Laura Rebecca's Kitchen

This butternut squash risotto an ideal dish for a cold, fall night. Like all good risottos, it’s rich and creamy, with brimming with flavor from the chicken stock, white wine, and onion. The squash’s flavor takes a backseat in this dish, but clearly, its sunny, bright color is at center stage. All this needs is […]

Click here for this recipe. The NYT’s Dining Section has a great article on perfecting mashed potatoes. It advises cooks to relax: perfect mashed potatoes are easy to make. Here are the article’s pearls of wisdom: Buy potatoes from either local farmers and/or buy “A” grade potatoes, the largest ones available. Peel & cut your […]

The very delicious Gianduja bar by Vosges. A few weeks ago, I picked up Mo’s Bacon Bar by Vosges and posted a review. A few days later, I got an email from Paige, who works for the chocolatier, asking if I’d like some samples. Um, yes please! Shortly thereafter, a lovely package arrived (repleate with […]

I just had another piece of this lovely cake and here’s the thing: it’s delicious, but it’s supposed to be gingerbread, and it doesn’t taste like gingerbread to me. This is Nigella Lawson’s “Fresh Gingerbread with Lemon Icing” recipe and I have to ask, where’s the spicy hit? I even doubled the amount of ginger […]

When it comes to pumpkin desserts, they have to be well spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and/or clove for me to be over-the-moon for them. (I fell in love with masala chai at first sip because it reminded me of pumpkin pie.) So when pumpkin desserts fit this bill, there are few foods that will […]

Before our Halloween/Dessert party, I asked the Daring Bakers for ideas. Peabody suggested I make Gingerbread Pumpkin Bars; she’d just made them with great success. So, I happily followed her suggestion, and she is so right: these are delicious! Spicy and sweet with added depth from the molasses, they are wonderful. The base is rich […]

Looking for Sammy “The Candy Man” Davis’ influence on Retro Recipe Challenge #9? Check out Dolores’ Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity for the sugar-soaked round-up! Want to participate in the next challenge? Visit Naomi’s blog, Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried, for all the details on Retro Recipe Challenge #10: Story Book Food! BIG thank yous […]

These are the easiest, and one of the tastiest, little treats you can make. You can whip up a huge batch in under 10 minutes, and if you bring them to a party, people will love you. There’s something about the combination of salty, crunchy pretzels, paired with chewy marshmallows and the sweetness of chocolate […]

The only time a presentation like this is appropriate is for a Halloween party. Or, maybe, when celebrating Charles Manson’s birthday. My favorite part of Halloween is the candy. Candy makes me swoon. And the opportunity of getting mounds of it simply by dressing up, knocking on a few doors and saying “TRICK OR TREAT!” […]

This month’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was a dessert I’d never heard of before: Bostini Cream Pies. Our host, Mary from Alpineberry, explained, “Bostini cream pie, like the name implies, is a twist on the traditional Boston cream pie. The dessert is vanilla custard topped with an orange chiffon cake and then drizzled with a chocolate […]