I’ve long dismissed blondies as a sort of lesser dessert. They lacked the rich fudgy qualities of the best brownies, and they were never as flavorful or as texturally interesting as a good chocolate chip cookie. Often, they could be kind of dry, a bit too thin, not soft enough to be cookie dough-gooey and …

I’ve been thinking, lately, about something that I wish I had understood when I was younger. And that’s how to be bad at something. That’s not to say, I assure you, that I was not bad at anything or that I do not continue to be bad at many many things. I was and I …

I have a funny relationship with popcorn. I can go for long stretches without making it, during which time I almost forget about it completely. And then all of a sudden I have a craving for it, pull the container of forgotten kernels from the back of the kitchen cabinet, pop a batch on the …

It’s March, and it’s about the time of year when I reach the point where I never want to see another winter squash again. I mean, I love them in soups and in grain bowls and kicky salads, but I’ve been subsisting on dark leafy greens and cauliflower and root vegetables and squash, which were …

It’s been too long since I’ve shared a cocktail recipe around here. This one, with Cynar (pronounced chee-nar), Cognac, and Punt e Mes, is a keeper. In recent months, Dan and I have been spending lots of time with the herbaceous, bitter, primarily-Italian amaro section of our liquor cabinet. (And if you’re interested in learning …

I hate deep frying. It’s such a hassle. There’s a bubbling cauldron of hot oil to stand over and then there’s the problem of figuring out how to deal with it later. But there’s one thing I make an exception for: pączki. Pączki (pronounced punch-key, singular paczek [pronounced punch-ek {nota bene: “pączkis” are not a …