making life delicious blog
Day 5 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I chose to make fig shortbread cookies from 1964. They don’t look like much, but I think they have a perfect shortbread texture, slightly dry and crumbly, and they have pecans, one of my favorite nuts. The figs are ground up in the food [...]
This week marked the end of the first quarter for school and the teachers had work days to prepare report cards and attend staff development. Oh, how I remember those days! Even though I was an early adopter of electronic grade books—I kept all my grades in ClarisWorks spreadsheets on my first Mac—I always had [...]
My introduction to passion fruit (maracuya) came when I was teaching in Bogota, Colombia, where they enjoy a wonderful myriad of fruit. The locals and other teachers who had been there for a while taught me about the different fruits and showed me how to make juices from the frozen pulps that were available in [...]
Michael’s birthday was last weekend, and when I saw The Daring Bakers challenge for this month, I immediately announced what his birthday cake would be. “Whatever you want to do, Sweet Pea,” was his response. Thank goodness he’s so flexible about food! And thank goodness for chocolate ganache because it not only tastes good, but [...]
Weekday morning breakfast is usually a quick affair for us with leftovers from the weekend or perhaps cereal with fruit. But today we woke up to ice on the roads and an announcement that schools were closed, so I decided to do something fun and make muffins. The recipe comes from Michael’s mother, a variation [...]
Mardi Gras king cakes make a festive centerpiece for any Mardi Gras celebration. The traditional cake is made from a soft yeast dough that is risen, rolled, and often filled with cream cheese, fruit, or a pecan praline mixture. Many people have fun celebrating Mardi Gras, even if they don’t go to New Orleans, but [...]
The devil made me do it. No, not really, but supposedly a nun in Medieval Italy claimed that the devil in the form of a black cat tried to convince her to taste a fruit and nut concoction she was making, and that’s just one of the legends behind this Italian tradition, a delicious treat [...]
Every year I look forward to the Food Network 12 Days of Cookies newsletter and I eagerly open each email and admire the pretty cookies. I always find something new to try or a twist on an old favorite, and this year was no exception. Day 1 kicked off the series with some beautiful Florentines, [...]
I'm thrilled to be nominated for the Circle of Moms Top 25 Foodie Moms! Click the button if you'd like to give me a vote (which I really appreciate).
