food

Red Wine Slushie

This is the drink for a Friday afternoon at the end of a long, hard week. (It’s also an excellent way to sneak alcohol into the movies. Just save your slushie cup. Not that I would ever do such an un-social-secretary-like thing.) A red wine slushie is a fabulous party cocktail. I think that if you showed up at a summer party with a big Ziploc bag full of red wine slushie – because that is the best method by […]

food

Switchel

You may have heard of Switchel; it’s having somewhat of renaissance among the Brooklyn hipster set, or so I’ve been told. I don’t know many Brooklyn hipsters, so I can’t take an accurate poll to see if this is the case, but I did come across Up Mountain Switchel in the New York Times and thought it would be a great thing to try.   It’s an apple cider vinegar-ginger-molasses combination that is tart, light and refreshing. You can make your […]

food

Strawberry Shrub

Today is the first of three slightly-unorthodox drink recipes that I hope will wet your appetite for a Summer cocktail (pun intended!). The shrub can be made as either a cocktail or a mocktail, the latter of which is a lot like the best homemade strawberry soda you ever tasted, and perfect picnic fare. A shrub is a cooling colonial-era drink that was served by Martha Washington at Mount Vernon. The surprising ingredient is a dash of apple cider vinegar, […]

Mini Rhubarb Peach Pies
food

Mini Rhubarb Peach Pies

I had an unusual experience the other day: I had to bake a pie while being interviewed about my childhood. It’s no big deal for food bloggers to make videos and talk about how to make food, but when you’re concentrating on crimping a pie crust while answering a question about what kind of adolescent you were, it can get weird. This all came about because a very nice filmmaker is making a documentary about former White House social secretaries, […]

Brown bread cinnamon toast
food

Brown Bread Cinnamon Toast

This recipe brings back fond childhood memories. My mother used to make this on weekend mornings and we went at it like ravenous animals – probably because of the sugar involved. It’s not the healthiest breakfast in the world, but if someone shows up around breakfast time and the cupboard is bare, you can turn out a creditable nosh with just some bread, sugar, butter, and cinnamon. I like using brown bread for this, but any bread will do (brioche […]