This recipe really made me ponder the meaning of the word “easy.”  While rice pudding is not technically a difficult dish to pull off, can I really say it was easy if it took me two days to make it?  If it required me to track down two obscure ingredients that I would not have found if I didn’t have easy access to an Asian grocery?  If it made a royal mess in my kitchen?   And if it was such a pain, should I bother to post about it here? Well, of course I should bother, and I’ll tell…

Is there anything more comforting on a cold night than a big bowl of pasta and a glass of red wine?  The benefits are endless: it’s cheap (well, unless you splurge on the wine), it’s the easiest thing in the world to make, and since one box of spaghetti is enough to feed an army, you end up with leftovers for days.  But the problem is, when you have nothing but cold nights for half the year, the same old spaghetti gets a little boring. Spaghetti and meatballs probably sounds like the very definition of “same old,” but it’s pretty…

There is a diner down the street from my workplace that, I have heard, makes the world’s best breakfast and brunch.  I’m inclined to believe it, since that diner is always busy, even on random weekday mornings when I pass by on the way to work.  It’s hard not to be jealous of the people who have sufficient free time to go out for pancakes and coffee on a Tuesday… but then again, I can’t be too jealous, since I am also capable of making knockout pancakes at home anytime I want.  And at least when I do brunch at home, there’s…

Every year around this time, all Bostonians take on a certain look: a few extra bags under the eyes, a hardening of the mouth, and slightly hunched shoulders.  It’s March, but the sun refuses to peek out from behind the clouds, and the temperature insists on hovering around 25 degrees.  Most of the snow that’s still hanging around has been gray and dirty for weeks, and there are patches of ice lurking on every sidewalk, just waiting to take you down.  It’s a pretty depressing time. However, there’s a certain camaraderie that comes along with this mutual misery. “Stay warm…

I like a good food trend as much as the next person– I have eaten more than my fair share of cupcakes, and I think food trucks are the best thing since the invention of the drive-thru– but the recent frenzy over macarons just has me stumped.  Macarons are not to be confused with macaroons, which I’m showing you here; rather, they’re the tiny French cookie sandwiches that come in an array of flavors and Easter-egg hues.  Not only are they popping up in bakeries everywhere, but images of macarons grace greeting cards, calendars, tea towels… one of my favorite…

If you ask me, there’s nothing better than breakfast.  Lunch is pleasant enough, and dinner certainly has its charms, but breakfast is a little bit magical, if you think about it.  Breakfast invites you to begin your day with intention– even if it’s just a bowl of cereal and a cup of hot coffee, sitting down for breakfast means that your day begins with a deliberate act of self-care; instead of rushing frantically about the house, haphazardly getting dressed and throwing things in your work bag, and then bolting out the door to catch the bus, you’re choosing to wake…

I’m pretty sure there’s nothing more laughable than showing up on a food blog in this, the year of our Lord 2014, to extol the virtues of mac and cheese.  The fact that baked, cheesy noodles with creamy sauce and crispy crust is incredible will come as a surprise to just about no one in the modern world.  But I’m going to rave about it anyway.  This mac and cheese is a bright light during a cold, dark winter; it is as comforting as a warm blanket made of hugs.  You will want to eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner,…

What can I tell you about these scones that will accurately capture the wonder that they are, and the pure joy it brought me to make them?  Imagine that you had a free day and the luxury of spending several hours of it slowly, leisurely putting these scones together.  Imagine that it’s snowing gently while you’re measuring flour and chopping chocolate, and that you have a steady stream of coffee at your disposal.  And imagine that you have a puppy sleeping contentedly on your couch and back episodes of Top Chef playing in the background while you work.  That’s what…

During my first couple years of college, when the spring semester would end, I’d pack up the entire contents of my dorm room, cram it all into my Honda Passport, and drive two whole hours to my parents’ house, where I’d spend the summer.  I always had some sort of job lined up to keep me occupied; one year I worked as a hostess in a local lunch spot, and another year I worked– no kidding– in a peanut plant.  Well, in the administrative office of the peanut plant, anyway. In addition to my busy work schedule, and my even busier…

I want to start this blog post by saying a big ol’ thank you to my workplace and my boss– without my job, my lunch today would never have happened, and I don’t want to imagine a world in which I had not just eaten this dish for lunch.  It’s always good to be a cheesemonger, but today the rewards were exceptional. Firstly, I likely wouldn’t have come across this recipe if my boss hadn’t bought me a copy of the excellent cookbook The Cheesemonger’s Kitchen, by Chester Hastings, to keep in my work station.  And if I had found my…

Remember last week, when I told you about the hyper-sweet macadamia nut and almond butter I made?  And remember how I told you that it was so incredibly sweet that I could barely eat it?  I thought I took it in stride– I carefully packaged it up, tucked it in the fridge, and made plans to turn it into a batch of cookies.  Because when you fall off the horse, you get back on, right?  Especially when there’s a New Year’s Resolution on the line. Well, what do you do when the cookies you try to make with the sugar…

Oh, hello, new year!  It’s nice to see you.  You’ve been pretty great so far, but at only six days in, I can’t help but wonder what you have in store for me.  I’ll go ahead and let you know that 2013 left you some pretty big shoes to fill.  I’m not sure if you can offer as many milestones as last year, but I’m willing to bet you can throw an abundance of good times at me.  Show me what you got! I’ve never been really big on making new year’s resolutions. I usually set myself a small goal…

It’s the day after Christmas, and for the first time in a few years, I am spending it not at my parents’ house, but in Boston.  I miss my family, of course, but it’s not all bad.  Alex and I spent Christmas day with our Boston family (hi Joe and Olivia!); we spent nearly the entire day in our pajamas, we cooked many, many wonderful things (most of which I will show you very soon), and we watched Christmas movies all day long.  Today has been equally cozy: a light dusting of snow covers the ground; I am, in fact,…

For an avid cookie baker, there is no better time of year than Christmas.  When else is it acceptable– desirable– expected, even– to run around town handing out fresh-baked cookies to everyone you meet?  During what other season can you go through an entire pound of butter each week and not feel even slightly guilty about it?  Even before I learned my way around the kitchen, cutting out sugar cookies and frosting them with colorful icing was a highlight of the season; once I discovered that I cared about the baking process, well… things quickly got out of hand.  By which…

Can we all take a moment to reflect on the wonders of winter squash?  It’s one of my favorite things in the whole world, and probably one of the biggest reasons why the end of the year is my favorite time of year.  To be fair, summer squash is also one of my favorite things in the world, but there’s just something about the hefty ones that start showing up in the produce section in October and November that warms my heart a little extra.  That’s partly because of their variety of whimsical shapes; it’s also partly because of their…