[I] was but a wee lass when I started making toffee. My sister, about five years older than I, was in her early days of home ec class (do kids still take home ec class?) and came home one day with some stapled sheets filled with all sorts of candy […]
[I]n the 1990s, I had the pleasure of frequenting an Italian restaurant in the community where I lived in Southern California. It was a smallish, but lively place near a golf course, with most of its seating in a walled-in, covered patio that stayed comfortable all year long. It was […]
[E]very year I try to try out at least one new pie recipe at Thanksgiving. Despite all our warm weather fresh ripe fruits and berries really laying the groundwork for summer to be the season of pie, it is the Thanksgiving holiday, like no other, where pies are the star […]
[F]or those of us with limited experience — eating or baking — whoopie pies, we may wonder what all the fuss is about. Sure, they look terribly inviting — plump-soft cookie-cakes sealed together with a creamy filling…a whole lot to love. I had perhaps resisted in making them because they […]
[I] made the Vanilla Bean Caramel Apples from the Baked Sunday Mornings recipe roster a little ahead of schedule. It was mid-October, and I was in full fall-enthusiasm mode. It had been many years since I had made caramel apples, and I was itching to get to it! And here’s […]
[W]e can make fun of the whole pumpkin spice thing endlessly (and we do), but, when we are honest, we really love those tastes of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. It’s just been done to death. There is a time and place and goodie for it, though, and one way to […]
[W]hy do we prolong the things we want most? I’ve read that fear keeps us at bay from fulfilling the dreams we desire most intensely, and that being fearful of the thing is proof that it is the thing we should be doing. [I] don’t know that I have been […]
[M]arble cake offers the best of both worlds, well, at least the best of both flavors — vanilla and chocolate cake batters are swirled together to bring two favorite tastes in one. I confess it’s been a long time since I’ve marbled anything — cake or otherwise. I do believe […]
[S]ometimes I wonder why it takes me so long to get to things. Like recipes. Like a Cinnamon Scone Bread recipe, in particular, which I first saw back in 2014 on the Food52 website, and at that moment declared, “Oooo, I gotta make that!†Just how long could one deny […]
[I] can’t remember which cooking maven (it was either Ina or Nigella) I first saw make affogato. But I never forgot this dessert — as simple as they come — where piping hot coffee or freshly brewed espresso is poured over a creamy mound of freezing cold ice cream. The […]