This might just be my favorite scone recipe ever. It’s everything a good scone should be — subtle, but flavorful. Perfect with coffee or tea. And totally memorable.

Scones unfairly get a bad rap, I think. It’s usually with folks who’ve only had the dry, rock-like version that some stores sell. And really, if that’s the only way you’ve had them, it’s not surprising if you groan and turn away when you see someone writing about them. Those scones are an acquired taste, for sure. But I urge you: give homemade scones a chance.

Homemade scones are different. They have a crusty outside, yes, but that gives way to a soft, tender interior. Scones are definitely best the day they’re made, warm from the oven. But they are good the next day too — especially if you warm them up briefly before serving. But you should know that scones won’t last more than two days (they lose that softness after that) … but then again, scones rarely last more than two days in my house anyway. Read the rest of this entry…

Coffee cake is one of those things. It’s comforting and familiar and perfect for breakfast. This one, made from a recipe from the 1930s, has a dense crumb and an irresistible buttery cinnamon sugar topping.

No, it’s not that impossibly fluffy and almost-dessert-sweet coffee cake from the grocery store. But it doesn’t want to be. It’s a totally different coffee cake — one that stands up to the fork without squishing into oblivion and that can be eaten by hand without crumbling all over. And it’s really great with a hot, steaming cup of coffee.

It is coffee cake after all.

Making this, I wasn’t sure if the vintage sensibilities would make it a winner for us. But it was. Hugely.

I whipped it up for a brunch with friends last weekend where the cake quickly vanished. Seriously, not a trace was left behind. Good sign, right? And it was so good that I baked another just for our family.

Back to the brunch for a second. Though I adore brunch, I don’t have people over (or go out) for it nearly enough. So I was thrilled to have a little one at my house. The brunch menu was simple — bagels and lox with all the fixings, scrambled eggs, berry and pineapple fruit salad and this coffee cake. In the course of conversation, I shared that this was a vintage recipe — something dug out of my great collection of early 20th century cookery books, pamphlets and recipe cards.

This recipe comes from the third edition of All About Home Baking, published in 1936 (the original was published in 1933) by the General Foods Corporation, a now-defunct company whose products (Calumut baking powder, Post cereals, Maxwell House Coffee and General Foods International Coffees, to name a few) live on. I bought this hardcover book off eBay a while back. Read the rest of this entry…

When you plan your meals ahead of time, the evening goes much smoother. It becomes simpler to just finish up whatever you need to (work, laundry, whatever) and then move into a speedy dinner prep. Unfortunately, I fell back into bad habits recently and wasn’t planning dinners. Heck, I wasn’t even thinking about dinner … until it was time to make it. We consumed a lot of pasta. It was really chaotic, and I hate chaos.

But I am working on it (we’re on day five of planning success!). Honestly, the stress of having dinner roll around without a plan is something I don’t need. No one needs it. And it’s just too easy to skirt the issue with a little bit of planning.

The slow cooker really comes in handy. It’s just so simple. You toss the ingredients in early in the morning and then when dinnertime rolls around, you have a hot, ready to go dinner. If you are struggling with dinners, you should totally get your slow cooker out and give it a shot. Having this stew bubbling away the other afternoon provided such sweet peace of mind so that I could focus on what I needed to without stressing over what I would toss together for dinner.

Oh, and this Slow Cooker Beef and Veggie Stew is a great dish to re-start your slow cooking adventures with.

This stew has a faint French onion-ness to the broth, but not so much that onion haters will balk (and the onion pieces are big so they can pick ‘em out anyway). And the roasted garlic adds dimension to the broth. The slow cooking blends the flavors as it renders the stew meat completely fall-apart tender. The vegetables – carrots, broccoli stems, potatoes and sweet potatoes – give the stew bulk so that it fills you up.

Did you catch that it has broccoli stems. Stems! The part that no one loves to eat. I keep stems in my freezer for using in recipes like this. And honestly, after slow cooking the stems for so long, the kids and I really enjoyed them in this stew. It was an unexpected but welcome element.

Eat this with a slice of buttered bread. Just divine.

Read the rest of this entry…

Right now, I am sitting in a Starbucks, sipping a Venti Nonfat Peppermint White Mocha and praying I can finish this blog post and hit publish in the next six minutes — before I have to dash out of here and head back to get my daughter from ballet so we can head to my son’s school for his winter concert. It’ll be the second winter concert we’ve attended today, the first being my daughter’s this morning, and the third time I’ve been to the school today.

