It’s never to early to master the food processor. Dylan is three and in-charge in the kitchen and potato pancakes are on the menu.

Dylan’s dad is my son Noah and together they made dinner for the ladies, mom Rachel and sister Ella. Here’s how they did it: … read more

As a grand finale, I recommend cranberry ginger trifle for your next holiday feast.

This dessert consists of layers of cranberry compote, chunks of butter cake and a fluffy mixture of cream and cream cheese and will serve twelve.

Here’s how I made it: … read more

Cranberry Sauce, whether straight from the can or an innovative version, is a welcome side dish but these versatile berries can also be the basis for dessert.

Consider cranberry mousse, a three-ingredient wonder and if cranberry mousse doesn’t tickle your palette, how about cranberry gelato? Here’s how ( x 2). … read more

My third experiment was inspired by the success of the spicy cranberry sauce.

I wanted to create an even more complex sauce with better color and texture. Roasting rather than boiling the cranberries would intensify the color and flavor of the finished sauce. After some tweaking I created a savory sauce with a spicy note. Here’s how I did it. … read more

This post is the first in a series of four. Check back tomorrow for part two.

The first time I saw cranberry sauce I had no idea what the red, wiggly disc wedged between mashed potatoes and a slice of turkey could be. With a mother from England and a father from Eastern Europe, beets were the only red food I knew and they were soaked in vinegar and didn’t wiggle. This mystery food was cold, sweet and looked like Jell-O. Never having seen a cranberry, I assumed that jellied cranberry started as a powder that was mixed with water and cooled until it was a brightly colored, quivering mass.

I discovered cranberry sauce with whole berries a few years before I saw bags of fresh cranberries at the market. When I used the recipe on the bag, the resulting sauce made with uncooked berries and oranges had more interesting flavor and texture than the canned version. This sauce was a step in the right direction but I wanted more – more variety, more interesting flavors.

My next experiment with cranberry sauce was inspired by a jar of Cumberland sauce. I wanted to mimic the spicy hit of this sauce seasoned with ginger and mustard but I had an impossible deadline: guests were arriving in ten minute. Limited in time and by the contents of the pantry, I managed to create a spicy, crowd-pleasing sauce with three ingredients in less than five minutes. Here’s how I did it. … read more