From Scratch

If you’ve never worked with phyllo dough, just take a deep breath and do it. This festive and different dessert, with dark chocolate and neufchâtel as well as cranberries, is worth trying when you’d like to serve something special.
Like many people, I was intimidated by phyllo dough, especially when every cookbook exhorts us to work […]

If, like me, you enjoy apples out of hand and if you haven’t yet tried a Honeycrisp, you really ought to. Having one is like eating cider.
It’s a relatively recent apple, and patented. The official website says the two-toned Honeycrisp is a cross between the Macoun, also great out of hand, and the Honeygold, but […]

The Food Network has announced production of Emeril Live will end December 11, after 10 years on the air. A statement from a network publicist says Chef Emeril Lagasse will remain under contract.  “We love him, we support him and look forward to a long partnership with him.”
When asked by The Associated Press why the show […]

One of my favorite moments of Top Chef Season 3 was when Chef Tom Colicchio, the head judge, explained to obnoxious Howie why his risotto was all wrong. He’d added cream to it and it was still so gluey it nearly stood up on its own like a timbale. Colicchio told him the creaminess should come […]

These delectable cookies, with a rich, flaky dough of cream cheese and butter, are probably the most popular Jewish cookie in America, loved by Gentiles too. The name means “little twists” in Yiddish and they’re year-round favorites but are traditional at Hanukkah. It’s early this year; the first candle will be lit the evening of […]

At long last, the dispute between New Hampshire and Michigan over primary election dates is over, after the Michigan Supreme Court gave that state the go-ahead to hold its primary January 15. New Hampshire then announced its primary will be January 8, retaining its first-in-the-nation status. That’s the earliest presidential primary ever and is three […]

Barry Bonds’ performance-enhanced glory as baseball’s new home run king began to unravel this week, when he was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying to a federal grand jury about whether he knowingly used steroids. The New York Post’s Ramirez hit one out of the park on Wednesday.
Related: Cartoon of the Week 7/29

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You know the dilemma: you need a gift for someone who likes to cook or bake. Perhaps the cook in your life is like me and has been outfitting a kitchen for years, someone you think has everything. And maybe you don’t cook or bake at all and are at a loss.
Here are some ideas. They […]

Remember —  calories don’t count today.
Eat up and I’ll see you after the holiday.

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving for most people without cranberry sauce, but often it’s treated like an obligation. Is there anything on the holiday table less appealing than a jelled roll of canned cranberry “sauce”, sliced into quivering discs that still bear the marks of the can? It’s one of those retro relics of the Fifties whose time […]

The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the American Medical Association are urging the Food and Drug Administration to require food makers to reduce the salt in their products. A hearing is scheduled next week and they are expected to say intervention is needed to fight heart disease.
Nearly one-third of American adults — […]

Had there been room I’d have called this Can I eat a turkey we’ve had for thirty years? It was a real question for the tireless turkey experts at the Butterball Turkey Hotline. For more than twenty-five years they’ve been on the other end of the phone during the holidays to answer our questions. This year’s […]

If illustrator Norman Rockwell were still alive, I wonder if he’d do a vegetarian version of his iconic Freedom From Want? The painting, from his Four Freedoms, is seared onto our national consciousness as an idealized family Thanksgiving but for millions, a turkey on the table is neither ideal nor desirable.  
These days there are plenty of choices for […]

I’m beginning to think of American presidential politics as a spectator sport, one with an ever-expanding season that seems never to end. That’s not necessarily a good thing, so I got a kick out of John Cole’s cartoon yesterday for the Scranton Times-Tribune.

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Martha Kostyra has died. She was 93 and was known as “Big Martha” to all who saw her on her daughter’s TV show. Martha Stewart announced it on her own blog and posted a recent video tribute to her. No cause of death was given but Stewart said on her show last week that her […]