Chocolate-Dipped Cookies and Fabulous Reviews

Ladies and gentlemen, there is an absolutely ludicrous amount of sugar in my home at the moment.

So many cookies.  So much snack mix.  So many tubs of frosting in the fridge.

A few weeks ago, before my house had been inundated by sugary holiday madness, I created a recipe for Allrecipes.  I ate some, I froze some, I sent some to my parents, I called it a day.

I just happened to notice that Allrecipes published my recipe and clicked on over to see it.

Ummm...guys, it has 9 reviews from the last two days alone and every single one of them is glowing.

Talk about an ego boost!

Well world, I'm glad you're enjoying them!

Dulce de Leche Bars and the Holiday Season

Is it just my family that's really excited about the holiday season this year?

Normally I roll my eyes when I see the Thanksgiving and Christmas things hitting the shelves the day after Halloween but I can honestly say that this year I didn't have that reaction.

I don't know what it is, but there's something about this year that has everyone under our roof ready.

While we've held off getting out the tree and lights, it's something we're all looking forward to with a great deal of anticipation.  My daughter and I have been listening to Christmas music every morning on the way to school for at least a week now and we've already made it through several Christmas movies.

Not White Christmas, though- that one must be saved for right after we finish decorating the tree and enjoyed with gingersnaps.

It's kind of our thing.  

Strawberry Shortcakes and 70's Weddings

I remember not liking a lot of things as a kid that seem utterly absurd to me now.

Cream cheese.

Sour cream.

Mustard.

Dark chocolate.

Brussels sprouts.

I suppose that list is fairly normal when it comes to kids' tastes- isn't it strange that most of those foods are on my list of grown-up favorites?  I could definitely go for a toasted bagel slathered with a healthy dose of cream cheese right about now!

The list of things I used to love and I now have no interest in whatsoever has been turned on it's head a little as well.  I remember going crazy for gooey, sickly-sweet caramel treats, drink mixes whose flavor can best be described as "red", and scrambling for the slice of cake with the giant frosting flower at birthday parties.

Wanderlust and Wedding Cookies

Sometimes it drives my family a little crazy that I rarely make the same recipe twice, that I'm always on the lookout for something new to make as I inhale cookbooks as if they were novels and compile lists of recipes that I imagine myself making one day.

My kitchen cabinet is full of books whose pages tell the story of Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East.

I want to take it all in.  Every recipe, every ingredient, every cuisine.

I want to travel, see, and experience.

I want to see it all.  Do it all.  Try it all.

I want to learn everything possible about every subject I encounter.

Take in everything I can and weave it into myself.

I guess loving me requires, if not an equal desire to absorb the bigness of the world, at the very least an appreciation of my awe of it and some tolerance of my love of whimsy.

It seems such an unfathomable waste of this fantastical world not to experience as much as one is able.

Lemon Bars and Fellowship Halls

Do you know what I miss about the churches in which I grew up?

The fellowship hall after our service.

I grew up in two churches- first Methodist, then Baptist, then back to Methodist.

Both churches were super down with cookies and coffee after service and fairly regular post-church Sunday potlucks.

I really, really miss that.

Fellowship.

It's something I struggle with as an introvert who constantly forces herself to fight against social anxieties.

Having a close-knit church family was something I took for granted.  I was surrounded by the most wonderful group of people, a surrogate family who loved me and stood beside me as I grew up.

My goodness- that Methodist church?

An earthquake deemed it unusable in 2003.  It was torn down, the property sold- all of that history replaced by new development.

But the people?

My church family?

When I got divorced they emailed me.

When I was a single parent struggling I was supported.

I still get birthday and Christmas cards after all of these years away- and so do my children, despite never have even lived near those wonderful people.

Quick Breads and Easy Gifts

I've baked a lot of bread in my life.

Loads of it.

It started in middle school and the trend has continued well into adulthood.

While I have made many types of bread over the years, I honestly don't make many quick breads.

The entire concept of working with yeast- that living, consuming, gas-producing, stuff- is just fun for me.

The one time of year I tend to get really into quick breads is over the holiday season.

Quick breads differ from yeast breads in that they typically use baking soda or baking powder as a leavening agent (the ingredient that causes them to rise) rather than yeast.  They can be sweet or savory (think cornbread or biscuits) but over the holidays I like to go a little nuts with the sweet varieties.  Not only are they delicious, but they're kind of perfect for giving as gifts.  Last year I found a great deal on a set of 50 mini loaf pans and baked mini loaves of that amazing, moist Eggnog Quick Bread I wrote about a few years ago.

It's seriously delicious, you should definitely try it.  Trust me.

Best (And Easiest!) Ever Piña Colada Cake

Friendships were much easier to come by when I was younger.  It seems like the older I get the more I have acquaintances rather than friends- and that kind of makes me sad.

Well...lets be honest...the part of me that likes hanging out in my PJ pants with my family and not making plans is ok with it for the most part.

