I have to confess that I never heard of a whoopie pie until I was nearly in college. A dear friend of mine from Pennsylvania introduced me to the classic chocolate version, and I was immediately hooked. Her recipe still has a place of honor in my recipe box. According to the Cape Whoopies company …
Continue reading “Whoop it up in the kitchen this week with a lemon blueberry confection”
Every time I feel like I may have tried pretty much everything in the grocery store, I run across another ingredient I can’t believe I’ve never tasted. For this week’s recipe, that magical ingredient was lemon curd. I knew lemon curd existed, but I can’t remember ever buying or trying it before. If you’re like …
Continue reading “It never ‘a curd’ to me that this lemon dessert was worth a try”
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my adventures in making garlic confit. After slow-roasting all those beautiful garlic cloves, making them soft and deeply flavorful, we’ve been using them on everything we could think of, but if you’re interested in using a boatload of cloves in one recipe, I have the perfect one …
Continue reading “Rich garlic pasta is the ‘confit’ package”
There’s a phrase we often hear when we travel north: Minnesota Nice. It refers to how friendly the folks in Minnesota are, and that’s especially true when you visit in the summer months. After being snowed in and freezing in sub-zero temperatures all winter, they are ready to go out and about and are happy …
Continue reading “‘Chew’se a chocolate-free bar cookie for your summer treat”
When I graduated from college and rented my own home for the very first time, I decided that I would do my darnedest to cook meals for myself as much as possible and avoid premade stuff from the freezer section. I remember one of the first times I fired up the stove, heating some oil …
Continue reading “Oven mistake? Just keep calm and ‘berry’ on”
When I look at my bookshelf of cookbooks, I often think of a lady I never got the opportunity to meet in person but whom I feel connected to through a very sweet gift: Merna Snay. Merna, a former resident of the Mount Hope and Haven area, was a prolific cook—and by all reports, a …
Continue reading “Vintage crunch recipe gets two ‘plums’ up”
One of my favorite forums or “sub-reddits” on the social media site Reddit is called “Breadit.” Anyone who has read this column for any length of time probably assumes I like it for the pun (and, yeah, I totally do), but I also adore seeing all the amazing baked goods people create and share with …
Continue reading “Flake’ it ’til you make it with easy crescent roll bread”
The National Pecan Shellers Association has a wealth of knowledge about pecans on its website. One of the items that interested me the most is that the pecan tree is the only major nut tree native to North America. I thought that was strange, because I know quite a few nuts who were born here, …
Continue reading “Raise the bar with a dangerously easy pecan dessert”
One of my duties as a speech and debate coach over the years was hosting weekend tournaments. And part of that duty was organizing a concession stand to feed all of the students who came. That meant buying what felt like a heinous amount of hot dogs, chips and candy, along with tons of pop …
Continue reading “Make a pie that feels like it’s payday every day”
I find that the toughest time of year to make desserts is summer. If it’s a particularly good recipe, I’m willing to heat up my kitchen by using my oven, but my problem is how the dessert will travel with the heat. And if the event I’m taking my dessert to happens to be outdoors, …
Continue reading “In July, heat-proof desserts are a ‘pine’ of the times”
