Yeah, it’s been a while.
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by Laura
by Laura
I made these gingerbread cookies so that, (a) my house would smell amazing, and (b) three grown-up humans could sit around the table and laugh at each other and have fun icing Christmas cookies.
Don’t let the fact that you aren’t ready to be the make-my-own-icing, own-all-the-food-dye person hold you back here. Clearly I did not, and I don’t regret it.
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by Laura
It is time to bake the annual Christmas cake – a rich, dark fruit cake of some sort or another, for those of us from the UK. Dense, moist, more dried fruit than cake batter, these cakes are often baked weeks in advance and then fed a steady trickle of booze as they age and settle (until just before Christmas Day itself, when the boozing stops and the cake is topped with a layer of marzipan and iced in a snowdrift of white icing).
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by Laura
Anyone still in need of pie inspiration for Thanksgiving? I’m late in posting this, since we just moved. And I’m a bit frazzled. But I can still make (rustic?!) lattice pie!! (That feels like an accomplishment with my frazzled moving brain.) Our new place smells amazing right now, and I can’t think of a better way to inaugurate the new oven. I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving – or at least that you have a few moments where the kitchen smells like baking pie and you breathe it in and slow down for a minute and smile at someone you love.
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by Laura
This is a recipe for people who: (a) have a couple of extra apples lying around, (b) are planning ahead for some homemade holiday/hostess gifts, and/or (c) want to up their leftover turkey sandwich game. Also see: goes well with cheeseboards and the ploughman’s lunch.
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by Laura
‘Tis the season to roast all of the squashes, my friends. And by roast, in my house, I mean well-blistered with caramelized goodness. This salad is a favorite – I make it every year, with different squashes, different greens, and different fruits and nuts. It also works extremely well with a tangy crumble of feta cheese, for the dairy eaters out there. The prunes were a new gambit, and they made the salad so fancy I just might serve it for Thanksgiving this year.
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by Laura
I’m not saying that we should swear off pastry, or anything. But there is something to be said for just the apples. And the spiced caramel from the apple juices. And the coconut cream melting into everything. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.
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by Laura
Plum upside-down cakes are the best upside-down cakes. No question. This one is a gorgeous take on fall baking; the plums melt into a sticky festival of autumnal color, the cake glows with the warmth of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Add a mug of tea and a weekend afternoon, and you are all set.
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by Laura
Or, my popsicle triumph, with melon. (Also: I spoke too soon about California cooling down enough for soup season. Live and learn.)
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by Laura
Or, see also: served in a jam jar, so you can take it to the movies/theater/birthday picnic extravaganza.
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