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My mom only made these once a year at Thanksgiving. We had baked Russet potatoes and other potatoes throughout the year, but these were strictly for Thanksgiving. As much as I love these and could eat them all year, it’s nice to have something you only make once a year for a special holiday. They […]
Filmed and Edited by Xu Zhang
This is what my mom used to call garlic bread. She made it whenever she made lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs: Her take on Italian food. I call it Cheese Toast because the flavor really comes from the Parmesan cheese on top. Yes, there is garlic, but it is very light. When I make garlic […]
Filmed and Edited by Xu Zhang
I am very lucky to have so many great memories of cooking with my mom, planning parties, watching her meticulously decorate platters and charm her guests. My parents had a very long (over 50 years) traditional marriage and my mother was in charge of all the cooking and entertaining. My father helped. He loved to […]
When I was growing up, my mom made chicken that we lovingly called “crummy chicken”. She cut up a whole chicken, bathed each piece in melted butter and coated it with a mixture of seasoned breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. I later saw recipes that called this Parmesan Chicken but I will […]
It was wonderful news to hear that my friend Krista, who does a lot of the beautiful photography on this blog, was having a baby. Then I got the news that it was a girl. I immediately volunteered to give a baby shower. Krista and I had lots of conversations about the shower and […]
My copper collection started with a gleaming copper-and-brass chafing dish my mother brought home one day. She was in a silver plating shop, having silver platters replated, when it caught her eye. Someone had brought it in to be polished and never picked it up. The storeowner sold it to her and home it came. […]
As I have already said, this is my mother’s recipe. Her original called for 3 tablespoons of sugar added to the egg / orange juice mixture. Frozen cheese blintzes tend to already be very sweet, so I omitted this sugar. I think this makes them better. It’s a really simple recipe. Over the years, the […]
Canter’s Deli is an institution in Los Angeles. Opened in 1931, it is a Jewish style delicatessen in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. It’s famous for its corned beef and pastrami but also for the fact that it is open 24 hours a day, except for Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. […]
