I ended up doubling the ingredients here to fill a silicone mold and a 4×8-inch loaf pan. The good thing is that you don’t need a mixer; just a strong arm and a wooden spoon. Keep the measurements precise and I promise it will be the best banana bread you’ll ever bake. I filled the…

It was like my personal heaven walking in JB Prince, the service and bakeware store on 31st Street between Madison and Park Avenues. It’s been on my list to stop by but I have been unable to until this week because they’re only open on weekdays from 9 to 5. Their Web site sucks so…

I missed it when The Times first reported it last week: the Maya Schaper Cheese and Antiques store in the upper west side is going to be replaced by a coffee shop because of soaring rents. Good thing then that the Dr. and I stopped by today to buy some cheese. The Dr. picked up…

This was a last-minute addition to my Thanksgiving menu this year. I’ve been cooking for three days but forgot to plan for a carb–I didn’t know Cameron was going to bring homemade biscuits–so I made my brother run an errand to buy buttermilk and corn at the grocery store in the morning. Cornbread is easy…

After a full week of craving salty foods, I woke up Sunday morning eager to bake something sweet. I’m not a big fan of too much sweet, though, so I opted for an easy apple cake recipe minus half a cup of sugar. When I took out the baking pans from the oven, I saw…

It’s probably not the right time to be posting recipes about ice cream, but I’m going to do it anyway because it’s so easy if you have an ice cream maker. Now, to me an ice cream maker is one of those things you register for when you get married. I’m not on that path…

When I try to cook something and it comes out of the oven fragrant and then it actually tastes good, I always wish I baked more. I got my hands on some ripe and bruised peaches today. I knew they wouldn’t hold even if I just ate them with yogurt for breakfast, so I thought…

Remember the rhubarb sauce I made a couple of weeks ago? I’ve stir-fried it with fish and braised pork belly with it and I still have half a tub leftover. I searched through my recipe archives and thought, well, I can make panna cotta with it, yeah? It’s a simple sauce with a subtle flavor…

Continuing my current love affair with kale, I followed another recipe Stacie of chowbaby.com recommended. I’m a bigger fan of savory rather than sweet and this pudding was just right up my alley. The bakery uptown didn’t have brioche in stock when I stopped by, so I picked up a loaf of challah instead. Before…

What to do with potatoes before leaving for vacation? I always feel bad when there’s still a lot of produce in the kitchen before I go away. I hate wasting food and I wanted to use the herbs I also had sitting on the counter. I was too busy packing, so I wanted to cook…

From Montauk, we paid $10 to get the car onto a ferry to Shelter Island. From there, we paid another $10 to exit through North Fork and avoid the Hamptons traffic. We stopped by one of the farms on the side of the road to pick our own blackberries for $5 a pint. If you…

When Melissa Clark of The New York Times published this recipe, I read it over and over until I completely understood the process. I needed to make sure that making a crumb cake won’t require a Kitchen Air mixer. I don’t have one because I rarely bake, but the Dr. absolutely loves any type of…