Laughter at Home

by Freddy 13 December 2010
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A guest post by my Sweet Boy My sister’s lilting giggle.  My mom’s dry and low laugh.  Gasping in reverse.  And weeping. My laughter, too. Occasionally someone falls off a chair. It’s my Dad.  He makes us laugh every day. My mom scolds. Wildly inappropriate. But she is laughing, too. We all are. Out of [...]

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After the Blizzard

by Laura 12 December 2010
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The Arctic air moves in.  …  The sky clears.  …  The temperature drops.  …  The wind chill drops below zero.  …  Clarence, my station wagon, gets stuck in a snow bank.  …  My Dear Husband shovels.  …  The snow plow pushes eight feet of snow into a bank at the end of our driveway.  …  [...]

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Winter Supper: Beef Stew & Farmhouse Rolls

by Laura 12 December 2010
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There are a couple of simple keys to making a great beef stew.  Buy good beef, brown it really well on all sides, don’t crowd the pan during the process, and don’t move it while it’s browning.  If you do that, and mingle it with other best-quality ingredients, you can’t go wrong.  This is my [...]

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Salted Peanut White Chocolate Lollipops

by Laura 12 December 2010
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These sweet lollipops are so easy to make it’s a little silly.  You pipe melted chocolate into molds, pop in a stick, and, well, that’s it!  Last year I made them with dark chocolate flavored with mint extract.  This year I decided to try white chocolate with chopped salted peanuts.  I think white chocolate deserves [...]

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Lavender Blueberry Pear Pâté de Fruits

by Laura 12 December 2010
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I first had pâté de fruits in France when I was in college.  My Dear Husband and I, then dating, rented a car in Calais with no plan and no reservations except for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and set off to wander for a month.  It was pure bliss.  Our little rented Renault puttered [...]

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Grilled Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Big Woods Blue Cheese Sandwich with Quince Paste and Raw Honey

by Laura 11 December 2010
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We’re enjoying an old fashioned Minnesota blizzard today.  The wind is howling, a fine powder of snow blurs the houses in the distance and swirls into drifts, and it’s bitterly cold, sixteen degrees and dropping.  Even little Annie, our ginger terrier, would prefer to sleep on her chair nestled in a blanket over chasing the [...]

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Quince Paste

by Laura 11 December 2010
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I went to a fancy grocery store this week in search of liquid pectin and kumquats thinking, They have everything, right?  I struck out, but I certainly had fun.  This kind of shopping is my own personal kid-in-a-candy-store experience: every kind of European butter, clotted cream, an olive bar the size of a swimming pool, [...]

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Rosewater-scented Turkish Delight

by Laura 10 December 2010
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Proust’s madeleine, Charles Arrowby’s toast, Edmund’s enchanted Turkish Delight. Don’t you love a character with a penchant for a particular food?  I first made Turkish Delight for my Honey Girl and my Sweet Boy years ago when we were reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  I was more interested in the candy than [...]

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Dark Chocolate Caramels with Smoked Sea Salt

by Laura 9 December 2010
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I’ve made caramel for many years now, but when I saw this recipe in the December, 2006 issue of Gourmet magazine I had a feeling it would become a staple in our Christmas candy repertoire.  It has.  I make it every year now, and it gets a lot of wows.  Salted candy has been trendy [...]

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Tangerine-scented Cranberry Pistachio Tiles

by Laura 8 December 2010
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The whole house smells of tangerines this morning.  When my Dear Husband staggered into the kitchen in his bathrobe for a first cup of coffee, his eyes widened and he asked me how I’d managed to make the house smell so good so early.  I had gotten up before the sun to bake, and the [...]

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Irish Oatmeal with Cream, Kerrygold Butter, Celtic Salt, Warm Celtic Crossing Liqueur-soaked Golden Raisins, and Toasted Walnuts

by Laura 7 December 2010
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We had house guests this weekend and I was trying to think of something to cook for them for breakfast Saturday morning.  Sandwiched between rich, heavy meals, I wanted something healthy-ish that would be delicious.  I settled on oatmeal, and laid out these accoutrements.  It was a comforting bowl on a wintry morning: creamy oats, [...]

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