The Wooden Spoon

For my final Christmas cookie recipe, I made a cookie that I remember from the Christmases of my childhood. Christmas cookies were not a par...

Not being a black coffee drinker, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Black Russian . I’m more of a café au lait person. I like a litt...

When I saw that the recipe for the Chocolate Tart called for Kahlua, the ubiquitous TV commercials immediately sprang to mind. I had just v...

As long as I was going to be doing something completely different for Christmas dinner , I wanted something really spectacular for dessert. ...

I resisted the siren call of cable TV for years. I didn’t watch a lot of TV. I’m more of a book and movie person. Reality TV does nothing fo...

After decades of doing the same things every Christmas, I decided this year would be different. Instead of a Christmas tree, I would make a ...

The record breaking Nor’Easter that buried New Jersey over the weekend threatened to disrupt my holiday baking schedule. After shoveling my ...

This is an oldie but goodie, a leftover from the days when I was cooking for a picky eater who was only willing to try new dishes if they ha...

I cheated this week. I made a recipe that I’ve made before. Once. A long time ago. But nothing says Christmas like Spritz, so I got out the ...

This is one of those recipes that is made with totally fake ingredients but I thought that if I liked it enough it would be worth trying to ...

Last fall, the Wooden Spoon cooks were part of a group that took a trip to Frelinghuysen Arboretum (see the report here ). While there, we ...

This recipe is slightly modified from the one I made for our last Wooden Spoon Thanksgiving two years ago. I cut the original recipe in hal...

When I agreed to the Buche de Noel Bake-off, I was certain that I had several recipes at home. I distinctly remembered seeing them. My memor...

This is a recipe that I bookmarked weeks ago. It seemed easy and fun. When I came up with the idea of “Christmas Cookie of the Week”, it was...

Every year, December comes and goes as I attend to the holiday rush of parties, shopping and decorating while trying to keep to my usual sch...

A wanted to make chestnut stuffing for our nutty dinner so I found myself for the first time ever cooking an unstuffed turkey. It somehow se...

A and I agreed, theme or no theme, it’s just not Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes. I could have made the Perfect Mashed Potatoes that I...

It’s really scary when you find a pan in your cupboard that you have no recollection of buying or using. It’s even scarier when it’s the exa...

In keeping with our “nuts” theme for Thanksgiving, I wanted to try a butternut squash soup recipe completely forgetting that A had already m...

Pureed Butternut Squash Soup Cranberry-Orange Relish with Walnuts Baked Acorn Squash Nut Bread Herbed Mashed Potatoes Chestnut Stuffing Dry...