Laura Rebecca's Kitchen

Yes, the presentation is lacking. But at that point in the move, so was my ability to care. I am not a fan of Sandra Lee (aka Snadra, Puddin’ Cups, or my personal favorite, Semi-Ho). I like her 70/30 concept, where 70-percent is store-bought and 30-percent is fresh ingredients, but her execution — eccch. (Read […]

Welcome to Simply Summer Week! All week long, I’ll be featuring very simple recipes taking advantage of summer’s bounty. ( God, is that marketing schmaltz, or what? Sorry.) And since it’s summer, I’ll be taking Friday off. On to the first recipe! A few years ago (actually, now that I think about it, five or […]

There are few Cosby-related items I remember vividly from childhood: Fat Albert, watched in the afternoon on FOX 5. (The Brown Hornet: a tv show within a tv show. So meta!) The Cosby Show, with Claire Huxtable as perfection in an 80s power suit. (Pretty! Smart! Sophisticated! Did I mention pretty?) Chocolate Jell-o Pudding Pops; […]

Happy birthday kid. Moving has turned me into a horrible bitch goddess . (Well, all right, not that alone — there was always a natural tendency.) Packing is boring, cleaning is tedious, waiting on mortgages is nervewracking, bleeding money is horrifying. For the past two weeks, my inclination is to bury myself in a den […]

Armed with a loaf of stale bakery bread and a pint of beautiful blueberries that weren’t getting any younger, I came up with a recipe for Blueberry Bread Pudding. Really – I came up with it! It’s my creation! When I enrolled in my first cooking class five years ago, my ultimate goal was to […]

Lemon blueberry bundt, with fresh bluberries and lemon zest tucked in the center. Last Friday, Carolyn invited a slew of people over for a hot dog cookout (really a weenie roast – so retro!). Armed with portable chairs, we sat in her backyard and ate, overlooking her chickens, ducks, and the wheat (?) field beyond […]

Hey! Guess what! It’s summer vacation! You’ve got two whole months to do nothing but get in trouble! Well, no. Not if you’re not a kid. Or a sitting president. So maybe you still have to get up in the morning, put on your corporate casual clothes, commute to work and spend 8 hours trying […]

Lemon Sugar Cookies that were rolled and patted before baking. These cookies, from the Hay Day Country Market Cookbook and made for the WCC, are very good: buttery with a bright citrus flavor. The bottoms are bit crisp – a gentle crunch – with the insides featuring a softer and chewier texture. Having said that, […]

Earlier this year, the New York Times’ Amanda Hesser published chocolate chip cookie recipes for three different types of cookies: Thin and Crispy, Flat and Chewy, and Thick and Gooey. I’d volunteered to bake cookies for a Writers’ Tea in Sadie’s class, and thought “Hey, why don’t I try that thick cookie recipe?” They’re very […]

Photo courtesy of KraftFoods.com A few weeks ago, an old friend from high school mentioned his experience going on a field trip with his son’s class. Normally mild-mannered, in the company of 20 other 8 year olds hepped up on Capri Sun, Chips Ahoy, and sheer I’m-not-at-school excitment, his son was bouncing off the walls. […]