Plants Posts
Drunken Cranberry Orange Compound Butter
This Drunken Cranberry Orange Butter is great on baked goods (English muffins, croissants, etc.). It’s also a great topping for pancakes and waffles. You can use it as a spread for chicken or turkey sandwiches—or stir it into wild rice before serving.
The sweetness of the dried cranberries is tempered by a generous drizzle of cognac and a spoonful of bright, fresh orange zest.
Orange Pound Cake
Warning: Baking this cake will fill your kitchen with the irresistible smell of oranges.
This is a slightly modified version of a recipe I saw recently in Saveur. It’s a buttery pound cake shot through with freshly grated orange zest and soaked with sweet orange syrup.
Roasted Blue Potato Wedges with Fresh Herbs
This is a really simple recipe. It’s a great, easy weeknight alternative to french fries. I tossed the potato wedges with some fresh, minced herbs, garlic, and olive oil, then baked ‘em in the oven.
Cauliflower Gratin with Toasted Walnuts
Here’s your proof, folks. I do eat my veggies. Granted, I prefer my veggies covered in cheese. (OK, I’ll admit it: I’d probably eat a newspaper if you put enough cheese on it.)
How to Make Candied Fruit Peel
Candied fruit peel is one of those miraculous acts of culinary alchemy. You take tough, bitter fruit rind that’s packed with oil you could use to polish your furniture, and, thanks to the magic of sugar, transform it into heavenly, fragrant candy.
Ginger Sweetie Pie Biscuits
These biscuits are a versatile companion for almost any cold-weather meal. Made with mashed sweet potato, they’re moist and fragrant with ginger.
Pasta with Brown Butter & Chanterelles
Chanterelle mushrooms have got such a fantastic flavor—and when you infuse it into melted butter, half a dozen mushrooms goes a long way. This is an elegant and luxurious appetizer for about four, or main course for two.
Tapenade
Tapenade is seriously savory, salty business. Think of it as a kind of pate made with black olives—with some anchovies, capers, and olive oil thrown in for good measure.
Concord Grape Jam
Concord grapes are the very same little purple wonders that give Welch’s grape juice its signature flavor. Here’s how to turn those jewels into jam.
Italian Prune Plum Crumble
I have to admit: Until recent years, I was scared to death of these little things. Are you kidding me: “Prune” in the same sentence with “dessert?” No, thank you. I didn’t get over it until well into my late twenties. And I’m still kicking myself that it took me that long.









