Category: old favorites
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Friendsgiving
What a great time when you’re a 20- or-30-something and you get together with work buddies or college buddies or any buddies for a Thanksgiving potluck. Chances are your people are from different places with different traditions and favorite recipes for stuffing, sides, or desserts. Everyone pitches in. Hats off…
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Grandma’s Irish Cake
My Irish grandmother, Annie Allen, arrived at Ellis Island in 1909, a twenty-one-year-old with two little boys—my father (4) and his little brother Sam (2), in tow. I can’t imagine. She joined her husband Bill, who’d come ahead two years earlier to work and save money for her passage, Bill…
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Dad’s Holiday Cranberry Relish
My first cook book was a classic, The New York Times Cook Book by Craig Claiborne (Harper & Row, 1961). My ancient, rusty paperclip bookmarks tell the story of why I have kept it all these years. I use the book only a couple of times a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas.…
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Yams Richard
New Orleans is one of our favorite places. On our first trip there, in 1977, we visited—through pure luck—two of its greatest restaurants: Antoine’s, where we had pompano en papillote (in a paper bag) and Brennan’s, for its famous breakfast. We took away two Hurricane glasses from Brennan’s, “>The New…
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Grandma’s turkey stuffing
Thanksgiving has always been my second favorite holiday because when I was a kid, our family Thanksgiving made me feel a happy-family-ness, warmth, and love that were beyond our Scots-Irish/Norwegian family most of the time. Everyone (I think) felt the culinary highlight was the Thanksgiving turkey stuffing (sometimes called dressing…
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Dad’s Keto Chili
One way to make a long-term Keto diet go down easier is to Keto-ize your old favorite recipes. I mean, duh, right? Now that we are Keto veterans, in-it-to-win-it for the third time (!), I’m more interested than ever in making sure my old favs can still be enjoyed without…
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Clam chowder
A family classic in Mom’s clan since who knows when, clam chowder became our traditional Christmas Eve entree back in the mists of time.
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Mom’s potato salad
Summer’s here, and the time is right—for the old family recipe potato salad. The Queen Mum (this would be Dad’s mother-in-law) has a great recipe for potato salad that has been a family favorite for decades. She can’t recall where it came from and has “modified” whatever the original was,…
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Grandma’s stuffing
It’s what makes our Thanksgiving menu such a special, family-favorite menu. It is everyone’s favorite—back when I was a kid, when our kids were little, and now. It’s the #1 choice when we ask, “so, what should we have for Thanksgiving this year?” This post has been updated as of…
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Crumbleburgers
In my little suburban, growing-up neighborhood in the 1950s, there was a food fad called “crumbleburgers” that was a favorite sandwich (besides PB&J) during my Boy Scout and “church kid” years. All the moms made them—my mom’s version was really great. I don’t know if crumbleburgers are exactly the same…
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Chili as you like it
Made a lot of chili over the years and written about it here on DRB. I never make it the same way twice, usually because some ingredient or other is not in the pantry this time. Chili is an any time, any season food. It can be made in an…
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Dad’s classic cook-off chili
The Queen gave me a great cookbook for Christmas some years ago that was full of the Best Recipes of 1999, according to someone. About the only thing I’ve made more than once is a chili recipe, although I’ve played with it to the point where it’s now a classic…
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Coffee crunch cake
Coffee crunch cake is the Queen’s absolute favorite birthday treat. Picking one up at Stickney’s restaurant in Palo Alto (sadly, now long gone) was part of the drill for her big day each year. This year, Dad (not much of a baker), is finally making one from scratch to help us…
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Cookoff chili
Mom gave me a great cookbook for Christmas some years ago that was full of the Best Recipes of 1999, according to someone. About the only thing I’ve made more than once is a chili recipe, although I’ve played with it to the point where it’s now another “standard fare”…
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Dad’s scrambled eggs
Everyone says these are really good scrambled eggs (even the kids). Tasty, fluffy, buttery, etc. So, they have become the gold standard around our house. The technique is the most important thing here. Better eggs really do taste better, I think. Better = organic, really free-range. Larger, darker-yellow yolks, no…
Guy Cicero 