Mary Anne here. This fall, I spent a glorious eight hours up north in horse country with my favorite girl, Mariel. I just love those quiet, mom-daughter days. On this particular adventure, we stopped for coffee on the way and, while sipping from our paper cups, we perused the goodies at a local farm stand.[…]
Baked Onion Rings with Old Bay
Mary Anne here. True, I am an onion ring fanatic, but I believe there is nary a fried food that stacks up to a deep-fried, batter-crisped sweet onion. That being said, while December typically signals a break from bathing suit season, my annual trip to the tropics means I should probably be taking a plunge[…]
Glazed Carrots with Ginger and Fresh Orange Juice
Mary Anne here. Mariel is right – when it comes to our Thanksgiving feast, it’s all about the side dishes. I have to admit, I’ve gotten into a bit of a rut in terms of trying out new veggies, but who wants to mess with success and risk disappointing the “kids” on such an important[…]
Popovers aka Yorkshire Pudding
Mary Anne here. So here at last is my final installment to our Sunday dinner of Roast Beef and Horseradish Cream with Haricots Vert and Roasted Shallots. One Christmas, when I was still the proud mother of two (number three was my post-New year’s surprise!), we hosted a lovely family from London for the holidays.[…]
Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake with a Gooey Chocolate Glaze
Mariel here. For this month’s installment of Secret Recipe Club, I bounced on over to Liv Life, where I stumbled across this recipe for a decadent-looking Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake. I’ve been intrigued by the Choco-Pumpkin pairing since I spotted these brownies over at Smitten Kitchen and since I recently added a Bundt pan to[…]
Spiced Cheddar Cheese Twists
Spiced Cheddar Cheese Twists Makes about 3 ½ dozen Note: You can see in the photo some of these are twists while others were fashioned as the straw variety. I was simply playing with length, width and shape and found that a 6 or 7-inch long straw works best as the longer ones tend to[…]
Spiced Apple Cider Bundt Cake with a Cinnamon-Cider Glaze
Mariel here. I spent part of the weekend upstate, lapping up the peace and quiet that only the countryside can provide. Living in the city is like living under constant attack – honking horns make my hair stand on end, a scary neighbor ensures I break into a cold sweat when I leave the apartment,[…]
Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Mariel here. When I was a wee middle-schooler, my best friend at the time used to love making sweet breads. Banana bread in particular was her forte and we spent many an afternoon whipping up a double-batch in the kitchen and then snacking on our own personal loaves while playing Donkey Kong or modeling the[…]
Creme Brulee with Candied Peaches
If I happen to stumble upon a roadside sign for tree-ripened peaches, you can bet your bottom dollar I’m pulling over and bogarting the whole lot. In light of summer’s last gasp, I’ve been stocking up on September produce, single-handedly keeping Big Peach in business. Thanks to my surplus, I’ve been adding these sweet, juicy[…]
Ooey-Gooey Mocha Cake with Swirl Frosting
Mariel here. I just spent a few glorious days in Ye Olde Adirondack Mountains – it’s a family tradition on my father’s side and we’ve recently reinstated this annual pilgrimage up north. While my husband had to cancel last-minute thanks to work deadlines, I had carefully parceled out a meager respite from my own affairs,[…]
Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho and Frozen Watermelon Daiquiris
Mary Anne here. This summer swelter is stretching straight across the US of A, so I find myself in need of cold comfort. Knowing that the thermometer was on the rise, I loaded up the fridge with a bounty of fresh, crisp fruit and whipped up an old Rittenhouse family summer staple – an enormous fruit[…]
Old-Fashioned Devil’s Food Cake
Mary Anne here. In honor of Father’s Day, I opted to plumb the pages of my catering archives and recreate a Devil’s Food Cake that was a favorite “special occasion confection” from gigs past. While both my dad and step-dad are no longer in this world, I humbly offer a culinary tribute to two equally[…]
Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries Seasoned with Old Bay
Mariel here. It’s hard to believe, but it’s already been a month since the last Secret Recipe Club – some of you may recall the divisive Zucchini Brownies incident – so I spent part of Sunday scrambling to whip up a winner from my assigned blog, Mom’s Fridge. Intent on selecting a surefire favorite, I[…]
Sweet-Tart Rhubarb and Ginger Sorbet
Mariel here (again). When my parents were still married, we used to head to my paternal grandparents’ farm in Pleasant Valley, New York as often as possible. My grandmother and grandfather lived on 23 relatively untamed acres – save for two sprawling grass fields complete with a four-stable barn – that was absolute paradise for[…]
Frosted Zucchini Brownies
Mariel here. About a month ago, I stumbled across a “Secret Recipe Club” hosted by Amanda’s Cookin’ and since I’m a sucker for secrets, I opted in. The premise is simple enough: each chef is assigned a different food blog and must choose a recipe to recreate in their own kitchen. Then, on a designated[…]
Gluten-Free Chocolate Mousse Cake
Mary Anne here. Ah…the holidays are upon us once again, and this year Passover and Easter arrive within a week of each other. As I’ve written in the past, when my mom married my step-dad, George, the Ellicott brood donned both Easter bonnets on Sunday and Yarmulkes on Friday night (the boys, of course!). And[…]
Grapefruit Pudding Cake
Mariel here. This past weekend I spent some time down in Florida celebrating a close friend’s impending nuptials, and let me tell you, I was more than excited to escape the refrigerator that is NYC. This past winter has been a doozy – for so many reasons – and it felt damn good to head[…]
Lemon Olive Oil Cake with a Lemon Rosemary Glaze
Mariel here. Last week, I cooked dinner for an editor friend of mine from Epicurious, no pressure or anything. I whipped up Halibut with a Hazelnut Romesco, which was to-die-for – thank God – but it was much pricier than most of my any-given-Monday meals (you can check out her recap of the dish here). […]
Brisket Ragu
Mariel here. That Beer-Braised Brisket I made last week? Well I finally finished it off. After transforming it into delicious little sliders, I explored my inner Italian and whipped up a homemade ragu that far exceeded my expectations since a) I’m not Italian and b) I don’t have much patience when it comes to letting[…]
Chewy Salted Hazelnut Cookies
Mariel here. Back in December, I swung by a tree-trimming party at a friend’s amazing loft downtown – I covet her apartment, it’s airy, it’s spacious, it’s for grown-ups. As I found out later that evening, the reason for hosting a tree-trimmer is two-fold: first, it provides an uncontested excuse to chow down on fattening[…]