Author

Alysa

Browsing

These Kipferl are the quintessential taste of Vienna. A perfect bite, they offer sweetness, crunch, and a pleasing nutty texture all wrapped up in a playful crescent moon shape. Nothing goes better with a cup of Vienna’s legendary coffee. Makes about 6 dozen Ingredients: 2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter 2/3 cup sugar 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour ¾ cup (4 ounces) almonds ground in a food processor or chopped by hand. (some very small nut pieces are fine, just make sure it’s mostly ground.) Vanilla sugar (see note*; must be made in advance, or purchased) Cookie sheet(s) with parchment (my preference) or foil, lightly greased The Recipe First prepare the dough. Cream butter and sugar together until well blended with a kitchen or hand-held mixer in a large bowl. Add the flour and almonds together to the butter/sugar mixture. Using either an electric device (I use a KitchenAid…

The Red Clog Blog may have debuted just last week, but the concept and ideas had been nascent for quite some time. And so it was fitting that the launch coincided with my mom’s birthday. This was the first year that mom was no longer with us on her special day and I won’t sugarcoat things – it was a tough one. For years, my mom implored me, “Leesee, you really should do something with Food” (aside from eating it – which was never my issue) and now, on the occasion of what would have been her 81st birthday, I honor and remember her with this post. Good news, there will be something decadent in it for all of us, because Mom was born in Vienna, capital of Austria and ATSAD. All Things Sweet And Delicious. (Images of Vienna have been added to Gallery) My mother didn’t live in Vienna…

Inspired by Life! Beginning – or ending – can be exhilarating. And a bit off-putting as well. I say that as someone who just chucked over thirty years in both Corporate America and Academia (plus a whole host of other fascinating and unrelated career stints, which will be making occasional appearances on these pages). I once delivered a robust commencement speech on the irony of how we interchange the words “Commencement” and “Graduation”; they certainly mean very different things. So, why the change? Why now? More to come on that, but for now, let’s say that a different strain of music kept playing louder and louder in my head. My go-to classical soundtrack was still “Ma Vlast” or “My Homeland” – an incredibly moving and patriotic work by the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. But new and discordant tunes kept surfacing. At first, I didn’t understand. And then I travelled to…