Growing up, I was always taught that when invited to someone’s house, you should never show up empty handed. It’s good manners, and a way to show gratitude. When I was a child, my grandmother and I would stop at a certain little family-owned bakery to pick up something to take when we visited my cousins. It was just something that I knew you had to do.

I can’t say that I’ve always been perfect at following this rule. I wish I could. What I can say is that the older I get, the harder I try to always arrive with something — small or big. It’s something that I am trying to teach my kids too.

When Will was invited over to his friend’s house this weekend while Paige and I went to a birthday party, I knew I wanted to bring something. But as much as I love a good batch of cookies, I just didn’t have it in me to whip up a batch. I needed a simple, fast and easy recipe that would be fun but not bad for you.

Suddenly it hit me: mini chocolate covered pretzels using leftover candy melts, old fashioned dipping stick pretzels and sprinkles.

This is a great way to use up leftover candy melts, if you have them in your cupboard. I had half a bag of these bright leafy green ones, which were perfect for making a funky snack for my son and his friend. I used coordinating dolphin sprinkles with them too to give the pretzels a little element of fun. If you don’t have candy melts, any chocolate will do.

First, you melt the candy melts or chocolate. This is a cinch to do in the microwave. You just nuke the chocolate for 30 second intervals, stirring after each one, until its totally melted and stirred smooth.

Then you dip the pretzels. If you want the chocolate to reach up higher on the pretzels, use a rubber spatula to nudge it up.

Finally, you sprinkle ‘em with sprinkles. Whatever you have will do — rainbow, chocolate shots, butterflies.

Let them cool on a tray (in the fridge for a faster cooling period) and they are ready to enjoy. All in all, this is a 40 minute snack — with just 10 minutes hands on (at most!). Not bad, right?

Do you make a point to show up with a little something when you are going to someone’s house?

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This morning, all I could think of was homemade cookies. All that time without power has sent me head first back into the kitchen — a good thing, no doubt. But I’ve also been busy with work, making sure that all my proverbial balls remained in the air throughout. So it was late afternoon before I finally cleaned out  my stand mixer bowl (banana pancakes were this morning’s breakfast for our extended family who arrived bright and early for a shower) and set out to bake a batch of cookies.

The flavor combination – Dark Chocolate Coconut Shortbread – is something my friend Rhian and I came up with this afternoon while chatting on Google Talk. She loves food as much as I do and is awesome about dreaming up flavors with me. I may just have to send her some now … or bribe her to make a visit with promises of homemade baked goods (I like the second idea better, personally). All it took was a mention that I really wanted to make cookies, and she was shooting out ideas and mere minutes later, I had a recipe in mind.

Oh, Dark Chocolate Coconut Shortbread Cookies … they are mouthwatering. The cookies have a buttery shortbread base that’s best eaten cooled. The texture is crumbly, but the cookies don’t break apart into bits (in other words, they don’t make a mess). Dotted with sweet bits of dark chocolate and coconut, every bite is a little different … a happy surprise. And since they aren’t overly sweet, Paige loved them as much as Will and I did. That’s a feat in itself.

The shortbread recipe is the same one that I use for my Shortbread Candy Cookies. It’s a tried and true that adapted easily for this recipe. If you make these, they are awesome with coffee – and don’t be shy about dipping. It’s totally worth it. Read the rest of this entry…

The day that I heard there was going to be another pumpkin shortage this season, I ran to the grocery store and bought several cans of pumpkin to cook with. Call me crazy, but I couldn’t beat the thought of not working with pumpkin this season. It’s one of my favorite things to eat in the fall.

Really, can you blame me?

This cake is a great way to celebrate pumpkin this fall. With a moist crumb and a spiced icing drizzled all over, it’s an ideal after-dinner treat. And the flavor? It’s like if pumpkin pie and a perfect white cake had little cake babies that closely resembled the pie with the texture of cake.

See also Pumpkin Coconut Muffins.

Don’t let the longer ingredients list fool you: this is an easy cake to make and when you butter the bundt pan well, the cake just slips right on out. Easy. And if you are into cooking with your kids, this is a great recipe to do so with. My kids took care of the measuring and mixing of the dry ingredients (with supervision of course). They also could have (but didn’t this time) helped ice the cake too.

