Peach cobbler

Peaches in summer Don’t be tempted to buy peaches in winter, and even in summer, don’t buy peaches from big grocery stores, or you’ll think peaches are just naturally supposed to taste like cardboard. This is a recipe that needs good peaches, juicy tasty peaches that were picked when they were already ripe. July and …

Sweet potato fries

You need a sharp knife No, really, a sharp knife. Otherwise making sweet potato fries is no fun. But besides that, most cooking is more fun with a really sharp knife. You need sharp knives to slice apples for baked apples, or to slice onions or carrots. It’s one of the core problems of my life. I can’t seem …

Haroset (and haroset pie!)

What is haroset? Haroset is a mixture of chopped apples and nuts that plays a part in the traditional Jewish seder meal at Passover. By March, it’s hard to get the kids excited about more apples, but they love making and eating haroset. Ashkenazi or Sephardic? Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe, like my Lithuanian ancestors, …

Cranberry sauce

Homemade cranberry sauce versus The Mold At our house, some people like homemade cranberry sauce, but for other people it’s not Thanksgiving without the kind of cranberry sauce that dumps out of the can in one piece and stands up in the bowl in one quivering glistening cylinder. So we always have both on the …

Candied carrots

Kids gobble these up The sugar, and the sweetness of the caramelized carrots, makes these a big favorite with kids. The biggest problem is that I get tired of cutting up carrots and never make enough of them, and then I have the kids fighting over them. But hey, kids fighting over carrots – that …