When I was a kid I spent a lot of time with my neighbors, Ernie and Linda Bontrager, and their girls, Alicia and Kristin. They were like a second family for me, and many of my homemaking skills were learned from Linda. I remember watching Linda pack extravagant picnics for dinner at the Hollywood Bowl—I…
Food Glorious Food
Chocolate Caramel Rocky Road
On Saturday a friend, who clearly thought it would be fun throw a little temptation my way, sent me a picture of the peanut clusters he’d just made. I showed the picture to John who said, “I bet those would be great with marshmallows in them.” (He’s a sucker for anything with marshmallows and chocolate together.)…
Peggy’s Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie is pretty much a standard dessert at Thanksgiving. I’m sure there are plenty of people who opt for something else but at our house there would be a revolt if there weren’t any pumpkin pie. When I was growing up pumpkin pie was always part of the Thanksgiving menu, but my mom wasn’t…
Picnic Perfect Cake
When I was a kid we spent nearly every New Year’s weekend with my parent’s college friends, known to us as Aunt Janet and Uncle Bailey. They had two kids who were close in age to ours and we always had a ton of fun together. Being as we lived in Southern California the Rose Bowl…
Thanksgiving – Traditional or Twenty-First Century?
I glanced at the cover of the November issue of Good Housekeeping and saw – in big letters, THANKSGIVING. It’s no surprise that the November issue would focus on the upcoming holiday but then I saw a picture of a cake. A CAKE! “No, no, no!” I thought. “Pumpkin pie – that’s what you can…