Archives for January 2014

Honey Bran Bread

I'm on a bread roll since baking the Cinnamon Raisin Bread this past weekend.  I was looking for one of Mom's recipes that could utilize some of the honey we have piled up in our cabinet. We love honey in my household and  it definitely helps that these products have been used and endorsed by two of the world's most popular chefs:  Bobby Flay and Tom Colicchio. Tom has said the honey is one of his "personal pantry essentials" and "favorite gifts." He also admits he keeps a "jar of the stuff at my desk at all times."   Mom's Honey Bran Bread … [Read more...]

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

It’s the Secret Recipe Club reveal day today.  I was assigned the blog Lynsey Lou’s, written by twenty-something Lynsey who’s recently married and uses her blog to explore and share recipes for her husband.  Her blog represents a wide variety of foods from simple cakes and meat dishes to other recipes  categorized as “ for daring bakers.” While many of Lynsey's recipes are tempting, I decided to take a crack at her  Cinnamon Raisin Bread.  Actually, for me, it was a huge challenge to attempt to make bread (that has to rise twice) in my own … [Read more...]

Roast Chicken Soup with Vegetables

Of course Mom made her own chicken stock. She’d use leftover  bones and skin from a cooked or raw chicken carcass and add in celery, carrots, onions, parsley, salt and pepper to the old worn out stock pot.  The back freezers always had Tupperware “stocked” with her homemade soup base. I still haven’t mustered up the nerve to to make my own stock (yes, I know it looks and sounds easy).  However, I did make the most wonderful Chicken Soup with Roasted Vegetables yesterday to try to ward off another frigid day of sub-freezing temperatures. This … [Read more...]

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

  Growing up in the suburbs of Baltimore provided some really fun snow days.  Our house was atop a steep, windy driveway so it was the main hub for all the neighborhood kids to build snow forts, go sledding, and later warm up by the fire with hot chocolate and marshmallows. It’s a definitely a complete departure for me raising our kids in NYC.  We share our backyard with hundreds of other kids who are vying for that one and only sledding hill  (it gets used and abused within the first hour).  And, we don’t have a fireplace.  But, I do … [Read more...]