Category: sweets

One of the first recipes I posted to this site three years ago was for these Chocolate Peppermint Cookies. This was before I had a camera, and sadly, because I am a hugely visual person and am only attracted to recipes with a visual display of the results, I have, over the years, forgotten about this recipe. Which is a shame, because it’s a great recipe. The cookies are chewy and deeply chocolate-y, and perfectly balanced by the peppermint candies. One of my co-workers asked if there was toffee in them, because the melted peppermint candies have that toffee-like texture, and the brown sugar in the cookie dough gives them a slightly caramel-like flavor. All around these are excellent cookies, and as I had one more batch of cookies to make before my Christmas baking was done, these were just the thing.
Continue reading Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, take two

Oh lord, where has the time gone? Thanksgiving now seems like some kind of faraway, hazy dream of an actual event, and I’m frankly embarrassed that it has taken me so darned long to write anything, even this sad excuse of a blog post. I do have pictures and recipes to share from Thanksgiving, and I’m consoling myself that most foods cooked on Thanksgiving are awfully similar to those cooked for Christmas, so they might still prove useful to someone. I’m also consoling myself with the fact that I’m almost, almost, almost on break, and then I only have one more semester until I’m DONE and GRADUATED and no longer have to do the dreaded homework. And then I might actually have time to do things like update my blog. And cook.

While I am officially done with fall semester, I can’t quite relax yet because of a very important job interview next week, for which I am flying across the country, wearing a suit, and giving a presentation. Most of my time right now is taken up in preparations for completely wow-ing the search committee and getting myself hired.

You might notice, however, that I found time to update the color scheme and do a little custom CSS designing here. This was actually part of an assignment and therefore it can’t be considered wasting time and messing around and procrastinating. I hope you find it visually appealing. I suspect you would probably find pictures of food MORE visually appealing, so I do promise that they will appear soon.

In the meantime, I thought I would take a trip through the archives to share with you some of my favorite cookie recipes, what with it being cookie baking season and all. Enjoy!

Dorie Greenspan’s Midnight Crackles—Chocolately, slightly spicy, decadent.
Russian Teacakes—my all time favorite holiday cookie. I’m trying them this year with dried cherries mixed in. I’m wild like that.
Gingersnaps—for those who like that kind of thing.
Cranberry, Orange, and Chocolate Chip Cookies—These are quickly making their way onto my favored cookies list. I made them this week for my class and they were a hit.
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies—I’ll definitely have to make these again this year.

I am not usually much of a cake baker, but I wanted to make something lovely and different for our chili party. I’d originally planned to make cookies, but when I saw this cake in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, I had to make it. It seemed perfectly fall-like, and I thought the tart cranberries would be a nice counter to the spicy chilis. And I have to say it turned out even better than I thought it would. The cake is wonderful and dense, with just a hint of cinnamon, the cranberries were juicy and, yes, quite tart, and the walnuts added a nice earthy crunch to each bite. And now? I’m in love with cake baking, and I can’t wait to try more.
Continue reading Cranberry Upside Down Cake

About two weeks ago, I set out to make a nectarine pie. I bought some nectarines, mixed up a batch of pie dough, and set it in the fridge to chill. And when I got to making the filling, I realized that the whole carton of nectarines was rotten and there were ants in the sugar! Infuriating! I was going on vacation, so I threw the pie dough in the freezer and tried to forget the whole debacle.

Last night I finally bought fresh nectarines and another box of sugar, but instead of making a pie, I thought I would try a galette, instead. Galettes are so much less fussy, and also smaller, which is good for a household of only three. Pies always end up being thrown away almost whole, because we can never eat that much pie. And now that I realize how much easier galettes are, I will very likely make them all the time. Who need a pie pan, anyway? They are just excess kitchenware.
Continue reading End of the Summer Nectarine Galette

Oh man, where the heck have I been? Well, sadly, no where. I didn’t go on vacation or anything. I have just been sitting on my tuchus, watching Big Love, reading the Twilight books, and eating way too much frozen, prepared, and/or take out food. Why, you ask? I don’t know. I just got really, very lazy and felt incredibly uncreative. And when I did manage to spend some time standing in front of the stove, my camera was no where to be seen and the mere thought of trying to blog about any of it was exhausting. How pathetic. I guess the end of summer vacation might do that to a person?

Well, I am going on vacation now, home to San Diego to see the fam, and I have plans for some cooking there which will definitely be shared. But I wanted to be sure to leave you with something small before I left. Small, but delicious: Banana Bread Ice Cream.

Continue reading Banana Bread Ice Cream