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My partner’s mom makes peanut butter fudge on what seems like a weekly basis. I’m not sure how she can consume so much of it. She has a dedicated baking pan just for this fudge and there’s always a tub of it in the fridge. But when I emailed her asking for the recipe, she didn’t know how to give it to me. Like most recipes of hers, she free-forms it, adding peanut butter until the batter “looks and feels” right. It looked like I’d need to head into the kitchen and do some experimenting! The one thing she did casually mention was that she uses marshmallows in her fudge, something I’d never thought about. When I make fudge, I often use the old-fashioned method, which requires cooking the sugar to a soft-ball stage of 238°F. It’s fussy and always put me off of making fudge. But since the sugar in marshmallows has already been cooked and turned into a candy, using them to make fudge seems like an easy and totally accep...

Making soup doesn’t have to be difficult, and if you are working with fresh, high quality vegetables, you don’t even have to add stock. This cauliflower soup couldn’t be easier! Just blanch cauliflower florets for a few minutes, purée them with some of the blanching liquid, salt, and butter, and serve with olive oil and chopped chives. Of course when you are working with so few ingredients, you have to make sure that each ingredient is as good as it can be. There’s no place to hide if something is off. What I love about this soup is that the cauliflower really shines through, and it’s also pretty light, so it works well as a starter for other courses. Simple Cauliflower Soup Recipe To take this soup from simple to sublime, add a dash or two of truffle salt or truffle oil to the soup when serving. Ingredients Florets from one head of cauliflower (See How to Cut and Core Cauliflower) 1 quart of water Salt Unsalted butter Chives ...

This was the year I fell in love with black eyed peas. (The food. Already loved the band.) They have a wonderful flavor, almost smoky, even without bacon or ham. Earlier this last summer we put them in a salad with feta and spinach. So so good. The dish that black eyed peas are most famous for is Hoppin’ John. No idea where the name came from. And depending on where you are from you might not even call it that, but simply black eyed peas and rice. Hoppin’ John is one of those classic Southern dishes that come with as many versions, stories and flavors as there are cooks. At its core, however, Hoppin’ John is rice, black-eyed peas (or field peas), smoked pork, and onions. Black eyed peas are supposed to bring you luck if you eat them on New Year’s Day, and it is traditionally eaten with collard greens. So, for this new year, I offer you a hot plate of Hoppin’ John. May we all enjoy its good luck. Happy New Year! This post has been updated, originally...

Many people are afraid of hollandaise sauce, are you? Some think eating it will make them fat. (It will if you eat it every day, so don’t eat it every day.) If you are like me, the thought of making hollandaise conjures up visions of toque clad chefs with big bowls and even bigger whisks swearing because the beautiful sauce they have spent the last several minutes vigorously whisking has separated on them, “Merde!” I have been desperately afraid of making this sauce since forever. (Not afraid of eating it mind you, I’ve never met an eggs benedict I didn’t like, or eat.) To overcome this fear I asked my friend Hank to show me how to make it. OMG. Hank’s hollandaise didn’t separate, and he didn’t swear (any more than usual), but the work! The beads of sweat forming on this man’s forehead as he whipped those egg yolks and butter into submission. I was dreading the attempt. Hank has arms of steel. I have arms of, hmmm, a young, willo...

Do you like cranberry sauce? My father can’t get enough of it during the holiday season. He’ll even stock up on fresh cranberries when they become available in late October, and freeze them to eat all year long. I think he looks forward to Thanksgiving just because he knows he can have as much cranberry sauce as he wants with his slices of turkey, and plenty leftover for turkey sandwiches. When he finally runs out of frozen cranberries sometime in May, he’ll start buying the cans. He’ll hide the cans in a remote corner of the pantry and eat up the canned cranberries all by himself. Yes, he’s a little obsessed. For me it’s been an acquired taste. As a kid I just couldn’t understand why something so beautifully garnet colored didn’t taste like berry pie filling! Cranberries are tart, very tart, and need sugar to balance their tartness. But even with the sugar, the tartness comes through. As an adult, I have come...

