Food has always been at the heart of my life. Recipes from my kitchen — salads, soups, desserts and the stories behind them.
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I never set out to write over 600 recipes.
Fifteen years ago when I started Pinecones & Acorns I was simply writing about the life I was living — and food has always been at the center of that life. The table has always mattered to me. The ritual of cooking for people I love, of setting a proper place with linen napkins and candles and whatever the garden or the season has to offer, of sending guests home with something homemade tucked under their arm. None of that ever felt like content. It felt like living and remembering all of the happy times I stood next to my grandmother and my mother baking and the memories that Bill and I have made cooking and hosting together.
And yet here we are. Fifteen years and 600 recipes and counting later.
This post is my attempt to make sense of all of it — to point you toward the recipes I come back to again and again, to tell you a little about how I cook and how I entertain, and to give you a front door into an archive that, I will admit, has grown rather larger than I ever intended.
Come in, let me pour you a cup of chocolate, tea, coffee or something stronger if you prefer — I do like a good cocktail, especially if it has cranberry and copious amounts of lime juice. Pull up a chair. There is almost certainly something good to eat or at least a sweet treat to share.
How We Entertain
There have been two chapters of entertaining in my life and I love them both for different reasons.
In what I think of as another life — the years when my husband’s work brought colleagues and clients to our table — we hosted two large parties every year without fail. At Christmas the house was full of finger foods and carved meats and a dessert table that took the better part of a week to assemble. Every guest left with a box of homemade candy — caramels, chocolates, confections made from my mother’s family recipes, which she came the week before to help me make. We served a signature cocktail, wines collected from our travels and champagne. It was, I think, some of my favorite holiday entertaining — not only because my mother was there but because for weeks ahead of time we poured over cookbooks to get the menu exactly right.
In summer we threw a sangria party with Spanish tapas and paella. The sangria recipe came from a restaurant in Spain — my husband charmed it out of the kitchen, then spent an evening translating the measurements from restaurant quantities down to something manageable for forty people. That recipe is one we still make over twenty-five years later and it will have its own post very soon. The paella, the recipe and the party size pan was a gift from our Spanish neighbors before they left the States to move back home to Spain, they are very special.
Nowadays our entertaining is smaller and more intimate, which suits us very well. We still go all out — a Momofuku Bossam pork dish with all the sides, large family gatherings at Christmas and Easter, a Fourth of July barbecue that my husband commands from the grill. He is in charge of the grill, the seafood, the oysters and whatever else he decides to attempt. I am in charge of everything else — the salads, the sides, the desserts and the table itself.
The table is always set properly. Linen napkins, candles, flowers — foraged from the garden when the season allows, a handful of fresh herbs and blooms when it does not, seasonal greens at Christmas. The table is part of the meal and it makes it feel special. That same instinct for creating a space that feels intentional and alive is something I wrote about in The Bower Bird Home — How I Decorate and Why I’ll Never Be a Minimalist.
Starting this April I am also joining Cindy Hattersley of Cindy Hattersley Design each month for The Seasonal Table — seasonal recipes, table inspiration and the small rituals that make a meal feel special. More on that very soon.
How I Cook
I want to be honest. I am not a chef and I have never claimed to be. I am a home cook who loves good food, good cookbooks like The Barefoot Contessa and the pleasure of finding a recipe that works and making it my own.
Most of the recipes on this blog began somewhere else — in a beloved cookbook, in the pages of a magazine, in a restaurant kitchen in Spain. I have adapted them, tested them, made them again and again until they feel like mine. I will always tell you where something came from. The story of a recipe is part of the recipe.
What I cook is traditional, sometimes with a twist. Salads that are interesting enough to be the point of the meal. Soups that make the house smell cozy and comforting. Desserts that people ask for by name and remember long after the evening is over. Nothing fussy, nothing that requires equipment I do not own. Just good food made with love for the people sitting around my table.
