January 20, 2015 - Making Ice Cream
Among the dairy products I make the most is ice cream. I make it for myself and my family, and I always make it for retreats. When I have a retreat coming up, depending on the length and number of attendees, I make anywhere from two to six quarts of ice cream. No supper on...
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April 18, 2014 - Chocolate Bread Pudding with Rum
Bread pudding doesn’t have to be about bread! I know, that’s shocking and somehow defies the title, but a bread pudding is a method. It can be made with something besides bread. Really! Why not? This is different, and delicious. For the chocolate in this recipe, you can use one 8- to 9-inch square pan...
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March 30, 2014 - Creme Anglaise
A crème anglaise is the classic French custard sauce–and not easy to master but is a worthy challenge. A crème brulee is prepared in a similar manner, by the way, with cream instead of milk, and sugar caramelized on top. A crème anglaise is a pourable custard sauce while a crème brulee is a set...
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March 26, 2014 - Decadent Chocolate Mousse
A mousse is a light, chilled dessert that incorporates egg whites to create an airy texture, and is a classic in French cooking. I’m preparing for the art and cooking retreat here in April. Chocolate mousse is one of the recipes we’ll be working on in class. It’s delicious, so nobody minds if I make...
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November 18, 2013 - Baked Apples Normandy
This apple thing, it is so delicious. Some of you may recall my fascination with Julia Child. I had some extra apples, so I dipped into Volume Two of Mastering the Art of French Cooking for something to do with them. And came up with this delicious apple thing. Which is not what Julia calls...
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November 19, 2012 - Old-Fashioned Apple Dumplings
Georgia spent the afternoon and half the evening over here on Friday while my cousin and his wife, Sheryl, went out for dinner and a movie. After she was ensconced in my easy chair, she asked me what we were going to do. Georgia likes to be busy. Even if someone else is doing the...
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February 16, 2012 - Caramelized Banana Crumble
I had a hankering for something banana, but I couldn’t find the right banana thing that fulfilled all my longings. I wanted something brown sugary banana, and I wanted it to be a sort of breaded-ish banana thing, but not banana bread. Or banana cake. Or banana muffins. I put my ideas together and made...
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April 12, 2011 - Making Homemade Ice Cream
I’ve wanted an ice cream maker ever since we got Beulah Petunia. I have a lot of milk. I should be making ice cream! And last week–I got one! A reader here, MJ Peters, sent me an ice cream maker. She didn’t even know it was going to be my birthday, but it felt like...
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February 6, 2011 - Pear Clafouti
Clafouti is a cute French word for a raised, or puffed, fruit pancake. You could eat it for a decadent weekend breakfast, or a dessert. Or, since it has quiche-like properties, you might even call it dinner on a day when you’re spoiling yourself. Whenever you serve it, it’s a quick and easy treat to...
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November 4, 2010 - Hot Cocoa Bread
This is a bread I made up for Morgan because she loves hot cocoa so much. As soon as the first cold day hits, she is pulling out the hot cocoa and piling on the marshmallows. She is a hot cocoa lover, and has been since she was a little girl and it snowed one...
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September 24, 2010 - Toffee Orange Bars
I knew these were gonna be good! This recipe comes from the wonderful MMHoney, who I wrote about last week when I visited her in her cute house and she showed me so many of her lovely vintage things. Several people asked about the recipe, because you’re all a bunch of enablers! So, of course,...
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September 7, 2010 - Easy Two-Minute Dessert for Company
After I posted about this odd episode, in which I used a quickie box mix to whip up something to serve unexpected guests, someone commented that I should make up a homemade mix. That is a great idea! And here it is. Inside that box mix was what looked like about a 14- or 15-ounce...
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August 9, 2010 - Peaches and Cream Tart
This recipe is adapted from one I found in a recent Taste of Home magazine. There, it used strawberry jam and mixed berries. You could use any fruit you like and have available. I still have plenty of peaches in the freezer and jam in the pantry, and that’s what sounded good to me. (And...