This year on Halloween, in my typical do-it-at-the-last-possible-moment approach, I set out to find a carving pumpkin in the afternoon only to find all of the local stores completely sold out. So, instead I bought some sort of heirloom fairy tale pumpkin from Whole Foods. It wasn’t even orange, but some terribly un-Halloween grey color. My attempts to carve it were laughable. The flesh was at least 3 inches thick. I did finally manage to carve something resembling a face, but it was so pathetic I ended up chucking the whole thing in the oven and baking it at 350 for a couple hours. (I think it’s almost impossible to overcook a pumpkin.) Obviously this pumpkin was meant for eating, not for entertaining trick-or-treaters. What to do with 8 cups of cooked pumpkin? Make pumpkin soup, of course! While we already have several pumpkin soup recipes on the site, we were missing one with more of a Southwestern feel. I’m delighted with how this soup turned out. It’s s...

Looking for the perfect cheesecake? It takes a bit of hubris to describe a recipe as “perfect”, especially for a recipe such as cheesecake, for which so many have their own personal favorite. But, this is simply the best, most wonderful cheesecake I have ever had, and have ever made. It is based on a master recipe, from the master of baking herself, Dorie Greenspan. It is a classic New York style cheesecake with a graham cracker crust and high sides. It is dense, rich, and light at the same time, and serves a small army. But watch out—just when you think you’ve made enough for your gathering, so many people will go back for seconds that you may be left without a piece! My young friend Audrey and I made some slight changes to Dorie’s base recipe. We’ve thickened the graham crust on the bottom and doesn’t let it ride up the sides. We also top the cake with a creamy sour cream topping and serves it with a tangy bright raspbe...

In the mood for some red, white, and blue? How about red, white, and blue nachos, with blue corn tortilla chips! I’ve always loved blue corn tortilla chips. I don’t know if it’s my mind playing tricks on me, but I think they taste better than regular tortilla chips. Maybe because they’re less industrial and have more flavor than the corn we get these days? Whatever, the chips taste great and make a delightfully blue canvas for our white cheese sauce and chicken, and (mostly) red fresh pico de gallo salsa. Taking a tip from my other favorite nacho recipe—Mexican street corn nachos—rather than baking the chips with the cheese on them, I’m making the cheese sauce separately. This way the chips have a better chance at staying somewhat firm and crunchy when you eat the nachos. Otherwise they tend to bake into a limp mess. Making a cheese sauce is easy to do with monterey jack cheese. Jack melts beautifully with cream and doesn...

Looking for Easter or Mother’s Day Sunday brunch ideas? I love the convenience of a breakfast casserole because you can easily assemble it the night before and have it ready to bake in the morning. Perfect hands-off cooking leaving you time for the important things, like Easter egg hunts, or Mother’s Day mimosas. This breakfast casserole (the fancier term being “strata”) has asparagus (fresh) and artichoke hearts (canned), big cubes of rustic bread, bacon, onions, all held together with eggs, milk, and cheddar cheese. It’s spring in an 8×13! Asparagus Artichoke Breakfast Casserole Recipe Ingredients 6 cups of 1 to 1 1/2-inch cubed rustic bread (about half a loaf), or 6 slices of bread 2 ounces bacon (2 to 3 thick-cut slices), roughly chopped 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups) 1 pound of asparagus, trimmed of tough bottoms, spears sliced on the diagonal, in 1-inch long pieces 1 15-ounce can of artichoke hearts (packed in water), drai...

