The Way the Cookie Crumbles

Why should food be the only thing I think I can make better than most restaurants? Let’s move on to cocktails! Vodka gimlets are a good, basic drink, and they’ve come in handy for me a number of times – at a wedding with a terrible wine selection, at another wedding with inexperienced bartenders (“…a [...]

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Stuffed dates are part of one my favorite days recently – one of those that, for whatever reason, just ended up being particularly awesome. Some great friends visited us in Philadelphia shortly before we moved. After walking around the famous historical sites and before seeing one of my favorite musicians play; before walking up the [...]

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I must be growing up. Since when do I like raisins? At least I still think green peppers are blech. If that ever changes, I know I’ll be ready to pick up my cane and trade in my real teeth for the kind you take out at night to clean. Oh, and buy one of [...]

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I made these, oh, a year and a half ago. And the file’s just been sitting around waiting for someone to choose them for Tuesdays with Dorie. Actually, it was the first recipe I ever made from Dorie Greenspan that was not specifically for TWD. I had told myself that I would only bake from [...]

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Dave lucked out this year when his annual birthday pie didn’t come out quite right. Because then I made another one, and then when that one wasn’t perfect either, I made another one. The recipe is Tartine’s, and as usual, they take a classic and kick it up a notch. Their banana cream pie has [...]

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I don’t know why I feel the need to state this every year, but, again, for the record: I am pro New Year’s Resolution. Yes, we all know that you can resolve to make changes any day of the year. So what? New Year’s Day is the official last day of holiday craziness. It’s the [...]

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I’m very comfortable cutting recipes in half. Some people say that they don’t like to deal with the math, but I come from a family of three engineers and a math teacher, so I can handle math. Plus, I’m cooking for just two people now, and I lived alone for six years before that, so [...]

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I’m not really good with pears. I don’t know much about them, so I never buy them. And, of course, because I never buy them, I don’t learn much about them. Which types are best for baking and for eating? When are they in season? How do I know when they’re ripe? How long do [...]

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When I did my bake-and-send extravaganza last summer, I unintentionally left a few key people out. Namely, our moms, both mine and Dave’s. Oops. I did, however, send a box of cookies to my mother-in-law’s sister. Who, of course, called my mother-in-law, mentioned the cookies, and then…I was in trouble. Well, not in trouble, because [...]

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Sometimes I’m too full of myself for my own good. When I saw this on Jen’s site, I noted that she called it ‘cranberry dessert.’ But, in my hubris, I figured, what the hell, it looks like a cake. I’ll call it a cake and serve it as a cake. In retrospect, though, the vague [...]

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