December food is abundant, rich, opulent. And then winter sets in. After all the stuffings and roasts, sweet potatoes and cranberries, January food should be warm and cozy but with a little edge. Which was exactly the kind of dish I was looking for when we invited friends over for a buffet supper a few

It was about this time last year that Maggy, Sharon, and I started producing videos for our weekly column in USA Weekend. That first day we shot four videos, enough for a full month’s worth of columns. To avoid wardrobe changes we wore black chef’s jackets in every segment, plus I had a horrible cold.

Over the  years I’ve been on most of the national morning shows, but it wasn’t until last week I got my invite to The Martha Stewart Show. I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited, nor have so many people been excited for me, as my Martha debut. The segments went well. Here’s why. 10.

One of the best moments of The Martha Stewart Show was meeting Adriana, head of hospitality, who shared her recipe for Puerto Rican Egg Nog which she (and we) adapted from AllRecipes. The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup each: rum and water. Thanks to Adriana, the recipe now reads 1 cup rum! Adriana’s Puerto

Besides the wedding reception following Sharon and Anthony’s ceremony we parents have been throwing little parties for the couple these past few weeks. As someone who’s attended my share of weddings over the years I like this way of introducing the couple. If we had invited everyone we loved to the wedding, many couldn’t have

Dressing for Maggy and Andy’s wedding over five years ago and then again for Sharon and Tony’s just a few weeks I go, I distinctly remember being grateful that I didn’t have to crash diet for either event. For nearly seven years I’ve kept off the forty pounds I lost between 2004 and 2005. How

Sharon’s Wedding Brownies Today is the eve of Sharon and Anthony’s wedding. In a few hours we’ll be packing up the car and driving forty-five minutes up I-95 to New Haven, CT to help them celebrate. In some ways it’s a traditional wedding—a beautiful bride in a candlelight dress, a handsome groom in a tailored

When my friends asked me to replicate a roasted pumpkin soup from their recent trip to Austria for their wedding reception last September, I was stumped for a few minutes—not how to make it, but how to serve it. It was a buffet after all and there wasn’t a seated first course where a cup

This past Saturday I went out for early brunch, and it was still a long time until dinner so I stopped at Starbucks for a snack. Since I was working on a chai tea concentrate recipe (inspired by Maggy’s post earlier this year) for an upcoming article, I ordered one to remind me of the

Next in our week of Thanksgiving makeovers is Elizabeth Karmel’s Sweet Potato Bourbon Mash, her answer to the treacly marshmallow-topped Sweet Potato Casserole. And since I prefer my sweet for dessert, I’m so behind her plan to dramatically lower the sugar and lose the marshmallows. Raised on BBQ in North Carolina and currently the executive

Yesterday we enjoyed Lior’s Spiced Cranberry Chutney With Apricots and Pecans. Today I offer another brilliant holiday recipe from Chicago chef Paul Kahan. His assignment was a tough one. I had him retool creamed onions, probably the stodgiest of all the Thanksgiving side dishes. And precisely because his task was difficult, I was the especially

A couple of times these past few months I’ve mentioned in passing the Lean Cuisine Culinary Roundtable, but when I got a call from my cousin in Pensacola, FL wanting to know why I was pictured on the back of her frozen entrée with five cute chefs, I knew it was time to talk. The

As you all know we Three Many Cooks love our recipes but each of us also believes it’s equally important to internalize a few basic cooking techniques.  Those nights when you don’t have the time or energy to try a new recipe?  Techniques allow you to open the fridge and create a meal with what

As David and I were driving back to Connecticut from our Pennsylvania home in Saturday’s snowstorm I realized there was no going back to fall. In that case, I went ahead and declared the holidays officially here. And since we’re in full holiday mode, I was reminded of Sharon’s biscotti recipe from last year that