Good Press

I used to be a diehard recipe follower. Now I'm less afraid of messing up something. I'm not completely at ease just mixing random things without measuring. Ingredients are too expensive to throw away and I am too picky to eat my mistakes. But I have come to trust my palate more and will occasionally wing it. I must really be taking risks in my sleep-deprived state of late because I mixed up some chicken salad for sandwich filling to serve at a church luncheon reception with only a vague notion of what I was going for and a quick glance at a couple of recipes. Tyler Florence helped only marginally. I didn't boil my chicken with onion, carrots and celery and save the stock but someday I will. A review of Baltimore's Atwater's restaurant sparked the notion of adding dried cherries as well as the golden raisins I planned. The resulting sandwich wasn't bad -- no complaints but no requests for the recipe (unlike my Rocky Road Brownies, which drew raves.) Here...

Among my fondest memories of growing up in an Appalachian holler is the food, specifically the sweets. Late last year, foodie trend watchers predicted old-fashioned candy is going to be hot this year. I have yet to see Google return this recipe in response to my request for "old-fashioned candy." Trust me, it's a goodie. As a kid, I never gave much thought to why January Thaw was called that -- we sometimes made it in months other than January -- but a Web site that printed a recipe similar to my mom's says it’s because it looks like muddy slush. I assure you it's much tastier. And as the foot or so of snow outside my house has melted this week, the candy doesn't much resemble what's in my yard. Nor does the batch I made tonight exactly match what I remember from 25 years ago. I chalk that up to ingredients and technique and I'll throw in different elevation for good measure. While not "perfect", it's still pretty good -- who could find f...