But having friends to laugh and talk to is important too.

My husband may be my best friend, but sometimes I need some girl talk and a cheese plate!

Anyway, I've been working on fostering friendships- I'm well aware of the fact that like any relationship friendships require intentional attention.

Let me just say guys...while I may not have the wide group of friends I had in my youth the friends I do have are pretty freaking spectacular.

I am blessed.

Oatmeal Sourdough Rolls and Learning New Tricks

This weekend I was talking to my sister-in-law about our mutual love of sourdough bread.

Not just any sourdough, though- the really tangy good stuff that lives up to its name.

The stuff I really haven't had outside of California, to be honest.

Crusty, chewy, air hole-filled, sour sourdough bread.

For all of middle school my lunch consisted of a turkey breast sandwich on sliced San Luis Sourdough bread with yellow mustard and a Snapple Peach Iced Tea.

Every day.  Because perfection.

Anyway, never having baked sourdough bread myself I really don't know what it is that makes most commercially produced sourdoughs outside of California so different from what I grew up with- I mean, of course there's a difference in yeast.  There's probably also a desire to tone down the flavor for a larger audience?  I don't know.

Caramel Filled Chocolate Cookies and A Little Nostalgia

My husband loves Milk Duds.

Like loves them.

Personally, I find them too sweet and too chewy and too...just not my kind of candy.

That man, however, can put way some Milk Duds.

He named his cat Milk Dud long ago.

They're kind of the way to his heart.

Have we been bickering?

Was I kind of short with him on the way out the door?

Did he have a bad day at work?

Buy the man some Milk Duds.  It'll make things better.

Or at least it will be a start.  :-)

Summery Blackberry Pie

I remember sitting at the computer in my room when I was in high school, using dial-up internet, and- totally on a whim- typing in cookierecipe.com to my browser (Netscape, of course).

It was a real site!  Holy cow!

I decided to try another one- cakerecipe.com.  And then another- pierecipe.com.

They were there too!  Will the wonders of the internet never cease!

I kept going down the list.  There were sites for all kinds of food.

Allrecipes you might even say *winkwink*.

It wasn't until many, many years later when I was sitting in the Seattle headquarters of Allrecipes.com  for an Allstars trip to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Allrecipes.com, that I even connected those old sites to the current iteration of the site I do so much work with.  All of those individual little domains were bundled up into the neat package that has been known for a very long time now as Allrecipes.com

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Stuffed Cupcakes

My daughter wanted a special cupcake to bring to school for her classmates this week- something all the kids would like.

Over the years I've noticed that she kind of enjoys talking up my cooking skills to her friends and teachers so I knew that I had to make something special to live up to the hype!  I went on the hunt for a new recipe that would be fun and kid-friendly.  After an exhaustive search of Allrecipes, Google, and Pinterest I finally settled on a recipe for cupcakes stuffed with chocolate chip cookie dough.

Um...hard to go wrong with that one, right?

Right.

So how does one go about making a cupcake filled with cookie dough that doesn't bake and leave you with, well, a cookie-filled cupcake?

You make the cookie dough ahead of time and freeze it.

That way the cupcake bakes around it but doesn't bake the cookie dough itself.

Brilliant, no?

The Best Apple Pie You'll Ever Eat

When I was a kid I absolutely hated pie.

(Except lemon meringue, that is.)

In general I just didn't like any cooked fruits- no cobblers or pies or fruit-filled pastries for me.

Crazy, I know.  I had a back yard absolutely loaded with fruit trees (apricot, peach, plum, cherry, pear, apple...) but my mom had no luck getting the loads of leftover fruit we always had to deal with into me in the form of dessert.

My tastes have certainly matured over the years!

In fact- while generally speaking I don't have much of a sweet tooth- pie is my favorite dessert by far.

Cherry pie.  Berry Pies.  Apple Pie.  Pretty much any pie or cobbler or whatever you put in front of me is going to be difficult to turn down!

Lets just say that at this point I have plenty of experience with pie baking.

Let's Talk Pie Crust

This is one of those posts that I have been wanting to share for a long time- a very long time.

There have been a couple of things getting in the way of that- first of all, when I make pie crust for desserts I am generally serving it to a crowd.  While some of my close family know I'm a crazy picture-taker that doesn't mean that I want to stop the festivities and make people wait for their pie while I get that perfect shot.

The second problem is that when I make pie crust for savory pies, like Chicken Pot Pie, I generally serve it for dinner- which might sound irrelevant but for a large portion of the year that means the sun has already gone down...which means the lighting isn't great for picture-taking either.

Ah, the problems of a crazy photo-taking blogger. :-)

Anyway, when my husband asked me to make an apple pie for a family gathering this past weekend I decided to go ahead and snap some pictures before we brought it.

I might have even cut out a slice of pie for picture taking purposes and replaced it before we left.