It’s that kind of day. And let me tell you, these biscotti — they are not for making on a day like today. While they aren’t hard to make, they do take some time and a little patience. And a dash of ends-justifies-the-means. Save this one for later this week, when you have a little time to spare — it’s totally worth making.

This biscotti is filled with chocolate (my favorite kind!) and has a light hint of coconut — it’s really subtle. These bake up perfectly crisp and are fabulous dipped in a cup of fresh, strong coffee.

You start by mixing up all the dry ingredients. Just stir them all together in a bowl. It’s really that simple.

Then you whisk together the wet ingredients and add them to the dry ones. Don’t be fussy about it — just pour it all in.

When you stir it together, it will look all crumbly — like it couldn’t possibly form a dough, let alone make those fabulous slices of crisp biscotti. Don’t worry. It will. This is the point where you turn the dough out on a floured board and knead it like crazy for two minutes or so.

Once it’s all kneaded, you form a log. I did it on the cutting board this time, but generally, it’s easier to do this directly on the baking sheet. Which ever way you do it, the next step is to pat it into a 1-inch-thick log that’s sort of rectangular shaped.

Then you bake it. This is what it looks like after the first bake. After this, you cut it into 1/2-inch slices and rebake it. Twice (once for each side of the slice.). Then it’s done. Well, once it’s cooled it is. You know what I mean.

These are perfect for packing up with a coffee gift card for teacher’s gifts. It’s what all of Paige and Will’s teacher’s got this holiday.

Or you could just eat them yourself with a cup of coffee. It’s a fabulous breakfast.

Now, I am off and running.

Read the rest of this entry…

It’s a muffin! It’s a corn muffin! It’s a maple corn muffin! And it’s amazing.

Filled with maple-y goodness, these easy muffins aren’t overly sweet, which makes them so versatile. You can enjoy them warm with a pat of butter (my favorite way!) for breakfast or a snack. Who doesn’t love butter? They are tender and a little crumbly, a nice combination. But, I keep dreaming of enjoying these with chili too. Maybe tomorrow?

Making these is easy. First you grab your ingredients — you may even have them all right now. See? I told you they were easy. Read the rest of this entry…

Biscuits didn’t make frequent appearances on our table when I was a child. No, we were more of a grocery store bakery Italian bread family — always purchased fresh that day with a crusty outside and a soft, airy inside. Since I wasn’t a fan of the crusty outside, I would tear out the insides of the bread, roll it into a doughy ball and eat it that way. Odd, I know, but it was the way I enjoyed it.

Don’t worry, I don’t eat bread that way anymore. Just can’t get away with that at 31.

This isn’t about my bread eating habits though. We’re here to talk biscuits. Though I didn’t eat them much as I child, I actually love them and make them often in the winter. Delicate, fluffy biscuits are a dream. Read the rest of this entry…

With Will and Paige back in school, our house dynamic is shifting again. It does at the start and end of every summer. And I love that subtle shift … it means that sometimes I am the only one home. And sometimes it’s just Paige and I. This afternoon? Will and I will have an hour together alone. After a summer of all-family-all-the-time, it’s nice to have a little solo time and some one-on-one time with the kids. It balances things.

It’s also nice that the weather is turning to something that resembles fall – cooler temperatures, especially at night and in the early morning, and warm sunshine during the days. It’s a glorious retreat from the burning temperatures and thick humidity of August. And this afternoon, I even noticed that the leaves are beginning to drop from the trees. Progress, baby.

Really, as much as I love summertime, beautiful days spent away from the beach are more akin to torture than fun (lots of people would disagree with me, I am sure, but to me, summer must be spent at the beach).

With fall setting in, I am ready for all the warm, comforting foods it brings. Like pumpkin dishes because pumpkin is fall. Or autumn, if you prefer, but I have never been a fan of the word autumn.

This past weekend, I baked. A lot. And one of the delicious creations that came out of my afternoon baking spree was this Pumpkin Bread. It’s moist, like a good quick bread should be, and it has whispers of all the right spices – cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. It smells heavenly baking … and then the best part: you get to eat it. I suggest you toast it and then spread a pat of butter on. It’s so good that way.

Then, you can grab your mug of coffee and your favorite book (or e-reader … I love mine) and have a blissful few moments to yourself lost in a good book with a tender, sweet slice of pumpkin bread. You can thank me later.

As for that leftover pumpkin puree, try Iced Pumpkin Bundt Cake.

What’s your favorite way to enjoy pumpkin?

