“Well, these are a disaster,” I told Joey, pulling my baking sheet out of the oven. “I guess they won’t be going in the column.” Earlier in the week, I was excited to try a recipe I ran across that used soy sauce in chocolate chip cookies. It sounded just weird enough that I had …
Continue reading “‘Soy’ vey: These cookies were quite the weird experiment”
Upon being invited to a barbecue recently, I announced that it would be a good time to try out a recipe for some cheesecake-y blueberry lemon bars. “No. No lemon,” one of our friends declared. “Lemon is gross.” (I think he was at least halfway joking.) The rest of the group immediately objected. “Yes! Make …
Continue reading “You’ll have strong ‘peelings’ for lemon blueberry bars”
When I began writing this column over 10 years ago, I had grand illusions of people sending me their favorite recipes and me trying them. What I found was that people are normally pretty guarded with their best dishes, and even more so, everyone wanted me to tell them something new to try instead of …
Continue reading “Say ‘oui’ to this yummy overnight breakfast casserole”
I am often lost when it comes to buying preserves, jams, jellies, etc. I know there are differences, but for some reason, my brain can’t seem to keep it all straight. If you ever see me at a store, staring at my phone in front of a shelf of spreads, you’ll know exactly what I’m …
Continue reading “Preserve your time with a quick strawberry bar”
I was remarking to some friends the other day about how Joey and I are complete opposites when it comes to socializing. As an extroverted social butterfly, Joey draws his energy from being around people and generally loves a crowd. For me, while I love to socialize, I tend to be reenergized by some alone …
Continue reading “Don’t crumble under hosting pressure; make a quick and easy dessert”
I have always been a sucker for poppy seeds. If there is a tray of pastries that includes poppy seed bread or muffins, that is what’s going on my plate. That nutty flavor is just irresistible. That being said, I rarely bake with poppy seeds, for some reason. I had to change that, and what …
Continue reading “‘Poppy’ in the kitchen and try some beautiful scratch-made cupcakes”
If anyone tries to tell you that I don’t suffer for my art, please correct them. After all, I spent a lovely afternoon recently, shoulders deep in my oven with some Easy Off and a scrubber, all thanks to this week’s recipe. Did my oven probably need a good scrub down anyway? Yeah. Probably. But …
Continue reading “Turn cookies on their heads with these pineapple treats”
The names people choose for recipes often crack me up. There’s the embarrassing-to-talk-about “better than sex” or “sex in a pan” variety of dishes, followed by “blue-ribbon” and “award-winning” options, and of course, there are a million recipes purporting to be “Mom’s” or “Grandma’s,” although few identify which matriarch those actually belong to. So you’ll …
Continue reading “Get lost in a piece of amazing cake”
Every week, I go have lunch with my Little for Big Brothers Big Sisters. We solve the world’s problems over school food and Uno cards as only a 13-year-old and a 39-year-old can. Recently, we discussed the nature of sandwiches. Is a hot dog a sandwich? How about a taco? Where do quesadillas come into …
Continue reading “A crustless pie recipe can really take the cake”
I have had cinnamon rolls on the brain lately. Making them from scratch has always intimidated me a bit, and after making a particularly dry batch a couple years ago, I just haven’t had the bravery to try them again. I have two distinctly different recipes—one from my grandma and one from my great aunt—that …
Continue reading “Overcome your baking fears and give these rolls a ‘swirl’”