Abby Murphy

  • Dining at Downton: What to eat while watching Season 3

    I’m counting down the days until the premiere of Season 3 of Downton Abbey in the U.S. this Sunday night. I’ve been steadfast, refusing to watch uploaded episodes from the U.K. or to search down spoilers. And yesterday my excitement reached… Continue reading

  • Dining at Downton: How to serve plum pudding

    We had a relatively quiet Christmas here in Ohio, seeing family and telling funny stories and going for long, snowy walks and eating good food. As per tradition, we served plum pudding for dessert on Christmas night, along with a… Continue reading

  • Dining at Downton: How to steam plum pudding

    On Saturday we talked about how to make your own plum pudding, the most classic of British holiday desserts. (Yes, I am still wondering where the plums are in the recipe.) Today we’ll discuss the cooking process, which is a… Continue reading

  • Dining at Downton: How to make plum pudding

    This time of year, my family is all about tradition. Previously I wrote about the Brunswick stew we’ve kept from my mom’s side of the family, though I tested out a Williamsburg variation of the recipe. That’s still on the… Continue reading

  • Dining at Downton: Mulled wine

    It’s getting to be that time when I start glancing at the calendar to see how many days are left. Not before Christmas (though that’s another kind of concern) but before the premiere. Yes, you know. The U.S. premiere of… Continue reading

  • 5 ways to reuse Mason jars

    Over the weekend Nina came over and we had another canning extravaganza (Cabernet Sauvignon jelly and pear & ginger preserves, for the curious). It’s much more fun, and efficient, to can with another person, especially if you both prep your… Continue reading

  • How I blog (plus potato pancakes)

    I’d like to pretend all my blog posts and series spill out onto the computer fully-formed. But like most of my writing, creating blog content is a slow, careful process. There’s a lot of planning, rewriting, deleting, and then some… Continue reading

  • Candied orange peel (with chocolate)

    Thanksgiving is over. The turkey’s been roasted and eaten (or perhaps you tried a duck?), the festive harvest plates have been washed and put away for another year. And now everything in America is telling us it’s time for the… Continue reading

  • The "First" Thanksgiving (III)

    Last week we looked at some of the myths surrounding the original Thanksgiving. We’ve explored how the Pilgrims were not, in fact, Pilgrims, and how the First Thanksgiving wasn’t the homey, pastoral scene we’re taught in school. Today we’ll look at… Continue reading

  • The "First" Thanksgiving (II)

    This week and next, I’m exploring some of the myths about the First Thanksgiving. We’ve discussed how the Pilgrims were not, in fact, Pilgrims (they had much fancier terms for themselves back in 1621). We’ve looked at a bizarre recipe… Continue reading