Edible stories told here
I made these sticky tart little jewels without a clear purpose other than a citrus glow for a grey day. As I experiment I will share possibilities include cake toppings, cookie topping, fancy sticky cocktail garnish (no teeny tiny clothespins though please!) . You can use grapefruit, oranges, regular lemons, or limes. I like the […]
Perhaps you’re over pie (how can that be? every day should be pie day!) and onto Christmas Cookies and perhaps I should have gotten this recipe to you in October but I was working on getting it just right. This is just right. An apple pie that is both deceptively simple and complex- bright with […]
Combining fresh ripe pears and blueberries in a lightly spiced clafoutis batter this dessert, or breakfast, or even breakfast for dessert has all of the best things from summer and fall. This classic French dish is easily modified to suit your whims and likes- brighten it with lemon, make it gluten free, make it with […]
Three ingredients- one amazing sorbet. The perfect summer weekend treat to beat the heat that’s not too sweet. So get up on your feet and raise a spoon to two thorns raspberry rose hard cider raspberry sorbet. This sorbet, packed as it is with fresh raspberry flavor, is excellent on its own or try it […]
If you don’t like your rhubarb adulterated by other fruit this is the dessert for you. A tart tangy rhubarb filling still hot from the oven topped with a dead simple and marvelously crispy buttery crumble topping. Add a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and the trifecta is complete. want a little […]
Tiny tart flecks of garden fresh rhubarb macerated overnight and baked into easy food processor cream scones baked to golden brown and topped with a quick pink grapefruit glaze. What to do when the rhubarb arrives? Just a few short weeks ago I actually purchased Rhubarb at the farmers’ market and the rhubarb gods said […]
This strawberry cider quick bread is the taste of spring made as simple or as fancy as you’d like. Baking with strawberry cider adds an easy and delicious layer of flavor. My favorite variation of Strawberry Cider Quick Bread w/ fresh strawberries and balsamic Want to get fancy? This recipe calls for one cup of […]
This strawberry sangria comes together in minutes so you can make it ahead or make it on the fly. With just the right amount of tart and fruit and sweet it’s perfect for date night or when friends stop by or for when you crave some quality alone time- with cocktails. Making sangria with hard […]
a one pan cast iron orange chocolate tart perfect for two, perfect for date night, also perfectly acceptable for one or four
Dead simple and delicious, marionberry or blackberry hard cider poached pears served with luscious honey whipped cream.
A little nutty, a little tart, smooth and somewhat sweet. This is a frozen drink for cold days, it’ll give you chills in the best sort of of way. Because you love it, and because you want more. The only problem with this Pear Pomegranate Amaretto Cocktail is that is that if you’re not careful […]
An autumn squash pie made with fresh roasted kuri squash (or your favorite pumpkin type winter squash), a not quite pumpkin spice blend of spices, and a don’t ask don’t tell one hundred percent deliciously graham cracker like honey whole wheat flaky pastry crust. Best of all this bad boy bakes up in an 8” […]
Topped with fresh berries and brightened up with just a hint of lime zest- this could be breakfast or brunch or a delightful summertime dessert. All of the tender eggy goodness of a swedish pancake but baked in one go on a sheet pan. So no hot stove just bake and go! I was once […]
This is the grownup slushy that I’m willing to wash the blender for. Refreshing, red, laced with a hint of orange blossom, and just a little bit boozy so, as long as you can manage to sip slowly, it’s the perfect hot afternoon yard beverage. Campari Orange Slushy with triple sec and orange blossom water […]
A rhubarb jam where rhubarb is the star. With half the sugar of the recipe that inspired it this not too sweet rhubarb refrigerator jam is addictive on toast or waffles and is the perfect filling for pop tarts or a slab pie. You would think by now I would learn to always write things […]
Jam packed with fruit and flavor- I was delighted to “have” to test this recipe more than once. The first batch was just the right amount of tender and perfectly balanced between rhubarb, pastry, and sweet cardamom glaze, in short, amazing, once I finally got it together, but handling the dough, measuring out rectangles, […]
Tajin Chile Lime Seasoning and Chocolate Marbled Banana Bread: whew that’s a mouthful. I’m addicted to this not too sweet combination of dark chocolate swirled with a subtly spiced banana batter, the result is tender and flavorful without veering too far into dessert territory. Even the Mr. who, maddeningly, can take or leave most desserts […]
