My friend Jill O'Connor knows a thing or two or three about baking, desserts and sweet treats. As a pastry chef, she knows the why and how, and she brings her professional expertise into the home kitchen. She's also a mom, a newspaper food columnist and a cookbook author, all of which add generous dollops of down-to-earth perspective to the recipes ...
Classics
Southern Chocolate Pound Cake with Chocolate Pecan Icing
Chocolate and pecans: Made for each other, right? My Southern Chocolate Pound Cake delivers delight in every bite, even without this magnificent fudgy-pecan glaze. Enjoy it plain or embellished --- either way, it's do-able pound cake heaven. Valentine's Day Thoughts Flowers, candy, cards, candlelit dinners, chocolate: That's my word-association ...
Edna Lewis’s Tyler Pie
Bright and tangy lemon flavor meets luscious Southern chess pie goodness in Edna Lewis's Tyler Pie. Stir it together in a jiffy, and then celebrate Chef Lewis's culinary genius with pie-loving family and friends! Custard meets chess meets lemonade, with luscious results sure to win you all the praise! What is Tyler Pie? Tyler pie hails from ...
Creole Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce
When you say "Comfort Food!" I say: Bread Pudding. Make mine New Orleans-style, because the Big Easy is the home of this simple Creole Bread Pudding recipe. How about we let the good times roll, right into your kitchen? Bread Pudding = Simple, Smart, Satisfying, and Sweet Bread pudding is a home-cooking classic, beloved across the USA and ...
Coconut Custard Pie
Coconut custard pie brings old-time baking pleasure home and makes a simple, delicious dessert for friends and family, for guests, or for taking along to a potluck, a party, or an event at work or school. Easy-to-find ingredients, simple methods, everyday equipment: It's a fine everyday homemade treat. Start with a single round of pastry ...
Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan-Gingersnap Crust
If you're looking for a fabulous, can-do, beautiful and luscious holiday dessert, Pumpkin Cheesecake is the answer. This recipe makes the best one I've ever had, right down to its Gingersnap-Pecan Crust! Sweet and yet tangy, simple and yet complex, familiar and yet endlessly variable, cheesecake is a glorious dessert which is easy for cooks to ...
Farewell to A Chef’s Life
Tonight you can watch "A Chef's Life" Harvest Special, celebrating the Series Finale for this beloved PBS television show. Chef Vivian Howard welcomes us to her kitchen, restaurant (The Chef and the Farmer), and Eastern NC home to remember five fabulous seasons and toast the memories with friends and family. Airing 9:00 pm Monday 10/21 on ...
Fresh Plum Sonker with Vanilla Milk Dip
I love home baking and traditional recipes with a story to tell. This week I got to share one in a big, wonderful way, cooking up a fresh plum sonker on the Hallmark Channel in the bright, sunny Home & Family kitchen. A sonker is a North Carolina regional dessert treasure, a great big, juicy, pastry-lined version of cobbler, with a lovely ...
Southern Tomato Pie from Chef Ashley Christensen
Savory and satisfying, Southern Tomato Pie brings the smiles and why not? When you pile summer's ripe, juicy tomatoes, fresh basil, mayo, and gooey cheddar cheese into a buttery, flaky piecrust, people feel hungry and happy fast. Easy, cheesy, and simple to prepare, it's the best make-ahead party recipe I know. You bet it's on my go-to ...
Sunday Suppers: Cynthia Graubart’s Cookbook Shows the Way
Do you have good memories of regular family meals, gathered around the table, but find it difficult to make that happen nowadays? For many of us, it's a scene we'd love to see, but the logistics, the preparations, the decisions and the details sink the idea before we even get started. That's why Cynthia Graubart wrote her latest cookbook: Sunday ...
New England Clam Chowder
Soup season rolled on the early side this year, and I am here for it, happy cooking it, thinking about which one to make next, and savoring the batches we have on hand all winter long. Clam chowder is a longtime favorite for me, and this is the type I love the most. With National Soup Month still happening, and my interest captured by an online ...
Red Beans and Rice
When laundry was a weekly task done by hand, it took all day and then some, so the astute cooks of New Orleans tended to start a big pot of red beans cooking low and slow, so that a low-fuss feast woud be ready when it came time to eat. People still love red beans in New Orleans and environs, and enjoy this satisfying classic on other days and many ...
Gratitude Slaw for Holidays and Everyday
Thanksgiving tables come with plenty of hearty, rich, celebration dishes, but finding something bright, green and fresh can be a challenge. Try my crisp, green, and absolutely delicious. You'll see why it's called gratitude slaw! Gratitude Slaw from The Kitchn Is the Best! I love The Kitchn, as excellent online recipe and cooking resource. ...
