"LaurieColwin" news and stories

I have a deep and abiding love for Laurie Colwin. I like her novels alright, but I love her two volumes of essays about food and cooking. I read and reread them each a couple of times a year, although for the last year or so I haven't been able to dive into More Home Cooking because I lent my copy to my mom. However, when I was back in Portland for the holidays, I reclaimed my copy and quickly fell back into her appealing prose and tasty food descriptions.

While it isn't exactly a cookbook, it is a book that contain many wonderful, delicious sounding recipes. This volume contains recipes for Mulligatawny Soup, Rosemary Walnuts, instructions on how to roast a turkey, a section exalting the beauty of pears and a Happy Winter Fudge Cake (I think that just about any fudge cake has the power to make many winters far more happy).

I haven't been doing this with every Cookbook of the Day post, but after the jump you'll find the recipe for the Happy Winter Fudge Cake (because it just sounds so good).

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Monday was cool, overcast and rainy here in Philadelphia. I know that some people hate that kind of weather, especially in summer, but over a decade of living in the Pacific Northwest during my formative years left me conditioned to think of it as cozy and comforting. It just so happens that I've been re-reading Laurie Colwin's book Home Cooking over the last few days, which is the perfect accompaniment to cozy weather.

Towards the end of the book she has an essay entitled How to Make Gingerbread. I finished it right around dinnertime, and being that I had nearly all the ingredients necessary (I didn't have buttermilk, but I followed her tip to stir a little yogurt into milk) I figured fate was telling me to whip up a batch. It turned out well, except that for that fact that I made a very poor choice in pans and so had some overflow that accumulated on the already dirty bottom of my oven. Despite that minor disaster, it turned out well and has left my apartment smelling of warm spices and the coming of fall.

Laurie's recipe is after the jump.

photo by Marisa McClellan