It’s autumn and that means the farm stands and grocery bins are overflowing with the season’s bounty of apples…there are numerous varieties available and all at their peak flavor. When our boys were young and we were living in Chicago we took them apple picking at the local orchard every fall. We went with a…
Tag: dessert
French Chocolate Bark
The leaves are only just beginning to turn, Halloween is a couple of weeks away, and yet thoughts of the upcoming Thanksgiving are already spinning inside my head. In our family it’s become “my holiday”, the one that I’ve been happily hosting for some 30 years now, and the one that no matter where we’ve…
Red Wine and Port Poached Pears with Mascarpone
I served these Red Wine and Port Poached Pears with Mascarpone for dessert when we had some friends for dinner recently. I snapped the photo before I had actually garnished with the chocolate shavings…guess I was a bit excited to share this fabulous dessert with you. Forgive me. The chocolate shavings added the perfect finishing…
Angel Food CakeWith Nectarines and Fresh Blueberry Sauce
I wanted to serve a light summer dessert after a dinner with friends last evening. Our dinner was anything but light since we were having big juicy grilled burgers, thick slices of fresh homegrown tomatoes and vidalia onions, fresh corn on the cob dripping in butter with a squirt of lime juice for those who…
Mom’s Banana Sour Cream Cake
My mother was a great baker. She would whip out cakes faster and easier than anyone I know. At the time I was growing up this is a fact that went unappreciated by me. However, now that I have been enjoying baking for many years, I have come to realize that the ease with which…
Apricot Pie
Every so often I love to look at Ruth Reichl’s Blog. She is an acclaimed author, food writer, and past restaurant critic for The New York Times, and was both the food editor and restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times. She was the editor of Gourmet Magazine for 10 years until its closing in…
Cherry Pie
With the 4th of July just around the corner you might want to try this cherry pie from the July, 2007 issue of Bon Appetit. As the intro to the recipe states… Too tart to eat raw, sour cherries were born to be baked into a pie-this all-American version gets added sophistication from a gorgeously…
Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream Soda
Yesterday was my first visit to one of the local farmer’s markets and among the offerings were some beautifully ripe strawberries. So ripe in fact that I knew it would be a shame to allow them to sit overnight. I decided to use these juicy berries bursting with flavor in a Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream…
Blackberry Cobbler
pastry This Blackberry Cobbler which I made for dessert on Mother’s Day comes from the Food & Wine website. It originates from a housekeeper and southern cook who liked to refer to herself as a “butter cook" to signify her fondness for classic, old-style Southern recipes. The pastry is quickly made in a food processor,…
Glazed Fudge Cake
The recipe for this Glazed Fudge Cake comes from a co-worker and friend back in the day when I was working at a kitchen specialty shop in Chicago. I have to admit it was a dream job in some ways (not monetarily, of course), but in the respect that I was working at a job…