Julia Child once famously said, “A party without cake is just a meeting.” I agree, and since today is my birthday, my gift to you is the recipe for my favorite cake of all time. It is my mother’s recipe, from the recipe book she made for me as a wedding gift many years ago. This cake is similar to an Italian vanilla meringue cake, and has a lot of sugar in it. I hesitated initially to post the recipe […]
In keeping with the summer hors d’oeuvres theme, here is an American classic presented as an hors d’oeuvre. When I was 12, we took a family car trip to California. I ate fried shrimp everywhere they had it for three weeks straight. And then I didn’t eat it again for about thirty years, because fried shrimp in Amarillo or Dubuque in 1968 was not an informed menu choice. But the memory of the shrimp binge has faded and I’m back […]
Every recipe is a journey, passed from hand to hand, sometimes around the globe. Here’s the story of this recipe: a young woman leaves Australia at the beginning of World War II, on a shop bound for England. She finds herself in Istanbul, out of money, and hears about a position at the British Embassy in Moscow. She goes to Moscow and is interviewed by the man she later marries, and thus begins her life as the wife of a […]
“Merry, merry, take a cherry, mine are sounder, mine are rounder, Mine are sweeter for the eater, when the dews fall, and you’ll be fairies all.” -Emily Dickinson Before the cherry season passes us by, I want to put up my mom’s cherry torte recipe. It has a chewy, meringue-y crust that is not too sweet. If you use canned cherry filling you can make this in about half the time, but it will be a much sweeter dessert. […]
If you’re a foodie, you know all about acai bowls. They’re a frozen smoothie made of acai (pronounced ah-saw-ee) berries, assorted fresh fruit and honey, topped with more fresh fruit, coconut shavings and sometimes, granola. Acai berries come from the Amazon rainforest, and are reputed to be a powerful antioxidant. I’m not qualified to attest to the health benefits of acai, but the acai bowl is the most delicious thing I’ve had in a long time; it’s like eating a […]
