Once upon a time I worked with a woman who asked me if my British husband drank a lot of tea. I think I nearly choked on my lunch. Does he drink a lot of tea? He drinks tea when he wakes up. He drinks tea after completing any sort of chore. He drinks tea […]
Dessert
Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Frito M&M Topping
I went to a very small liberal arts college in New England. It was old. The basement had dark, drippy tunnels and there were rumored to be ghosts in the older buildings on campus. It was a place that was full of artsy hippy type people from Connecticut and California. There would be big parties […]
Bourbon Pecan Peanut Butter Chocolate Coffee Cake
In April we moved two hours south of where we had been living. I was still expecting to have some sort of winter but here we are, the fifteenth of January, and so far it is much more like the end of winter than the beginning. Today has been cold and dreary. The sort of […]
Mincemeat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Generally, when I hear mincemeat, I cringe. It has been frightening me since I was a young girl. It always sounded scary and as if it could not possibly taste good. In reality I love all the ingredients in the filling so I’m not quite so sure why I felt this way. My family always […]
Eggnog Spice Cake
I always remember eggnog at Christmas when we were little. I’m not sure why. I don’t think we had a lot of it but maybe on one Christmas Eve someone served it and it stuck with me. Another year, when I was much older, we made a huge batch and served it in a punch […]
Pecan Dream Cookies from Mrs. Kitching’s Smith Island Cookbook
I like to think I’m a big believer in fate. Sometimes I believe that everything happens for a reason. Other times, when the “everythings” are not so good, I question what the reason could possibly be and then start pondering things again. For the most part, the things in my life seem to have fallen […]
Cake Donuts with Glassy Pecans & Rosemary
We have been a little bit addicted to the PBS show ChefSteps. Fabulous three to five minute clips of recipes cooked by these young hipster chefs in a gorgeous loft space. They use induction cook tops and sous vide techniques. They talk about Tinder dates and sport tattoos and mustaches. Based in Seattle’s Pike Place, […]
Little Plum Pies
December first. Last year on December first we were living in a house that had plastic tarps covering doors. We were living in a house with a kitchen that did not exist. We were deep in renovation and living in limbo. Our kids really missed out on all holidays that fell from October first through […]