Thai Chicken-Coconut Soup with Lemongrass and Lime
I love this traditional Thai soup, known as tome kha gai and enjoyed throughout the country, in homes and as part of banquets and restaurant meals. I wrote this recipe for FINE COOKING magazine a few years back, and I love the beautiful and useful photographs by Scott Phillips which illustrate the story. What a treat to find it featured on FINE ...
Galette Des Rois : French-Style King Cake for the Twelfth Day of Christmas
Happy Twelfth Day of Christmas! We are still celebrating here, and I had the best time making my first Galette des Rois, the traditional dessert enjoyed on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany. I love this cake, and was delighted with the recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. It was clear and easy to follow and came out beautifully. Delicious, ...
Persimmon Upside-Down Cake
I love persimmons and the feeling only deepens as their long cold-weather season continues. No matter how many I bring home, whether we eat them outright or in pound cake, cookies, pies or persimmon pudding, I keep wanting more. My latest adventure is starring this uniquely lovely fruit in an old-time favorite, upside-down cake.The two kinds of ...
Upside-Down Pear Pie
With spectacularly cold weather blanketing much of America, my mind turns to wintertime baking and the double-pleasure of having a warm oven heating up the kitchen, while producing a warm, spice-kissed dessert to sweeten the evening and stave off the chill. When I spotted this easy, elegant recipe on Epicurious.com, I couldn't wait to make it; and ...
My Thanksgiving Pies in Southern Living Magazine
Since I love fall so much, this time of year always brings me joy, but this particular year, autumn has been providing an extra-special delight. As a longtime reader and fan of Southern Living magazine, I have dreamed of seeing my byline and recipes among its pages. This year my dream came true, when the November issue arrived, full of beautiful ...
Tomato Pie for Summertime Lunch or Supper
Tomato Pie is one of the simplest summer main dishes you can make, and with ripe, juicy tomatoes at their annual best, this is the time to get one on your table. You'll need a baked piecrust, a generous array of thickly-sliced and lightly salted and drained tomatoes, and a few other items which you simply stack up spread out and assemble: saltine ...
“Victuals” by Ronni Lundy ( say “Vittles”!): A Rich and Beautiful Cookbook
This handsome, eloquent, meditative and luminous cookbook came from the hands, heart, and mind of my friend Ronni Lundy. She wrote her heart out telling stories and making observations on her home region, the Mountain South. Much mocked, misunderstood, maligned, and marginalized over time, the complex and beautiful Southern Appalachian region ...
Turkey Bone Gumbo
If you've had a great re-do of yesterday's Big Turkey Dinner, and are on to Sandwiches and Turkey Salad, you may be in need of some inspiration. No better grander finale for Thanksgiving turkey to my mind, than the New Orleans/Louisiana standard, Turkey Bone Gumbo. Here's the version I came up with for my soups and stews cookbook, in the recipe ...
Sweet Potato Desserts for Your Thanksgiving Table, From “Fine Cooking” and Me
I am so proud and so happy to have had the opportunity to work with Fine Cooking Magazine on this sweet story on sweet potatoes for their October/November Issue. It's still on the stands most places, since much of the focus is on holiday cooking. We did the story months in advance, as is always the case in writing for food magazines, and I knew it ...
Pableaux Johnson and His Red Beans Road Show
Can you see how much fun we all had back in July of this year, getting in the kitchen with my friend Pableaux Johnson for his Red Beans Road Show, Crook's Corner Edition? My friend Kate Medley took this in the gloriously flower-filled herbaceous, and hubcap-blessed dooryard of Crook's, on the corner where Chapel Hill turns into Carrboro and ...
Deviled Eggs: The Party Perfect, People-Pleasing Food
Whenever I am starting a menu for a gathering at our home, be it dinner or snacks, family or company, sultry summer or chilly wintertime, the first thing on my list is deviled eggs. I love them, but I don't make them only for my own satisfaction. They are simple to make, beloved by guests of all ages, wonderful made ahead or at the last ...
Easy Almond Cookies
I bake right through the heat of summer, because I love the routines of baking and I love to eat and share the results of my endeavors. But there's special pleasure in the return of autumn weather, which is increasingly evident in my part of North Carolina, day by day. Today's the official First Day of Fall, so I'm celebrating with these wonderful ...
President Obama’s ‘bun cha’ Supper with Anthony Bourdain: Photos and a Recipe
I love this photograph of President Obama enjoying bun cha for supper with Anthony Bourdain, world-renowned chef, author, and host of delicious food and travel television programs, on his first night in Vietnam. Their supper will be featured in Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown down the road. Can't wait to tune in for the details. I missed this ...