It warmed my heart to have the kids back in the kitchen to bake this cake with me. For a little while, Will and Paige just weren’t into cooking with me. The sound of chairs being dragged across the floor were silenced and replaced with the sounds of playing with Legos or games of imagination. While I missed their help, it was fine and I loved that they created all sorts of imaginative scenarios. I might have even grown semi-used to being solo in the kitchen again. But now all of a sudden, they’re back and more into it then ever — and I love it. Maybe it’s fall? Or maybe they missed it too? I don’t know, but I am happy to have them back at the counter with me.

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Hey fig. Yeah you. Hey fig figgy fig fig fig.

(Apologies to Nine Inch Nails. I just couldn’t help myself.)

When my shipment of figs arrived last week, I quickly got to work eating, preparing and cooking them. Figs have a ridiculously short lifespan, so I had to while they were fresh. My first recipe for figs was so simple, just prosciutto, figs and balsamic vinegar. It was a great way to ease in. But after that, I wanted more. Next up was a fresh fig tart.

Creating this recipe for figs was all about balance. It had to be sweet, tart and rich, without being too much of any of these. Super-sweet figs are baked into a flaky crust with tart marmalade and creamy brie cheese. The cheese, which isn’t a star here, plays a supporting role adding richness and a binder that bulls everything together. And the orange marmalade is a perfect contrast to the sweet fig slices.

This recipe for figs really isn’t complicated to make. But you’d never know that from the sophisticated fig tart that it produces. It’s the kind of thing that you’d share with your best girl friends with a glass of wine. Who can say no to that?

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When I first started freelancing, Will was an infant — one who didn’t cry a lot but who was still vocal. Very vocal. Back then, I freelanced mostly for a local newspaper and my work required me to conduct phone interviews often with Will playing in a baby gym or Exersaucer nearby. Sometimes, I took him with me on assignments too. Fortunately, everyone I dealt with was understanding when our interviews were punctuated by yells of Ah-GOOOOOOOO.

That’s what made working online so alluring. Will could make as much noise as he wanted, and it was fine. I could cook, blog and later even photograph things and noise was a non-issue. And the freedom of it all? It made everything so worth it.

These days, with two kids I’ve learned that noise can get a whole lot bigger than baby coos. Also, I’ve grown accustomed to having the sounds of play around almost constantly … except with school back in, they aren’t so constant anymore. Several afternoons each week, I am all alone at home while both kids are in school. And instead of savoring the silence, it’s deafening. I find myself turning on music or the television for background noise. Go figure.

As much as I appreciate having those hours alone to work, it’s just different — and that can put me a little off-kilter. While I am still adjusting to the new school year, I find that a little comfort food (and of course background noise) helps.

These Rich Chocolate Toffee Brownies, served with a cold glass of milk, are perfect for that. These fall more towards the cake-y end of the spectrum, baking up moist and dense. Bits of toffee dot the batter and bake into it, a secret surprise that sneaks up on you. It’s delightful.

Besides the secret bits of toffee, these have another secret ingredient: Starbucks VIA. I use Decaf Italian Roast in them to really bring out the chocolate flavor. It makes them irresistibly rich (as instant coffee does for any chocolate baked good). Thanks to Starbucks for the VIA to make these, and be sure to scroll all the way down to the end of this post to learn about the giveaway.

Tell me, do you find the adjustment to a silent house hard when kids are in school?

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Oh, brownies … served warm or cold, with ice cream or not, they are such a super treat. These ones, from an old family recipe, are thin but super fudgy brownies with a light, crackly top. Heavenly!

This recipe, called Agnes’ Brownies, is adapted very slightly from my handwritten and bound family cookbook. Agnes wasn’t a family member (or, at least I don’t think she was) — she was the local reverend’s wife and probably lived somewhere nearby my family (the church was walking distance from the family homestead).

These were part of last weekend’s bake-a-thon (but don’t worry … this isn’t turning into a sweets or baking blog. It’s just been that kind of week. We’ll be back to savory foods on Monday).

Back to the brownies …  If you are shy about homemade brownies made with melted chocolate, you aren’t alone. I was too. But you can’t beat the flavor of a really good unsweetened chocolate (I used Ghiradelli’s Bittersweet Chocolate for these) and the ensuing fudginess.