Chocolate Swiss rolls are such an eye-catching holiday treat, aren’t they? I’ve made this one with a peppermint whipped cream filling, rich chocolate ganache on the outside, and a crushed peppermint candy sprinkled on top, giving it a particularly festive, wintry air. The light, springy cake practically melts in your mouth. If you’re looking for a show-stopper dessert for your holiday table, this is it. I based the sponge cake part of this recipe on a classic chocolate genoise. This style of cake doesn’t contain any leaveners, like baking soda or baking powder. Instead, it relies on eggs to get its lift. To make sure the eggs whisk into a strong, stable foam (which in turn helps make a reliable and delicious cake), you warm them briefly with the sugar over a double-boiler. A double-boiler just involves warming a few inches of water in a medium-sized saucepan and setting a bowl over top. The bowl should rest on the lip of the saucepan above the water, like an...

You know what my favorite kitchen gadget is this summer? A spiralizer, or a spiral vegetable slicer. It’s basically a lathe that lets you turn a cylindrical vegetable such as a zucchini or sweet potato, into “noodles”, or in the case of zucchini, “zoodles”. I love pasta as much as anyone, but the truth is my body will not cooperate and let me eat as much pasta as I want without undesired consequences. So, the idea of making noodles with zucchini? Tempting, but could it possibly be as good as pasta? Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby announce that zucchini noodles, at least cooked the way I’ve prepared them in this casserole, are shockingly good. This cheesy baked zucchini noodle casserole is like baked spaghetti, but with zucchini noodles instead of spaghetti. The flavor of zucchini is terrific with the tomato, onion, garlic, sausage, and cheeses. You can even twirl the “zoodles” on your fork! The noodle shap...

So, have you taken the plunge and invested in a spiral slicer? I bought one a few months ago and have been experimenting ever since. So far my favorite vegetable to “spiralize” is zucchini. One quick way to make use of zucchini noodles is to just toss the raw “zoodles” with salad dressing. Instant zucchini salad! With this recipe, I thought I would take the zucchini salad idea a step further and make a favorite Asian noodle salad, but with zucchini noodles. In addition to the zucchini there is thinly sliced cabbage, grated carrots, sliced bell pepper and green onions. Everything is tossed with a toasted sesame oil rice vinegar dressing. It’s light, colorful, crunchy, and delicious. A perfect fresh salad for a hot day! Asian Zucchini Noodle Salad Recipe Some vegetables can be harder to digest when they are raw, like cauliflower or zucchini. So, if you are not used to eating raw zucchini, take it easy the first time, and don't eat more than a regular ...

“This isn’t your everyday pot roast,” my father declared as we sat down for dinner to enjoy the roast that he had been cooking all afternoon. No, indeed it isn’t. The sauce includes an entire bottle of bold red Zinfandel wine. The vegetables in the sauce are cooked until every ounce of flavor is extracted from them, and then the sauce is pressed through a sieve and reduced even further. The beef, braised for hours is fork tender. Enjoy! Beef Roast Braised in Red Wine Recipe Ingredients 1 (3 1/2 pound) chuck roast, boneless Salt and ground black pepper 4 oz pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch cubes 2 medium onions, chopped medium (about 2 cups) 2 medium carrots, chopped medium (about 1 cup) 2 ribs celery, chopped medium (1 cup) 1 Tbsp tomato paste 3 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon) 1 (750 ml) bottle Zinfandel wine (can substitute Cabernet Sauvignon, or other full bodied red wine) 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced ...

Whenever I go out to eat at an Indian restaurant, I make sure the meal includes plenty of raita on the side. Raita is a yogurt-based condiment that can help douse the fire if a dish is just a little to hot and spicy. In much the same way that sour cream or crema fresca is served with chili-infused Mexican food, the casein in the yogurt absorbs capsaicin, the compound that gives chili its heat. Raita can be used as a sauce or a dip. This raita is made with cucumber and mint because I have plenty of mint growing around the yard and cucumbers are plentiful at the farmers market. You could easily use cilantro instead of the mint, or carrots or papaya in place of the cucumbers. Do you have a favorite raita recipe? Please let us know about it in the comments. Cucumber Mint Raita Recipe If you are using English cucumbers, which are more mild and thin-skinned than the regular cucumbers we get in America, you do not need to peel them. Ingredients One large (or two medium) cucumbers, ...