The Desserts and Baking
If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you already know that I bake — a lot. It is my thing. What I do when I want to show someone I love them, when I need to think, when I find myself on a Saturday morning with the house quiet and nowhere to be — or when I am avoiding something else I should probably be doing. It brings me joy.
These are the recipes people ask for by name.
- Hershey’s Chocolate Chocolate Cake with Fudge Filling and Buttercream Frosting — adapted from the Hershey’s classic — the most requested cake I have ever made
- Baked NY Brownies — the brownie that made me stop looking for brownie recipes — also Oprah’s favorite
- Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies — adapted from Barefoot Contessa — outrageously good is not an exaggeration
- Banana Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting — the recipe everyone wants when they find out it exists
- Cinnamon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake — the one that disappears before it has properly cooled
- Almond Kringle — a Scandinavian pastry that has become a holiday tradition in this house
You will find the full baking archive here — fifteen years of cakes, brownies, bars, quick breads and things that fall somewhere in between.
The Soups
A good soup is one of the most satisfying things a kitchen can produce. It makes the house smell welcoming and it is, almost without exception, better the next day. I make soup all year — lighter and chilled in summer, deep and warming from September through April.
These are the ones I come back to most.
- Roasted Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Soup — velvety, warming and the soup I make every October without fail
- Layered Chili — not a quick recipe but absolutely worth the time — a cold weather weekly staple
- Barefoot Contessa Rosemary White Bean Soup — a simple, hearty and delicious soup for cold days
- Roasted Green Tomato and Basil Soup — an easy summer soup.
- Golden Healing Cauliflower Soup — delicious and good for you too!
The full soup archive is here — so you can find what you need when you need it.
The Salads
I have strong opinions about salads. A salad should be interesting. It should have texture and contrast and something unexpected in it. It should be worth eating on its own and not just something you put on the table because you feel you should eat some greens. A beautiful bowl helps too.
- Celery Apple Salad — crisp, bright and the salad that converts celery skeptics
- Viral TikTok Carrot Salad — I came to this late but I understand completely why it went viral
- Roasted Beets and Summer Berry Salad— summer in a bowl — nothing more needs to be said
- Strawberry and Candied Pecan Salad — easy summer salad made with sweet strawberries, blueberries, greens and candied pecans
- Grilled Zucchini and Tomato Stack Salad with Pesto —use some of your summer garden bounty for this grilled summer salad that is as beautiful as it is delicious.”
The full salad archive is here.
A Note on the Archive
Five hundred and ninety-eight recipes and counting is a lot of recipes. I know that. They are not organized the way a proper food blog would organize them because when I started writing them down I was not thinking about organization. I was thinking about recreating and sharing some of my favorite recipes from long-gone restaurants, beloved cookbooks and family.
What I can tell you is that almost everything here falls into one of three categories — salads, soups and desserts — because that is genuinely what I cook. My husband handles the grill and the seafood and the main event. I handle everything that makes the meal complete.
Use the search bar, browse the recipe archive or follow along each week — I publish new recipes regularly and there is always something coming. If you are looking for something specific and cannot find it, leave a comment and I will point you in the right direction.
Food as Intentional Living
I write about intentional living and food is part of that in a way I did not always articulate clearly but have always felt. The decision to set the table properly on a Tuesday — not just for guests but because every day is special. The habit of cooking something from scratch even when there is an easier option. The ritual of sending people home with something homemade. None of these things are grand gestures. They are small, consistent choices that add up to a life that feels special.
If you want to read more about that idea, the post that started all of it is here — Intentional Living After 50: What It Really Looks Like. Everything on this blog, including every recipe in this archive, connects back to it.
What is the recipe you are most known for — the one people ask you to bring, the one your family requests every year? Tell me in the comments. I am always curious about the food that carries the most meaning.
You might also enjoy:
Intentional Living After 50: What It Really Looks Like
The Bower Bird Home — How I Decorate and Why I’ll Never Be a Minimalist
Why I Started Taking Afternoon Walks Again
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