I could never understand why my mom DREADED making sugar cookies. We were just decorating them, right? I never realized how long it took just to get the cookies to the table. And because my mom was a former cake decorator, we couldn’t just spread frosting on the cookies and call it good. Nooooo, we
December 15, 2010
Short URL12 days of christmas, baking, butter, christmas, cookies, dessert, family, food, frostingDessert, In the Kitchen, Ingredients, Inspirations, Seasonality, Winter
I’m a sucker for a traditional English tea. Maybe it’s all of those classic novels I was forced, (yet now read by choice) to analyze in high school. Maybe it’s the fact that my mom – although born in California – exhibits oddly English behavior. (Although to be fair, she’s read the same novels I
December 14, 2010
Short URL12 days of christmas, baking, christmas, cookies, family, food, inspiration, seasonal, teaIngredients, Inspirations, Seasonality
One of my favorite holiday activities is making cookies. Not just sugar cookies (which I’ll be devoting an entire post to later this week,) but cookies that evoke my favorite flavors of the season – citrus, berry and molasses. One of the earliest memories I have of being in the kitchen, (besides pouring a bowl
December 13, 2010
Short URL12 days of christmas, baking, butter, christmas, cookies, family, food, ingredients, inspiration, recipesDessert, In the Kitchen, Inspirations, Recipes, Seasonality, Winter
This past Sunday I had the entire house to myself. The weather was a little chilly, (for Southern CA at least) and I felt like cooking. Knowing that we had a busy week of holiday-oriented activities on the calendar, I decided to make all of the dinners for the week which was relatively easy (I
December 9, 2010
Short URL12 days of christmas, bread, christmas, cooking, dinner, family, flour, food, ingredients, inspiration, local, menu planning, protein, recipes, seasonal, starch, vegetableDinner, In the Kitchen, Ingredients, Recipes, Seasonality, Winter
This is actually the first year I’ve experienced my town’s Christmas Parade and let me tell you – it’s everything you would expect from a small town parade. The whole town lined Main Street (yes, it really is called Main Street) and I think there were at least 12 fire trucks, 10 marching bands, every
December 8, 2010
Short URL12 days of christmas, christmas, cooking, family, food, menu planning, protein, recipes, roasting, seasonal, side dishes, starch, vegetablesDinner, In the Kitchen, Ingredients, Recipes, Seasonality, Winter
The 12 days of Christmas is one of my FAVORITE Christmas carols of ALL TIME. I love the repetition, imagery, and gift giving references. Plus, I can belt it out as loud as I want and I actually sound good! We even have an old Irish linen tapestry with a box for each “day” that
December 7, 2010
Short URL12 days of christmas, christmas, family, foodInspirations, Seasonality
I had leftover lasagna today for lunch and it was SOOO much better than it was for dinner the other night (which really, I didn’t think was possible.) But before I begin singing the praises of my (sorta) own lasagna recipe let me give you a little back story about my history with lasagna. As
December 2, 2010
Short URLcooking, dinner, family, food, lasagna, pastaDinner, In the Kitchen, Recipes
Alright, I know most of us have already moved on to Christmas shopping/decorating/light hanging, etc. And, I totally meant to post this on Friday, but I was still nursing a serious pie-hangover. But, I made the family wait to eat until each dish had been photographed and if I don’t use the pictures they will
November 29, 2010
Short URLbaking, cooking, dinner, family, food, roasting, seasonal, success and disaster, ThanksgivingIn the Kitchen, Ingredients, Seasonality
Yesterday I waxed poetic about the similarities between the Super Bowl and Thanksgiving. And as much as I would really love to create another analogy for my Thanksgiving feast, I really just want to get on the road. We’re taking Madison to Knott’s Berry Farm for her first time today. But, I also don’t want
November 23, 2010
Short URLcooking, dessert, dinner, drinks, family, food, ingredients, menu planning, seasonal, side dishes, Thanksgiving, vegetableAutumn, Beverages, Dessert, Dinner, In the Kitchen, Ingredients, Menu Planning, Recipes, Seasonality
It dawned on me as I spent hours combing through cookbooks, blogs, tweets and websites that Thanksgiving – more than any other holiday – could be considered the Super Bowl for cooks. Like a championship quarterback, cooks exert a lot of energy just preparing for the big day. We spend hours imagining the perfect menu.
November 22, 2010
Short URLbaking, cooking, dinner, family, food, menu planning, recipes, roasting, seasonal, side dishes, starch, Thanksgiving, vegetablesAutumn, Dessert, Dinner, In the Kitchen, Menu Planning, Recipes, Seasonality
Cooking For Madison 