“F in Exams”
My daughter was in a French school from 1st – 4th grade and a bilingual French/English school from 5th – 8th grade which used an International Baccalaureate grading system of 1-7, where 1 is the lowest score, 4 is passing, and 7 is a perfect score. When she came back to the US to attend a high school school where the primary language was English, she had to abandon the metric system of measurements, adjust to the language, and adopt a letter grading system which led to this conversation: Read more 
Effie’s Oatcakes
Years ago, while traveling through England, I discovered oatcakes, a British treat that is a cross between a cookie and a cracker. Not as sweet as a typical American cookie (which the Brits call biscuits) and not as thin as a cracker, the oatcake is a crunchy thick wafer made primarily of flour, oats, butter, sugar, and salt. The “cake” has a slight sweetness with a buttery taste that is delicious plain or with cheese. Read more
Fat Toad Farm Caramel Sauce
Several years ago, I tasted the creamiest yogurt ever and set upon figuring out how a small Molkerei (dairy) in Switzerland could make a yogurt with the proper balance of three major traits: smooth texture, big flavor, and a slight tangy aftertaste. I tried to replicate that yogurt about a dozen times with my yogurt maker using every type of milk before I gave up and decided to ask the owner of the Molkerie in Switzerland how they make their yogurt. The owner told me the secret to making really great yogurt lies with the cows: they need to graze and be well cared for. I realized I would never be able to reproduce a really great yogurt unless I had my own cow, and that was pretty much out of the question but the message stayed with me. Read more
Eleni’s Easter Cookies
Easter is just a few weeks away – Sunday, April 8th – so thoughts of jelly beans, malted eggs, and chocolate bunnies in a basket lined with green cellophane grass are on my mind. Instead of limiting an Easter basket to candy and chocolate, consider adding a few beautifully decorated sugar cookies from Eleni’s this year. Read more
New Jersey’s Gas Pump Problem
New Jersey has always enjoyed favored status with me because I grew up in the northeastern part of the state – an area known for farmland and as a bedroom community for those who worked in New York but wanted to escape the intensity of life in an urban city. Through the years, numerous jokes about New Jersey – the accent, the “joyzey shore,” the Cherry Hill water tower – have been repeated along with the question that always perplexed me: “What exit are you from?” as if New Jersey was a narrow state where all residents could claim an exit off the New Jersey Turnpike. Read more
Bequet Caramels
Bozeman, Montana is the home of Béquet Confections, maker of three types of vanilla butter caramels (soft, chewy, and celtic sea salt) and seven butter caramels (chocolate, chipotle, espresso, salt-chocolate, pomegranate, butterscotch, and green apple). Each bite sized caramel is individually wrapped in decorated plastic covers with color twisted ends to unwrap when ready to devour, and devour you will because I have yet to meet anyone who can eat just one Béquet Caramel. Read more
Papabubble Candy
My daughter was visiting her cousin in New York City when she discovered Papabubble which she pronounced “Papa Booblay,” a candy store that looks more like a chemists storefront from the exterior in Greenwich Village. Inside, the store retains its character with elegant two-tone bags with silver backing and transparent fronts bursting with colorful candies, all neatly lined up in rows along the wall. Read more
Facing Consequences
Several months ago I received an e-mail from my daughter’s school alerting me to contact the school should a pair of crutches turn up. Seems someone stole an injured student’s crutches from the gym. At first I thought this was a prank but then I realized the crutches had to have been missing for a while for the school to send out a community-wide e-mail. Who on earth would steal a pair of crutches from an injured student who couldn’t walk without assistance? Read more
The Viennese Crescent Cookie
The Viennese Crescent is a cookie of near perfection with a bit of crumble, a hint of nutty flavor, and a buttery taste that makes cookie lovers swoon. According to legend, these cookies originated in Austria – and Vienna in particular – but there is debate as others claim Viennese Crescents were first created in Hungary and Germany. A cookie of few ingredients – butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds or hazelnuts, and salt – the Viennese Crescent has moved overseas and now commands well deserved space on bakery shelves in America. Read more
Levain Bakery’s Chocolate Chip Cookie
The quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie has ended. In honor of Valentine’s Day, I sent myself a gift box of cookies (this happens after 22 years of marriage) from Levain Bakery. Four monsterous 6-ounce cookies: Chocolate Chip Walnut, Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip, and Oatmeal Raisin – wrapped in a beautiful white box with a blue bow were delivered to my door on one of my two favorite holidays (the other being Halloween). Read more
Paddock Post 