Salmon Butternut Squash Corn Chowder

It's Seriously Soup day today, featuring one of my favorite bloggers, Serena, who authors a blog called Seriously Soupy.  Serena started Seriously Soupy as a creative outlet for herself after her first daughter was born, which combined her passion for cooking with an interest in learning more about soups and soup making.  Since it started, she has given soup tours and taught soup classes and has a catalog of over 100 soups on the site!  You can join Serena on her Soupy journey at SeriouslySoupy.com and twice a month you can find her here, at My … [Read more...]

Lemon Buttermilk Cake

Sitting by the fire over winter break last week, I had a sudden craving for a thick slice of Mom’s Blueberry Brunch Cake. It’s deceptively light and tasty and can be served at all hours of the day.  It’s just as good served alongside a cup of tea at breakfast as it is after a nice hearty dinner. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any blueberries around. Instead, I had only lemons and I wasn’t about to venture out to the store in the below freezing temperatures.  Quite serendipitously, I stumbled upon a Lemon Buttermilk Cake recipe (similar to the … [Read more...]

Momofuku Corn Cookies

photo courtesy of The Crepes of Wrath The cold weather plus 2 weeks of winter vacation has inspired me to bake.  I love basking in the warmth from a kitchen full of the sweet smells and heat wafting from a working oven. I was so inspired last week when I met Christina Tossi, head pastry chef of Momofuku Milk Bar, that I decided to recreate one of her celebrated cookie recipes: Corn Cookies.  And, lucky for me, Christina happily shares this recipe with her fans, unlike many other head chefs who keep many of their culinary creation close to … [Read more...]

Christmas Viennese Crescent Cookies

Every year on December 25th we celebrate Jewish Christmas. We relax at home, go to the movies, and then eat Chinese food.  This year unfortunately we'll be traveling on Christmas day.  Since we'll miss our annual tradition, I decided it was time to try to replicate Mom’s Viennese Crescent Cookies as they’re often associated with Christmas time. Viennese Crescent Cookies, or Vanillekipferl, are similar to sugar cookies and the most distinctive characteristic is their shape: they are formed into crescents.  The cookies use ground nuts for … [Read more...]