Gretchen’s Cookbook - Feature Articles

Who doesn't love a party? Here are a few things to get you started...

• A Very Swedish Christmas
  Plan your own Swedish themed Christmas table &ndash Julbord &ndash and have a God Jul!
• Touchdown! Superbowl Sunday Extravaganza
  Party-planning tools, menu suggestions...
• Colonial Day Feast
  Get thee ready to feast like it's 1645! No, not really. But grab your buckled shoes and celebrate our colonial heritage. Sort of. (No need for open fire cooking or planting your own corn.)

Samantha Cardimon - lifelong eater, freelance writer. Growing up in tornado-prone Cleves, Ohio, Mother would often calm Sam's weather anxiety with a soothing cookbook. Still an avid cookbook reader, her anxiety closet now includes "actually cooking dinner." Shudder.
Get her (sometimes acerbic) take on the food world in "Whining and Dining."

• On St. Valentine
  Valentine's Day got you down? Where did all this nonsense come from, anyhow? Grab a heart-shaped box of chocolate and find out here.
• Erin Go Bragh!
  So what did St. Patrick do that was so great? Did you know that St. Patrick actually invented the shamrock? Kidding. Get the straight scoop here.
• Piquant Joys of August
  Summer winds down...some musings on the last heady days before we can switch our bumper stickers from "School's Out, Drive Carefully" to "School's In, Drive Carefully." Maybe you just shouldn't drive like a maniac, period. But I digress...
• Vampire Avoidance Tactics
  Blee. I vant to vish you a happy Halloween. Blee. I'd miss afternoon swims, but being able to turn into a bat actually sounds pretty cool.

The Tao holds many lessons for us cooks...not the least of which is "the ten thousand things rise and fall without cease." The ten thousand things? Include cakes. Breathe deep, seek tasty treats...or peace, whatever.

• Fudge 1, 2, 3
  Don't fear fudge. Remember, it's more afraid of you than you are of it. After all, you're the one with the wooden spoon...