“Chocolate, the ‘food of the gods,’ conquered not just the candy shop, but also the kitchen.” – Riccardo Magni Don’t make the mistake of thinking this rigatoni with dark cocoa and red wine short ribs is a chocolate-y or sweet pasta dish, it’s absolutely not. Not even close. Savory and enchanting? Absolutely. I live in a part of New Jersey that is home to one of the world’s most famous chocolate makers. In fact, it’s not uncommon for the aroma of chocolate to blanket the entire town well into the wee hours of the morning. Since chocolate is literally in the air here – the constant reminder of it has…
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I love the calm that January brings. Winter’s rest is palpable in this little town. Most of our local farm markets have officially closed for the season with their fields resting under blankets of ice and snow. So let’s turn up the heat a bit with this Crock-Pot Pulled Pork Chipotle Lime Taco recipe.
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A classic Polish gingerbread cake recipe, Piernik Staropolski. My daughter’s 5th grade class was tasked with a “Christmas Around the World” project in Social Studies and of the three countries she chose to research, she was granted Poland. Seeing as though my children share in their father’s half-Polish ancestry, we took to researching traditional Polish Christmas desserts to add to our repertoire of holiday goodies, and decided upon an heirloom gingerbread cake recipe with Christmas jam, a version of the classic Polish Piernik Staropolski recipe.
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“Here we come a-wassailing Among the leaves so green; Here we come a-wand’ring So fair to be seen.” For most of us ‘wassail’ is a word we know from a popular Christmas carol though there’s a good chance that most of us cannot explain what it is – and with good reason, as wassail has been mostly lost to history and time. Come with me as we step back into a Dickens novel. Let’s walk the cobblestone streets to a boisterous tavern somewhere in 19th century England, and partake in the merrymaking with a mug full of hot and aromatic wassail.
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Butter Roasted Turkey with Herbes de Provence + Citrus has been my traditional Thanksgiving Day turkey recipe since I first began hosting the holiday decades ago. Aromatics are loosely stuffed into the turkey and seasonal vegetables and fresh herbs line the roasting pan – resulting in a tender and succulent turkey with a white wine pan gravy that compares to no other.
