From the category archives:

Recipes

Cream Caramels

by Laura 2 December 2010

Sometimes my recipe notes are a little amusing. I usually scribble as I’m cooking and over a number of years, my sheets of paper can become quite a mess. Being stuffed into a bursting-at-the-seams ring binder doesn’t help. After twelve years of making this caramel, there is a lot of scratch to sort out. So, [...]

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Thin Crust Pizza with Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Friesago, Shepherd’s Way Farms’ Merguez Lamb Sausage, & Fresh Chanterelles and Thyme

by Laura 27 November 2010

Shepherd’ Way Farms’ cheeses are so sublime it almost feels wrong to cook with them. Almost. I dreamed up this pizza as a vehicle for their friesago as well as their delicious merguez lamb sausage. It shows off their nuanced flavors without masking them. And it’s the best pizza we’ve ever had. Shepherd’s Way Farms’ [...]

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A Virtuous Smoothie

by Laura 26 November 2010

I have a master’s degree in nutrition, though you wouldn’t guess it from the content of this site. I suppose I assume that most people don’t get too excited about recipes for seaweed salads and kale. But after a day of button-popping indulgence, perhaps this virtuous berry banana smoothie will be appealing. I make one [...]

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Butternut Squash Soup with Arkansas Black Apples, Cream, & Fresh Marjoram, Thyme, and Sage

by Laura 25 November 2010

Do you ever walk into the grocery store with a plan and suddenly you’re so seized, so mesmerized by an ingredient, either new or in its most glorious incarnation, that you can’t even remember what you thought you were going to cook? That happened to me today when I saw Arkansas black apples for the [...]

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Chocolate Fudge with Walnuts

by Laura 24 November 2010

I have it in my head that I like fudge. I mean, shouldn’t I like fudge? So when we are traveling and I see a fudge shop, we usually pop in and buy a little slab or two. I’m inevitably disappointed. All the fudge I’ve tasted is grainy, overly sweet, and has the texture of [...]

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Grandma Fladeboe’s Ginger Cookies

by Laura 21 November 2010

My grandparents’ kitchen was the happiest place in my childhood. I spent a lot of time there, especially the year my parents were busy building a house themselves. Cousins from Ireland, Hillary and Camilla, were staying, too, and they taught me Gaelic, words and phrases and childhood rhymes, which I still remember. We had lots [...]

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Orange Flower Water Pound Cake with Candied Orange Peel & Rum and Orange Liqueur Glaze

by Laura 19 November 2010

This is definitely an egg-before-chicken recipe, but sometimes those are the most fun. I made too much glaze for my Pfeffernusse the other day (recipe here), and it was too good to just throw away, so I decided to dream up another vehicle for its sticky yummy-ness. I’ve been baking a lot of cookies, so [...]

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Sables

by Laura 18 November 2010

I sometimes wonder how many incarnations of the simple butter cookie have been developed. I love them all, but this is my favorite of all the butter cookies I have baked. It’s a slice and bake, ridiculously simple, and it is rich, buttery, mellow, tender, and utterly delicious. You could make endless varieties—add cacao nibs [...]

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Pfeffernusse with Rum and Orange Liqueur Glaze

by Laura 17 November 2010

My Dear Husband’s wonderful grandmother baked peppernuts, or Pfeffernusse, every year for Christmas. They were spiced little bite-sized cookies which she cut into squares, and they were distinctively hers. I have her recipe, but not her guidance, and though we’ve been without her for some years now, it’s still too hard to think of baking [...]

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Chocolate-dipped Lebkuchen

by Laura 16 November 2010

My Honey Girl is a sculptor, and when she was younger she made busts of culinary heroes for me. An animated, joyful Julia Child sits on my crowded cookbook cases across from a serene looking Marion Cunningham. If she ever offers to make another, Duluth, Minnesota native Beatrice Ojakangas will be next on the shelf. [...]

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Sugar Cookies with Almond Cream Icing and Luster Dust

by Laura 15 November 2010

The kitchen nisse were looking over me last night. I was so tired while I was baking that I left six baking sheets of more than 100 sugar cookies in the oven. Overnight. And they were still delicious the next morning! They needed just a couple more minutes when I last checked them, not six [...]

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