Many years ago, with absolutely no experience or clue, I made a wedding cake for friends. It was fun and I learned a lot, but in the end declared it “fully out of my system.” Apparently, 9 years is the statute of limitations on such claims, which is how it …

Enjoy this light and refreshing salad featuring ripe avocado and juicy grapefruit. The Grapefruit Shallot Vinaigrette is made in 15 seconds with a shake of a mason jar. Let’s cut the grapefruit We’re going to cut the grapefruit segments without the tough and bitter membrane. This method is called supreme. …

Like clockwork every summer, I decide that the only thing I want to eat, maybe forever because when it’s warm out I completely forget winter is coming (I’m sorry, I had to), are variations on tomato-cucumber salad. We did a world tour of these last year and it might take …

There comes a time in every parent’s life when love must be expressed through buttercream, food dye, and sprinkles; I just didn’t know it would be so soon this time. For my daughter’s second birthday, I planned, as I had as had on her first and her brother’s 7 birthdays …

Before we snuck a grill onto our balcony one glorious day last May, I would regularly show up at friends-with-grills homes with prepared pizza dough and a few toppings in the summer; I love grilled pizza so much that I’d feed a crowd just to get my fix. It was …

posted by Jaden on June 28, 2017 Last month, I took a trip to Napa, California, to learn all about the birthplace of those funny little olives I used to put on my fingers, and the surprising invention from a poor, widowed mother! Post sponsored by California Ripe Olives. -Jaden With …

There are a lot of good reasons to put two small jars of homemade hot fudge sauce in your fridge in approximately 10 minutes and possibly forever:• Hot fudge sauce is the easiest thing on earth to make, and absolutely nothing from a squeeze bottle compares. Not even the stuff …

A highly recommended way to be very unpopular with the people you share meals with is to tell them you’re making zucchini grilled cheese for dinner. “Like, zucchini as the bread?”“Zucchini instead of cheese?”“But I don’t like zucchini!”“KEENY.” And so we’re not going to. We’re going to call this a …

posted by Jaden on June 19, 2017 Bird’s Nest Soup 燕窝 is one of the most luxurious and expensive delicacies in Chinese cuisine. The shallow cup-shaped nest that hang from the sides of caves takes the swiftlet bird over 30 days to build. For hundreds of years, bird’s nest soup has …

A couple weeks ago, and because I admittedly ask my husband to pick up strawberries on his way home far more often than I have an exact “agenda” for them besides, you know, breakfast, lunch, and dinner — I made the strawberry shortcake recipe in the archives. These famed shortcakes …