Looking for a special soup to serve this holiday season? Consider this creamy sweet potato soup! It has a base of onions, celery, leeks, and garnet sweet potato yams. It’s seasoned with warm holiday spices of cinnamon and nutmeg, giving the soup hints of pumpkin pie and glazed yams, as if someone slipped some of each into the blender when the soup was being puréed. We adapted this recipe from one in an old issue of Bon Appetit, changing it up slightly—ditching the maple syrup the original called for (the sweet potatoes are sweet enough), and cutting back on the cream. It’s terrific with a little sour cream or plain yogurt swirled in on top! Creamy Sweet Potato Soup Recipe Ingredients 2 Tbsp butter 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup) 2 celery ribs, chopped 1 medium leek, white and light green parts only, sliced (see How to Clean Leeks) 1 clove garlic, chopped (1 teaspoon) 1 1/2 pounds (about 2 large) orange-flesh sweet potatoes (a....

Even though it’s 90 degrees here in Sacramento in mid October (are we having weird weather this year or what?) the pumpkins and butternut squash are out in numbers at the market. One of the things I love about winter squash is that you can buy one and then take your time to figure out what to do with it. They last for months as long as you keep them cool and dry. Here’s an easy side dish, perfect for Thanksgiving or any cool weather meal, using butternut squash. The vanilla makes you think you are about to eat something sweet, and in a way you are, as the squash has a natural sweetness, but this really is a savory dish. The combination of walnuts, thyme, ginger, vanilla, and squash may seem weird, but oddly it works. You can either boil the cubed butternut squash with some bay leaves, or roast them until you get a little browning – in which case omit the bay leaves. Roasting will caramelize the squash a bit, giving a little more flavor, and the squash cubes will h...

Now this was a happy accident. I don’t know how I ended up with some red wine in a cup with honey in it, but it happened, and I’m so glad it did! Once I discovered how lovely my red wine tasted with honey, I thought to make a mulled wine with it. Mulled wines are typically very spicy affairs, with cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, orange peel, etc. All well and good. The problem is that all of those spices together detract from the honey, and it’s the honey taste that goes so well with the wine. So this is a simple mulled wine, with only cinnamon, a few peppercorns and a little lemon zest to liven things up, all enhancing the flavors of the wine and the honey, not competing with them. It’s also pretty sweet, so feel free to play around with the amount of honey to suit your taste. If you are unsure about whether or not you’ll like this recipe, just try it with a half glass of wine first, not the whole bottle. Heat the wine with a little honey to see if...

This rice salad is a perfect accompaniment to many fall and winter dishes—roast chicken, stews, pork chops. You can use brown rice, wild rice (not really a rice at all), or a combination of the two. Both wild rice and brown rice have a rich, nutty flavor that complements the cranberries and pecans, and the citrus in the dressing. Wild Rice Salad with Cranberries and Pecans Recipe Prep the ingredients and make the dressing while the rice is cooking. Ingredients 1 cup brown rice wild rice mix 2 1/3 cups water (see package instructions) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1/2 cup chopped pecans (toasted or un-toasted, your choice) 1/4 cup sliced green onions 1 Tbsp lemon juice 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 teaspoon grated orange peel Salt and freshly ground pepper Read More: Wild Rice Salad with Cranberries and Pecans

Did you know that the only way you can get a hold of wild duck in this country is by shooting it yourself, or having extraordinarily generous hunter friends who share their bounty? It’s the law. Certain migratory birds can be hunted in season, but not sold. We were the lucky recipients of some teal ducks recently from our hunting friends Hank and Holly. I’ve never eaten, let alone cooked wild duck, and let me tell you, it is an entirely different experience than working with ducks from the grocery store. What follows is a loose recipe and several notes on cooking wild duck, for my own benefit so I remember the next time, as well as for anyone else out there who may have the opportunity to cook wild duck. And for any of you who happened to be seasoned duck hunters, please feel free to offer cooking suggestions in the comments. The first thing to note is that wild ducks aren’t like chickens or turkey that you have to cook until you don’t see pink. Wild duck is b...

