Most of us are ready and willing to help others. We just don’t know where or how to start. Especially with something as enormous as AIDS. So, sometimes it’s nice when a corporation of mammoth proportions gives us a gentle nudge in the right direction. With whipped cream.

Tomorrow, Starbucks is going (RED) for World AIDS Day. For every hand-crafted drink purchased, Starbucks will give 5 cents to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, specifically for buying and distributing medicines to Africans with AIDS.

A nickel doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider how many people are always in line at your local Starbucks and how many people must be in line at Starbucks locations on every corner in the U.S. and Canada, those nickels add up to “a world of good.” Read More…

So, let’s say you made yesterday’s Chicken Cutlets with Bacon, Rosemary and Lemon, and you have a few cutlets left over. Then you have the beginnings of my new favorite lunch: a Bacon-Rosemary Chicken Sandwich with Herb-Roasted Onions.

You’ll need the cutlets (which are seasoned with bacon, rosemary, lemon juice, salt and pepper, garlic and red pepper flakes), your favorite sandwich buns, a little mayo, provolone and Ina Garten’s Herb-Roasted Onions, one of this month’s Barefoot Bloggers recipes.

I wasn’t jumping up and down about trying these onions, but they are a fantastically versatile, delicious side dish. The roasting really brings out the sweetness of the onions and mellows them out for raw-onion haters like me. It’s a texture thing. I roasted the onions with rosemary (instead of thyme) to accompany the first night’s chicken cutlets and then piled them onto my sandwich the next day. So. Stinking. Good.

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Every once in a while, something will completely shake your expectations.

Take the Children’s Christmas Pageant at a small country church. Every year, it’s the same: babies in jingle-bell mittens, toddlers making animal noises with mop heads and cotton balls sewn to their jammies, and the oldest willing preteens (who preferably aren’t related) playing Joseph and The Virgin Mary. The rest are angels, shepherds, wise men and innkeepers.

The year I was 10, I desperately wanted to play The Virgin Mary and get to swaddle The Official Rubber Baby Jesus Baby Doll, but an older girl named Tracy had a lock on it. Every year, she would smile serenely as she rode in to the sanctuary sidesaddle on the back of The Holy Donkey, played by her older brother. So, instead of getting to play Mary, I was chosen to be The Archangel Gabriel, but I was determined to be so holy and magnificent that everyone would see THEY MADE A MISTAKE. I was clearly Virgin Mary material. Read More…

Don’t you hate it when someone asks you to bring the salad to a big get-together? You start obsessing about the carrot-haters and the dressing and whether anyone is going to touch the salad when it’s surrounded by sausage balls, mac-n-cheese and garlic smashed potatoes.

Fear not! This is not the time to compromise your salad into mediocrity : a sad bowl of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and cheddar cheese surrounded by bottles of salad dressing. Practically everyone loves Italian food, so go bold! Try this Chopped Antipasto Salad. It’s  got loads of colorful veggies – lettuce, red onion, Roma tomatoes, cucumbers and pepperoncini – along with big-flavored showstoppers like pepperoni and mortadella, Gorgonzola, feta and olives. EVEN MEN EAT THIS SALAD. And dressing it early only helps the flavor.

I made this salad for Thanksgiving lunch at Mom’s, and she kept it. She sent me home with turkey, dressing, gravy, rolls, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole and pie, but she kept the salad. All of it. This is the kind of salad you make room for.

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I’ll bet you were expecting something with cranberries, sweet potatoes or pumpkin. But you don’t need my input on Thanksgiving. If your family is like mine, then no matter what twists and reinterpretations you read about in magazines or see on TV, everyone wants what they ate last year and the year before. Marshmallows on the sweet potatoes. A jar of Cheez Whiz in the broccoli-cheese casserole. The pumpkin pie recipe straight off the can of Libby’s® 100% Pure Pumpkin. We crave the familiar, even if it involves something with the word “whiz” in it.

So, instead, I’m bringing you Ina Garten’s Mexican Chicken Soup, another Barefoot Bloggers pick. It’s a basic chicken soup – chicken stock with shredded chicken, onions, celery, carrots, garlic and tomatoes – livened up with jalapenos, cumin, coriander, cilantro and corn tortillas. The tortillas are added before the soup boils, so they break down and thicken the soup as it simmers.

Even with the tortillas, the soup stays fairly thin. It’s definitely not a chicken chili. But there are times when you really need something light but really flavorful, like after a day of broiled marshmallows and Cheez Whiz, and this could be your huckleberry.

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Oh, look, there’s Henry the Wonderdog. Let’s pretend he’s been lulled to sleep by a pot of cinnamon sticks, orange peel and cloves simmering on the stove as I lovingly create Thanksgiving decorations out of pinecones, acorns and giblets. Because that is so not what’s happening.

Today, Henry’s snoring away while I get our house ready-to-get-ready for the holidays. Straightening, dusting, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, wondering if there’s laser hair removal for pets and running the hose upstairs to pressure-spray the kitchen. Because it’s so embarrassing when the Christmas tree sticks to the floor.

But before I scrub the toilets, I thought I’d answer some of the questions you’ve e-mailed and posted in the comments section. If you have more, please send them to rebecca@ezrapoundcake.com. Embarrassing myself trumps toilet-scrubbing any day.

“Any chance of getting invited to your next family gathering? It sounds like you folks know how to eat.”

