Articles by Roz Cummins

Food stuff this year

I busted my butt to get this in before too much of 2007 passed (I submitted it in the wee hours of 1/2/07), but it turns out I forgot to hit the all-important little button that says "post." Isn't there an expression about yesterday's news being today's fish wrapper? (That expression makes a lot more sense in England where people wrap fish'n'chips in newspaper ...) Here, belatedly, is my 2006 summary, ready to be recycled for your cyber-fishwrapping needs.

My personal best and worst food-related stuff of 2006:

Make your leftover Xmas sweets into something yummy

In my experience, even a calm and pleasant holiday results in a house strewn with bits of paper, empty boxes filled with styrofoam peanuts, a guilt-inducing list of thank-you notes to be written, and a fridge full of leftovers. Here are three recipes for "recycled" holiday desserts that turn less-than-enjoyable ingredients into actual treats:

A holiday meal inspired by New Orleans

A menu for a holiday meal inspired by a New Orleans Réveillon:

Sazerac cocktails
Appetizer of lobster salad with a lemon balm and tomato dressing
Adair Burlingham's chicken and ham gumbo, or a vegetarian gumbo z'erb
Roast turkey or a Turducken
Biscuits
King cake or bread pudding with whiskey sauce
Café Brulot or coffee with chicory

I'll post the first few recipes this week and the others next week.

A few months ago I started thinking about what would make for an environmentally sound holiday dinner. I wanted to create a menu that was festive and satisfying but not excessive or wasteful.

Secret-spice cookies

I am working on a health-of-the-oceans-conscious holiday menu for later this week. In the meantime, if you're looking for cookie recipes to give friends and family as gifts, here's one I concocted for curried peanut butter cookies. I figure most people like curry and peanut noodles -- why not combine the flavors and introduce a sweet/salty contrast?