When I was a little girl, hominy (reconstituted dried corn), was something that came in cans, waiting for my mother to heat up in a pot on an occasional Saturday morning. She served the engorged soft kernels warm, in bowls with butter, salt and pepper – simple, on its own as one would eat a bowl of hot farina or oatmeal. Read More…

In what feels like a lifetime ago, I worked as the pastry chef of the Cleveland restaurant, Moxie. My chef’s jacket was embroidered with the name, Heidi Friedlander. The name has since changed, but my signature dessert of Baked Hot Chocolate, developed for the opening menu, has not.

Food writer, Aleksandra Crapanzano, was inspired to write about the charms of Baked Hot Chocolate in The Wall Street Journal. Flattered and proud, I am, to have created a dessert which stands the test of time.

Article with recipe HERE.

A meal at Eleven Madison Park is captivating – an exquisite parade of culinary jewels to be savored mouthful by grinning mouthful, and the delight doesn’t stop when the last trace of dessert is cleaned from the plate. Read More…

Shooting with the new Foodie pack for Hipstamatic.

Wiping down the last straggling crumbs from a six-week long Kitchen Boss season two, recipe test. I’ve been stuffed to the gills with tasty eats since the end of October – oof. Take a gander at that beautiful pie – look Ma, no wood burning or high-end oven at Pizzeria Heidi. One doesn’t need  pricey equipment to get the job done – solid technique and ingredients combined with practice, practice, practice with the equipment you have will assure kitchen successes. Read More…

All I want is a yurt somewhere. Perched up high in the cold night air. With one enormous chair, oh! Wouldn’t  it be loverly?

As we ease into fall, the nights are cooler, yet the days are sunny enough to keep a dewey shimmer on the skin. The cooking in my kitchen is reflective of what is available with the seasons. I can’t get enough of the fantastic offerings from our farmer’s markets as my burgeoning refrigerator can attest.  Although figs are not a local crop, they are cropping up  by the boxful in grocery stores, full and sweet and priced well. Read More…

The August vegetable explosion is on! Tomatoes are ripe and richly flavored, squash is thin-skinned and tender. All are available in peak abundance at local farmer’s markets. This “soup” of vegetables simply stewed in their own juices cooks, as if by magic, with a simple layering of the ingredients in a pot. I culled this one from my mom’s recipe box – one I remember thinking was completely crazy – cooking lettuce – that’s salad! A crunchy head of Romaine is a key component as ninety five percent of the lettuce’s own bulk weight is water which supplements much of the broth. A dish that won’t whack you over the head with aggressive flavors, but will enchant you spoonful by spoonful with a colorful tangle of vegetables and a co-mingling of naturally sweet juices enhanced by a grace of salt. Read More…

Summer is fleeting and peaches are ripe for the picking and eating. Out of hand, over the sink with sweet juices running down my chin and arm, sliced and steeped in a quenching peachy lemonade, or pureed and churned into cold ice cream. These are a few of the ways I’ve been indulging in the peaches I purchase at the farmer’s market from Woolf Farms. Last Sunday I was lucky to wrestle politely grab the last order of rosy Red Havens. Sweet, but not cloying with a welcome acid balance – perfect for roasting as to coax out the stone fruit’s natural sugars. Read More…

A honeybee sting nearly killed me when I was eight. It happened as I was running barefoot across a clover-scattered lawn to a neighbor’s house for a swim. I don’t recall much else – apparently I soon went into anaphylactic shock, passed out in the pool and woke up the next day at the same hospital where my dad worked as a surgeon. I had been drifting in and out of consciousness for over twenty four hours and my body was a mass of hives. I was exquisitely lucky to be alive. Read More…

At least that’s how it works in my house. It’s indulgent and special, a delectable treat. So give it your all, make it celebratory, in fact. Which means… Read More…