What’s better than a warm, gooey cinnamon roll on Christmas morning? A warm gooey cinnamon roll with slivers of chocolate melted through it, that’s what. This is the stuff Christmas memories are made of, and I only make them once a year because they are truly irresistible. If you’re leery of working with yeast, be reassured – as long as your yeast is fresh they will come out looking like a bakeshop dream. Enjoy! Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls Makes 10 medium-sized […]
Family-centric holidays can be fraught: who carves the turkey? Do we need to wait for everyone to have food on their plates before we start eating? Is someone saying grace? And then there are the oddball friends and relatives whom we see once or twice a year. They ask invasive questions, take the day to let their passive-aggressive flag fly, or drink until things becomes a soggy blur. These are the times when I am grateful to be a WASP. […]
The first time I met Bill Yosses he was interviewing for the position of White House pastry chef. The Chief Usher, Gary Walters, and I had been interviewing pastry chefs for a couple of months and I was struck by Bill’s easy self-confidence and positive attitude. Then he baked for the Bushes (Gary and I taste-tested also) and everyone was sold. He went on to expand his skills even further in the Obama White House, where he found new and […]
Falalalala-la-la-la-lahhhhhh! It may feel like April but Christmas is just around the corner, and have you ever seen it come up so quickly? It seems like I was just starting to think about pumpkins and cornstalks and it’s already time for wreaths and candles in the window. The Christmas wreath pictured above came about because there wasn’t time to buy a new one. I took the bittersweet off the Thanksgiving grapevine wreath and added dried hydrangea, a few greens from […]
