settlement cookbook

  • 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

  • Two years

    Dear blog, Today you are older and hopefully wiser. (I’m not sure I am.) We’ve done quite a bit this past year… cooked from recipes from 1967, 1903, and the 1st century AD visited Downton Abbey through Victorian and Edwardian… 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

  • 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

  • Luisa Weiss’ My Berlin Kitchen

    You know how there are books that grab you from the first page? You think to yourself, This is me. I see myself in this story. This was my experience with Luisa Weiss’ memoir My Berlin Kitchen. I was so enthralled… Continue reading

  • Sardine sandwiches

    Yep, you read that right. As you may recall, I’m one of those weird folks who actually enjoy foods deemed disgusting by many Americans: anchovies and sardines, in particular. Anchovies don’t just add a unique umami flavor to pasta sauces… Continue reading

  • A tale of two peanut butters

    This weekend the weather turned. It’s been hot and muggy all week, the air dense with rain. And now the heat has burned off and it actually feels like fall. Supposedly it won’t last, but after Saturday, we’ll take it.… Continue reading

  • To make ice cream

    It’s been a busy summer, one full of transitions: family milestones, a move ten minutes down the road, exotic travel, a new school. This week I’ve been focusing on that last one, a new school, as we get ready for… Continue reading