Lemon Posset
It’s almost impossible to believe that lemon posset, a silky soft dessert, shares a name with a medieval cure-all of hot curdled milk and ale. Prescribed as a cold remedy throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, the original posset was more medicine cabinet than dessert bowl. Thank the ingenuity of 19th-century British chefs for rescuing…
Cranberry Sauce
Making your own cranberry sauce is so easy and with few ingredients, I am amazed why one would ever want to buy the commercial stuff. Cranberries are a good source of vitamin C and dietary fiber. They have been used to treat UTI’s (urinary tract infection) which blocks adhesion of bacteria to the urinary tract…
Stilton and Rosemary Shortbread
Instead of cookies and milk for Santa, how about these cute little treats? Christmas certainly has its share of traditions from all over the world but have you ever stopped to think who invented Christmas? The answer can be found in a book: How Charles Dickens‘s a Christmas Carol rescued his career and revived our…
Mince Pie Cookies
Mincemeat originally had meat in it (in Medieval times) along with fruit and beef suet. The meat was finely minced and was a way of using up leftover meat. The word may sound like an odd concoction as a dessert and evoke an unpleasant visual, but fondly enough the mince does have a sweet flavor…
Chipotle and Rosemary Spiced Nuts
This has to be the best holiday snack I’ve tasted! I was just thinking that other than the holidays, I really don’t go out of my way to buy nuts unless it’s called for in a recipe. Funny that! Nuts contain proteins, folic acid, vitamin E, vitamin B, flavonoids, folic acid, potassium, magnesium, selenium, zinc,…
Sheila’s Ginger Snaps
Holiday baking in my family goes back a few generations. I come from a line of women who enjoyed cooking and the holidays were no exception…hours of food preparation went into each Christmas season. This recipe is one that my mother gave to her mother back in the 1960’s and now I have it. It…
Thai Sweet Potato Soup with Coriander Pesto
We had friends, Lawrence and MJ over for dinner on Saturday. MJ is a vegetarian and although I could have cooked a meal and remove the non-vegetarian pieces for her, I decided to search my food blog archives for vegetarian recipes – I have a few – and went from there. We started the evening…
Cathedral Mountain Lodge – French Onion Soup
As I was flipping through the magazine and spotted this recipe, I was thinking to myself is there another recipe out there that can really improve on French onion soup? Onions, water, broth, bread, cheese, yada yada yada! Onion soup has been around for centuries (ancient Greek and Roman times) and was seen as food…
Cognac and Pistachio Chicken Liver Pâté
Pâté (pronounced pah-TAY) is French for pie. It’s simply a mixture of ground meat such as beef, pork, wild game, poultry, liver, or seafood and often combined with some form of fat, vegetables, herbs, or seasonings. The grind can be smooth and creamy or on the chunky side. It may be served hot or cold.…
Chicken Lollipops
The holiday party season is in full swing and these savory lollipops are easy to make and look stunning on any hors d’oeuvre table. They are the perfect size for your guests to nibble on and if you want to serve a sweet lollipop version as well, click here. While I was in Halifax, NS…
Elements on Hollis – A Restaurant Make-Over
John and I were in Halifax last weekend. It was a jam-packed 3 days and on Monday night we had dinner at Elements. It was the perfect ending to our weekend as we were heading back to NYC on Tuesday. Elements on Hollis is located within the Westin Hotel in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. A…
Chicken with Udon Noodles, Shiitake Mushrooms and Snow Peas
My husband and I returned from Canada yesterday late in the afternoon and I knew that I would have to stop at the local grocery store before I could make dinner. I was feeling an Asian void in our diet of late and decided to make a meal that would remind us of the Far…
Fried Fingerling Potatoes with Tarragon Sauce
The humble potato shines in this dish! It originated in South America (on the border between Bolivia and Peru) along the slopes of the central Andes nearly 8,000 years ago. What’s more amazing is that “what we know as the potato contains just a fragment of the genetic diversity found in the seven recognized potato…