Part of our new holiday tradition is lighting candles every evening.  It’s not the same as a good wood fire crackling merrily, but it creates such a beautiful atmosphere when all the lights are out.  I left them up until the new year – even without the Christmas tree lights, it still makes the [...]

I learned the secret to perfectly textured basic cookies, and no, I’m not kidding you.  Perfect.  These cookies taste like they came from a store, but they’re completely from scratch.  No preservatives.  No weird derivatives for “mouthfeel.”
    
It turns out you don’t need them.
Butter, my friends.  Butter and sugar and flour are the basic cookie [...]