One of the best ways I know how to show love is with some extra effort in the kitchen. Whether it’s a batch of homemade cookies, cooking a favorite meal or even stopping by a restaurant to pickup a beloved dish, when Valentine’s Day falls on a Friday, you have all weekend to spread the […]
Recipe
Dulce de leche and strawberry ice cream cake
You could really use this technique with any combination of ice creams and cookies, but try this one—it is very refreshing and unique. Dulce de leche and Strawberry Ice Cream cake Crust: 12-15 dulce de leche cookies 6-8 shortbread cookies 3 T. butter, melted Pie: 2 pints strawberry sorbet (Haagen-Daz recommended) 2 pints Dulce le […]
Bourbon Syrup with a side of auction regret
When life gives you a giant plaster statue of Jack Daniels, you should make Bourbon Syrup with Pecans. (And never go to another silent auction again.) Bourbon Syrup with Pecans 1 1/2 cups good maple syrup 1/2 cup bourbon (Jack Daniels, preferred since he is now the ambassador of my living room) 1/2 cup heavy […]
Beef Empanadas
When we lived in Tampa, I used to buy bootleg empanadas from an Argentinian in the parking lot of an Italian restaurant. Now that we live in Nashville, I have to prepare my empanadas in my own kitchen. Which is probably more sanitary, but totally less interesting. The following recipe is not nearly as good […]
Fall recipe wrap-up
To wrap-up November, Thanksgiving and autumn celebrations in general, here are some promised links to two recipes I served at Fakesgiving–my favorite holiday. Here is the corn pudding recipe I served–I doubled it and baked it twice as long and it was perfect. And that delicious cider punch? Not only good for Halloween, but seriously […]
Things on our Thanksgiving Table–Sweet potatoes
Thanksgiving is hands down my favorite holiday. I love a day that focuses on what’s good in life and then serves it up with gravy and football. There are no gifts, no decorations, no shopping other than the grocery store and I’m there every day of my life anyway. My table–like yours–is a patchwork quilt […]
Old school rice pilaf
This easy and flavorful side is a souvenir from my youth when I thought rice only came in two varieties: Minute or pilaf. I left the Minute Rice back in the 80’s and the pilaf seemed doomed to stay there as well until a few months ago when I resurrected it. We’ve eaten it probably […]
Scott’s Biscotti
Lately I’ve been making a lot of healthy brain food that doesn’t taste like salmon. Here’s a biscotti recipe that I adapted from Ann Burrell that incorporates whole nuts, berries and dark chocolate in a not-so-sweet cookie for breakfast or dessert. She dips hers into a chocolate ganache, but I like the chocolate on the […]
Marie-Inspired Chicken and Rice
Fall. Comfort food. It is time. This particular dish is an imperfect version of a delicious original Lebanese Chicken and Rice dish that got me through two rough periods of morning sickness cooked by a friend’s mother who probably thought I would starve to death during my last pregnancy. Because I need this dinner for […]
Scarecrow Salad
A couple of decades ago for a “Halloween-Themed Meal,” I’d have put out a bowl of Frankenberry and called it a night. Four children and the invention of the Internet later, I feel an unnatural urge to theme everything we eat in October into some sort of spooky, ghoulish or otherwise macabrely-crafted fare. Today I […]