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The Classics: Apple Pie (Parade of Pies, Part 3)
I’m very particular about my apple pie. I used to think that I didn’t like it, but it turned out that I didn’t like how soupy and sweet many apple pies can be. Then I found the joy of baking specifically with apples that could stand up to the heat and retain some firmness. To […]
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The Classics: Pumpkin Pie (Parade of Pies, Part 2)
Pumpkin pie is a classic Thanksgiving pie, but there’s no reason you can’t have it all year round. During the fall, I usually get tasty pumpkins and squashes on sale, and then I bake and puree the flesh so that I can freeze it and use it all year long. Canned pumpkin is also generally […]
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The Classics: Pecan Pie (Parade of Pies, Part 1)
The first pie in the parade is pecan. This pie screams Thanksgiving to me, even more than pumpkin pie. Growing up, I remember there always being a pecan pie on the Thanksgiving dessert table. It was probably especially popular in kosher households because it’s an easy pie to make pareve, or non-dairy, so you can […]
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The Parade of Pies Begins!
This fall, I came down with pie fever. I started thinking about all the pies I could make for the holidays. And the list quickly grew out of hand. I ended up with a baker’s dozen of pies, savory and sweet, that could feed almost any crowd. Then I made my friends vote on which […]
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Thinking all about food
I wrote this post in the spring during a bit of a cooking drought, but it seems I forgot to post it. In the spring, the reason I was posting so little (and cooking so little) was because I’d gone back to school part time and my evenings were filled with programming instead. This fall […]
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Thanksgiving
Last year our Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch. I’d like to say it was five years of practice that made it so, but I can’t take all the credit for how things came together. My whole family all worked together to make our Thanksgiving a feast that we could enjoy, but not keel […]
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“From Scratch”
This summer has been a real adventure in cooking from scratch. I think that making something “from scratch” can sound intimidating to a lot of people. Before I really starting cooking at all, that term really scared me. I thought of it as a snobby way to say that something was better than something else. […]
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White Bean salad, spread, or dip
Sometimes you have to admit that, no matter how hard you try to prove otherwise, you are wrong. Right on the heels of my last post about how great dried beans are, I have to take it back – at least partially. Dried beans can be great. Just not if you’re as absent-minded as me. […]
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Pantry tips for greater freedom in the kitchen, part 1
I’ve written before about how having a well stocked pantry makes it easy for me to choose to cook every night instead of eating out. A well stocked pantry means different things to different people. For me, it means having versatile ingredients around that are as ready as possible to use at a moment’s notice. […]
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Starting from scratch
Once you start making foods from scratch, it gets a little addictive. It’s amazing how many every day foods aren’t really that hard to make yourself. But even I have limits (or at least I thought I did). I was talking to my mother the other day and mentioned how I had a great sandwich. […]