Read the rest of this entry…

Whenever my daughter and I walk by the bakery area of our local grocery store, she always says the same thing: “Mommy, can I have a muffin?” For someone who really isn’t into sweets (she turned down a slice of cake for dessert last night. It wasn’t the first time), her love of muffins is staggering and consistent. Sometimes I say yes. Other times I don’t.

This week I said no, instead opting to make my own homemade blueberry muffins.

These aren’t ultra-fancy, over-sized or bathed in butter and sugar, though any of those things can make muffins delightful. Instead, these are just a really good, homemade muffin. Tender, not too sweet, moist … all the important parts.

Sometimes what we really want is ultra-simple: a hug, a thank you, a smile … and the same goes for food. Sometimes, it’s not about the daring combination of flavors but rather the simple ones. The ones that hearken back to the foods we grew up on. The things that are comforting and remind us of home.

This recipe for blueberry muffins definitely falls in that that simple, homemade, comfort food category. They’re easy — just a one-bowl preparation and about 25 minutes in the oven. You’ll be eating them before you know it.

And then, you’ll make ‘em again. Because they really are very good.

P.S. My first book review for the BlogHer Book Club went live yesterday. I read and reviewed The Beach Trees by Karen White, a great book about friendship, family, loyalty and the ties that bind us. It’s a perfect summer read, and one that I really enjoyed. Please hop over and check it out.
Read the rest of this entry…

The end of school for this year is almost here and it’s really hard to believe. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was freaking out about catching the school bus, and adjusting to having two kids in school? Surely it was mere days ago that I was figuring out how to pack cool lunches for Will and worrying that he had enough to fill him up at lunch. Right?

Ok, ok. We all know that was really10 months ago. It just went so fast. Where did the time go?

Now that school is ending, we like to give tokens of appreciation to the teachers and bus drivers who made a difference in my kids lives this year. And after three years of having at least one child in school, I have the whole appreciation gift thing in control. (Well, at least in better control than in years past.) Sort of.

I decided on a dual gift for the teachers — something special from my kitchen and a gift certificate.  For Teacher Appreciation Week, I’d given a few of the teachers Chocolate Chip Banana Bread in a Jar, so that was out (along with anything else in a jar). And I wanted it to be something a little bigger — something they could share if they wanted. Mini-loaves of bread were the perfect solution.

I went with this mouthwatering recipe for Cinnamon Zucchini Bread Mini-Loaves. They have a lighter crumb and a fabulous, rich flavor. If you’ve never had zucchini in bread before, ignore that it’s in the title and try this anyway. As long as you like cinnamon, you will love this bread. The zucchini lends a moist crumb to this bread along with speckles of green — but that’s it. So, don’t fear the zucchini, I swear.

When I was making this, I modeled this bread after my Cinnamon-alicious Zucchini Bread. But really, they are different loaves. This one is a little less sweet, but with a bigger punch of cinnamon. Try it warmed, it’s so good like that.

What’s your favorite food gift to give?

Read the rest of this entry…

A few weeks ago, Will spied a lone very ripe (ahem, brown) banana on our kitchen counter and declared that I should  make banana bread. He adores banana bread. And bananas, for that matter. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to whip up a batch then.

Today I finally got around to baking some … in jars, of course. I was tempted to call this one Chocolate Chip Banana Cake in a Jar, but really it’s basically banana bread … or banana muffins, depending on how you look at it. Really the only difference is the vessel I used to cook it in. What would you call it?

Anyway, one of the reasons for making this today is that I wanted something to send in to Paige’s classroom for her teachers tomorrow. It’s teacher appreciation week at our school (yes, I know most schools already celebrated that!), so it seemed like the perfect time to gift them with a little something. We’ve been blessed with wonderful, patient and kind teachers who love kids and make their school days so special.

Really, this is the perfect something for a teacher gift. Just top ‘em with a canning lid and tie a little card to the top to let them know what’s inside. I used basic kitchen twine, but you could go fancy with some pretty ribbon too.

As for the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, it’s positively lovable. It’s perfectly moist, with a light crumb. I’ve added just a touch of cinnamon that gives the flavor a little depth, without really making its presence known. It’s subtle. And mini chocolate chips are the perfect addition to the sweet banana batter. It’s based on my recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread, but is minus the nuts to comply with the nut-free environment of our school.

The Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is baked directly in the jars on a baking sheet in the oven. I keep an old baking sheet around just for the occasion. It’s perfect for being the firm surface for small containers like this. And yes, jars are perfectly okay for baking. If you don’t have them already, you can pick some up at most grocery stores or online.

What’s your favorite food to gift?

Read the rest of this entry…