Double Strawberry-Pink Cupcakes
If you live in the PNW, you know that spring typically needs some help when it comes to springing! April showers, and even hail, are real. I attribute the dreary weather with why I’ve been unmotivated in the kitchen and hence haven’t been writing here on my blog. (Well, that and we’re prepping for a big move that has me distracted!) But the promise of spring flowers, and longer days have me excited to start making all the pretty pastel Easter-y dishes and desserts. Cheery shades of yellow and orange, springy green, bright pink and even robin’s-egg blue are giving me inspiration. But for now, I want to share my spring dessert debut: Double Strawberry Cupcakes from Tieghan Gerard of Half Baked Harvest. These are chockful of strawberry goodness in the form of homemade strawberry jam and freeze-dried strawberries. Cupcakes that are sure to make you happy with that little sprig of chamomile smiling up at you.
Winning blueberry recipes
For those of you who have been with me for the last year, you know that I love blueberry-picking season. We have the best blueberry farm within 10 minutes of our home. Besides being the easiest berry to pick – no bending over or prickly vines (for the most part) – blueberries also last the longest and are the simplest berry to freeze. Every year I search out and make new blueberry delights. Besides the recipes I have on repeat, this year I made a blueberry-ginger salsa served on halibut, blueberry-mint Arnold Palmers, blueberry cheesecake ice cream, blueberry Dutch babies, a blueberry cocoa crumble and a new take on blueberry scones.
Summer Sandcastle Cake
Summer officially kicks off for me with the Fourth of July and then I invariably try to cram in a summer’s worth of fun in one month. Almost ever year over the past 15 years we have been lucky enough to celebrate the holiday with our long-time family friends who have a house on the Oregon Coast. It’s one of my favorite traditions. Gathering at the same time each year to check in on each other’s lives has created a special bond between our families. All the laughs, inside jokes and priceless memories and traditions will hopefully extend for generations to come. Naturally part of our tradition is the food! Seaside means corn dogs courtesy of our friends’ neighbor, caramel corn from Philips Candies, spinning the wheel at the Seaside Candyman, chowder at Norma’s, clam digging for part of the crew, and good ole American burgers and watermelon year after year. Recently, crème brulee French toast with berries has been a hit. But dessert has been the tradition that has stood the test of time. I like to joke that my entry fee for being invited each year is making “the pie” (but I’m not really joking). In addition to the requested chocolate candy bar pie, this year I decided to re-introduce the Sandcastle Cake.
Chicken Salad and Coffee Mud Pie à la Cork ‘N Cleaver
Someday I’ll tell my grandkids that back in the day I drove a car (with an internal combustion engine no doubt) 40 minutes to an office building every Monday through Friday and worked in a cubicle all day. Maybe that already dates me, but it pretty much describes my early corporate career. I worked in public relations for a big tech company back when out-of-town editors would visit and it was our job to treat them to fancy lunches (and wine in the middle of the day). Discovering all the nice restaurants on an expense account in Phoenix and Scottsdale was definitely a perk of the PR job. Working for a large company also meant lots of coworkers’ birthdays to celebrate with team lunches. Cork 'N Cleaver was the default birthday restaurant in the 90s for my department. A group of us ladies always ordered the same thing: chicken salad that came with banana bread and a big piece of shareable mud pie with an uninhibited round of happy birthday.
Incredible edible flowers
When my husband put in two elevated garden boxes a few years ago, we jokingly said they were “his” and “hers” and entered into a friendly growing competition. It has become apparent that I may not have a green thumb, or maybe it’s patience I’m short on, but I’ve tried a variety of herbs such as basil, cilantro and oregano. My basil always dies. The cilantro bolts. My sage, rosemary and thyme are in the ground, so they are good. (Yes, I know I’m missing the parsley.) They say mint is impossible to kill, but I think I have. Really it just got too big for the pot and I didn’t tend to it in time. My chives are planted in the ground and besides looking pretty, the lavender-colored sphere-shaped flowers make lovely garnishes. Through all of this, I’ve determined that I like to grow pretty little fragrant food garnishes and flavorings that are accessible only a few steps off my patio to decorate a dish or garnish a dessert. Last summer I decided I needed some edible flowers and planted chamomile, pansies and violas in my garden box. The latter of which are just starting to pop up again to say hello.
