This is my mother's springtime holiday cake and it's also my favorite. We only call it Easter Cake, but for the purposes of this post, I have named it Resurrection because I could be persuaded to come back from the dead for a slice.

For years now, my mom has been making a white chili instead of the heartier red chili as a family comfort food during colder months. Aside from comfort, it's also been an easy go-to dish to feed a large gathering, and since Mom and I have been hosting annual Oscar parties for over a decade, mom's chicken chili has always been a welcome respite from the February cold.

Some days, you just need to have a fresh-from-the-oven cookie — even if it’s just one.

After leaving behind my favorite Thai food in San Francisco a couple of years ago, I found myself wading in the dim waters of the new, New York food scene and in an unfamiliar neighborhood; I didn't have much luck with any takeout that doesn't rhyme with "mizza". 

Pumpkin is king in these wondrous, cake-like cookies that bring me a lovely sense of nostalgia.

When I was a child our Sunday family breakfast ritual centered on eating a large meal, preferably carbohydrates, after church. If we didn't stop for donuts around the corner from our neighborhood church, we went home and made waffles or pancakes. 

Besides always wishing that I were eating breakfast foods, I also find myself wishing I am in a tropical setting digging my feet into wet sand ...

One of the things I fell in love with in Vienna was Haas & Haas, a quaint tea shop tucked behind the huge cathedral in the middle of the beautiful-cobblestoned city. Part of their tea fare was this lovely biscuit with a sweet cream dollop and raspberry jam; the perfect amount of sweetness when you pile them all together, daintily as you should, while at a tea house.