There’s always room for more at the table, but you should know we have a sacred tradition called “Ruining the Meal.” It’s a friendly post-dessert competition to see who can say something tacky, gross, vulgar and/or disturbing enough in the course of regular conversation to make everyone else leave the table. My brother-in-law, Taylor, says he’s bringing it this Thanksgiving. We’ll see.

“Is Henry the Wonderdog back to normal since his operation?”

Yes, Henry’s eye has healed, and he’s back to a rigorous schedule of napping and eating. The last week he had the plastic collar, I knocked some cake scraps off the counter, and he caught them with the collar. Have you ever seen a dog funnel red velvet cake? It was like the woodchipper scene in “Fargo.”

“Did you really get rid of the Rocky T-shirt?”

No. Jeff has hidden it. WHAT AM I GOING TO WEAR FOR THANKSGIVING?

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A few years ago, I flew from Nashville to visit my sister in Cambridge. It was a few days after Christmas, very cold, and we ducked into this quaint little corner coffeehouse – I think it was called “Starbucks” – for breakfast. That’s where I had my first oatmeal scone.

My second, third and fourth scones were not so good, and that’s when I learned that oatmeal scones have issues. At their worst, they can be gritty, heavy, dry, jaw-breaking, bricklike and hockey-puckesque. Nothing you would crave on a cold, wet morning.

But Glazed Maple-Pecan Oatmeal Scones are something else entirely. Leave it to “Cook’s Illustrated” to come up with the perfect oatmeal scone-saving strategy: toast the oatmeal (for real oatmeal flavor); add whole milk, heavy cream and butter (for moistness); and bake the scones at a high temperature – 450 degrees F – to make the cold butter release steam (for a lighter, taller scone).

Every time I bake these, I remember that breakfast with Jennifer. She was showing me the long, icy, daily walk from her apartment to school. We stopped because I couldn’t feel my toes, and she ordered my breakfast while I shook the ice out of my boots. Peppermint cocoa and oatmeal scones. The guy at the counter thought she was my older sister. She looked so happy and self-assured. And I looked younger and hotter. Scones … they taste like victory.

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We finally stopped by the new Trader Joe’s today. People were stumbling up and down the aisles like they’d just emerged from fallout shelters, mesmerized by the groceries, shouting things like, “Honey! They’ve got onions!”

Seeing them reminded me of an older woman I worked with at the bakery who never quite got the subtle difference between “organic” and “orgasmic.” Every time a group of men would come in, she’d get flustered and say, “You should try our coffees! They are orgazzzmic.” I know, coffee IS an orgasmic experience for some people. But then she’d start talking about the orgasmically-grown vegetables.

Anyway, after the TJ’s experience – “Look, Honey! They’ve got frozen food!” – I was ready for the Lee brothers’ Cheese-Grits Chiles Rellenos with Roasted Tomato Gravy. The poblano is roasted, not deep-fried, and stuffed with cooked cheese grits, so the level of spice is up to you. I used a habanero cheddar in the grits, but a medium cheddar, colby or pepper jack would be delicious and a lot less cleansing. I’ve saved one for tomorrow’s breakfast, but they would also make great sides. Wait, not just “great.” Orgazzzzmic.

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One of the best things about working at a bakery is the freebies. At the European bakery where I started out, we were given one free meal a day. Some people ate a hunk of Black Forrest Cake for breakfast. Others sat down to brotchen or croissants or soup served in a bread bowl. On Saturdays, when I knew I was going to see Jeff, I would skip breakfast and use my “free meal” pass on some of the bakery’s focaccia. Sometimes we’d just tear it and eat it. Other times, we’d split the bread, fill it with turkey or ham, and have the greatest and best picnic and road trip sandwiches ever made.

When I make focaccia at home, I use Art Smith’s recipe for Focaccia with Caramelized Onions, Goat Cheese and Rosemary with sliced Roma tomatoes and Kalamata olives. The hefty toppings make it extremely versatile as an appetizer, an accompaniment for a big bowl of soup or as a sandwich bread. But don’t feel like you have to go with my add-ons. Try the original formula: olive oil, sea salt and herbs. Go with pizza-like combinations of cheese, meat, vegetables, herbs and onion. Or create something completely different, like a focaccia with sliced pears, gorgonzola and walnuts.

The focaccia-making process is a little time-consuming but very simple, so if you’re feeling particularly impatient, plan it on a day you’ll be home doing the laundry or grouting or looking for the tape. For minimal effort, you can impress your friends and family without resorting to the dreaded holiday newsletter. That could be better than work freebies.

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I’ve had “The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook”since it came out, but I didn’t start trying the recipes until a few months ago. Mom gave it to me for Christmas with a stack of other cookbooks, courtesy of Half.com, God’s gift to me. I’m sure the other books specialized in baking, and this was the Wild Card.

I will never, ever, ever hear the end of this, but … Mom was right. I love this book. I’m seriously thinking about cooking through the entire thing next year, whether I blog about it or not, just because I take something away from every recipe: a memorable story in its introduction, the recipe’s history, a new term, some trivia, drink recommendations, variations.

This week, we tried the Texas Red-Braised Beef Short Ribs, “red” being Texan slang for chili con carne. Don’t be thrown by the inclusion of ancho and pasilla chiles in the braising liquid/sauce. Ancho chiles are dried poblanos. Pasilla chiles are dried chilacas. If your grocery doesn’t carry them, the important thing to know is that they are extremely mild chiles. According to the Scoville scale, which measures the hotness of a pepper, ancho and pasilla chiles have 1,000-1,500 Scoville heat units. Habaneros have 50,000-150,000. So, any mild chiles will work. Read More…