Moving. Ooph. Last week, our little family made the 1,000-mile trek from our home in Missouri to our new digs in North Carolina. That meant two days of driving our caravan of vehicles, one three-car trailer filled with all our worldly possessions and four straight mornings of pre-5 o’clock wake-up calls. Thankfully, Jared’s dad helped…
Because there’s always more rhubarb to love
One of the great things I’ve learned from gardening (OK, one of the great things I’ve learned from other people’s gardening) is that a good plant will yield gobs more blooms (either food or floral) than you ever expected. You can pick and pick and pick, and just when you think there couldn’t possibly be…
It’s pumpkin time — again
If I had to name one baked good that’s made in our house more than any other, it would have to be the pumpkin muffin. Sure, pumpkin is generally reserved for the fall and winter months, but there’s really nothing better than walking into a house that smells like cinnamon and ginger. My little sister…
Project NYT: Lemon sablés — everyone needs some sparkle
It’s hot. It’s humid. I’m on another lemon kick. You know that feeling when you walk into the bathroom not long after someone else in the house took a super hot shower? That’s how Missouri feels in the summertime. Hot. Steamy. Ooph. If you’re a hot-and-sticky summertime fan, then you’re probably gearing up for three…
Project NYT: Lemon bars
I’ve spent a good many years making lemon bars from the basic box mix that you find at the grocery store, the ones with the light, cookie-like crust and the sort of spongy lemony middles. I know they’re nothing to write home about; they’ve never been the kind of dessert that makes my taste buds…
Dessert fix: Molasses cookies
I could write a list a mile long of ingredients I love in cookies. Luckily, I’ve learned that an amalgamation of all my favorites does not a good cookie make. Still, I have a certain appreciation for the unexpected combos, and these molasses cookies with oatmeal from Martha Stewart sounded just interesting enough to warrant…
Project NYT: Chocolate quakes
This morning, I awoke to a rather timely tweet from @Real_Simple. “Today’s thought: ‘There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.’ — Charles Dickens.” Well, Mr. Dickens, today I come bearing chocolate. Today, I am a friend to all. There’s nothing better than a looker of a cookie, and…
Granola + Cookie = Love
It was a cold, rainy night in September when a tiny snack food, the first of its kind, came into the world with the kind of crunch and bang typically reserved for the offspring of more popular treats. The entire pantry community beheld the snack with great awe and confusion. It resembled granola but was…
Project NYT: Flat-and-chewy chocolate chip cookies
For most of my life, I’ve defined cookie perfection based on a few standard characteristics: taste (that’s a given), texture (which depends on the cookie kind) and overall fluffiness (fluffy = good; fluffier = better). Although I dabble in a lot of cookie making, I always come back to these traits as signatures of success,…
Project NYT: Brown sugar shortbread
I am a major coffee fan, but there are some foods that demand a right cup of tea rather than my usual cup of Joe. Shortbread is definitely one of those foods. It’s such a slightly sweet, slightly crisp, delicate as all get-out kind of cookie, it just seems wrong to overshadow its subtle flavor…