From the category archives:

Culinary School

Twisted Cookies ~ With Rolled-In Sugar

February 25, 2012

My Mom and I made Twisted Cookies for the first time in 1959 from a recipe printed on the inside of a cake yeast wrapper. My Mom made bread from scratch, without a recipe, and this tricky and unique recipe using yeast was right up her alley. When I left home and married, this recipe [...]

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Gingerbread with Apple Cider Sabayon

December 4, 2011

Warm Gingerbread, scented with molasses, ginger, cinnamon and cloves, with sweet cold Cider Sabayon gracefully flowing down its side, was what I made for our Thanksgiving dessert this year. It was a not-too-heavy, but lovely end to our feast. Our groaning board held the traditional turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, plus my [...]

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Orange Marmalade and Almond Crostate from The Mozza Cookbook

October 18, 2011

The last time I was at my book store, I was so delighted to discover Nancy Silverton’s fabulous new creation, The Mozza Cookbook, was now on the shelf.  When I paged through it, I found that there were recipes for each of the dishes my friend Michele and I had eaten at Osteria Mozza a [...]

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Tomatillo Albondigas Soup & Two Tomatillo Tales

August 8, 2011

Tale One
One afternoon last week my doorbell rang, which was a surprise, because I wasn’t expecting anyone. I opened the door and there stood a beautiful young woman with a toddler clinging to her knee, holding a huge platter piled with fresh vegetables. “Hi,” she said, “I’m your next door neighbor and I have a [...]

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Mini Lemon Tartlets & A Culinary School Banquet

October 15, 2010

By the end of March 1995 I had completed eight out of ten quarter classes required to receive my Certificate in Professional Cooking and my Certificate for Pastry and Baking at UCLA. I had also completed the nine month 185 hour internship for Cooking at Campanile and another 150 hours internship at another restaurant for [...]

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Twirly Lemon Cookies and My First Chef’s Coat

August 23, 2010

If you have read about me, you know that in 1991 I decided to go to culinary school at UCLA. I had this bone-deep intense longing to learn how to do all the techniques I was reading about in food magazines. I wanted to learn to make sauces and to understand pastry and baking. I [...]

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