I’m a sucker for red velvet cake. I can’t fully explain why. It’s really just a mild chocolate with a ton of red food coloring, but it’s so festive and beautiful, and it always comes with cheesecake icing. I know I’m not alone. Bakeries always seem to have red velvet cupcakes, red velvet doughnuts,…
No-Sugar-Added GF Banana-Oatmeal Cookies
I didn’t really think I was going to like these cookies. The first time I saw them was at the blog Lick the Bowl Good, as a “you might also like” at the bottom of a recipe for homemade oatmeal cream pies. The author said she’d made them for a little boy she cared…
Fluffy Biscuit-Topped Blueberry Cobbler with Pear
I didn’t really grow up with dessert. Not that my family never made sweets; the heirloom box of Grandma’s recipes is practically nothing but sweets, written in an endearing yet frustrating shorthand style with helpful instructions like “Mix. Bake.” But we certainly didn’t have dessert every night, and when cakes and cookies and butterscotch haystacks…
Quick and Easy Whole-Wheat Flatbread
It happens to me all the time. I have a good idea for dinner, and all the components are in the house, but it sure would be nice to have some kind of bread with it. Something delicious and whole grain. But it’s too late to throw something in the breadmaker, and I’m too lazy…
Holiday Gingerbread with Raisins and Pears
I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long! My computer totally flaked out on me. And now that I’m back (with a brand-new computer!), I feel like I’m kind of cheating. Because this recipe is simply a variation on my beloved Elsie’s Gingerbread, which I posted back in February 2010. But I came up with this variant…
Cranberry Apple Gingersnap Crisp
A few weeks ago, Smitten Kitchen (by far my favorite food blog – go check it out!) posted a recipe that sounded so good I could hardly stand it: Pear, Cranberry and Gingersnap Crumble. My mouth watered just thinking about it, even more so looking at Deb Perelman’s beautiful pictures. I had to have it right…
Papa Del’s Thick-Crust Pizza
If you have spent time in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (my hometown), your mouth is watering already. Papa Del’s is C-U’s grand culinary treasure – that delicious taste of home that almost all displaced townies dream of, and even shell out large amounts of money to have shipped to them on dry ice. Del’s is known for…
Light, Moist, Golden Cornbread
This cornbread came as a total surprise. Last Friday was deliciously cold and rainy. (Though folks in town for the Balloon Fiesta probably did not find it so delicious. Ask anyone in Albuquerque – the rainiest week of the year is invariably Balloon Fiesta week!) The weather had me craving that old favorite, chili and…
Almond-Crusted Fig and Raspberry Tart
I don’t really consider myself a baker. Dessert is not my forte; I feel more comfortable cooking savory food. The divide between “baker” and “cook” is a commonly understood one, so much so that Top Chef: Just Desserts contestant Rebecca confessed on a recent episode, “I can’t cook.” It sounded funny, but the judges knew…
French Breakfast Radish Sandwich with Butter and Salt
For most of my life, I did not like radishes. I found them too harsh, almost acrid. I don’t know if my change of heart comes from grown-up taste buds or from access to better radishes, but I do know that it’s this simple recipe that changed my mind. A couple of years ago, I…