Dinner with Kirsten

Christmas Eve is the one day a year when my family embraces Swedish customs. When I was young, Grandma Lois would make a light dinner of salmon loaf with dill gravy (an American stand-in for Lutefish, the traditional dried codfish served in Sweden). She would try to force-feed me pickled herring from the relish tray. […]

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I wasn’t sure if I should (or could) make these cookies. The prospect of small pastries filled with candied orange peel was just plain intimidating. Nevertheless, I went out and bought a new 3-inch round scalloped cookie cutter, just in case the urge struck.

Then I made a batch of macaroons. And as I was trying […]

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Years ago, as an undergraduate, my roommates and I threw many a meal into the crock-pot before classes. Then we would returned home to succulent scents of dinner, ready and waiting. I loved it!
When I bought a new New York crock-pot, I couldn’t wait to show off the magical wonder of slow-cooker dinners to Geoff. […]

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An evening alone. . . Sigh. . . I love being alone sometimes. There’s no pressure to “do” anything, there’s no struggle for the remote, there’s no need to brush my hair or take a shower and, most of all, there’s no need to compromise over dinner. So, when Geoff made last minute plans to […]

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I made these glittery cookies from Gourmet for a cookie party at work. The recipe is a little weird – it uses cornstarch for some of the flour, powdered sugar instead of regular and not a single egg. But hey, I wanted something different and these didn’t disappoint. The texture was perfectly light and crumbly […]

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It’s cookie season!! I’m starting out slow this year, with a simple recipe my sister made a few years ago. I remembered it because of the distinctive cardamom spice. There’s no other flavor like it, really. 

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On weekend mornings when I don’t make pancakes, Geoff invariably pops Trader Joe’s frozen banana waffles into the toaster. For frozen waffles, I have to admit they’re very good. That’s how I knew this recipe from The Pancake Handbook would be outstanding.

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My family knows how to pull together a great Thanksgiving. Sure, the dog may have helped herself to mashed potatoes and my Dad called the security company to keep the firefighters away in case of an alarm (how many years in a row have I set it off?), but everything came together for a beautiful […]

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My sister bought me a bundt cake pan as a present years ago, and I absolutely love it. But, I’ve only actually used the pan a handful of times. I lugged it from Nebraska to New York, then from my apartment to Geoff’s, and it has been sitting neglected in his cupboard ever since.
Every […]

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When I buy groceries, I like to pick at least two or three types of meat for weeknight meals, and I usually don’t have a clue what I’m going to do with them. But I never thought that my Trader Joe’s pork chops would end up floating in noodle soup.

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