Blog Posts by Zester Daily

This chocolate bourbon cake recipe truly is the best you will ever try.
By Barbara Haber
My quest for the perfect chocolate cake has haunted me ever since I realized I had a knack for baking -- not the professional kind with pastry bags and such -- but homey baking that produces yeast rolls, fruit crumbles and birthday cakes. And for me, a birthday cake has always meant a chocolate layer cake with chocolate frosting.

• Want the perfect complement for chocolate? Try toasted coconut frosting.
  
• What's the surprising way to get the red color in red velvet cake?
• What's it like to make desserts for the Oscars? A chef takes you behind the scenes.

For years I have never passed up a recipe claiming to be "the best chocolate cake you will ever eat," and I would find an occasion to try it out, only to be disappointed. The cake would be too bitter or too sweet or too airy or dense or dry or simply lacking in any outstanding characteristic that would make it memorable, some intriguing je ne sais quoi element of flavor.

I have

Pastry chef Maria Grammatico offers this small wonder from a hilltop village in Sicily.
By Nancy Harmon Jenkins

My mother always made sure there was something to eat in our Christmas stockings, like an orange in the toe -- a reminder, she said, that in her Maine childhood it might be her only orange of the year. Also tucked in there would be a little package of maple sugar shaped in the form of a pilgrim man or woman. I always ate the pilgrim's head first, in one bite, while my sister nibbled slowly, from the feet up, and savored the sweet, annoyingly, all day. "Mmm, so good," she would murmur after I had finished mine.

• The best gifts to put under a cook's tree.
• A cookbook awards' judge lists his 4 top choices for bakers.
• Wine books for your favorite oenophile.
• Best thoughtful value: The perfect recipes to pair with gifts.
  

Nowadays I look for other food treats in the stocking I hang by the chimney with care. The ideal stocking gift should be, of course, small, but exquisite and an exotic luxury in these difficult

A homemade recipe with the best ingredients is leagues better than pre-made fareBy Clifford A. Wright

Most American families who take food seriously at the holidays are now beginning to think about all they need to do for its preparation. In our family, it's quite a production, beginning at least two weeks in advance and sometimes more.

But there's one thing that families often overlook, and that's the toast. Many people are perfectly happy toasting with a fine wine, a bourbon and water, or a beer, but our family cannot not have our homemade holiday eggnog.

• Need a nice fruity alternative to eggnog for a holiday treat? Try Mexican ponche.
• What classic cocktail can work better than wine during this holiday season?
• What's the secret ingredient in the perfect chocolate cake? Check out the booze.
• How did quality rum end up in the Rocky Mountains?

Our eggnog is ridiculously rich, a bit involved to make, and we really only drink it for toasts, as to drink it continuously has alcoholic and caloric consequences.

Good thing that fresh pumpkins are best enjoyed as holiday décor. I agree with experts like Dorie Greenspan and Nick Malgieri, who say that canned pumpkin (100 percent pure pumpkin, not "pumpkin pie filling," which contains sugar and spices) is just as tasty and easier to use than fresh for use in seasonal baked goods. A bonus: According to doctors at the University of California at Berkeley canned pumpkin is actually more nutritious than fresh, with more carotenoids and nutrients, ounce for ounce, than fresh because it is more concentrated (processing eliminates a lot of the water).

BEST NON-TRADITIONAL DESSERT RECIPES FOR THE HOLIDAY:

• Whipped Spiked Cream Dessert
• Mocha Caramel Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Cranberry-Caramel Shortbread Bars

To me, opening a can of pumpkin feels like taking a step back in time. When my mother was growing up in the 1940s, canned vegetables were a convenient and economical kitchen mainstay. According to Mom, their altered

Louisa Kasdon's family

By Louisa Kasdon

Dear kids,

This is again a year when neither of you will be home for Thanksgiving. There will be lots of family around, plenty of cousins and nephews. Even a few strays that need a Thanksgiving hookup in Boston. But you two, my own gems, are nine hours apart from each other, and each of you is six hours from me.

RELATED STORIES: FAMILY & CULTURAL CONNECTIONS

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• Beauty and the Black Sea: Images of Broth-Soaked Lavash With Shredded Turkey and Walnuts

So Katie and Evi, I share with you important tips for Thanksgiving.

Make sure that you take both bags of stuff out of the turkey. The first year I made Thanksgiving by myself, (when you, my oldest, my now mother-to-be, was a newborn), I thought there was only one thing to remove. The finished product looked beautiful but had a

Sometimes the least-expected menu is the best.

By Deborah Madison

Regardless of your menu, Thanksgiving is the perfect meal to share with the company (and dishes) of others. It's also the meal that easily absorbs the visiting friend of a cousin, the new boyfriend of a niece, a neighbor or someone you've just met.

4 Thanksgiving Survival Tips:

How do I take the stress out of menu planning?

Never cooked a turkey? 10 things that first-timers need to know

Wine can lighten any meal, but what is a no-hassle selection?

Just want something green: What's a quick, different choice?

But sometimes Thanksgiving just doesn't come to pass as one might hope. Many years ago our family had such a Thanksgiving, and it stays in my mind as one of the best, and most meaningful.

This was true the year I found myself reeling from a divorce. My mother, too, was alone -- my father having suddenly left. My sister was expecting her first baby any minute and was in no mood to cook. Dad, of course, was not around for the

Tomato and olive oil emulsion.By Nancy Harmon Jenkins

María José San Román is one of my all-time favorite Spanish chefs, even though I've never actually been to any of her famous restaurants in the dazzling seaside city of Alicante, on the southeast coast of Spain.

One dish in particular fascinated me. San Román's take on a simple tomato sauce like the ones so often served with pasta in Tuscany. She cooked down a large amount of tomatoes, using plum tomatoes available in local markets. Then, with a hand blender, added extra virgin olive oil, a little at a time, as if she were making a mayonnaise. In fact, she doesn't call this a sauce but an "emulsion."

Tip 1: Does cooking kill extra virgin olive oil?

Tip 2: When is the best time of year to buy olive oil?

Tip 3: Is olive oil from the grocery store really extra virgin?

I tried the tomato emulsion as soon as I got back to my own kitchen and was delighted by the way the sweetly pungent olive oil flavors balanced the acidity of the tomatoes.

Fall apples, ready for great recipes.

By Trine Hahnemann

Apples are one of the wonderful fruits of autumn. We grow a lot of apples in the Nordic climate, and we eat them fresh, in cakes and in savory dishes such as tarts, salads and mashes. Autumn is also the time of year to make your winter preserves, to put up jars with jam, chutneys and the apple paste that we call æblesmør, which is great as spread on toasted rye or spelt bread.

Check Trine's recipes for apple butter, apple chutney and apple jelly.

Overloaded with apples that are about to pass ripeness? Here's a sweet answer.

There are a large variety of apples in Norway, some more famous than others, and each very different in taste and texture. In these recipes I used Cox's orange pippin Belle de Boskoop and Elstar. In the United States, you can experiment with several other varieties: Braeburn, Cortland, Fiji, Gala or Golden Delicious, perhaps.

Cox's orange pippin is a British variety dating from the mid 19th century. Difficult to grow, it has