Favorite Things: Parchment paper
Maybe my penchant for paper has to do with my love of books. Or it might reach back to some infant stage when, presented with anything paper, one has the urge to chew on it. I did have a calligraphy …...
View ArticleTechnique: How to clean and keep raspberries
The technique for cleaning raspberries is very simple: don’t do it. Even when raspberries are coated with a bit of dust from the field, it’s better to leave them alone or just rub off what you see than...
View ArticleChocolate-Covered Raspberries. Razzle-Dazzle.
When we were out picking in the raspberry fields last week, our shout-outs to one another included what to make with all of the berries. From the youngest to the eldest among us, there were some darn...
View ArticleFavorite Things: Tart Pans
The fluted-edged, removable-bottomed tart pan comes out to play with some frequency in my kitchen. It’s not just that I’m a sucker for the beauty of the pan, though that does have its role (who can...
View ArticleTechnique: Tips for Making Caramel
Caramel is like the fraternal twin of chocolate when it comes to making the kind of sweet you cannot, and will not, resist. Caramelization—the toasting or deep-golden-browning—of just about anything...
View ArticleChocolate-Caramel Pecan Tart Recipe
I present to you this prize of my recipe collection with what can only be described as…guilt. My mother recently asked what I’d be posting in the lead-up to Thanksgiving. I knew she had pie on her mind...
View ArticleIngredient: Chocolate, for dipping
If there is such a thing as the family chocolate, then ours has always been Hershey. It’s our version of a coat of arms. Hershey is what my grandfather liked and what he used in a business that has...
View ArticleChocolate-Dipped Candies, and Geo. Abowd & Son, Confectioners
The last time my Uncle Tom saw his father before he died, he was at the stove. Grandpa (my Jiddo who did not want to be called Jiddo, but rather the all-American Grandpa) was in his mid-80’s, and he...
View ArticleChocolate Cut-Out Cookies with Royal Icing
I had never really imagined a Christmas cut-out cookie in chocolate until last year at this time, when Cindy gave me a little bag of them. Instead of saving the cookies and taking them home to share, I...
View ArticleA Christmas Eve Menu, with ideas and tips
Somewhere along the line, our Christmas feast shifted from Christmas day to Christmas Eve. Our Eve used to be the seven of us, along with Sitto, Aunt Hilda and everyone’s favorite cousin, Alberta....
View ArticleFavorite Things: Little Cups
First off, hello and welcome to those of you who are new to Rose Water & Orange Blossoms. I welcome you, we all welcome you! If you were here in my kitchen on Main Street today, up north in...
View ArticleThick Hot Chocolate with Cinnamon, a quiet triumph
There are certain things we have eaten in their very finest forms that stay with us, that won’t leave us alone until we eat them again. My list of such finery does not include chicken wings, devotees...
View ArticleA Valentine’s Day Dinner Menu
I like to go out on Valentine’s Day for dinner about as much as I like to stay out all night on New Year’s Eve. You’ve got double the number of tables in the house, and “Prix Fixe,” overpriced,...
View ArticleFavorite Things: A smaller, taller cake pan
While few things say a party, or a birthday, like a layer cake, the ones we always made at home came out on the short and stocky side. I thought the issue was that the cake just didn’t rise like …...
View ArticleDouble Chocolate Cake with Fluffy Pink Icing
Given that my birthday falls near Valentine’s Day, I am into a layer cake for a Valentine dessert. My mother baked me memorable cakes always for my birthday, with my favorite marshmallow-like frosting,...
View ArticleRecipes for your (full) holiday cookie plate
Here’s what goes on in our house right about this time every year: the holiday china and its accessory pieces appear, as do the pretty paper plates for giving some of the bounty away. A plate or two...
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Dark Chocolate Cake Recipe, with Raspberry-Rose Cream
The other night a few of us got to talking about the aromas that have been especially memorable from different times and places of our lives. I couldn’t help but recall the ethanol that filled the air...
View ArticlePie, Tart, and Galette recipes for Thanksgiving
I’ve always enjoyed the menu daydream, wherein I allow myself to gaze away from the computer for a moment and construct a luscious meal, soup to nuts. In my Chicago office, that took place out the...
View ArticleValentine’s Day Recipes. Very sweet.
I’m thinking my inherent tic against all things cliché is owing to having been a lit major, a lit junkie programmed to ruthlessly weed those bad boys out of my writing. Perhaps it started there, but...
View ArticleMy Mom’s Chocolate Buttercream (for brownies)
My mother is famous for many dishes, for every Lebanese delight from her lemony salad to her eggplant, Sheik al Mehsheh. She is also an expert maker of chocolate buttercream. She uses it to thickly...
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