As I was noodling over what constitutes the perfect Christmas Day dinner, I received a number of recipes from Laura Bush via email. One of her meal suggestions was just the ticket: it used high quality ingredients to create simple and flavorful foods of various textures that complimented each other, and ended a luscious chocolate dessert to round out the experience. This is a quintessential American meal, and would make a satisfying and memorable holiday dinner, whatever your holiday might […]
Latkes Benedict Serves: 4 Prep time: 50 minutes For the latkes, or potato pancakes: For the poached eggs: For the hollandaise: Makes 3 cups To assemble:
Today is the first day of Hanukah, and it always reminds me of my introduction to the latke. My mother and father-in-law were coming from Florida (where else?) for a visit, and I’d been flying around the house for two days with my infant daughter on my hip, cleaning everything that could possibly be cleaned. My mother-in-law was a neat freak of the highest order and I wanted to impress her with my housekeeping skills, though things had become much […]
Serves: 2 dozen mincemeat tartlets or one 9-inch pie Prep time: 45 minutes For the filling: For the crust: I like former White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier’s pie dough the best. If you don’t want to make the dough from scratch, you can buy premade piecrust dough in your dairy case.
This is quite the season indeed for friendly meetings. At Christmas every body invites their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst weather. I was snowed up at a friend’s house once for a week. Nothing could be pleasanter. I went for only one night, and could not get away till that very day se’nnight.” – Janet Austen, Emma Today is Jane Austen’s birthday, and if you’re as big a fan as I am, you’ll be […]
