Archive for November, 2007

No-hassle Holiday Gifts

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

For holiday gifts, some people bake cookies. I booze cherries.
A few years ago I was on deadline for a Boxing Day story and needed more column inches. Remembering the marinated fruits on the cheese cart at Campton Place, I ransacked my pantry, found some dried tart cherries and macerated them in brandy to pair with [...]

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A Venetian Supper [with Mental Margin Notes]

Monday, November 26th, 2007

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Back in August I posted about my affection for La Posta restaurant in Santa Cruz, particularly the 4-course Sunday dinners, served family-style. The menu is fixed — no choices; no substitutions. I never call [...]

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Twas the Night before Turkey

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007

Blood orange/shallot butter
The sweet potato pudding is defrosting in the refrigerator; the pie crust is resting in the freezer and the cranberry/orange relish is getting damned tasty after its week-long marinade in Tripe Sec. Despite a day spent here at the beach house last week getting a head [...]

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Do-ahead Sweet Potato Pudding

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

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Once again, as I have been for the past two Thanksgivings, I’m thankful for Marian Burros and her splendid recipe for Spiced Sweet Potato Pudding. Any Thanksgiving recipe that can be made way [...]

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Radicchio di Castelfranco

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

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I was heading to the far corner of the vegetable garden to cut the last dahlia of the season — a bright red blossom I’d spotted from the kitchen window — when I found [...]

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True Love — at last.

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

Over the years I’ve wasted silly amounts of money in search of the perfect containers for fridge and freezer storage, but my long, frustrating quest is over. My heart now belongs to decor tellfresh containers — made in Australia but available from the Container Store’s website. They’re dishwasher safe, relatively inexpensive, come [...]

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Thanksgiving Countdown

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

Here’s my dining room table, already set for Thanksgiving. Well, I *did* co-write a book about organization (with San Francisco interior designer Randall Koll) and what could be more organized than setting a holiday table two weeks early?.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; [...]

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Pears Perhaps-Pepin

Monday, November 5th, 2007

Years ago, in a Houston cooking class taught by an elegant woman named Neva Paul, I learned a delicious and simple recipe for caramel pears. So simple that I soon stopped referring to the printed recipe and just tossed the ingredients together from memory: peel, halve and core firm pears; place them cut side down [...]

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