We recently came across an intriguing recipe for strawberry mousse cake in Martha Stewart Living and decided to skip the cake part and just make the strawberry white chocolate mousse. It was fabulously cool and rich, just the dessert for a warm spring evening. The following recipe is modified slightly. I found we didn’t need as many strawberries as the magazine’s recipe suggested. Also, we served the mousse with some remaining strawberry purée on top. The purée is not sweetened and adds a lovely mildly tart balance to the rich mousse. Strawberry White Chocolate Mousse Recipe Ingredients 1 ½ pounds of strawberries 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, divided 8 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped 1 ¼ teaspoon unflavored gelatin (about half a small envelope) 2 cups heavy cream 2 Tbsp powdered (confectioner's) sugar Read More: Strawberry White Chocolate Mousse

Who says you need spaghetti for spaghetti sauce? A quick and easy Italian sausage spaghetti sauce works beautifully with white beans as well as pasta. And it’s a great way to lower the carb content and up the protein of the dish without sacrificing flavor. You can either cook the beans from scratch (we’re using a Tuscan approach found in Saveur Magazine), or use canned beans. By the way, you know how they always say to “rinse and drain” the beans if using canned beans? That’s only because if the cans have been on the shelf for a while they can sometimes absorb a metalic flavor from the can. But if your can of beans if freshly bought, this may not be the case, and there can be plenty of flavor in the bean soaking water. So, taste! If the bean water tastes good, use it. If not, don’t. White Beans and Sausage Recipe Ingredients 1 lb dried cannellini beans 2 Tbsp olive oil 4-5 fresh sage leaves 2 cloves garlic, crushed 3 teas...

Children who are having trouble falling to sleep are often prescribed a glass of warm milk to help them nod off. Their parents, having spent the night cajoling, ordering and begging their children to go to bed, may need something a bit stronger. Enter this chamomile hot toddy. It’s a drink of whiskey, honey, and lemon mixed with chamomile tea to help you doze off in no time. Since the toddy is supposedly Irish in origin, purists insist that only Irish whiskey be used in the drink. However, as the recipe became popular outside Ireland, spreading throughout Europe and North America, so did its boozy variations. Brandy, bourbon, and rum started being used interchangeably with whiskey. I say, use what you have in your liquor cabinet and most enjoy! While certainly not traditional, I find the addition of chamomile tea really transforms this soothing, but otherwise ho-hum drink into a truly fantastic cocktail. The floral notes of the tea bring out the sweeter, spicier notes of the ...

I know, I know. Who in the world has a problem with leftover whipped cream? But let’s imagine a hypothetical situation wherein you have misjudged your guests’ enthusiasm for whipped cream-topped pie following a big holiday meal, and now you find yourself faced with a fairly large amount leftover. Do you throw it away? Do you save it, knowing that it will likely lose its billowy magic over the next few days? Let me offer a third option: Freeze your leftover whipped cream for later. Whipped cream freezes – and thaws – surprisingly well. Just drop mounds of it onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze overnight. The next day, peel off the frozen whipped cream clouds and transfer them to a freezer bag or container for longer storage. When a situation arises for a few spoonfuls of whipped cream, just pull out what you need. In my opinion, the very best use of these frozen whipped cream puffs is to top a hot mug of cocoa or coffee....

