Greek yogurt and a sprinkling of nuts or granola,