One yolk. One white. The perfect baker’s dozen.
Just another exciting night sitting at home during the pandemic mindlessly scrolling through all the food on my Instagram feed, and a post from @buttermilkbysam jumped out at me. What’s that, you can make a “small batch” of cookies? Who knew? Somehow making a “small batch” lessened my guilt factor or at least there would be a finite amount to devour in one sitting. (This same idea must have been on the mind of whoever it was that decided it would be a good thing to sell a block of pre-scored cookie dough squares. I mean, who hasn’t bought these in a weak moment?) But sitting at home on this particular evening all cozy with no intent of venturing out, the idea of One Yolk, Six Perfect Chocolate Chunk Cookies hooked me. I was in. Time to whip up a small batch. But wait. As I read further, I discovered I could also make One Egg White, Seven Salted Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies. It was brilliant. The perfect baker’s dozen. So perfect, I need to share it with you.
Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Frosting
My mom was a “lunch lady” for 20 years. She was the resident baker (as opposed to what I envision as the much-less-glamorous salad maker) at River Road Elementary for half this time. Her responsibilities included regularly making huge batches of rolls and cinnamon rolls. Rumor has it that more than one custodian or teacher would sneak into the cafeteria in the early morning hours to procure a freshly baked cinnamon roll. I can’t imagine anyone being able to resist that yeasty, buttery, cinnamon aroma wafting down the school corridors. It’s not surprising that my mom’s cinnamon rolls were in high demand, as her proficiency with cinnamon rolls began long before the school cafeteria. Cinnamon rolls covered in maple frosting are forever imprinted in my four siblings’ and my childhood memories. On the days when my mom would make bread, she would spend what seemed like all day in the kitchen rolling dough, punching it down, and forming pans of dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. I remember this being one of my favorite dinners—buttery (in those days it was Nucoa) rolls with a pot of homemade chili. We would wait patiently all day for the decadent cinnamon rolls to come out of the oven for dessert. With seven of us, they went quickly, but I remember enjoying them even more for breakfast the next day.
Share the love: Valentine’s Day gifting
February is the month of love. Do as the lyrics to Love is All Around tell us: “Let it show!” We may think about sharing expressions of love with our sweetheart, children or bestie, ahh, but it’s also a nice time to just be nice. We could all use a little pick-me-up about right now whether you’re tired of the weather, bored from staying home, missing your family or bummed about no warm beach vacation. Share a little love with someone who may not expect it. Let your co-worker or a neighbor know they matter. Drop off homemade or classroom-style valentines on porches in your neighborhood. Package up some red, white and pink goodies in a jar. Read on for suggestions, recipes and kitchenistic gift ideas.
Dinner and dessert for two
I thought I’d share a quick recipe for the Kahlúa Chocolate “Anniversary” Mousse that I posted on Instagram a couple days ago. Our wedding anniversary is January 3rd and usually overshadowed by recovering from the holidays and feeling melancholy because the kids have gone home. It’s typically a case of … and then there were two. Plus, this year it was an extremely rainy and windy Northwest day that meant we didn’t want to leave the warmth of our home. So not super romantic (but yet comforting), I made an easy dinner and dessert from ingredients we had in the house. One of our favorite Instant Pot dishes called Korean Chicken Bowls was dinner and I threw together chocolate mousse for two. After 34 years of marriage, it was just right.
Our family-famous “Chocolate Roll”
Over the years and on special occasions, my family has made a dessert that we simply call “Chocolate Roll.” My older sister is the queen of chocolate rolls and can whip them out with little effort. She even has a special “chocolate roll plate.” Her three kids have been known to repeatedly ask for a chocolate roll for their birthdays and she makes it for Christmas and Easter. The beauty of this simple recipe is that you can customize it however you want. My sister has made it with vanilla pudding, pistachio pudding and different flavors of ice cream. Although the spongelike texture of the cake is really closer to a Swiss Roll, I typically make the family-famous chocolate roll once a year at Christmas in the spirit of a yule log. In the past, I’ve filled it with mint chocolate chip or peppermint ice cream. This year, mostly because my KitchenAid ice cream attachment had been sitting lonely in the drawer for several months, I figured it was time to take it for a whirl and I made chocolate peppermint bark ice cream.
