Tonight, I hung up my apron in the kitchen at Paraclete Academy, the South Boston after-school program where I have cooked dinner for 25 kids and teachers every Tuesday night since Dec. 2. The Last Supper, as Linda, the secretary, called it, was bittersweet. Not literally though. The dinner program at Paraclete ends this week. And […]
I spent what little time I had in New York last Sunday morning scoping out — and sampling the offerings — at various Big Apple bakeries. Because that’s just what I do. It’s really not my fault. My husband is still peeved that our family spent most of our time in Lisbon at Casa Pasteis […]
I thought I was done. Not only with the 3-feet-plus of snow piled up on my lawn, but with my kitchen. After yet another weekend hunkered down in the house where I baked, seared, sautéed, slow-cooked and fired up my dishwasher every 2 hours, I couldn’t bear to re-enter the kitchen today. Besides, I think […]
It hit me when I walked in the door of the kitchen: the smell of eggs boiling on the stove. My stomach flipped. If this was how I was to begin my Tuesday cooking stint at Paraclete Academy, I was in for quite a ride. As readers of this blog are well aware, eggs are […]
When I decided to the pull the plug on my 30-year career in daily journalism last winter, my partner, Gayle Fee, suggested — with a straight face so I knew she was kidding — that I open a “kush bakery.” “It’s gold, Jerry, GOLD,” she joked, using one of our favorite and oft-quoted “Seinfeld” lines. […]
As a history buff and food lover, chef Will Gilson’s Puritan & Company in Cambridge is my new happy place. First off, it’s located in a building that housed the Puritan Cake Company‘s bakery from the 1930s to the 1950s. So, it feeds into my need to honor the past. And Puritan’s eclectic menu pays […]
High concept desserts may make people oooh, aaah and Instagram, but it’s the old school goodies that get gobbled up with glee. Case in point: Mrs. Lamb’s Apple Cake. I dug into my faded, hand-written recipe book the other day when I needed a fourth offering for our refreshments table at the Westport Historical Society’s […]
I’m a fan of East London baker Claire Ptak, the owner of Violet, a bakery in Hackney. I’ve never eaten any of her pastry; never made a pilgrimage to her shop. But I do follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. So, you know, it’s like we’re besties. A few posts ago, Claire – a […]
Faced with a 3-pound bag of short-grained rice, a few half gallons of milk, 2 quarts of heavy cream and lots of leftover candied citrus peel, I got back in the rice pudding game. I admit I was a little stove-shy after last week’s rice dessert debacle (see previous blog post). But I couldn’t possibly […]
Who leaves a three-month bakery apprenticeship and just days later feels confident enough to bake for 400 people? Of course, that would be me. Full disclosure: I never baked anything at Flour Bakery + Cafe during my tenure. They don’t let the interns near the ovens except for toasting nuts, which I did many times […]