PUMPKIN GINGERBREAD

Chatting with a chef friend yesterday, I nodded in complete agreement at his opinion on pumpkin everything: “I love a good pumpkin pie, but all the pumpkin spice latte and the rest — it’s just too much.” So many pumpkin-spice items are over the top, and a good many bear kind of a fake aftertaste. But […]

Kitchen Comfort: Italian Pot Roast

Granted, pot roast isn’t rocket science — recipes for this classic should be easy. And while you can’t go wrong with recipes like I’ve found in my grandmother’s well-worn cookbooks from the 1930s and 1940s, they’re rather plain. Tinkering around, I’ve landed on a revision that thrills the taste buds, and it’s still super-easy. I […]

Coca-Cola Cake

Arrive at Smoke-A-Holics BBQ in Fort Worth’s Morningside Heights neighborhood armed with patience. That line is only getting longer, the more everyone hears how good this place is. Garden & Gun recently discovered its joys, so you’re wise to be prepared to wait. You’ll be amply rewarded with the exquisite brisket and ribs, as well […]

FRUIT COMPOTE

Like a lot of people, we eat fairly healthy meals during the week and spoil ourselves somewhat on the weekend. Specifically, Sunday brunch is a free-for-all in our house. My husband’s buttermilk biscuits are legendary. His pancakes are sinful and his waffles, pure decadence. And don’t even get me started on his breakfast pizza! When […]

CHICKEN IN RED WINE

Another installment in my Kitchen Comfort series, this easy Sunday supper dish was inspired by another trip through my mom’s battered copy of A Taste of Texas. That’s the 1949 Neiman Marcus book that I love for blend of simplicity and sophistication. It’s one of the few books of its period that actually offers detailed […]

BARBECUE RUB AND SAUCE & POTATO SALAD

Year-round, we use our smoker for plenty of wonderful meals. In summer, it’s handy when we don’t want to cook inside and get the kitchen hot. In winter, it produces a host of hearty meals. We bought a Big Green Egg knock-off (calling it our Big Fake Egg), and we’ve yet to have a miss […]

Vichyssoise with Herbs

To celebrate what would have been Julia Child’s 108th birthday over the weekend, I whipped out her timeless recipe for vichyssoise. It’s an unbelievably easy chilled soup that showcases the sublime simplicity of leeks and potatoes. Of course, you can’t go wrong with butter, olive oil, and cream — right? That said, this one is […]

DIJON CHICKEN SALAD

Everyone has a favorite chicken salad recipe, and I have about four or five. But the one I circle back to most often combines a few of my true go-to ingredients — namely, Dijon and herbs de Provence. The Dijon brings the sharp, tart elements I crave and the French herbs offer a layering of […]

Herbed Gazpacho

One of the first dishes I made in my first apartment after graduating from college was gazpacho — it was cheap and easy and impressed those first guests I had for dinner. I’d made it with my mom as a teenager, but I enjoyed making it on my own, too, as that’s when I began […]

Nutty-Spiced Granola

I’m forever stumbling upon handmade goodies in my travels, making it impossible to enjoy the store-bought version of whatever it is afterward. On a story trip years ago to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, I stopped in for breakfast at a hippie-dippy café set high on one of the town’s legendary hills. The view from all the […]