It's family...I'm sure they don't mind.

Very Valentine's: Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Treats

How in the world is already almost Valentine's Day?

I'm so behind, you guys.

While I grabbed gifts for the kids and put them up as soon as the Valentine's stuff hit the stores I have absolutely no idea what to get for my husband.  It's really too late to order anything and honestly I generally make him a sweet and sentimental gift anyway- but I'm at a loss.

I have exactly four days to figure this one out.

While I may not know what to do for my husband, the kids and I have already played around in the kitchen with some holiday-inspired treats.  In the past I've made a variety of pink baked goods- Pink Sugar Cookie Bars, Pink Pinwheel Cookies, super yummy Pink Snickerdoodles, even Pink Marshmallows.

Super Easy Sugar Coated Pecans

MAKE ME STOP EATING THESE!!!

Ohmygoodness.

I did not expect these to be this good!

I am blessed to have a fairly steady source of pecans and I generally have some hanging out in the freezer.  Thank goodness, because I LOVE them.

I sub them for walnuts whenever possible.  I add them to salads.  I make cookies.

And now I've made these: Sugar Coated Pecans.

I'm not sure I can think of a better holiday treat or small gift.

They're addictive!

Calling All Custard (and Eggnog) Lovers

You know how memories from when you were little tend to get a little jumbled in your mind?

They're disjointed.

Snapshots of my childhood, little flashes of emotion.

 

In my mind, custard lives right alongside learning how to fold towels.

I have a memory of an evening at the house we lived in before my sister was born.

 It was just my mom and I home.  My dad was most likely at work, I'm not really sure.  I remember that the television was on.  I think there may have been a Christmas tree, that I'm not completely sure of.  It feels cozy in my memory.

I remember standing behind the couch next to my mom as she laid towels over the back of the couch and taught me how to fold them.

Then I remember custard.  A small ramekin of goodness sprinkled with nutmeg.

In reality those memories might have nothing to do with each other, I must have been very, very young at the time.

Yet forevermore, custard and towel folding will always been linked in my mind.

One thing I do know for sure?

I have loved custard since my first bite.

English Muffins, Mastered

There are two types of bread I've tried to make over the years that have failed miserably: pita bread and English muffins.

It doesn't help my pride that every time I read a recipe for either one of those it's being touted as the absolute easiest kind of fail-proof bread to make.

Sadly, that hadn't held true for me.

Well, a month or so ago I started noticing regular (read: daily) charges from McDonald's.  Obviously my husband had developed a new habit on his way to work!

Turns out two Sausage McMuffins and a Diet Coke had become his latest go-to breakfast.

Setting aside the obvious issue of how unhealthy it is to eat a breakfast like that every single day, I immediately decided that if he was going to eat sausage breakfast sandwiches every morning I would at the very least save some money and make them at home for him to take with him.

I'm frugal.

Grandma Simpson's Apple Dumplings

Large chunks of most of my childhood summers were spent visiting my mom's side of the family throughout Wisconsin.  My Grandma Simpson lived in Wausau, which is where we spent the bulk of our time, however we also drove all over the state visiting assorted family members.  I have memories of stops at a restaurant with goats on the roof, a restaurant with a giant Paul Bunyan statue in the parking lot, dipping my toes in the great lakes, exploring the resort where my parents met, and a general sense of amazement- as the California child that I was- by basements, summer rainstorms, and green trees.

 Also, I remember the Killer Apples.

The Best Hamburger Buns I've Ever Eaten

I've never EVER been as impressed with a roll recipe as I am with this one.  I've made a lot of bread recipes over the years, so it really takes something special to get that kind of a response out of me.

Honestly, I don't make hamburger buns very often, unless I really don't feel like going to the store and I'm running short on time, in which case I have my go-to 40 Minute Hamburger Buns.  It's far more likely that I'll just grab a cheap bag of buns from the grocery store.

I'm not sure what it was about this recipe that caught my eye, maybe I was just in the mood to try out a new bread recipe- it's been awhile since I worked with yeast other than my favorite white bread recipe.  Whatever the reason, I set to work on these yesterday afternoon so I'd have them ready for dinner last night.

Blackberry Muffins and Weird Coincidences

I was lucky enough to be gifted a couple of quarts of homegrown blackberries recently that have been hanging out in my freezer, patiently waiting for me to do something with them.

I was itching to make something with those little gems (blackberries are my absolute favorite berry!) but there were so many choices.  I thought about making blackberry BBQ sauce, pie, cobbler...eventually I settled on muffins.  I'd never actually made blackberry muffins before, but when I saw this recipe I knew I needed to give it a try.  :-) That may have had something to do with the fact that I already had all of the ingredients on hand and I love being the first to photograph a new recipe on Allrecipes, but whatever.  I went with muffins.

Do you know who else went with muffins, I would later find out?  My dad, in a completely different state, also made blackberry muffins- also for the first time- on the same day that I did.