I recently made a very, very good yam and swiss chard gratin from Smitten Kitchen. I also recently made a pork loin with fruit stuffing and a chipotle sherry cream sauce from a restaurant cookbook. The fruit stuffing was delicious and the sauce was amazing but altogether the pork loin dish managed to be simultaneously…
In Search of Magical Estonian Apple Cake (Gluten-Free)
A couple of weeks ago, my husband went to the Adirondacks for a weekend and brought me back some Winesap apples. This is a man who knows how to keep me happy. Winesap apples are dark, dark burgundy colour. They are not shiny and they are frequently blemished because they are an old variety of…
Sweet and Sour Honey Pickled Beets
I think of pickled beets as being very Canadian. I moved to the States when I was 9 years old, and I can remember being REALLY excited about eating home-made pickled beets when we came back to Canada to visit family. In my family, if you are having guests or extended family for dinner…
Simple Swiss Chard
I have posted this recipe before. The first time, it was buried in a very long rant about home-made mayonnaise and it occurs to me that not everyone who might like this excellent, simple recipe is as interested in home-made mayonnaise as I am. Also, this is probably my favourite food. It is definitely the…
Poached Pear and Cardamom Apple Butter Tart (gluten-free)
Chris brought me some tiny adorable pears from the Adirondacks. I had an apple that was bruised and beginning to rot. I also had a half full bottle of white wine and an orange. We had guests coming over for dinner. I made this tart. I got the poached pear recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for…
Spinach Salad with Fuyu Persimmons, Green Beans,Toasted Almonds and Spiced Vinaigrette
Persimmon is a new fruit to me. They have a short and highly celebrated season in the very late fall and there are two kinds that are available in NYC right now. Fuyu Persimmons are squat and pale orange and are eaten when they are still firm and can be sliced like an apple. Hachiya…
Chicken baked with Prunes, Capers and Green Olives
This is adapted from a very famous recipe called Chicken Marbala. It was the signature dish of the Silver Palate, a wildly popular catering company in New York in the 1980s that published two wildly popular cookbooks. If you are someone who cooks food for decadent parties, I cannot recommend these two books strongly enough….
The Kerthy Fix Sidecar
Sidecars seem very sophisticated and old-fashioned, but in fact, they are just Margaritas made with Brandy instead of Tequila, and a sugar instead of a salt rim. These small differences count though. I drink Sidecars in the winter and would feel very silly drinking a Margarita when the weather wasn’t hot I had my first…
Easiest of the Easy: Lentils Monastery Style with New-style Southern Cornbread
Well…. I’m still struggling with the fact that working in a commercial kitchen; however excellent, fruitful and fulfilling, diminishes my desire for cooking at home. Tonight I’m trying to convince myself that cooking is easy and satisfying by making two of the easiest and yummiest dishes in my repertoire. They are Monastery-style Lentil Soup and…
Big Sis Little Dish 