And here’s a little tip I learned recently: If you want your brownies to look as fudgy as they are, cut them using a plastic knife. It totally works.

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When it comes to desserts, my sweet tooth knows no bounds. It’s something that Will inherited from me. That little guy loves cookies, cakes … anything sweet. Paige, on the other hand, is less sweet-addicted. Sometimes she wants dessert, other times she simply says “No, thank you.” Now, offer her some fresh mozzarella and she’s a happy girl. It’s kind of amazing, shocking and unbelievable all rolled up together — at least to this sweets lover.

This little, easy dessert? It’s a fabulous dreamy thing for this sweets lover. It starts with soft, lightly sweet madeleine cookies. They are bathed in a layer of caramel. Then, they’re sprinkled with freshly toasted coconut, which is a little nutty and has a nice crispness to it. Finally, milk chocolate is drizzled on top adding a glorious richness.

For the base – the madeleines – I used ones made by the company Donsuemor, which were a perfect introduction to this French confection. They’re available online or can be bought in stores like Fairway (Connecticut and New York).

The flavors are a riff on my favorite Girl Scout Cookie – Samoas. Oh, my kryptonite. I’ve been known to eat whole boxes without sharing. In a couple of sittings, of course. Not recently, of course. Honest. Really.

Anyway, once you’ve glazed, sprinkled and drizzled, you can either eat these babies hot or chill then until you are ready to eat. Either way, they are divine. And easy. Did I mention easy?

Oh, how cookies tempt me.
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S’mores are summertime. They speak of summer camp, bonfires and roasting marshmallows on actual sticks (you know, the kind from the woods!). And when I think of them, I think about the rustic conditions of the summer camps I went to and loved. Making s’mores was the highlight of every summer camp experience of my youth. And man, did I love summer camp: swimming in murky ponds, learning to sail and windsurf, sleeping in sleeping bags. But s’mores, and the bonfires that they accompanied? Those were the best.

I mean, what’s not to love? That melty chocolate, the soft puffed marshmallows with a crisp outside and two graham crackers holding it all in place combine to make something extraordinary. It’s just magic. And it’s pretty special how it can bring together campers of all backgrounds, bonding over a common love for burning marshmallows and squashing them into sandwiches.

I can remember many a summer evening spent shoulder to shoulder with my camp friends, sticking my marshmallow toward the fire, waiting for it to turn that deep brown.

Summer 2009 - Paige's First S'mores Experience

I’ve passed my s’mores love onto my kids. In fact, when they noticed me making Oven S’mores this afternoon, they were quick to ask who’d be eating them. They’ve been patiently waiting their first s’mores of the season. Usually, it’s had around a campfire while camping, but we haven’t been yet. Still, in the meantime, making these Oven S’mores is an easy, fast and simple way to fill the craving.

See also Chocolate Covered S’mores Grahams.

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It seems like forever ago, but once upon a time my ability to cook was a well-kept secret. For that matter, so was this blog. But these days, everyone from my kids’ teachers to college acquaintances know about it. And hey, that’s ok with me. The more the merrier.

But when people know you can cook, they start to expect things. For instance, hints get dropped about trying some of the recipes I am testing. And bringing non-homemade food anywhere? A total no-go.

So, last summer when I met my cousins for a beach day and said I was bringing cookies among other things, they expected homemade. Unfortunately, I was swamped with work that morning and just couldn’t whip any up. No matter that I’d made homemade iced tea and other yummies to take. And no matter that I picked up a couple of boxes of cookies that were pretty tasty … they just weren’t homemade.

I totally heard about it (and for the record, it was all in good humor).

This year, I wanted to be prepared with a fabulous cookie recipe that’s fast, easy and travels well. I wanted it to be a little hearty, but not so dense it’s off-putting. I wanted a flavor combination that it’s not typical for a cookie. Meet my signature Blueberry White Chocolate Cookies.

Tart dried blueberries and sweet white chocolate chips are always a favorite combination around here. Even our very favorite pancake recipe includes both. And I love the body that even a small dose of oats gives to cookies.

I don’t think anyone will be disappointed if I bring these to the beach this year.

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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?

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