As I was putting together the pictures for this post, I was amazed to see just how many times rhubarb has made an appearance on this site. You might even think that is the only fruit/vegetable I cook with.
There was this galette. And let’s not forget this one from years ago. (Apparently I loved Photoshop back in 2005.)
Then there’s cobbler, and pie, and of course, cake. And most recently, this cake. That’s a lot of rhubarb for one little site!
So what more can I say about this vegetable cum fruit?
Let’s see…
It’s good. In season, I cook with it often. And to get a little bossy– I think you should too. So here is yet another recipe that uses the humble produce.

On Sunday mornings I usually cook or bake something substantial and/or brunchy. Then my husband and I languish over the paper, poke around Interweb, or watch the Sunday morning news [...]

I’ve been baking a lot lately. A lot of bread. As summer quickly approaches I am furiously trying to finish up all of my recipe testing for the cookbook. I know that come July, when the heat and humidity set in, the last thing I will want to be doing is standing in my kitchen amongst cup of flour.
Ages ago, when I started this blog, I was not a baker. I have always loved baked goods, but baking was not my domain. It was too finicky, too time consuming. I never would have dreamt that I would become a baking instructor, and now am working on my second baking cookbook. But I have come to love the exactitude and the purposeful nature of baking. And I love the final product!
However, there are instances when I don’t have the time to contribute to making a baked good. Yet, I’m looking for [...]

I like cheesecake; but I don’t love cheesecake. So why am I presenting you with a cheesecake recipe, and imploring you all to make it? Because I guess it would be more fitting if this cake were called a cheese cake– a cake with some cheese in it.
This recipe is one that displays the wonderful alchemy that is baking. There is no crust to speak of, but once baked, the simple cake batter seeps up around the sides of the cake, creating a crust that is chewy and containing for the rest of the goodies in this cake. And what are the rest of the goodies? Rhubarb, of course!

When I originally found this recipe it called for blueberries– a solid fruit choice. But rhubarb has just hit the markets out here, and blueberries, well they’re still on some truck from California or Florida. And besides, I am one of those [...]

I teach a baking class at the local community college. The class is an introduction to baking, so I’ve taught the basics: biscuits, scones, shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate, brownies (chewy and cakey), pies, quiches, and now I’m getting ready to teach a short unit on cakes. So I decided to include a Swiss Roll– a rich chocolate sponge cake, rolled around a light vanilla cream.
To try it out, I made the roll last week. Gilding the lily, I decided to enrobe it in a shiny chocolate ganache. As I was applying the final layers of ganache, I stepped back to look at my handiwork, and that’s when I realized– I had made a giant Ho Ho.

And I couldn’t have been any happier!
I was not a Hostess kid, but I do remember snacking on the odd Ho Ho from time to time. I would bite off all of the “chocolate [...]

I wanted to start this post out lavishly quoting to you the lyrics of a Purim song of my youth. It is sung to the melody of “Roll out the Barrel,” but the words have been changed and this rousing rendition is entitled “Roll out the Megillah” (the scrolls on which the story of Purim are written). But you know what? I couldn’t find them! Anywhere! I  mean, isn’t that what the internet is expressly for?
I thought that everyone knew this song; that it was like, “I Had a Little Dreidel” or “Jingle Bells,” for my non-Jewish readers. But none of my Jewish friends have even heard of it. So apparently, unless you went to Temple Sholom, in the suburbs of San Francisco, in the eighties, this song is news to you. I have forgotten all of the lyrics in the last twenty-five years. But let me assure you, it [...]

Last Friday I went on local television to bake a pie– a Chocolate Raisin Pie. I think chocolate and raisins are sort of the perfect combination. I always eat the raisins with the chocolate chips out of the “bad-for-you” trail mix. (Which is really the only type of trail mix I like.) I love a Raisinet. And an oatmeal raisin cookie is always sublime with a few bittersweet chocolate chunks thrown in. So when I found a recipe for Chocolate Raisin Pie while doing research for the pie book, I knew I had to try it. I modernized the classic, and toyed with proportions, and arrived at a delicious dessert.
This pie is a perfect winter pie, it’s still fruity (from the raisins), but in a concentrated way. It’s rich, and moist, but the chocolate is not overwhelming. I hope you like it! You can find the recipe here.
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It seems like I don’t bake a lot of cookies around here, so when I do bake a batch, I want them to have a bit of everything in them. And apparently Joanne Chang, baker and proprietor of Boston’s Flour Bakery feels much the same way. (Although I suppose that being the baker at a bakery, means that she bakes a lot of cookies. But still!)

These cookies, called the Crunchy Lola Cookie, for no apparent reason except that they won the cookie-naming contest at the bakery, have almost everything that you want in a cookie in them. Yes, they’re chocolate chip, but they also have oatmeal, and sweetened coconut, and let’s not forget about the pecans. They could be called a Crunchy Kitchen Sink Cookie, it’s a little more descriptive.
I’ve made these cookies twice, once in California, where I actually bought the cookbook, and once here in Connecticut. Each time, [...]

I’m back in Connecticut now, but here’s one I baked while I was in California. Chocolate-Cherry Swirl Bread.
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I’ve been in California for over a week helping my mom recuperate from knee surgery. This trip has been not been like my usual jaunts to California filled with friends and frequent trips to my favorite haunts. No, this trip has been all about my mom. (And bread, the bread must go on!)

I’ve actually been doing quite a bit of cooking, trying to make whatever appeals to my mom. There has been meatloaf. Two kinds of soup– chicken noodle one night, potato-leek just last night. And then there was this applesauce. I know what you might be thinking, is she really going to give us a recipe for something so base?  Well, I am, but this applesauce was so simple, so delicious, it had me knocking my forehead, exclaiming why had I not thought of this before?

My mom was ensconced in pillows, her knee elevated, watching the Barefoot Contessa, when [...]

My mom lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and I live in Connecticut, but we talk on the phone all the time. This is how our conversations have gone as of late:
Mom: Hi, hon.
Me: Hi.
Mom: What did you do today?
Me: Made bread.
Or sometimes they go:
Mom: Hi.
Me: Let me call you back, I’m covered in dough!
Or :
Mom: Let me guess what you did today. Made bread? What kind was it?
You guessed it, I’m up to my eyeballs in breads; but it’s for a pretty good reason. I’m working on another cookbook, entitled United States of Breads. For those readers that have my first cookbook, United States of Pie, this book will be like my first—a celebration of regional, historical recipes from around the country.

I have scoured libraries, vintage cookbooks, newspaper clippings, and food-splattered memorabilia from across the nation in search of homey, satisfying, unique, and delicious bread recipes to bring [...]