This recipe has been over twenty years in the making. I didn’t come naturally to the matzoh ball, growing up in a small Midwestern town. (In fact, I’m pretty sure my husband was the first Jewish person my mother ever met.) This was one of those meals I wanted to learn when we got married, because I knew my husband loved matzoh ball soup, and Washington is not oversubscribed with delis. His mother told me the secret to a great […]
If you’re looking for a main dish that will make a bountiful and impressive presentation for Easter Sunday, a crown rack of lamb is an elegant choice. I made a small one, because there’s just the two of us at home now, but you can buy larger racks of lamb, or use three racks instead of two to serve a bigger crowd. I’d never tried to make a rack of lamb before, and was a little intimidated about how to […]
Now this is my idea of fast food. I found this recipe in the British edition of House and Garden last year, and loved it from the first try. It has the three elements of cooking that I look for in every recipe: it’s fast, easy, and versatile. You can throw together this pasta and enjoy it in your sweats in front of the TV, or prepare an enormous bowlful for guests and serve it with an elegant pinot grigio […]
St. Patrick’s Day was a big holiday at the White House. The Prime Minister of Ireland often came to Washington for the celebration, and invitations to the reception and entertainment were much sought after by those of Irish-American descent. We always created menus based on traditional Irish food (see menu below), and the entertainers were renowned Irish artists. One year I had arranged for a troupe of dancers to perform, and we carefully established how many songs they would be […]
This recipe was inspired by the need for speed. I’ve been circling around pulled pork recipes for some time, looking for a flavor that could be melded to the rich and succulent taste of a good barbecue. After more than a few failed attempts (I started on this in June), I stumbled on to a recipe that used ginger and molasses as the primary ingredients in the sauce. The problem was that by the time a nice pork shoulder was […]