Easy Strawberry Icebox Pie
Pretty, pink, party-ready: This easy strawberry icebox pie is simple to make and sure to delight you and yours! Use a graham cracker crust and serve it with whipped cream for a cool finishing touch. Easy as Pie, no-bake, do-ahead, and sure to please your people AND you! Icebox Pies and Why We Love Them: What is make-ahead, easy to prepare, ...
My Cookbook, “Southern Soups and Stews: More than 75 Recipes from Gumbo and Burgoo to Etouffee and Fricassee”
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! I'm thrilled and delighted to tell you about my new cookbook, Southern Soups and Stews: More than 75 Recipes from Gumbo to Burgoo and from Etouffee to Fricasee. It will be be published on Tuesday, September 8th by Chronicle Books. I've been working with Chronicle on cookbooks for more than twenty years, and it ...
Meet Me in “Nong’s Thai Kitchen” – DC-Area Cookbook Event at Thai Basil
My friend Nongkran Daks is a chef and restaurateur whose cooking and culinary classes at her restaurant Thai Basil have won her dedicated fans, accolades, and great success in the Washington DC area for almost 20 years. Born in Southern Thailand, Nong began cooking to help in the family's catering business when she was all of 8 years old; she made ...
Thai Coconut Ice Cream with Caramelized Pineapple: A Sweet Vegan Treat!
This beautiful photograph graces my new cookbook, Simply Vegetarian Thai Cooking: 125 Real Thai Recipes, but I assure you it is not how I serve luscious coconut ice cream at home. I love the beautiful way professional food photographers and food stylists present food, just as I love the atmospheric travel scenes in fashion magazines, and the ...
Thai Yellow Curry with Tofu, Pineapple and Peas
Today I teach my first cooking class based on my new cookbook, Simply Vegetarian Thai Cooking: 125 Real Thai Recipes. I'm thrilled to be returning to CLASS at Southern Season, which is a cooking teacher's dream of a place to teach, with dedicated and knowledgable kitchen crew who prepare my recipes to serve beautifully while I am talking and ...
Pink Grapefruit Salad with Toasted Coconut from “Simply Vegetarian Thai Cooking”
This week I'm celebrating the publication of my newest cookbook, Simply Vegetarian Thai Cooking: 125 Real Thai Recipes. It's out in the world just in time for Thai New Year, which takes place on April 13th, and is known as the Songkran festival. Songkran is a time of celebration, centered on visiting the elders to show them respect and affection, ...
Green Papaya Salad from “Simply Vegetarian Thai Cooking”
I'm celebrating spring with this recipe from my book, Simply Vegetarian Thai Cooking: 125 Real Thai Recipes. This is actually a new edition of my book, Real Vegetarian Thai, which appeared in 1997 and went out of print in 2013. If you have Real Vegetarian Thai on your shelf, you are good to go, because this book is the same one, albeit with about ...
Happy Pi-Day! 3-14-15 via Ronni Lundy’s Sorghum Pecan Pie
What a lucky week for me: I was pondering which pie to make in honor and celebration of National Pi Day 2015, and the answer arrived in my mail box. I received a review copy of the brand new book by my friend Ronni Lundy, entitled Sorghum's Savor. Published by University of Florida Press, this book lets Ronni share the story of this heirloom ...
Turkey Bone Gumbo: Leftovers as Pleasures and Treasures
Leftovers. A word with negative connotations to many, but not to me. To some folks, the fridge-filling presence of something as big and challengingas the rest of the Thanksgiving turkey, or remains of the ham, or a mostly-finished rotisserie chicken is a burden, but consider revising that attitude. I see such items as a head start on a brand-new ...
Thankful for “The Banh Mi Handbook”: Useful and Inspiring All Year Long
When The Banh Mi Handbook came out this summer, I couldn't wait to go buy a copy for my kitchen. Was it the cool and compelling subtite: "Recipes for Crazy-Delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches"? Partly? Was it the cool cover, the handsome design, the abundance of recipes I want to make (Caramel Sauce Pulled Pork; Sriracha Aioli; Thai Fried Omelet; Banh ...
Pimento Cheese Crisps: “Pimento Cheese, The Cookbook” by Perre Coleman Magness
Just in time for holiday feasting, snacking, sharing, and celebrating, this smart, inviting new cookbook by my friend Perre Coleman Magness will be getting a workout all holiday season long. That will continue through the year, because it's not just for holiday occasions, but what a boon to have it here now. I've been enjoying ...
