S.J. Sebellin-Ross's Blog

The Magic of Marmalade and Other Stories, available on Kindle

Full of lovely, heartwarming, delightful, and quirky characters connected through the decades with their love of good food and warm cooking, from the endearingly naughty six-year-old who yearned for bright American cheese to the passionate bakers and the real life, unsolved mystery surrounding the midnight theft of the famous San Francisco cruffin recipe. Meet the woman waiting her whole life for the French feast of confit de canard and Paris-Brest, come to Benjamin’s, the family restaurant born from a dream.

Meet the refreshingly earnest Edie who had to survive a kitchen disaster to finally find true love. Come and sit with the perfect, tiny aunts as they breakfast on bittersweet memories. And see Elsie Anne Maguire, the stoic wife of tradition, set free after a breakfast of hopes and dreams.

Fall in love with these, and the other wonderful, charming, flawed, fascinating, enchanting, beloved characters in The Magic of Marmalade and Other Stories, a magical debut collection of short stories available on Kindle, including Leah, the family keeper of dreams who sweetens the generations with the timeless magic of marmalade.

It’s so nice to like a book written by someone you know. There is no shuffling of feet when they ask what you think, no sideways glances, no incoherent mumblings. There is, simply, enthusiasm bubbling up until it results in a happy statement of fact: it is wonderful. Simply wonderful.

The book? The Gourmet Kitchen by Jennifer Farley of Savory Simple.

I don’t want to tell you too much about it; I’d much rather you read it and find out for yourself. So I will limit myself to three points.

First, the pictures will tempt you. The initial temptation, of course, will involve the licking of pages. This I do not recommend. Move on to the second temptation: the cooking of recipes. I heartily encourage you to give into this temptation both for the fun of it (and cooking is nothing, if not fun) and the delight of it (by this, of course, I refer to the eating, and, oh, what eating it will be).

(Speaking of pictures, Jen has mused about giving food photography classes. If she does, run, do not walk, to take them. The woman is a poet with a camera.)

Second, let me introduce you to my catch words these days: simplicity and ease, for who has time or strength for anything else? Luckily, these recipes lean toward both. Ingredient lists tend toward less items : more flavor (Don’t believe me? Try whipping up a batch of Jennifer’s Maple Soy Glazed Salmon. Better still, invite me over when you do.). Instructions offer just the right tips in just the right places. And headnotes offer just enough insight to light the way.

And, third, you jaded cook, you, if you think you have seen everything when it comes to recipes, think again. There are surprises sprinkled, like delicious fairy dust, throughout. Surprises that will have you, if you are anything like me, slapping a hand against your forehead. Let me give you an example: Concord Grape Curd. There, on page 222, it sits in all its purple glory. Who knew you could do such a thing with Concord grapes? Suddenly, lemon curd pales, both literally and figuratively, in comparison.

Enough. Go to your bookstore, your internet, your wherever you shop for cookbooks, and see for yourself. Then you, too, will say The Gourmet Kitchen is wonderful. Simply wonderful.

Wishing you and yours the happiest and safest of holidays.

Site on hiatus. Appreciation for your support.

So, you want to cook and bake better, faster, easier with confidence, skill, and joy. Here you go — 1007 Best, Fastest, Easiest Cooking & Baking Tips, Tricks, Secrets, and Techniques. Written by a culinary-school trained chef, you’ll learn how to select the best chocolate, how to give your meat a perfect sear, how to make restaurant-quality stock. You’ll learn the secret to measuring semi-liquid ingredients such as yogurt and sour cream, fixing a broken hollandaise, and ensuring your chicken is moist and juicy every time. You’ll learn how to make perfectly shaped meatballs, improvise a pastry bag, how to make lump-free gravy, how to use a French technique for the flakiest pie crust, how to make quenelles like a pastry chef, how to cook duck breasts with their own fat, and much, much more.

I tend to write exclusively about food-oriented topics here (the blog being called The Curated Kitchen and all), but in the interest of introducing a delightful note of levity, I would like to share a snippet from my favorite review of all time from my book Punctuation: The Shortest, Simplest, Most Lighthearted Guide, Ever:

I did not learn nothing.

I am debating writing about grammar for my next book!

Eight flavors of brittle in a beribboned red box. They pick the flavors, but, oh, what flavors there are: Black Sesame, Burnt Almond, Chocolate Stout Peanut, Coconut Almond, Coconut Cashew, Day at the Ballpark, Ginger Cashew, Hazelnut Espresso, Pistachio Rosewater, Pistachio Vanilla, Pumpkin Ale, Serrano Peanut, Smokin’ Hot Peanut. From SweetDragon. Yum.

As much fun as flipping through someone’s old index card collection of favorite recipes A Mouthful of Stars: A Constellation of Favorite Recipes from My World Travels is an assortment of recipes drawn from Seoul and Norway, Paris and Mexico, India, the Bayou, and Provence. Recipes such as pan-fried peppers with coconut and tamarind. Sticky rice with persimmon and sesame. Triple layer chocolate-coconut cake. There is one for you to try after the jump. When you eat it, envision yourself in whatever port of call you most desire.

Every kitchen should have it all. Namely, form + function. After all, the kitchen is a workspace which means everything in it needs to be functional. But it is also home. Meaning it serves to feed the soul as well as the body. So everything should be beautiful. Too tall an order? Not with a board such as the vintage spade cutting board from Jayson Home.

A glass carafe with a drinking glass, filled with sparkling water and perched solidly on a bedside table, is the height of elegance. Especially if it is waiting in a guestroom, placed there by an attentive host or hostess just before retiring for the evening. And especially if it is an elegant carafe such as the Monogrammed Glass Carafe from Williams-Sonoma or the Cora carafe from CB2. Either would be a welcome and considerate touch.