As a kid, my brother and I used to eat the violets we found growing in our backyard in Massachusetts. Hey, what can I say? Small town living at its finest.

The story goes that a newly engaged couple drove up to a bar called Poor Red's in their shiny gold car on their way to Lake Tahoe to celebrate. 

My Mom has never been a drinker. My Dad was always the drinker in our family - and he mostly just stuck to a beer with the guys every once in awhile or during a family barbeque. 

My Mom is so not a drinker. She can probably count on one hand the number of cocktails she's had in the last 5 decades. 

The cousin to bread pudding, a strata is an egg casserole that is more eggy, less custardy, and usually savory instead of sweet.

Although you will need a special Madeleine baking pan to make this traditional French dessert cookie, the small investment is well worth it because once you taste these light, airy, elegant tea cakes and see how easy they are to make, you’ll want to bake them all the time! 

That a football game was on television every weekend during the season in our house while I was growing up was a given. My Dad, who was a high school history teacher, moonlit as a football umpire, so he was very passionate (and knowledgeable) about the game.

Additionally, brother and I were both in our high school football band (me on the clarinet and flute and him on the trumpet).

This delicious egg bread recipe is a tradition in Finland and the first bread I bake each fall to kick of the holiday baking season! It's called pulla bread.

Rice pilaf is widely available as a boxed side dish, in a variety of flavors, as well as plain, but it's so easy, that once you make it the first time, you'll reach for this recipe again and again. 

As Labor Day approaches each year, we find ourselves straddling the seasons. 

Although we're so glad to say goodbye to the heat of summer (yes, it actually does get hot up here in Maine for a few days, a week, tops!), we're not quite ready to dig out our mittens and snow boots yet.

I love a good Caesar salad. And apparently you all do as well, because my classic Caesar Salad with Homemade Garlic Croutons, which also appears in my first cookbook, is one of the most requested recipes on the website.

Toad in the Hole is a classic English baked egg dish called Yorkshire pudding with juicy sausages nestled in the eggy batter. And imagine my surprise when I learned that Yorkshire “pudding” isn’t pudding at all, but instead more like a big giant popover!