Recipes + Ideas

The posts on this page contain a recipe or a “recipette” — an idea that, while not as detailed as a recipe, can be just as useful for spurring inspiration.

Retro recipe: chocolate almond torte with chocolate honey frosting

18 May 2012

The first time I flipped open The California Heritage Cookbook, by the Junior League of Pasadena (Doubleday, 1976), it took me by surprise. Instead of the usual whimsy one tends to encounter in community cookbooks, I came across essays about California history, region by region. Chapters were divided among different parts of the state, with [...]

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Retro recipe: strawberry tart

11 May 2012

Fresh out of the gate with my Retro Recipe Project, I wanted to include a strawberry tart from Craig Claiborne’s The New York Times Cookbook, by Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey (Times Books, the 1979 edition). Truth be told, there isn’t anything really retro about a strawberry tart. It is more like a classic. A [...]

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Recipe: How to prebake a tart shell

11 May 2012

I’ve always turned to the pie and tart crust recipes from Jim Dodge’s baking books. He gave them to our family before I learned how to drive, and I’ve been loyal to them ever since. First experiments were shaky, but consequent efforts paid off. I’ve made so many fruit pies that I’ve committed Jim’s piecrust [...]

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Start your own preservation kitchen

9 May 2012

After The Preservation Kitchen came out in early April, I started receiving emails from friends and family who were jumping into canning, some for the first time. My cousin Pat was one of the most enthusiastic. Almost as soon as he had a copy of the book, he had a batch of asparagus in hot [...]

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Cheesy bread, Brazilian-style

26 April 2012

Occasionally friends pass along a new-to-me recipe that I’m eager to try. Then the recipe sits in my email in-box as if I’m saving it for a rainy day. Yesterday, it rained. So at last I pulled out a recipe for pão de queijo, a cheesy Brazilian bread made with tapioca starch and Parmesan. I [...]

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Beer Jam Correction for The Preservation Kitchen

17 April 2012

It happens. No matter how many people take a look at a manuscript before it’s sent to the printer, something will be missed. Sometimes it’s an extra comma. Other times, as in the case with the beer jam recipe from the cookbook The Preservation Kitchen, it’s a crucial line of instruction: When to add the [...]

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In praise of corned beef and cabbage

15 March 2012

Every Irish-American family has at least one good St. Patrick’s Day story. Ours involves green beer, green teeth, and a banner at a wake that said, “Good luck Casey!” (Casey, may he rest in peace, needed a lot more than luck in that story.) Even so, enjoying St. Patrick’s Day has nothing to do with [...]

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Feel good soup

19 January 2012

Every month media types like to trot out national days or months of significance, particularly during slow news cycles. How else can we explain the ongoing existence of trade association-generated events, such as national potato day, national popcorn day or…. (drum roll please) national horseradish month? There’s another day that also gets attention for all [...]

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Hot Toddy Season

8 December 2011

Everyone who cooks has comfort zones:  pasta with tomato and basil, roasted chicken with potatoes, soup, chili, fish tacos, Thai curry, whatever. We also have our uncomfort zones, those food-and-beverage subjects that we’ve avoided out of fear, disinterest, distraction, or lack of opportunity to dig deeper. My friend Susie wrote about trying to become a [...]

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Mexican Chocolate Tapioca Pudding

11 November 2011

Chocolate pudding was a big part of my dessert repertoire, if you could call it that, when I was in elementary school. I’d open up a package of chocolate pudding mix, follow the instructions on the box, and then refrigerate the pudding until set. Sometimes it would develop a skin on top, which I secretly [...]

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