celebrations

Our ‘Best Of’ Summer Fun

Since Memorial Day Weekend officially kicks off summer, here’s a round-up of some of our best ideas for your own summer ramblings, even if those ramblings are just in your head.

Happy Mother’s Day!

We’re celebrating mamas of all kinds…(biological, or not)…

Brown Sugar Coconut Layer Cake with Lemon or Dulce de Leche

Years ago, I developed a brown sugar-scented play on the classic American 2-egg /1 bowl cake known as Lightning Cake (because it only takes 15 minutes to throw together). Buttery, tender, and fragrant, its deliciousness and fine texture belies its ease. On a pretty plate and dusted with powdered sugar, it looks like the lovely…

Happy Easter! Joyous Spring!

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs Made Simple

Two thoughtful contributors sent us info about making natural dyes to color your eggs for Easter or spring celebrations. It spurred us to hone a simplified method for naturally coloring glorious eggs, just in time for the Sunday hunt or gathering…

A Cook’s Favorite Gifts for Cooks of all Stripes

Every so often, a friend calls to ask me what cooking equipment to recommend. LONG story! You’ll find an extensive list of equipment for a basic kitchen in A New Way to Cook, along with 700+ pages of essential techniques and recipes. For now, here are my tried-and-true favorites, from high to low and back.

Neon for The Holidays and A New Year

Rookie Magazine’s looks-like-neon sign diy made out of EL wire got us thinking about using THAT as our holiday lighting, with signs showing JOY, or a moderne neon Xmas tree, or WHAT IF? or other messages for the coming year. The battery-powered flexible glowing tube has the essential effect of neon without complex glass manipulation. The process is doable in a few hours: a fine weekend project.

Rules of ReGifting + Gifts They Won’t Want to ReGift

(Video link here.) So, er, yes, well, er, we DO have a regifting drawer as well as a gift drawer of stuff we’ve bought because we think it’s universally great. Truth be told, the stuff in the regifting drawer tends to languish, we suspect because it can take a while before we find someone for whom…

Guest and Memory Books in Many Forms

The holidays have us thinking about ways to remember all those folks — some who traveled FAR — with whom we visited or shared a meal, celebrating and counting blessings. So compiled our collection of traditional and not-so-traditional forms of “guest books”.

Pasta Fries + Other Secret Suppers and Eatings

Everyone I know, including stellar chefs, all have their moments of retreat into dark hungers and unique combos of flavors. The practice is deeply personal and satisfying, but now new. M.F.K. Fisher wrote about the odd combinations people ate when they were alone in 1937. Here are several longtime favorite “secret suppers and private snacks” from my files.

What’s The Best Gift You’ve Ever Received?

In this season of frenzied holiday shopping, Quartz asked 40 leaders in art, business, fashion, science, and social justice the question: What’s the best gift you’ve ever received? Their surprising answers cast a lens on just what a great gift really is, along with some really lovely ideas….

Stressed? Throw an Easygoing Thanksgiving Picnic

Hosting during the holidays can mean a lot of pressure. My husband and I didn’t want to spoil the joy of actually being with the people we love by fussing over inconsequential details. Instead, we have opted for what we lovingly call, Thanksgiving Picnic.

Our Updated, “Best of” Holiday Recipes + Strategies

In the run-up to Thanksgiving, we often get calls from friends anxious for easy, foolproof strategies for the big meal. Here’s our updated tried-and-true, “best of” recipe traditions that lend themselves to tailoring and improvising.

Makeshift Tables and Chairs to Seat a Crowd

If you’re planning on hosting a crowd, now’s the time to figure out what tables you’ll serve everyone on, and where the guests will sit… Here’s our best mostly makeshift ideas.

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes 12 Ways

This is my favorite basic mashed potato recipe: wonderful as is, or as a base for the many embellishments and improvisations listed below, including the astonishing Sage Oil and Crispy Garlic. You can modulate their richness and texture according to whim or the ingredients you have on hand, making them perfect for the Thanksgiving Feast.

Rubber Stamped Placemats + Tablecloths to DIY or Buy

Buried in a photo series about C-Mine design center in Genk, Belgium at Vosges Paris is an image of someone rubber stamping what we thought at first were paper placemats or cloths. Wonderful idea!

Crepe Paper Streamers + Painter’s Tape Party Decorations

At a birthday celebration at our friends’ house, we were delighted by the festive streamers festooning the living room, made even more FAB by the bold use of painter’s tape to stick them up.

How to Never Overcook Fish Again? Slow Roast It!

I was pleased as punch when the great Food 52 told me they were going to feature my Slow Roasted Salmon recipe as a GENIUS recipe. Their words: “The most foolproof way to cook any fish—and a petition for a new cooking term” since slow-roasting fish can take as little as 15 minutes. I learned the…

Pink Balloons: The New Mood Therapy (+ Party Installation)

Want to change your mindset and/or your space? Or devise a SERIOUS JOYFUL installation for a party? Create a floating sea of pink balloons, as Margaux Rodot, Mickaël Martin & Benoit Tastet did at the recent Lively Architecture Festival in Montpellier, France. They filled the courtyard of the Hotel de Griffy with balloons in varying shades of pink…

Plum and Cherry Tart with Thyme + other fast tart improvs

Ellen Silverman, who LOVES to improvise radically on my recipes, recently posted her iteration of my Improvisational Fresh Fruit Tart Formula on Instagram: a sensational Plum Cherry Tart with Thyme. She said it was a huge HIT at her dinner party. Made with lush summer fruits, freeform fruit tarts are the perfect summer dessert (though you can make it all year round). Here’s the simple formula:

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