Papaya Faux-Custard with Pistachio, Honey and Pomegranate

Papaya isn't your typical holiday dish, but then again, who wants to be typical? A flurry of parties and entertaining usually accompany the coming of the holiday season. And whether a dinner party at home or an office party, these occasions usually demand some menu creativity. I say this as one who has a deep emotional attachment to classic shrimp cocktail, but one can have too much of the same

Have your Thanksgiving indulgences, just don't drink them too!

Thanksgiving is a day replete with the makings of memory. Each family has its own hallowed practices and dishes. And each year as the big day approaches media outlets everywhere spin into overdrive reminding us of the evils of gluttony and inundating us with advice to survive the upcoming 'fat season.' This year I offer a less common bit of advice for Thanksgiving: Indulge intelligently. Select

The First Thanksgiving

There is something magical and terrifying about the first Thanksgiving. And no, I don't mean pilgrims in funny hats. I mean the first time you decide to take on the behemoth task of coordinating a full-on Thanksgiving dinner. It is madness and mistakes and laughing and memories. At least mine was. But it was also the birth of a beloved tradition that still continues. This post is for all my

Chicken Cobb Salad

In my world a salad is, almost by definition, an invitation to experiment. Some of the best salads come by combining what is on hand. Some of my favorites have a few predictable elements I always like to include, with enough room for variation to keep things interesting. And so it is with a Chicken and Cobb salad. Some form of Cobb salad can be found on many restaurant menus, but beyond the

Why you should love cold churned honey

Sometimes on your quest for interesting food you have to seize the moment of introduction, wherever it is presented to you. My husband and I were driving along the highway en route to Niagara Falls. We had been together for five years and a little celebration seemed in order, complete with natural splendor and all the gawdy tourist traps. On the drive from Chicago, just after crossing into Canada

How to drink like a fashionable Ghanaian

Observing the fashionable food trends of Paris is so passe, so the last 100 years of haute cuisine. Everybody's doing it. Why not be a bit more daring and take your drinkable fashion cues from Africa? Starbucks has a team devoted to dreaming up new beverages. How do they do it? First they dream up what colors will be fashionable next season. And so because orange is trendy, we get the awful

Rice as a Measure of Womanhood

Rice is one of the world’s most popular grains. It is a mainstay in diets from Latin America to Africa and Asia. It is consumed on every inhabited continent, in some form, in every country. It is perhaps then little wonder that rice preparation can serve as a ruthless metric of womanhood. I was reminded of this today. My husband and I have been in the habit of sharing some of the food we make