My host son is a pie fanatic. He would eat a pie everyday if I let him.  In fact, twice now he has taken a whole pie to school for lunch.  If he appreciates one thing about America during his year here, at least I know that pie will be towards the top of the […]

Sweet Surrender If the sweetest bit of surrender is inherent in pie baking, Sunday’s peach pie required downright capitulation. My plan was to make a lattice crust peach pie. I’m a huge fan of multi-fruit pies (or mashups as Emily calls them), but am so thrilled with the new bounty of local peaches in my […]

Cherry Pie is My Mom’s Pie Sour cherry pie is my mom’s pie. Long before pie was my thing, my mom was filling the freezer with cherry pies. I didn’t even like them until well into my adulthood and don’t remember my mom making any other fruit pies. “Why can’t you make apple?” I protested. […]

First a Cook  I love ritual, especially those involving food and connection with family and friends. My favorite ritual is Friday night Shabbat dinners. It’s quite lovely when we get together with extended family for Shabbat, but I am especially fond of those that we share quietly in our dining room as a family of […]

Strawberry rhubarb pie is MY pie. The one that I would choose over all others. The one that I wait 10 months out of the year for and spend the other two hoarding rhubarb as if the apocalypse is upon us. I grow it, I buy it, I steal it from neighbors’ yards. Nothing stands […]

I purposely don’t spend much time scouring the internet for recipes. I feel like they hinder my creativity by planting preconceived ideas in my head. That’s kind of the way I feel about toys for my kids – we don’t have many because I’d prefer that they figure out how to play with something by […]

I don’t regard myself as an entertainer. I lack the skill or the energy to plan parties with thematic decor, parchment wrapped mini sandwiches, and coordinating signs on chalk boards. In fact, I get very overwhelmed when I see blog posts or magazine articles telling me how easy it is to create the perfect summer […]

From This Mom To Her Village: Mother’s Day feels like a very linear holiday for a role that is so dynamic. I celebrate my mom, my kids celebrate me, and so on. We go to brunch and plant flowers in a domino effect of celebration and admiration for our respective mothers and mothers’ mothers. To […]

These cookies are hearty and spicy and make you think of gingerbread houses and small German villages.  I’m obsessed with them and have added them to the mandatory rotation of family Christmas cookies.  Like all recipes, I followed Eva’s notes and then made some of my own adjustments like adding some salt and vanilla and […]

I always have the best results when I don’t over think things. Take my hair, for instance. The days that I’m late, half-showered and furiously drying my hair to get out the door are usually the days that people tell me my hair looks good. “What did you do to your hair?” they will ask. […]

My parents came to town this weekend, so I wanted to knock their socks off with all this pie I’ve been ranting about (plus, if we’re being honest here, I knew they would play with the boys and I could bake!). I planned a pie-a-palooza of a weekend – dough experiments, mini pies, whole pies. […]