Dessert, Food, Winter

The Thinking Woman’s Chocolate Chip Cookie

Everyone loves homemade chocolate chip cookies. It’s almost impossible to make a bad one. But it’s natural to be curious about the other chocolate chip cookie recipes out there. If there’s an ingredient that hasn’t been folded into the recipe for novelty’s sake at this point (bacon, chocolate, cherries), I can’t imagine what it is. Garlic, maybe. But what if you gave a chocolate chip cookie recipe the kind of close attention and precision you’d give a soufflé or sourdough […]

Ask Lea, Flowers

Where could I get holly?

Dear Lea, Where could I get “armfuls of holly” as shown in your post about arrangements? I absolutely loved the one mixed with roses! I found holly in quantity at the local nursery, where they were selling it by the branch.  I’m so glad you liked the roses and holly arrangement!  Thanks for writing in.  Best, Lea

Entrees, Food, Winter

Vegetarian Vegetable Alphabet Soup

This is a recipe built off a memory. When I was small, I ate only two things for lunch: Campbell’s chicken noodle or vegetarian vegetable soup. This went on for years, and I still love them both, but my own chicken noodle soup is better (just saying!), and I realized that I needed to recreate the vegetarian vegetable soup. I remember moving the little alphabet letters around with my spoon, trying to make up words. What kid wouldn’t have been […]

Ask Lea, Formalities

Refusing Food When You’re a Guest

Dear Lea, I have certain dietary restrictions that make it difficult to accept dinner party invitations without a certain amount of anxiety. When I’m cooking in my own home, I do fine to avoid the foods I can’t eat. But inevitably when I’m a guest in someone else’s home, I’m confronted with a dilemma: eat the food I am offered and feel sick later? Or decline but risk appearing rude? I don’t want to be rude, but I’m also tired […]