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”
In the past seven years, I have written a number of columns that stemmed from my life goal of being the “cool aunt.” This week’s is another in that installment, after I asked our family group chat if anyone had any dessert requests for Easter, and my sister responded with one from my niece for …
Continue reading “Take a poke at creating a whimsical cake this week”
With plans to have company over recently, I was on the lookout for something easy to share for our snack table. After perusing several websites, I landed on one of my favorite ways to make a quick sweet without working all that hard for it: a cake mix transformation. The recipe I tried promised to …
Continue reading “Turn to easy lemon cake when you’re squeezed for time”
One of my unofficial New Year’s resolutions each year is to try to use up the random ingredients hiding in my pantry. In this case, one of the culprits was a large can of pumpkin pie filling that I bought by mistake, thinking I found a great deal on plain canned pumpkin. It’s been staring …
Continue reading “Combo recipe is piece of cake and easy as pie”
One of the pieces of advice you get if you ever put your house on the market is to bake cookies before a showing so that your home feels more inviting. When we had a house on the market several years ago, our real estate agent also banned us from cooking anything too pungent—like curry …
Continue reading “Pumpkin spice donuts make for a ‘gourd’ fall recipe”
My folks recently invited all of us over for hot dogs and hamburgers on a Saturday afternoon. We hadn’t all been in the same room since the stay-at-home orders began, and with things opening up and gathering sizes expanded, it seemed like a good time for the seven of us to socialize just a bit. …
When I write about recipes every week, I normally tell you about my friends and family, who step in as guinea pigs to try all of my concoctions. And normally, I tell you how they really liked it or about the lack of leftovers after I present them with a plate of something new. But …
Continue reading “You’ll be head over ‘peels’ for lemon truffles”
With Joey out of the house a few evenings ago, I decided it was time to clean another random ingredient out of the pantry and settled on a red velvet cake mix that I don’t even remember purchasing. With Valentine’s Day looming, I thought it was perfect. When I finally got through all my baking, …
Continue reading “Melt their heart with ice cream sandwiches”
For the week before Thanksgiving, some friends of ours invited us to their house for a “Friendsgiving,” where we’ll all enjoy a big potluck meal together with a large group. This is the second year for the tradition, and we’re really looking forward to spending time with everyone while eating a great meal. I will …
Early on in our marriage, Joey told me he loves Boston cream pie, and I kept that in the back of my mind for a long time as a recipe I should try to make for him. But then I didn’t. I think it’s probably because I often balk at making layer cakes, as though …