Have you ever tried watermelon gazpacho? It’s a cold summer soup much like tomato gazpacho, but in this case watermelon takes the place of much of the tomato. In our version, we are still using some tomato (one), so you get a little bit of tomato flavor in the soup, along with cucumber, onion, and bell pepper. Watermelon is light, juicy, and a little sweet, which is what it brings to this gazpacho. As in the case when you make regular gazpacho, this soup improves overnight, as the flavors have had a chance to blend. It’s perfect for a light meal on a hot day. You can easily make a large batch and enjoy it for days! Watermelon Gazpacho Recipe In the ingredient list there are separate quantities for chopped red onion, bell pepper, cucumber, and jalapeño. The roughly chopped onion, pepper, cucumber and jalapeño will go into the blender or food processor to be puréed. The finely chopped vegetables will be added back into the soup after the...

Old fashioned watercress is getting harder to come by, at least around here in Sacramento. Whole Foods carries watercress, but the leaves are too tender, and lack the bite of what I grew up eating. This is my mother’s recipe for a wilted watercress salad with a warm, sweet and sour bacon dressing. It requires the sturdy watercress variety which can hold up to both the heat and the flavor of the dressing. I love this salad. It’s like a wilted spinach salad, only less wilted, and more peppery. In my father’s and my opinion, it really must be made with bacon fat and crumbled bacon. You can substitute olive oil, but it’s really not the same. Wilted Watercress Salad with Bacon Dressing Recipe Ingredients 2 bunches watercress (Try to get mature watercress as shown in the photo, not the baby watercress that Whole Foods carries. It will hold up better to the hot dressing.) 3-4 slices bacon 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 4 teaspoons sugar Salt and pepper A pinch o...

Roulades, pinwheels, whatever you call them, this is a classic party dish. When I was a boy, my mum used to make these for our Christmas Eve smorgasbord, where they took their place alongside Swedish meatballs and huge plates of cold cuts, cheeses, pickles and such. Some years she’d serve them with Hollandaise sauce, which made them very, very rich even for a little kid. Mum’s version didn’t use pesto. Her filling was just parsley and garlic salt. But with those two ingredients already in the mix, it’s only a step away from a full-fledged pesto—especially the classic winter pesto of parsley and walnuts. This is not mum’s exact recipe, but it comes close: Super tender meat, smoky, fatty bacon and an intense hit of parsley in the center. Even though I last ate these close to 30 years ago, I can still remember that parsley. It was so “adult” when I was a kid. My addition of the pesto, with the walnuts and cheese, makes my version as rich ...

Do you like buckwheat? When I lived in Japan I used to eat buckwheat soba noodles all the time, and a few years ago I started making buckwheat pancakes which have become a favorite. The taste is a little bit like whole wheat or whole grain versus white flour, but not wheat-y. Buckwheat isn’t actually grain—it isn’t a grass, but a plant that produces seeds that are used like wheat, hence the name. It is completely gluten-free. So if you are trying to avoid gluten for any reason (my mother and I are a bit sensitive to gluten), buckwheat is a great option. Many recipes that use buckwheat, mix buckwheat flour with all purpose flour. You can certainly do that with this waffle recipe if you want; the gluten in the all purpose flour will help create structure in the waffles. With this recipe I was looking for a method that would produce waffles that were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, with 100% gluten-free buckwheat flour. So, to help this batter achieve stru...

Fun fact: The White Russian isn’t Russian at all, but rather an American invention! The cocktail first appeared in The Savoy Cocktail Book , by Harry Craddock back in 1930, and it consisted of gin, vodka, and crème de cacao. At the time, vodka was an almost exclusively Russian export, hence the name. Easy to make, the cocktail quickly became a popular. Over time, it evolved into the present day drink of vodka, coffee liqueur, and cream – or in our case, coconut! I didn’t want my vegan and dairy-free friends to miss out on this classic cocktail of vodka, coffee liqueur, and cream, so I’ve reinvented it with coconut milk. Not only does the cocktail retain its decadence, but the coconut flavor melds so perfectly with the coffee liqueur, making this an even better cocktail altogether. A few notes before we get to the cocktail itself: Please, please, please don’t use cheap vodka for this. It’s the main ingredient and you can’t make a good ...