project wedding cake: an introduction

As there is no casual way to say this, ahhhem, let me just blurt it out: I am baking a wedding cake!

sweet cherry pie

Whoever said you can’t make a good cherry pie with sweet cherries was lying. Sure, I love a sour or tart cherry pie as much as the next cherry-lover, but when the Greenmarket only has the sweet ones, there’s no reason to run in the other direction.

Recipe

fresh ricotta and red onion pizza

I know what you’re thinking: Sure, we said we wanted you to keep the pizza recipes coming, but we didn’t mean the very next day. Don’t you have any cakes or cookies or pie-of-the-non-pizza variety to break up the content with? And my answer is: This is not a pizza recipe. It’s a recipe for cheese. And it’s long overdue.

Recipe

pizza with red and yellow peppers

I hope you’re not pizza-ed out yet–and if you are, can you tell me your secret?–because I’ve got two more coming this week. Wait, why is everyone leaving? Come back!

Recipe

pistachio petit-four cake

Last weekend, I baked three birthday cakes. One of my mother’s oldest friends was turning 65, and when she mentioned that she was going to order the cake for her birthday party from a bakery, I had to object. People, when I turn 65 someone better bake me a homemade cake, is all I am saying. I think the very least someone deserves for hitting such a fine age with style is a friend, elbows-deep in flour, frosting and devotion.

Recipe, Tips

10 paths to painless pizza-making

As you may have noticed, we’re kind of into pizza in the smitten kitchen. I mean, just a little. I can’t help it–in my mind, it combines the best things on earth: homemade bread, charred-edged ingredients, pairing well with a green salad and wine, and–the way I make it, at least–it never feels like a heavy meal.

Recipe

dead simple slaw + 6 heat wave reprieves

I have paused before posting because I’m certain that if I tell you about yet another slaw recipe, you’re going to revolt. There’s been my favorite classic, a green onion slaw, an Indian version and then four additional ones (a blue cheese version of my favorite, a pickled slaw, a spicy radicchio slaw and a Asian-inspired napa slaw) in an NPR article. One could say I was just a little bit into coleslaw.

Recipe

breakfast apricot crisp

Recipe

jim lahey’s potato pizza

[Note: This recipe got a refresh and several simplifications in 2016. Read it here.]

Although I keep repeating to myself “I am not obsessed with Jim Lahey. I am not obsessed with Jim Lahey…” the fact is, most evidence these days points to the contrary.

Recipe

s’more pie

[A fresh version for 2025!] In 2007, I made s’mores from scratch and brought them to the Memorial Day barbecue on my friend Jocelyn’s roof, celebrating the thousands of other hottie uniformed types that had sailed in for Fleet Week. [I just spelled that “Weak.” It’s all so telling, innit?]