I love a sweet bite riffing off favorite cocktails, from Aperol Spritz Cookies to Pimm’s Bars or a Gin and Tonic Cake.  It takes a pretty standard idea to the next level. A simple strawberry bar with a snort of tequila and a dash of lime is something special, and a perfect end for a Mexican-style meal, like Slow Cooker Chilorio or Chicken Tinga. I posted a Strawberry Margarita Pie last year but switched it up here to portable and crowd-friendly bars. With strawberries in season and Cinco de Mayo here, it seems like the perfect treat. Crumbly s ..read more

 am a born and bred Memphian, so pulled pork is sort of my native foodway. I have had more pulled pork sandwiches in my lifetime than I could ever count. I first had chilorio after a friend introduced me to it a Mexican restaurant and I immediately loved this rich variant. I read up on it and decided to work out my own recipe for a party I hosted for several years (before the pandemic shut it down) around the Day of the Dead at the beginning of November, featuring a taco bar with several filling options (check out my chicken tinga too). I loved that party and I love chilorio be ..read more

I gorge on strawberries when they are in season, and rarely eat them when they are not, which makes them a special seasonal treat. I eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, out of hand in in all sorts of treats. This rich and tender crumb cake is a fantastic way to add strawberries to breakfast, though in all honesty this could also be a dessert with a scoop of ice cream, or a nice afternoon snack. Yeah, basically it is just good. A simple cake with a swirl of strawberry puree, some lovely, diced berries and a pile of crunchy, sweet crumbly topping. What could be better? Make the crumble ah ..read more

I have called myself a chicken salad savant before, because I love chicken salad in its many, many forms. So here I take a trip to the Med, with this herb-forward, light and tangy version. Zhoggiu (pronounced zah-dew) is a Sicilian pesto that shows the Mediterranean crossroads heritage of the Italian island, creating a wonderfully flavorful sauce with a Middle Eastern twist and Italian sensibility. It is perfect coating shredded chicken. That alone is an amazingly light and fresh chicken salad on its own or on top of salad greens, but I love it tucked into a wrap. A thin layer of thickened yo ..read more

There is a restaurant in London that I love called Noble Rot (there are three locations). I have been there for dinner a few times and love the creative food. I didn’t know they served lunch until one day I was in the area looking for another restaurant which turned out to be closed. Walking back up the street, I fell over. Just face planted on the pavement for no apparent reason. Very kind passersby offered help but I scrambled up as fast as my arthritic knees would allow with protestations of being fine and a chuckle about clumsiness and walked off, determined to restore some sort of dignit ..read more

If you have followed me for any amount of time, or read my Southern Sympathy cookbook, then you know I am not much of one for making layered, frosted cakes. I lack the patience or skill to make them look lovely and attractive and I may be thrilled with the taste, but very rarely with the appearance. So I stick to Bundt cakes and sheet cakes, or simple single layers like this. And I can say my life is no worse for it. I love the ratio or cake to frosting on a one layer like this. Lots of uninterrupted, tender cake and a lovely thick layer of frosting. I was a late convert to carrot cake ..read more

Sometimes you see an image of a dish online or in a magazine and it is so pretty and seems so simple that you rush out to recreate it. And it is a huge disappointment. Either the taste is awful or it was not at all as easy as it seemed, or it just isn’t very pretty. I think there is a whole Pinterest fails community that addresses this. Let me tell you though, this is not one of those. It works, it’s easy and it looks amazing.  I saw a version of this, in a much thicker loaf of bread with all sorts of add-ins years ago – I think maybe even before the rise of Instagram. My mind went ..read more

AS St. Patrick’s Day approaches, I am reposting an old favorite from 9 year ago. I developed this recipe for a holiday post, but I ended up cycling it into my repetoire pretty often. It’s great with a bowl of Irish Stew or Dublin Coddle. So, from 2015: I had a six pack of Guinness on hand.  I love cooking with stout, but I don’t particularly like drinking it straight, so I was looking for ways to use all those bottles.  This bread has the lovely, dense texture of a traditional soda bread with the added tang from the Guinness.  Oatmeal adds a lovely texture and ri ..read more

I am constantly on the hunt for good recipes for appetizers and snacks (even though I wrote a book on the subject). I love to have something out will the meal I in the oven, and it’s an easy option for taking along to a gathering – better than being responsible for the whole meal! Sure, a packaged hummus or dip is really easy, but I think we can take it up a notch and still make it pretty simple. And this dish has become a much-requested recipe for me. It hits all the marks – creamy and cheesy and sweet and savory, decadent but not heavy or cloying, plus it is unique but famili ..read more

Winter can produce a few challenges for creative cooking. Most of the produce is dormant, or at least I’m starting to get tired of the same things. Tantalizing Spring is just around the corner, but the doldrums carry on. After the flurry of cooking for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, even Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras, the kitchen can get a little humdrum. But I say celebrate that – there is absolutely nothing wrong with settling in to simple. And this cake is simple, truly lovely and unassuming. No flashy flourishes, no exotic spices, no swirling piped frosting or stacked layers. Just a ..read more