From Scratch

Christmas and New Year, that is. I hope your holidays are filled with love and joy…and cookies.
Like many of you, I’m taking the week off so I’ll see you then and leave you in the hands of that French chick with a ‘tude.

Sphere: Related Content

Editorial cartoonists in several countries borrowed Santa Claus this week, creating remarkably similar drawings to say something about global warming. Sweden’s Riber Hansson produced one Thursday that’s beyond a sketch: it’s a memorable full-blown illustration.

Sphere: Related Content

I don’t even want to imagine how many millions of tubs of this chemical cocktail are sold each year, especially during the holidays. At some tipping point in our history of dubious foods, people began using it beyond its intended purpose as a topping and started adding it to cakes (from mixes), frostings (made with instant […]

The finest peppermint bark I’ve ever had is a hand-tempered, top-quality-chocolate and peppermint confection at $24 per pound. I don’t know about you, but that kind of money for candy doesn’t sashay into my life every day, so we can mimic the festive treat for a fraction of the cost and time involved with only a few limitations.
First, […]

For many, Christmas dinner means a rib roast. The last several years foodies generally have been in two camps about preparing it: blast it with a high temperature or give it a slow roast at a low temperature. I’ve remained stuck in the tried-and-true 325 degree camp; I don’t make expensive rib roasts often and prefer […]

In the comments following my post on gravy thickeners I mentioned using ground nuts to thicken some soups and stews. This is another dish that uses nuts to thicken its sauce and it’s one I could eat every week. I love curry. It’s a wonderful cold weather meal and simple enough that it’s perfect for this […]

Every year for two weeks, food bloggers around the world lend their support to Menu for Hope, a fundraiser for the UN World Food Program. It’s a raffle, $10 per entry, with fabulous international prizes — your choice — ranging from culinary instruction and special dining experiences to high-end cookware and signed cookbooks. I want to […]

While I am not a fan of Republican Mitt Romney’s positions — no matter how often they change — I always get angry when the subject of his religion resurfaces, as it did again this week. Aren’t we, as a nation, beyond this yet? Mike Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily wondered the same thing on Tuesday in […]

Decorating cutout cookies can be as simple as sprinkling sugar on them before they head into the oven or as involved as designs far more elaborate than I’ve done here. When going beyond a minimal approach, we need royal icing, the familiar cement for making gingerbread houses.
But it doesn’t have to be a tooth-chipping mortar. We control […]

It’s not often I run across a rolled cookie dough that doesn’t need an hour or more in the refrigerator before using it, so when I saw this recipe I tried it. I nearly threw it away; it’s from the card a gingerbread cutter was on and I assumed the recipe was for gingerbread.
They bake up […]

A just-released poll by WMUR and CNN shows Hillary Clinton’s lead over Barack Obama in New Hampshire has vanished. They are in a statistical dead heat, with Clinton’s support at 31% and Obama’s at 30%.
Since November, her support has dropped by 5 percentage points, while his has risen by 8 percentage points.
On the Republican side, […]

If cake batters and cookie doughs could talk they might say, “I’m not bad. I’m just mixed that way.”
The purpose of creaming is to create air bubbles…
Creaming is a basic, essential technique that countless people get wrong. Many cakes and cookies, especially cutout cookies, begin with this step. It’s no time for shortcuts or impatience. […]

Remember when Bill Clinton was running for his first term and Hillary, already controversial, said, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas…”? It was enough of a gaffe that, once in the White House, she released a cookie recipe and is said to have really made them. With her own two […]

When I was a girl I used to wince when my mother dug out the Christmas cookie cutters. It was just a matter of hours until I’d be stuck with helping to decorate them. I hated it, sitting there with a butter knife and carefully coating them with creamy frostings tinted holiday colors that served as a […]

Cartoonists at home and abroad had a field day with the US National Intelligence report that Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Patrick Chappatte of the International Herald Tribune was blunt on Wednesday.

Sphere: Related Content