Cheers to the underappreciated pear
Appearently December 5 is World Pear Day and kicks off National Pear Month. Yet, who knew? The pear just doesn’t get a fair shake. My formative experience with pears was watching my mom canning them. I don’t remember ever eating a fresh pear as a kid. Rather, they came from a jar, canned in syrup, or chopped up in fruit cocktail. Only when I visited my brother-in-law’s family farm in southern Oregon about 10 years ago did I come to appreciate the beauty of the often-overlooked pear.
Dessert for breakfast (part 2)
Cranberry orange scones and Thanksgiving morning pie
My favorite morning routine this time of year is to sit quietly by the fireplace and enjoy a cup of coffee and a warm scone in all its buttery gloriousness. Pretty close to perfection. This is how I plan to start my Thanksgiving day. I’ll take my time and look leisurely through the lists I’ve made and figure out my prep and oven schedule for the day. When everyone else wanders down the stairs, they can help themselves to coffee and cranberry-orange scones, yogurt and homemade granola studded with dried cranberries, or dare I say, pumpkin pie!
Ganache-covered clove-spiced applesauce bread
Everything is better with ganache. And who doesn’t love to say "guh-naash" – that heavenly mixture of heavy whipping cream and decadent chocolate named by the French and used in the best desserts. Despite its fancy name, ganache is simple to make and very forgiving. You can whip ganache and frost cakes with it, roll it into truffles, or sneak it by the spoonful. My favorite is to pour it over a tart or cake in all its glossy gloriousness. So when I started thinking about how to reinvent the applesauce bread that my mother used to make (okay, and I also saw this sweatshirt on @fancysprinkles Instagram - scroll down for pic), ganache was the obvious choice. Voilá. Ganache-covered clove-spiced applesauce bread.
Peanut-Butter Monster Mash Cookies
With this year’s Halloween already being dubbed “quarantine-oween”, trick-or-treating won’t look quite the same. The good news is that families and businesses are coming up with creative ways to safely celebrate the holiday including handing out pre-packaged candy from a distance and setting up grab-and-go tables. Small in-house parties limited to immediate family or school-bubble buddies will most likely be popular this year as well. Luckily, little monsters and zombies can still experience the fun of choosing a costume (with a great mask) and indulge in the candy and sweets associated with Halloween. No need to go door-to-door. Instead, send the kids to the kitchen. Turn on Monster Mash and bake up a batch of Peanut-Butter Monster Mash Cookies.
Pumpkin ice cream 4 ways
Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (the cult-like PSL) is the most popular seasonal beverage in the company’s history, with more than 424 million cups sold and its own Twitter account. This iconic taste of fall in a cup is festive, provides a sense of belongingness and connectedness, and like it or not, subconsciously urges you to imbibe before it’s no longer available. Following the craze started by the coffee chain, brands continue to stock grocery shelves each year with novel pumpkin spice products (pumpkin-spice cheesy powder on your Kraft Mac and Cheese, anyone?) promising us comfort and all the cozy fall feels. “Should-never-have-been-invented” variations aside, I’m all for extending the pumpkin season beyond the obligatory Thanksgiving pie. Give me pumpkin in breads, pancakes, cookies or basically any baked good, as well as in my coffee—and especially in my ice cream.
Chocolate chip cookie journey
There’s something nostalgic about baking. It’s often associated with childhood memories, traditions and comfort. One of my earliest memories in the kitchen is my sister and I using the little baking pans and cake mixes from the Easy-Bake Oven company to proudly bake “mini” cakes for our three younger siblings’ first birthdays. This turned out to be the first step in my baking journey.