Author Archives: molly

A toast to the innocent notion that love can be contained: The World’s Best Chocolate Cupcake… A slide into the silky fire of senseless abandon: Chili-Fired Bittersweet Chocolate Pots de Crème… An ode to building a life, layer by layer: … Continue reading →

Nobody’s sorry to say goodbye to the Chinese Year of the Tiger, with its roaring bad luck, snarling bad moods, and seemingly inexhaustible supply of bad news. Scholars of the Chinese zodiac blame Tiger for the devastated economy, nasty politics, … Continue reading →

Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, NPR’s Kitchen Sisters, sent along some inspiration for the new year—in the form of advice from the late musician and artist Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart. My stove is my guitar. What … Continue reading →

Oysters spend their lives in the primal ooze that spawns life, filtering flotsam and jetsam, distilling it all down to the essence of their patch of water-soaked earth. Oysters reveal a place like a kiss reveals a person. My first … Continue reading →

Pop! POP! Champagne. Oysters. Closed worlds pushed, twisted, and pried open. The bubbly fizzes up, up, up to the oxygen, to life on the other side of the cork. Striped of its roof, the oyster glistens and quivers naked in … Continue reading →

Two Potatoes—One Irish, One Sweet Jansson’s Temptation Seattle, Washington Before she built the cookbook section and first kitchen store at Amazon.com, Rebecca Staffel was no slouch in the kitchen. An Oregon farm kid, she was weaned on solid Scandinavian cooking, … Continue reading →

Sprouts Hot and Cold If you want to get the blood flowing on a snowbound night, serve Brussels sprouts. People love them or despise them—no one is neutral. The response will warm up the room, and the challenge to the … Continue reading →

Poultry, Pears, and 24 Inches of Snow Good things fell from the sky.  A box of late Warren and Golden Russet Bosc pears were delivered from Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood, California. Some legs and thighs from Good Shepherd Poultry … Continue reading →

Nearly 300 cooks joined the One Big Table “Twitter party” on Friday, December 10th to brainstorm the ultimate holiday menu. Course by course, recipes were offered, and the most toothsome were awarded a copy of One Big Table. But the … Continue reading →

I will be making an appearance on NBC’s Today show tomorrow morning around 9:40 am! I’ll be cooking from One Big Table and spreading holiday cheer with the Today show anchors! Tune in if you can! Update: You can watch … Continue reading →