A few good muffins…it really doesn’t hurt to have a handful of go-to recipes for these underrated (and too infrequently made) breakfast and coffee-time treats. Why don’t I make more muffins? After all, they are easy (even kids can stir them up) and come together quickly. In a matter of […]
Certain baked goods win in the comfort category, those old, tried-and-true traditional recipes that make you feel better just to think about them. Homey treats like apple pie, biscuits and chocolate chip cookies have that soothing quality. So, too, in this category are blueberry muffins. Blueberry muffins have always been […]
Sometimes, you can’t see the recipe for the blooms. I’m twisting an old phrase here, but it applies to my obvious lack of perception when trying to decide on a scone recipe for this month. I was set on something with raspberries or white chocolate or coconut. Or white chocolate-raspberry-coconut, […]
I have a long history with scones — and a good one. One of my first entries for this blog was about the first scone I ever made (see entry of September 2010), and I took the scone name for my blog from a play on a certain “scornful†phrase. […]
[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 […]
[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 […]
[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]don’t have a lot of experience with mangos, outside of the occasional fresh spear or using frozen chunks (very handy and yummy) for smoothies. Mango is unique in flavor — it is subtle in both taste and texture, iseeming to fuse together peaches, pineapple, melon and citrus. It’s delicious, but […]
[I] wonder sometimes if casserole breads have gone the way of the casserole. You don’t hear much about them anymore, as if they’ve fallen into the category of “retro,†and lapsed into the rare recipe collection to be mused upon as a charming trend of yesteryear. If you’ve ever made […]
[G]reat discoveries can happen in your own backyard, or, in this case, your own bookshelf. I was recently cleaning (gasp!) and re-organizing some books, and I stumbled across a little baking book from Ireland, actually named “The Little Irish Baking Book,†by Ruth Isabel Ross (1995), and, eager to take […]