Back in California, what seems like eons ago, I used to do some catering. It’s not something that I do an awful lot of in my new life as a cookbook writer, but I would. And well, this past weekend, I did. There was a couple in my neighborhood getting married. They shunned the usual, […]

Last Friday I went on local television to bake a pie– a Chocolate Raisin Pie. I think chocolate and raisins are sort of the perfect combination. I always eat the raisins with the chocolate chips out of the “bad-for-you” trail mix. (Which is really the only type of trail mix I like.) I love a […]

This is a picture of the two pies I brought down to Washington, DC with me last week– in that horrible heat wave that struck the East Coast. These pies were cooling on my kitchen counter in Connecticut ready to make their debut at the NPR studios in DC. They were covered in pure white, […]

Let’s take a moment and think about pie. I actually took way more than a moment to think about, bake, and research, this outstanding, American culinary tradition. I took about a year. Maybe you guys have noticed the image on the right-hand side of your computer screen. I put the picture of a book cover […]

I am not a competitive person. Growing up, I never had any interest in organized sports. I was on the basketball team (B team, mind you) in middle school. There was one game that the coach had to call a time out because I got tangled in my jersey. Yeah. That’s how good I was. […]

I went apple picking again. Correction– I went apple, crabapple and quince picking, and I went a little crazy. 22 pounds of crazy. The apples are enormous, and delicious, but enormous none the less– imagine the head of a small child, covered in delicate, chewy and edible bright green skin. But apples, unlike so many […]

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. […]