Basil Lemon Sugar Cookies Turn over a new leaf with basil lemon sugar cookies

Something I probably haven’t mentioned often is that I have a constant helper in the kitchen when I try recipes for this column. Sometimes she gets to sample something, and sometimes she is informed that the particular creation at hand is “not good for puppies.” Regardless, our 15-year-old schnauzer, K.C., hopefully follows me around the …

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Creating a decadent cheesecake isn’t ‘cherry’ difficult

“We’re in! What can I bring?” I texted my mom about Easter lunch. “A dessert of some kind,” she wrote back. “Make something easy!!!!” “Since when do I make complicated desserts?” I responded, punctuating it with a laughing emoji. So, in other words, here’s a slightly complicated (but amazingly decadent) dessert I made for Easter …

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cinnamon Rolls Combining cookies and cinnamon rolls is totally friend‘chip’ goals

Every once in awhile, I run across a food idea so dumb but so obviously delicious that I just have to try it. It happened when I made poutine tacos. It happened when I decided to try Mountain Dew and Doritos cupcakes. And it happened again this past week, when I saw a simple recipe …

Four-Ingredient Yogurt Cake Put this ‘four’midable cake on your list for this week

I was recently given the opportunity to speak to the Newton Kiwanis about the many projects I have been working on at the newspaper. We enjoyed a great lunch and good conversation before I spent a bit talking about my job, including my over 10-year expedition into writing this column. I noted to them that …

Mini Pumpkin Spice Donuts Try a great mini sweet that’s perfect to have ’round

When I was a kid, our Sunday morning breakfasts before church would often be something special from the day-old bakery we had in town. One of my personal favorites was when we’d get mini donuts. I would dip them in milk, trading off between chocolate-covered and cinnamon sugar flavors. I have been thinking about those …

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie We now know for whom the pie shell tolls

It turns out, chocolate chip cookies are a much newer invention than I would have thought. An article on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library website notes that the famous cookies were first invented in 1938 by Ruth Wakefield. Wakefield and her husband, Kenneth, ran the Toll House Restaurant in Massachusetts, hence the enduring “Toll House Chocolate …

Apple Crisp Breakfast Bars Breakfast bars are ‘apple’utely great for a morning treat

Recently, I had the chance to meet one of our readers from Hesston. We had a fairly short (but very pleasant) conversation, and before I left, he gestured to a bag on his kitchen counter. “Do you like apples?” he asked me. And that’s how I became the excited owner of four huge, beautiful golden …