Sparkle Kitchen
Explore a world of culinary delight with our Sparkle Kitchen category. Discover mouthwatering recipes, cooking tips, and kitchen adventures to satisfy your appetite and spark your creativity in the kitchen.
Sparkle Kitchen: Homemade Soup Broth
There’s nothing for a sick day like a pot of soup made with good, homemade broth. By preparing the broth ahead of time, even a sick person who doesn’t have helpers as good as Martin and Sylvia can enjoy a bowl of soothing soup.
Sparkle Kitchen: Clementine & Pomegranate Salad
The salad is quite simple, but by using crisp butter lettuce and bright, seasonal citrus, it doesn’t feel drab. Enjoy it some winter evening when you need a little break from “too much."
Sparkle Kitchen: Fruitcake
Fruit cake can be quite delicious. Its dark maple-y texture is sweet, but not too sweet. Studded with red cranberries and green pistachios, it can even wear the colors of the season.
Sparkle Kitchen: Latkes
Hanukkah commemorates the miracle of holy oil that should have only lasted for a day, lasting for eight days—enough time for more oil to be properly made. As such, many of the foods traditionally served at Hanukkah are fried in oil. The most famous of these is potato latkes.
Sparkle Kitchen: Struffoli
Like Daddy, I love all of the seasonal stories that families tell as the calendar is bombarded with holidays of light and love at the end of the year. One of my newly discovered favorites is the tale of Old Befana.
Sparkle Kitchen: Mexican Hot Chocolate
Since we’ve already covered regular hot chocolate in this space, this week I give you its even warmer, spicier cousin — Mexican hot chocolate.
Sparkle Kitchen: Rock Candy
This rock candy recipe will make about three small pieces of rock candy—depending on the size of the jars you use—and is a fun science experiment for a frosty day.
Sparkle Kitchen: Homemade Butter
Like Martin and Sylvia’s family, our family has experimented with making holiday meals from ingredients closer to home. Increased interest in local eating means that it’s easier than ever to make local meals.
Sparkle Kitchen: Roasted Chickpeas
Chana sundal, a simple roasted chickpea dish, is often sold as street food, but don’t dismiss it. With a thick curry smell and just a little heat from red pepper, it also makes a delicious dinner side.
Sparkle Kitchen: Homemade Sauerkraut
Pickled cabbage — which most of you probably know as sauerkraut — is one of my favorites, too. It’s amazing with spicy bratwursts, adds a nice tang to grilled cheese, and even makes a tasty side dish on its own.
Sparkle Kitchen: Popcorn Balls
While you could make these popcorn balls any size you want, I recommend aiming for a large golf ball so that all of your small elves and black cats can enjoy them in a few quick bites.
Sparkle Kitchen: Herb-y Squash Risotto
While we love pumpkin pie as much as the next person, more often than not we end up roasting autumn gourds into more savory preparations. One of our favorites is this herb-y squash risotto.
Sparkle Kitchen: Caramel Apple Bites
While I think I probably consumed some of those big, juicy caramel apples in two or three bites back then, as a grown-up I find that it’s hard to eat a whole caramel apple in one sitting. These days I prefer to make little caramel apple bites, like the recipe that follows, instead.
Sparkle Kitchen: Apple Sandwich Stackers
The apple “sandwich” stackers are easy to customize. Think yogurt, cheddar cheese, or any flavor of nut butter you have on hand. Try different kinds of nuts and grains for the crunchy parts, depending on what you like. And if you aren’t afraid of a little mess, lay out the ingredients and let the kiddos stack them together!
Sparkle Kitchen: Maple and Browned Butter Baked Oatmeal
There’s only one antidote for that cold wind — a hot dish of baked oatmeal.
Sparkle Kitchen: Train Car French Toast
I’ll admit, I find the mechanical information of trains a little boring, but I love the history. Especially, that of the glamorous era of train travel, when you slept in Pullman cars and awoke to a special breakfast in the dining car. This French toast recipe is one of those historic breakfast options.
Sparkle Kitchen: Blackberries with Cream
While berries are good in a variety of dishes and desserts—pie, cobbler, ice cream, and on and on—really good, fresh-picked berries rarely require that much fuss. In season, our local blackberries are so big, fat, and juicy that we often have them plain for dessert or with just a little whipped cream.
Sparkle Kitchen: Applesauce
Homemade applesauce—typically dolloped onto a bowl of warm oatmeal at our house—is like a fuzzy scarf and a hug as the weather starts to turn colder.
Sparkle Kitchen: Cheesy Cracker
Cheesy crackers, as we generically call them, are also easy to make at home. Not only do the homemade crackers have less preservatives, by making them yourself you can also flavor them how you like.
Sparkle Kitchen: Mushroom Tacos
The following recipe is one of my favorites to make when our local mushroom foragers are bringing in sacks of these beautiful fungi. It’s really good when made with simple, widely available creminis, but you can also use a mix of exotic mushrooms if you happen to come across them.
