Not Your Mother's Cookbooks

Strawberry jam is certainly one of the all-time favorite homemade jams. Exceptional, chunky, fresh-fruit jams are easily made within half an hour utilizing the microwave oven. Homemade jams are less sweet than commercial jams and much more exciting in flavor, texture, and color.

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People love to read about weddings as much as they like being invited to them. Of course when a wedding is called the wedding of the century for its size, location, elements of decoration, and notoriety of the participants, it gets even more fun.

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Cupcakes are the new wedding cake. The childhood favorite has grown up, trendy but not losing a bit of the sugary goodness that never fails to delight. Cupcakes are more lighthearted and casual then elaborate formal cakes, and are the perfect choice for less formal celebrations, like an after hours party.

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The wedding dinner was held after the sunset ceremony. The vegetarian option was a vegetable risotto. Now you are wondering how to make risotto for over a hundred people.

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When grilling (as well as roasting or broiling for that matter) meat, chicken, fish or vegetables, marinating is essential. We all collect at least one or two great marinade recipes. A marinade usually contains acidic ingredients, like lemon juice or…

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One of the best marinades for lamb ever concocted. You won’t need another one–ever.

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My friend Joyce Converse invited me to dinner one night decades ago at her rented home over the coastal range in rural La Honda. Joyce had her own set of power tools, that she really used for renovations and repairs, a great garden, and zest for living reflected in her plein air landscape painting.

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Good summer desserts should be able to be made with little fuss: a pile of fragrant, ripe fresh fruit and a few staples from the everyday pantry. After eating your fill out of hand, a lightly sweetened stewed fruit filling can be topped with a roughly-shaped layer of biscuit dough and made into a homey cobbler.

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I have no idea how I luckily fell upon this recipe roaming on the internet. Most recipes are written as variations of each other, so there is not too much unique material, but every so often something new pops up. This recipe, although it uses a familiar technique like making a popover or crepe batter, is a new one for me.

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Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring. The strawberry, a member of the lovely rose family, is unique in that it is the only fruit with seeds on the outside rather than the inside. Along with its heart shape, these outer seeds make strawberries an instantly recognizable fruit.

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