Posted in Let's Bake, recipes on Sep 23rd, 2008
You’re having nice people to dinner and you need a nice dessert. You’d like something easy but brilliant, sweet but sophisticated, deceptively simple – you know, a plated version of our ideal selves. Here’s what you don’t want: a labor-intensive tower of dubious taste. You’ve already cooked three courses, and though [...]
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Posted in Lawrence, Let's Eat, Let's Shop on Sep 18th, 2008
Some days it takes nothing to break a smile, some days maybe more - but I’m sure we can all agree that occasionally, what you need is a little doorbell surprise. I heart you, UPS guy. Wait, have a brownie!
The package thing, however, works a lot better if you’re actually home. Last week I was [...]
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Posted in Let's Cook, recipes on Sep 16th, 2008
We had friends to dinner the other night, a nice little party with flowers and wine and Josie upstairs. These days I like making it nice but not stiff, special without fuss - but just a few years back it was all fuss all the time - to a newly minted chef girl, married girl, [...]
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Posted in Chicagoland, recipes on Aug 30th, 2008
In my ode to crunchy, comforting mandelbread the other day, I mentioned that it was the first cookie I’d ever baked, courtesy of cousin Dana’s card. Thanks to the magic of the interwebs, my cousin Robin quickly clocked in and asked “…but where’s Dana’s recipe?”
And here it is. The red marker, what’s cookin’, [...]
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Posted in Let's Bake, recipes on Aug 27th, 2008
Mandelbread – or mandelbrodt, literally, almond bread – was my first solo cookie. Eight years old and alone with cousin Dana’s 3 x 5 card, the mess should have meant disaster. But they came out well, happy and fragrant, a miracle. I kept baking.
Mandelbread are the Jewish biscotti - maybe a little sweeter, crisp but [...]
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