I love baking, but not in the summer. I love serving cake for dessert, but when it’s too hot to turn on the oven, classic icebox cakes are a yummy option. Icebox cakes require only assembly, alternating layers of cookies or store-bought loaf cake with pudding and/or whipped cream, and sometimes fruit. The “cooking” actually …
I get giddy with the bounty of fresh produce that early summer brings to food markets. Everything seems crisper, brighter, more flavorful, and our daily dining becomes more focused on fruits and vegetables. One of my favorite ways to highlight the colors of summer is to create a layered salad in a clear glass bowl …
Cooking breakfast for Mom on Mother’s Day is a time-honored tradition in many families. It can be as fun and simple as Dad and the kids preparing Mom a fun Egg in a Hole – perhaps even served to her on a tray in bed. Or it can be a lovely sit-down breakfast for Grandma, …
After long winter months with heavier foods, April brings welcomed relief as farm-fresh vegetables reappear in food markets – tender, sweet and super crisp. Look for green peas, new carrots, artichokes, spring onions and – my favorite – asparagus. I usually prepare asparagus as simply as possible. I give the fresh spears a quick soak …
Our daughters love to help me make sugar cookies, pressing cutters into the dough and decorating them with frosting, colored sugar and candy. When they were young, I expanded their fun by letting them cut other foods into shapes to use for sandwiches, snack bites or fun kebobs on a skewer. Their creativity moved to …
I enjoy cooking much more in the winter months, especially when it’s too cold to venture outside. There’s something so cozy about a warm kitchen filled with the scent of good foods bubbling on the stove or roasting in the oven. We like to invite family and friends over for a meal to break the …
One of my favorite mottos is “Always have something to look forward to.” When the holiday hubbub is over, I look forward to January and – please don’t cringe – a really big snowstorm. My “perfect” winter would consist of just one snowstorm during this rather uneventful month, the kind of storm when the governor …
