This recipe produces the Polish kolachy that grandma made back in the day: cream cheese pastry dough with jam, jelly, or preserves (or maybe nuts) for filling, sprinkled with powdered sugar. It’s thought of as a Christmas cookie, but it’s really more of a two-bite pastry. I’ll show you how to do it.
I made a Black Forest Buche de Noël, and it wasn’t all that hard! Granted, the only decorations were merengue mushrooms. But a chocolate-frosted, cocoa cake filled with cherries and cream doesn’t need a lot of dressing up.
Sicilian Fig Cookies are an old-school Christmas tradition at my house. Rolled-out crescents of flaky dough with a rich fig filling. Freeze well. Fantastic recipe.
Christmas Menu for Six: feta-stuffed French bread, coffee-encrusted pork roast, hasselback potato gratin, carrots with whiskey and ginger, caramelized Brussels sprouts, raspberries and cheese, black forest buche de noel
How to Make Homemade Flour Tortillas: a flexible, recipe that steps you through traditional (water and shortening) to deluxe (milk and bacon fat). Rated E-I for Easy-Ish (requires brief rolling pin use).
This is a recipe, or more of a how-to, for Old-Fashioned Hash from leftover ingredients that include pork roast, cheese, potatoes, and a host of vegetables. It’s topped with sunny-side-up eggs. It’s a wonderful breakfast that stems from one of Julia Child’s cookbooks.
Classic Lemon Buttercream Frosting gets its smooth, citrusy tang from both lemon juice and lemon extract. It’s a French buttercream, which means its sweetened with a hot syrup that’s beaten into egg yolks, and then blended with butter. Easy-ish recipe (“-ish” because it requires a candy thermometer, and I know that scares some people).
This recipe for Graham Cracker Chicken produces tender and juicy – and savory – results. It’s not at all sweet, nor does it taste like graham. It just tastes like incredibly good, well-seasoned chicken. It’s serious, everyday, comfort food cooking.