Pears from Blue Ridge Mountain Farmstand = Pear Pie and Pear Chutney
My friend Dean brought me this pile of pears from a roadside stand in Ashe County, North Carolina. Ashe County is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, on the NC-Virginia border northwest of Winston-Salem, NC. They were hard and sturdy, not the best for eating out of hand, but full of flavor, which I took in two directions: one sweet and one ...
Summer Plum Torte, Easy and Elegant
What a treasure! One layer of luscious but simple plum-studded goodness, simple to make and a pleasure to share. No wonder it's the New York Times's most beloved and requested recipe! You need Summer Plum Torte in your repertoire, to vary and enjoy all year long! I love Lottie + Doof, a blog by a Chicago-based food writer and photographer named ...
Black History Month Cookbook Round-Up: A Feast for Cooks and Readers
Throughout February, I've been celebrating Black History Month on my Facebook page, with daily postings of cookbooks written by African American authors. I got the idea from my friend Nicole Taylor, who is always cooking up something fine: Check her out at Food Culturist , My Black Journey, @foodculturist, Facebook page, and ...
Back in the USSR with #LetsLunch: Kotleti, Kasha, and Remembrance of Things Past
When I read that this month's #LetsLunch theme would be the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi, I rejoiced. Rather than facing a time of pondering and wondering how I would focus my post, I had the perfect answer right on the bedside reading table. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing had ...
Lunar New Year: Welcoming Spring and the Year of the Horse
Lunar New Year celebrations begin officially this coming Friday evening, when the new moon shows up in the wintry night sky. Unlikely as it may seem to those of us grew up associating the arrival of springtime with daffodils, tulips and the packing away of gloves, scarves and snow boots, this huge Asian cultural celebration welcomes spring. It's a ...
Banana Cream Pie from Beth M. Howard’s “Making Piece” on Leite’s Culinaria
Last week we went to heaven --- not the one-way ticket concept, or the Rewards for Good Behavior concept, but the Heaven on Earth concept, and it was lovely all around. My friends Dean and Joe have a beautiful farm up past Scranton, Pennsylvania, with all the transcendant beauty of an old-school dairy farm and none of the work. We sleep late, sit ...
Dinner with “The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen”
Ever since I first heard about the Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts Catalogue in which Matt and Ted Lee offer an abundance of Southern ingredients and foods both by mail order and online, I have been a big fan of Matt and Ted Lee. (About that catalog: It's simply wonderful. I adore it even though I live right here in the South. They actually ...
Shad Roe Southern-Style for Springtime #LetsLunch
What I was looking for was rhubarb, that rusty-red oddball harbinger of spring here in North Carolina. Planted in big patches out by the pathway to the summertime garden, rhubarb stalks poke up early and beckon cooks to make pies as a farewell to winter and "y'all come on in!" to the blossoming sunshine season sometime between mid-March and ...
Lemongrass Chicken – Vietnamese-style
Vietnamese-style chicken with lemongrass (Recipe below) I fell in love with lemongrass early on, during my three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. These elegant, slender and sturdy stalks of a tropical grass provide a distinctive and delicate flavor to Southeast Asian soups, stews, curries, and other dishes, in kitchens from Indonesia ...
Rhubarb Pie
Rhubarb: The springtime treat which makes mighty fine pies, tarts, muffins, and compotes, all with beautiful color and tangy flavor. Easy to prep, fun to cook with, and delicious in its signature British-American form: Rhubarb Pie! What is Rhubarb? When I came across an armload of fresh ruby-red rhubarb at my local supermarket this spring, my ...
Doughnut Bread Pudding? Yes, please…
This is delicious and you can make it at home. I came across the recipe on Leite's Culinaria, which is a food-and-cooking destination which I recommend to you with enthusiasm and pleasure. There you'll find excellent writing, superb and varied recipes, gorgeous photographs, opinions, ideas, and all-around food fun. My friend Jess Thomson has ...
Nancie’s Shenandoah Valley Blueberry Cake
Nancie's Shenandoah Valley Blueberry Cake Enjoy this simple, delicious cake for breakfast, a tea party, or a midnight snack. If you can’t pick your own blueberries in the Shenandoah Valley, don’t worry. The cake comes out just fine using fresh blueberries from wherever you are, or even frozen berries from the grocery store. This recipe comes from ...
Classic Chess Pie
Looking for a great, crowd-pleasing dessert that is sweet, luscious, and easy to make? I've got you covered, with this old-time Southern standard, Classic Chess Pie. A fork, a bowl, eggs, butter, sugar, and flavorings, and you're ready to deliver delight! What Is Chess Pie? Chess pie comes to mind when I want to get a magnificent sweet onto ...