…who doesn’t try this deliciously simple dessert. As summer is approaching I can feel my culinary muscles getting sluggish. I don’t want to turn on the oven. It is enough to set a pot of water on the stove to boil. And baking? Well, just forget about it. I am tired, or maybe it’s just […]

I moved to New York for my husband’s job, but it ended up being a beneficial move for me as well. I found my agent, and eventually my publisher while living here. And when the time came to meet with my potential editor and a herd of others from Simon Spotlight, I was just a […]

I am not the neatest person. I am not however the messiest– comfortably lived-in is what I like to call it. There are always stacks of paper lying about my desk. Pens don’t always have caps. The coffee table can actually be used to hold a cup of coffee, and sometimes hours will pass before […]

Rite Aid was a mess, a disastrous mess. The indoor/outdoor carpet tiles covering the floor were peeling upwards displaying the worn concrete.  Loofahs, bottles of shampoo, and light bulbs were scattered helter-skelter on the ground. There was one frazzled checker and a line of customers 12 deep. When we walked in the store, I calmly […]

I’m over the cupcake, in theory. They are so fashionable that they have become passé. A new Magnolia Bakery has moved in to the Upper West Side, so now ladies, babies and dogs can experience their confections a little closer to home. Hauling your butt down to the West Village, waiting in line with countless […]

I can be a lazy cook. I am not however a lazy eater. I often have very lofty aspirations about what I want to eat, it is just getting there that can seem a bit daunting. But I have found that from laziness often comes resourcefulness, or pudding, as it was this time. Pudding is […]

Dear readers, I’m sure you are getting ready, as am I, for a holiday full of turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. But let’s not forget about Thanksgiving’s most maligned side dish, the jello salad. Probably not eaten at Plymouth Rock, but neither were those bubbling casseroles of yams topped with marshmallows, the jello salad is […]

Well, we’ve definitely come full circle, at least culinarily. Frozen yogurt (or fro-yo as it was affectionately called in California, where I spent my childhood) is back, with a vengeance. Oh sure, this time around it is vaguely different, flavored with green tea, or just plain– a simple, tangy version of the refrigerator variety. But […]

For me, the hardest part of going away is not the planning (I guess I’m not really a planner), nor is it the packing (just take all of your clothes and stuff them in a suitcase). It is using up the contents of the fridge for that final week at home, that works me up. […]

I have a soft spot for sandwich cookies. Or maybe a better turn of phrase would be: I have a sweet spot for sandwich cookies. Always have. Oreos, with there unpronounceable list of ingredients, are pretty darn close to perfect. Nutter Butters, part gooey peanut butter, part crisp, peanut-shaped confection, were a favorite afterschool for […]