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Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
“Chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pie!” – Sung by Donnie, Just Shoot Me. Chicken pot pie is such a homey, cozy dish. You just know if someone’s gone to the trouble to make it for you, they must really love you. Like chicken soup when you’re sick, chicken pot pie somehow feeds the soul as well as the body.
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Perfect Pie Crust
“Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.” – Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation. My grandma used to tell the story of herself as a young woman, making pie crust after pie crust, trying to suss out by herself how to make a decent one. Apparently, a lot of her early efforts went in the trash – and this from a woman to whom throwing away food (or just about anything, for that matter) was a mortal sin.
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All-Butter Pie Crust
“We shall have a party and and we must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.” – David Mamet, Boston Marriage. An all-butter pie crust is a thing of beauty. The flakiness. The flavor. The butterliciousness. (Not a word but it should be.) Though more likely to lose some of its shape upon baking than a crust blended with shortening, an all-butter crust tastes so wonderful it’s worth it. I especially like it with fruit and dessert pies, or anything chocolate.
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Peach Frangipane Tart
Movin’ to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches. – “Peaches” Presidents of the United States of America. This pretty tart makes a perfect bring-along for a summer party, which is exactly what I made it for. Tomorrow is my favorite holiday, 4th of July, and I can’t wait to share this beauty. (I’m including a fun summer playlist at the end of this post as a bonus.) A crispy tart crust, a layer of Frangipane, and lovely white peaches dusted with powdered sugar – you’ll win friends and influence people with this homemade peach frangipane tart. Frangipane I don’t know why frangipane isn’t that common in American desserts.…
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Black Forest Cake
Once upon a time, on the edge of a great forest, there lived a very poor woodcutter with his wife and his two children, Hansel and Gretel. – Grimm Brothers, Hansel and Gretel. Legend has it that the great forest in Hansel and Gretel is none other than Der Schwarzwäld, or the Black Forest, in Germany. And though black forest cake, or Schwarzwälder kirschtorte, is actually named for the cherry brandy – kirsch – distilled there and not for the region itself, just the words ‘black forest’ evoke the dark tales of the Brothers Grimm, don’t they? I like to think of this chocolate, cherry and whipped cream cake as…
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Game Night Linzer Cookies
“I think it’s wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly.” – Steven Wright. Game night! My partner Steve and I are both big board game devotees. In fact, I have to go through and prune the games almost as much as I do the books. (Liability of being a librarian.) We seem to go through phases (Dominion, anyone?) though some games we return to again and again. Our vintage Aggravation game gets pulled out pretty often, as do the cooperative games like Forbidden Island and Pandemic. (LOVE Pandemic. It’s a different game every time and so challenging. Ain’t gonna lie, we often argue while playing this one but…
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Macarons with Lemon Curd Buttercream
‘How wonderful yellow is! It stands for the sun.” – Vincent van Gogh Macarons, macarons, macarons – was there ever such a persnickety-yet-precious confection? Making them is a mood thing for me but when I am in the mood, there’s nothing quite like them. With endless filling and flavor possibilities, they require the perfect blend of technique and creativity.
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Lemon Curd
“Because I told you to buy lemon curd, Woodhouse! Now what am I going to spread on my toast? Your tears?” – Archer. Homemade lemon curd really couldn’t be easier. And it’s so much tastier than the store-bought version. Lemons, sugar, salt, eggs and butter – that’s all it takes to make this deliciously tart, gorgeously silky curd. Use it as a delectable filling for tarts, cakes, and macarons, as a tasty topping for scones, cookies, and toast, or mix it with your yogurt in the morning.
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Italian Meringue
“A meringue is really nothing but a foam. And what is a foam after all, but a big collection of bubbles? We add sugar to this structure, which strengthens it. But things can, and do, go wrong.” – Alton Brown. The most stable of the meringues, Italian meringue requires hot sugar syrup trickled into whipped egg whites which results in gorgeous tall and fluffy peaks. Use to frost or pipe onto a cake, add as a topping for a pie, or fold into your macarons. Since I’ve started using Italian meringue with my macarons – see here and here – they’ve come out shinier and smoother than ever.
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Homemade Soft Pretzels
From German Prezel, also Brezel, from Middle High German brezel, prezel, from Medieval Latin brachitella, presumably a kind of biscuit baked in the shape of folded arms….diminutive of Latin bracchiatus “with branches, with arms,” from Greek brakhion “an arm.” – Etymology of the word ‘pretzel.’
