Today I made a special dinner for a lawyer friend of my daughter’s in exchange for some excellent legal advice. I’d asked what her culinary preference was since I’m familiar with several. She suggested Middle Eastern and mentioned having had Iranian cuisine frequently at home while growing up, perhaps a nanny, so I decided to … More Roundabout Middle Eastern Dinner
Since summertime 2014, most Tuesday dinners involved some items or spices typically associated with Mexican food and were called, in a name widely used elsewhere, Taco Tuesdays. It seldom involved tacos, but often involved the leanest ground beef with taco seasoning. (I could write a mini-book with those recipes; maybe I will someday.) My daughter’s … More Stuffed Eggplant
That gorgeous garden of bamboo and palm brushes right up to the wide kitchen window in my new home. It’s the biggest kitchen with the most counter, cabinet and floor space I’ve ever had to myself, and lots of decisions. If you’ve ever had three-quarters of your kitchen needs in boxes in another room … More A New Kitchen, Neighbors, Home Ec 101
Example 2 in the short series of baking as therapy for struggling with someone trying to get in my front door is another variation on a known and an unknown. Bran muffins with banana, raisins and dried cranberries are tasty. It is known by bran muffin lovers worldwide. Molasses caramels are also tasty, and molasses … More Baking Experiments as Therapy, Example 2: Bran & Fruit Muffins with Molasses Caramel
This chewy cookie — which thinks it’s a candy — is the second of the Molasses Trio. They began life with raisins, which I love with molasses, but Mother changed my recipe, put dates in them because she’s not a raisin fan. For wider distribution, no fruit. Always with a lime glaze or, as above, … More Molasses Chews with Lime Glaze, a Star
In Santa Monica, not far from McCabe’s Guitar Shop where I was taking a class, there was a small chocolate shop with the best chocolate cookie that I’d ever had in my life. As a sincere believer that chocolate is a food group, I made sure to have them often enough to sustain life. The … More juliyya’s Chocolate Joneses, truly a Star
My daughter asks for these every year as a selection in the Christmas cookie mix. She used to make them, too, as her contribution to the holiday baking. I don’t prefer to put them in the gift boxes because they are big. It’s impossible to make them small or all you get is a few … More Haystacks. Someone thinks they’re a star
Christmas goodie-making time began on Monday night with an untried recipe which was a result of looking at half a dozen recipes for molasses caramels, choosing the one which appealed most because it doesn’t have corn syrup and having a go, changing it a bit. My family loves molasses and also a dark caramel custard. … More Molasses Caramels, Star of the Day
There is always leftover turkey after the next-day leftover Thanksgiving dinner and possibly a turkey sandwich, so I usually make real McCoy turkey enchiladas. Well, more like real Garcia turkey enchiladas since I learned how to make them in a lesson just for me by the Mexican-native mother of the teenager who babysat my daughter … More Chutney Baby, One More Time
While going to graduate school and living for several years in London, Thanksgiving dinner was not neglected by me or other American students and business people. Typically I invited colleagues from S.O.A.S. who came from many different countries and had not experienced our holiday tradition. (Some of the return invitations provided me the experience of … More Thanksgiving Joke, Told Yearly, Told Again
Ms Chef in Seattle 