While it might seem obvious when cooking for a crowd to make a big panful of dessert and then scoop out individual portions, I think it is more fun to make individual desserts. For a fruit crisp, I chose to use half-pint, wide-mouth canning jars as my serving dishes. They were economical because I had… Read More

Start today to develop a very smart habit: Store necks, tails, wing tips, gizzards, hearts, backs, rib (breast) bones-anything except livers-in a gallon-size lock-top freezer bag in your freezer. When the bag is really full, you have enough chicken parts to make a small pot of homemade stock. Squeeze excess air out of the bag… Read More

This big-flavored spice blend is guaranteed to ignite great taste when rubbed on shrimp, scallops, chicken, beef, lamb, buffalo, or pork. This recipe yields about 2 1/2 cups of the spice rub, which is a great quantity to divide and package for gift giving.

These are beyond adorable, more spectacular than any graham cracker you have ever tasted from a box, and such an unexpected gift. We made up generous gift bags but had to gift some back to the cook for snacking—we just couldn’t part with them. Give these to friends and family who have children, as the… Read More

Anyone who loves to bake will treasure this present, and you don’t even have to bake to make these gifts! There’s nothing to it: Select attractive glass bottles; buy plump vanilla beans, rum, and vodka; slit the beans and fit them into the bottles; pour the liquor over the top; and seal. Either make the… Read More

The saying goes, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” We say, “When you are handed lemons, make limoncello and lemonade.” It takes 15 lemons to make limoncello, and since only the peel is used, that leaves all the fruit to juice for a refreshingly large pitcher of homemade lemonade—that’s the beauty of making limoncello… Read More

Turn pretzel rods into magical, brightly coated Christmas delights by first dipping them in white chocolate and then picking your favorite holiday sprinkles to decorate. I like to use nonpareils, the tiny sugar balls that commonly come in white, but at Christmastime are packaged as a combination of red, green, and white. This is another… Read More

I find these cookies impossible to resist. Buttery shortbread with a tender crumb is cut into eye-catching shapes—stars are my favorite. Make all the cookies a uniform size, or vary the size of the stars and have a plateful of big stars and tiny ones. Any fun cookie cutter will work. One year I even… Read More

After a lengthy conversation about making truffles with Portland-based chocolatier David Briggs of Xocolatl de Davíd, he mentioned roasting white chocolate until it turned a luscious caramel color and using it as the center for truffles. I was intrigued; more precisely, I became obsessed. I’m not sure I have ever tested and re-tested a technique… Read More