The Crabby Cook - by Jessica Harper

I love this cake. I think of it as a dessert for a minor event, like when a couple of girlfriends come over for dinner or I’m celebrating an insignificant birthday, say, turning forty-three. (Okay, fine, so that happened a while ago.) Read More

 I went to the Farmers’ Market on Saturday and I believe I snapped. I bought so many berries, the berry guy can send his daughter to college on his profits. I bought so many berries I got a flat tire on the way home. I bought so many berries I really have no option but to make several desserts and possibly some jam. Read More

Although it’s 43º in NYC today, it was certainly not so balmy last week. After a brisk walk in the 7º weather, I found myself with a serious interest in comfort food.

Now I’m back in LA where it is sickeningly beautiful every day (with temps hovering around 70º) but I still feel the need for the comfort. I think I’m suffering from a sort of cold-weather-related PTSD. Read More

A couple days before Christmas, my sister and I were having our annual bitch-in about all the kitchen time we were putting in that week, when Lindsay mentioned she was making a Clementine Cake. I assumed this was something akin to a Key Lime Pie. “Sounds great,” I said, mentally dismissing it as way too Florida for a proper holiday dessert, and likely way too complicated for a week with cooking chores so numerous I was already as irritable as Scrooge. Read More

Revisiting recipes from The Crabby Cook Cookbook, we made these for a crowd and watched them vanish in five minutes… Read More

Okay, I’m a little obsessed with shortbread. Don’t know why really, but possibly because of my Scottish ancestry and also it tastes so damn good. So maybe I’m projecting too much when I assume that my mother would like nothing better than this for Mother’s Day. Read More

In the unlikely event that you have not yet broken your New Year’s resolutions regarding calories, sugar, chocolate, dessert and general self-indulgence, now’s the time to do it. This recipe from Ina Garten makes it easy. Read More

My sister-in-law, Julie, is an amazing cook and food stylist and writes a column for The Baltimore Sun called “The Recipe Finder.” When I saw her at Thanksgiving, she was—having just cooked all week for her lazy-ass family—beginning prep for the column’s annual Holiday Cookie Contest. Read More

So as the days of summer dwindled, so did my supply of summer fruit. The bowl that I filled on Thursday with the bounty from the farmers’ market was down to a few lonely items by Labor Day. Read More