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July 15, 2010 - Making Lemon Curd
Lemon curd is an old-time treat that was traditionally served with biscuits or toast. It also finds its way into tarts (and other small pastries), pies, and even cakes. Lemon meringue pie is basically lemon curd in a pie shell. Lemon curd is a very simple concoction of sugar, lemon juice, eggs (sometimes just the...
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February 11, 2010 - Crock Pot Pear Buckle
Remember all my pears? I love fruit crumbles, crisps, slumps, cobblers, grunts, pandowdies, whatever you want to call them. I’m calling this one a buckle. Just because I can. And I’m making it with pears. Just because I have a freezer full of pears. Ever wonder what the difference is between a buckle and a...
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January 29, 2010 - Classic Cheesecake
Cheesecake is one of those “fancy” desserts that is surprisingly easy to make–and even more fun if you make your own cream cheese! I used neufchatel cheese in this recipe. Neufchatel is made from whole milk enriched with cream, so it’s a lower-fat version of traditional cream cheese. Homemade neufchatel–each container is equivalent to one...
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November 19, 2009 - Caramel Pumpkin Pecan Bread Pudding
I knew I had to make this recipe as soon as I saw it. Caramel. Pumpkin. Pecan. BREAD PUDDING. A lovely reader, Brenda, kindly sent it to me. Several days passed. I got all the ingredients together. (I didn’t have the half and half.) The heavens opened. Light shined down. I was ready!!! I had...
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June 21, 2009 - Ice Cream Sandwiches
It’s hot. You need an ice cream sandwich. Oops. They ate yours. You’d better make some! Cut out some cookies. Any kind will do. These are my sugar cookies with candy sprinkles on top. Bake ’em up. Let cool. Take out some ice cream. Any flavor will do. Let it soften up a bit then...
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August 10, 2008 - Fudge Brownies
This recipe combines two of my favorite things in life–one basic recipe that can be varied endless ways….and chocolate. I’ve been making this basic brownie for years, but I love all those variations you can get in brownie mixes at the store and one day it occurred to me–duh!–that I could make those same chocolaty...
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August 3, 2008 - Blackberry Jam and Fruit Crumble
It’s blackberry time! I love all things blackberry. This year, we trekked over to the goat farm because we’d heard about their fabulous, magical blackberries, hoardes of them that just fell into your bucket. Okay, they didn’t say that, but they said they had a lot of blackberries, and wow, was that true. As with...
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July 16, 2008 - Make Funnel Cake at Home
I go to fairs and festivals sometimes just for the funnel cake, but you can make funnel cake at home and get the same delicious fried fat fun–without standing in line in the heat. Every once in a while when I mention my funnel cake love, someone will ask what it is, reminding me that...
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June 9, 2008 - Apple Pandowdy
A pandowdy is one of a family of old-fashioned deep-dish desserts, known by quaint names such as slumps, grunts, buckles, duffs, crumbles, or sonkers, made with seasonal fruits, that are all variations of a cobbler, and all of which came to America with the Colonists. Like Shoo-Fly Pie, pandowdy (the name is believed to refer...
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May 14, 2008 - Apple-Streudel Ladder Loaf
There’s always more to do with Grandmother Bread! Try Apple-Streudel Ladder Loaf–for dessert, for breakfast, or just a snack. Or lunch while the kids are at school eating hamburger casserole and peas. I won’t tell. Start with the Grandmother Bread. How to make Apple-Streudel Ladder Loaf: Start with the one-loaf standard Grandmother Bread recipe 1...
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March 9, 2008 - Banana Bread Pudding
Sweet, creamy, warm comfort food. Bread pudding, but better–with banana bread instead of regular bread, and filled with even more sliced bananas inside. And whipped cream on top. Want some? First, bake some banana bread. Use my recipe, or your own favorite. This recipe has a delicious hint of nutmeg. How to make Banana Bread:...
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