Category: desserts & drinks
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Mint Chocolate Chip Granitas & Vacation
We leave for Italy tonight. Will I be writing and posting from there? Yes, provided the elves who control my dad’s internet access show up for work. In the meantime, we’ll have a cool dessert on the porch and hope we remembered to pack everything.. Granitas are a good treat and can be made in… Read more
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Strawberry Upside Down Cake & Old Friends
The email arrives as these things do, out of the blue for the one on the receiving end. I read, try and take it in. Our friendship breakup eight years ago was a source of pain and, moreover, left me confounded. Yes, I’d known we were flailing, growing apart – me with kids, she on… Read more
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Father’s Day & To Sir(loin) with Love
Father’s Day starts early this year with six-year-old Daniel deciding to serve breakfast in bed to his dad. Sounds idyllic and yet looks a bit quirky as Daniel shows up with a tray of cereal he’s poured himself, an apple cut in half (“I couldn’t really do even slices”), the milk sloshing over the sides… Read more
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Oven S’mores & A Hairy Beast
Inevitably, the subject of pets comes up at various points – college, for example, or pre-school parent chit chat or little league chit chat or pediatrician appointments. “Any pets?” “Yes, a dog.” “Oh, we want one but my husband’s allergic/my kids won’t take care of it/we don’t have the space/I like cats.” “We have a… Read more
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Chocolate Pudding Cake & A Free Cup of Coffee
I go through phases of buying coffee. Most of the time, I’m too frugal to treat myself to a 3$ misto and it’s more convenient just to set the pot up the night before at home. This year, during TYOTS, eating became a real chore for me. So did making anything, including coffee. Sometimes I… Read more
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Deep Dish Raspberry Cornmeal Pudding Cake & Too Darn Hot
Yes, I wrote about deep dish cornbread yesterday. But the bright yellow cornmeal called out to me again and the raspberries are so sweet and plump and let’s be honest: it’s hot as the dickens in the Northeast today. That’s the first time I’ve ever used that expression. This is not the first time I… Read more
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Brown Sugar Plums & What We Leave Behind
My husband’s grandma died a few weeks ago. She escaped Germany in 1938 with a fur hat, a determination to survive, an ugly teapot, and money hidden in her vagina. True. In the interview my husband conducted with her and her husband (“Opie”), she recalled stashing “up zer, in ze woo-hoo”. She lived a… Read more
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Coconut Key Lime Pie & Golf
There are probably topics that are more boring to hear about than golf if one does not play golf, but I can’t think of many. Detailed procedure of root canals. The plight of the silk worm. Someone else’s kid’s toilet training woes. No, I still think golf wins. I know, I know. I respect the… Read more
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Dirty Palmers & Long Weekends
Were you wondering what to drink this afternoon or tomorrow at your BBQ? Read more
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Apricot Bars & Holiday Weekend
Sometimes, a person needs a good, buttery apricot bar with which to greet the day. Or to serve after a bbq lunch. Or to have with a cup of iced tea in the mid-afternoon. Or at night, when the house is quiet and the only light comes from the fridge. Read more
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Double Apricot Tart (wheat-free, nut-free, gluten-free) & Friendship
By now maybe you know that my family had a rough year [known as The Year of the Shit]. I (still) won’t go into too many details but will share that TYOTS involved death, despair, and something really really bad happening to one of my kids. I had a hard time reaching out. Like many… Read more
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Strawberry-Vanilla Angel Food Cake (nut-free)
Fine – you didn’t want the blueberry one? Have this instead… Read more
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Blueberry Angel food Cake
Who wants blueberry angel food cake for dessert? Read more
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Train Cake, file under messy baking
Three blind cakes. See how they wait. See the swans the ugly ducklings turned into…listen as I mix my metaphors and nursery rhymes. But let’s face it – those old rhymes are creepy. Clearly, the farm is rodent-infested (and the rodents are blind – suspect farm is not organic). And the cupboard is bare and… Read more
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Cowboy Cookies, file under huge
So which image appeals more to you? My husband likes cookies (I really might not have been able to marry him if he didn’t), but loves them if chased with a glass of cold milk. Me, I don’t need the liquid. But I have my cookie preferences. In general, I’m a corner/edge person. If you… Read more