dessert

  • Apple pie

    Sometimes you get old recipes right the first time: you decipher the flowery language, you make the right substitutions, you determine the correct proportions. And sometimes, well, you don’t. This is a story of when I got it wrong. We… Continue reading

  • Shortbread fans (and a bit about ovens)

    It’s the last gasp of summer, friends. The air is getting cool at night (sometimes). Stores offer apple cider in big displays. And this week I go back to school. To mark the occasion, let’s look at one more recipe… Continue reading

  • Himmel torte

    We just returned from a week in Maine with Josh’s family. A gorgeous lake house near the town of Casco served as our home base, and we spent the week swimming, kayaking, reading, and playing games. The men-folk cooked almost… Continue reading

  • Devil’s cake no. 1

    Yesterday I celebrated my birthday! I turned 27, just a few weeks after this blog turned 2. In between melting in the 90-degree heat and dashing through torrential rainstorms (yes, it was an eventful day, weather-wise), I enjoyed a pastry… Continue reading

  • Dining at Downton: Gilded crust (pain perdu)

    When I took French in middle school and high school, I particularly loved the words that had both literal and figurative meanings. “Petit chou,” you might call your sweetheart, meaning…”little cabbage.” “Pomme de terre” was on the list of grocery… Continue reading

  • Short cake, with blueberry topping

    Over the long weekend, my sister Lissa came to visit, and one afternoon we drove down to New Haven, CT, to visit our old college. We toured the British Art Gallery and I found time to wander around Yale’s campus… 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

  • 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