The Best Homemade Popcorn

It's time to watch a movie. Any movie will do. The main attraction is the popcorn.

Eat Your Leftovers: Stale Bread

My two favorite things to do with stale bread.

Vodka + Lemonade

The easiest of cocktails.

Cream Cheese Spiderweb Brownies

This is lazy baking at its best.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Finally, after years of failure, I've made the tall, dark chocolate cake of my dreams—and its peanut butter filling makes it even yummier.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

August's Favorite Exception is the perfect after-school snack: make-ahead coconut oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

Blueberry Pie: July’s Exception

OK, all you Fourth of July barbeque-ers, I give you my favorite exception for July: a super yummy blueberry pie. I was in a debate recently about whether it was more traditional to serve blueberry pie or apple pie for Independence Day. I know apple pie is all-American, but apples are for winter when nothing… Continue reading Blueberry Pie: July’s Exception

New Feature: My Favorite Exceptions

Now that I'm almost 40, eating desserts has an immediate effect on my midsection. So I made a rule. But every good rule about desserts is going to need some major exceptions.

Food Good

I'd like to start posting more often than I do now, which is probably a long shot given that summer has just begun and no babysitting fairies have nested in my attic. But I'm just going to put it out there in the hopes that my public declaration will help with the follow through. (Oh,… Continue reading Food Good

Chocolate Chip and Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins

Leftover pumpkin? Let me help you out. In college I was friends with a girl named Kim, whom I shall forever remember fondly for two things: 1) facing an angry Italian train conductor together when we accidentally slept through our Florence stop and found ourselves Rome-bound with nary a lira between us to pay for… Continue reading Chocolate Chip and Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins

This Is a Public Service Announcement

This is a public service announcement—not a terribly important one, I grant you, unless you are starting your period, or going through a divorce, or heaven help you, both, in which case it is of the utmost importance. To all you chocolate and peanut butter lovers out there who have been driving across town to… Continue reading This Is a Public Service Announcement

A Miracle of a Mexican Martini

"Honey, this drink is a miracle!" I proclaimed last night in a volume that was perhaps just a smidge too high. "One drink and you're set—you're set!" Apparently I was pretty set already, because I needed my husband to point out that becoming inebriated after drinking 4 ounces of hard alcohol over the course of… Continue reading A Miracle of a Mexican Martini

Cutting Costs

[I got this gazillion word opus on frugality to within a paragraph of completion and then sat on it for months. Why did I do this? I think it's because I feel a bit like a hypocrite; I love to dream up the perfect way to do things, but my execution inevitably falls short. I… Continue reading Cutting Costs

Pretend Gingerbread Cookies

I love gingerbread cookies. Well, the way they look anyway. The way they taste? Not so much. So I decided to fake it. Here is a recipe for super yummy sugar cookies, masquerading as little gingerbread boys and girls. I've also included a recipe for the kind of icing that dries hard. There is nothing… Continue reading Pretend Gingerbread Cookies

Extra Cinnamony Snickerdoodles

I never used to make mistakes while baking. Ever. I would get into this super-anal Martha mode and execute to a T. But now I have all these munchkins running around, sometimes even "helping," and Martha mode is no more. A couple of weeks ago I left the salt out of the pumpkin bread (I… Continue reading Extra Cinnamony Snickerdoodles