Sweeter off the Vine! is Yossy Arefi’s first book. Celebrate the luscious fruits of every season with this stunning collection of heirloom-quality recipes for pies, cakes, tarts, ice cream, preserves, and other sweet treats. Ruby red rhubarb is roasted to adorn a pavlova, juicy apricots and berries are baked into galettes with saffron sugar, and winter’s bright citrus shines in Blood Orange Donuts and Tangerine Cream Pie. Yossy Arefi’s recipes showcase what is fresh and vibrant any time of year by enhancing the enticing sweetness of fruits with bold flavors like rose and orange flower water inspired by her Iranian heritage, bittersweet chocolate and cacao nibs, and whole-grain flours. Accompanied by gorgeous, evocative photography, Sweeter off the Vine!, is a must-have for aspiring bakers and home cooks of all abilities.
Category Archives: Eat: Recipes
A Baker’s Dozen: Mostly British Stories and Recipes
by Dianne Boate
There are remarkable people who come into our lives and become authors of certain types of adventures. I am speaking of my former “gentleman friend,” a Mr. Watkins, an Englishman who took me three times to England, and was responsible for a career turning point in my life when I became a staff member of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Even after we parted (after nine years together), English ways and recipes carved out new horizons for me.
A Baker’s Dozen: Treasured Friendships and Treasured Recipes
by Dianne Boate
What do baking and letter writing have in common? Passion! Communication! Adventure!
Two of my most revered friendships came about because of letters I wrote. Last year I told you about Rose Levy Beranbaum; today, I would like to share another story about meeting M.F.K. Fisher, and share the recipe she loved most of all the things I made for her. The recipe is called “Starlight Sugar Crisps,” from a 1950s Pillsbury Bakeoff book, a croissant type of pastry laced with vanilla sugar.
Flashing back for a moment, someone lent me The Art Of Eating, an anthology of five books written by M.F.K. Fisher. Her style, sensibilities and wry humor captured me instantly. She made me fall in love with France all over again.
Eat Like the Stars – Diana Dors
Are you on a diet after the excesses of the holidays? I sure am.
Gwyneth Paltrow is by no means the first movie star to dish out advice on how to eat healthily, and drop some pounds along the way. Gloria Swanson raged against sugar in all its forms, Greta Garbo was bosom buddies with health-food guru Gaylord Hauser, and famously hearty eater Elizabeth Taylor wrote a legendary diet book called Elizabeth Takes Off in the 1980s.
But when I’m feeling an excess of adipose tissue, it’s Diana Dors who I turn to. Continue reading
A Baker’s Dozen – Tarte Moutarde, the Star of the Show
by Dianne Boate
Just imagine for a minute that your kitchen is a rehearsal hall, your dining area a stage, and your favorite dishes as the actors in the dinner plays you produce and direct. It can put a different focus on what your favorites are and how many times you haul them out from the wings.
Fancy Foods Show Recipes
After you’ve read Risa Nye’s report on this year’s Fancy Foods Show, enjoy these recipes she collected exclusively for EDF readers! Continue reading
A Gourmet Chef, A Magician and Mysteries Abound – a Book Excerpt and Two Recipes
The Accidental Alchemist mystery series, written by Gigi Pandian, is about an ancient book of alchemy, a Parisian gargoyle who was accidentally brought to life and became a gourmet chef, and a female alchemist who never set out to discover the Elixir of Life. Continue reading
Baker’s Dozen: The Secret Cake of the Brown Derby
by Dianne Boate
You should always be ready for surprises. In researching the origin of one of my favorite cakes, chiffon, I discovered it was invented in 1927 by a caterer named Mr. Harry Baker, in the Los Angeles area.
Louella Parsons (left) dining at the Brown Derby.
He kept the recipe a secret for a long time and finally sold it to General Mills. But before that happened he had the brilliant idea to take a cake to The Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, where it became a popular item on the menu with movie stars – and Louella Parsons, one of the leading gossip columnists of the day. Whatever Louella wanted, Louella got, so her idea that grapefruit was nonfattening resulted in a grapefruit-flavored frosting for the popular cake. (Do we want to try that? Maybe…)
Game of Scones
by Marilyn Freund
If there’s anyone on your holiday gift list who is a “Game of Thrones” geek, have I got a score for you!
Game of Scones: All Men Must Dine (by Jammy Lannister) is a small, hardback cookbook in which all the recipes are named for characters or events in George R.R. Martin’s epic work, A Song of Ice and Fire, better known by its HBO title, Game of Thrones. (via Indiebound or Amazon.) And so we have Tyrion’s Shortbread, Red (Velvet) Wedding Cake, and my favorite, Daenerys’ Dragon Eggs and Unsullied Soldiers (without nuts). Fans will get these jokes; the rest not so much. Continue reading
A Baker’s Dozen – Private Christmas Gift-Making Factory: Your Kitchen
by Dianne Boate
I used to buy chocolate in 10-pound bars from a company near the old produce market in San Francisco. The bookkeeper there made me a Christmas cake every year and it was terrible, but I loved it because she made it for me.
We will venture forth here with quality recipes easy to accomplish (Sugar Plums! Velma’s Mother’s Tennessee Refrigerator Rolls!), something a little different, something you can make yourself and be loved for doing it.
Eat Like the Stars: James Dean
Recipes for Rebels: In the Kitchen with James Dean is a real labor of love featuring 200 recipes from friends, family and co-stars, of the best on-screen rebel there ever was. Continue reading