Mizuna Citrus Salad w/ avocado and jicama A simple refreshing salad, lightly dressed, and studded with tropical flavors and textures. Do you remember when there were only three brands of tequila and three kinds of greens? Now I can barely keep up. Yes kids ,there was a time when Patron and Arugula were considered fancy/exotic/unusual. […]
Mango Colada with banana and grapefruit It’s not even that warm today but just seeing temperatures above sixty in the forecast has me in a mad scramble for drinks laden with rum and blended with tropical fruit. Bring on the mango, the banana. I’m ready for sun naps and warm toes. Even without the […]
Not too sweet and loaded with blueberries these muffins, if I’m honest, are really just my favorite cornmeal pancakes made into easily storable/snackable muffin form. Looking for a more straight up fruit muffin? Try these strawberry ones instead (You can sub out blueberries 😉 I grew up on the west coast so I was raised […]
not your momma’s meyer lemon amaretto sour Amaretto sours are one of those drinks with “origin unknown” stamped across their back side. I’ve never been able to decide whether this is because it’s a basic variation of a classic or if the inventor is ashamed and unwilling to take credit. Given that the amaretto sour […]
Spiced Apple Bundt Cake w/maple cream cheese frosting I love apple pie, and pumpkin pie (and key lime pie, blueberry pie, cherry pie, and pie! pie! pie!) but as the time of leftovers approaches I’ve come to appreciate a dessert that gets better on the second day and is still really good on days three […]
Scars and Stains Blackberry brambles, thorned arches. Dark clusters of berries, smaller and seedier than their domesticated cousins. But so much better, worth dodging webs and thorns. Free, if you count stains and scratches as rewards. Yesterday we went blackberry picking in a friends backyard. Forty five minutes in the dimming August light to bring […]
This homemade icecream is the best of both berry worlds, summer blueberries roasted to flavor perfection and a bright swirl of raspberry just barely processed to give all the bright best raspberry flavors. Roasted Blueberry Ice Cream with Raspberry Swirl Why should you listen to me of the sporadic posts who can’t even get the […]
Summer snuck up on me. The long hot days, fruit ripe and heavy on the vine, roses in full bloom- all clues I missed. Graduation ceremonies, squirrels doing mad dashes and dances on branches dappled green and shadowed, the sun high in the sky, the hum of air-conditioners, and the intermittent buzz of sirens. My […]
The longest night is behind us now, a foggy morning giving way to sun. Holiday lights glimmer in the afternoon’s glow, my fingers stained red from squeezing pomegranate seeds between my eager fingers. I have made no preparations for christmas, made no preparations for the new year. I am without hope and brimming with the […]
Persephone leaves the underworld with four pomegranate seeds in her belly. Seeds of winter. She can still taste the fruit, remember how she struggled to stop at just four, licked the bright juice from her fingers, tasted the red stain on her lips. But without fall there can be no spring, without bare branches there […]
I’m spoiled: I have known love and adventure, the embrace of family and the warm wash sun on my face as I greet the golden morning in some distant land. I am spoiled: I have had a tree-ripened peach, dripping with flavor and sweetness—Oz fruit after months of Kansas. I am spoiled: on good years […]
Turn that water into wine. Add sweet summer berries, and you have a warm weather dessert that’s just a little sweet and just a little boozy. A palette cleanser if you will, something to wash away the memory of potluck desserts or that hangover in a Dixie cup disguised as a childhood snack. For the […]
Almost sidecar, almost amaretto sour, this cocktail beautifully balances the cherries’ sweetness with the subtle nutty notes of amaretto and the citrus tang of fresh lemon. This drink isn’t boozy, it is- as it should be- mostly about the cherries. When the first cherries arrive they seem so grand, so dark and decadent, a reminder […]
This Zucchini bread with fresh blueberries is what I packed for an unexpected trip out-of-town in the middle of my garden’s summer bounty. Not too sweet, zucchini bread moist and tender, and bursting with fresh blueberries, perhaps a bit messy for a flight but totally worth the mad flurry of baking up the perishables I […]
Not too sweet and subtly spiced, these scones aren’t going to win any beauty pageants. The tender, almost cake like crumb, and a generous portion of fresh blackberries means either using a fork or getting your fingers stained with berry juice, but what’s summer without a bit of berry juice? I adapted my recipe from […]
A blend of cooked blueberries and fresh nestled in a crisp vanilla shortbread crust that you can make ahead. Very little prep but oh so much reward. You can bet that anytime I’m on dessert duty this summer this is what you’ll get (unless you ask for chocolate). Guess what I had for breakfast? I […]
Peach Granita and Vodka Ice Tea Fizz: Real peaches, real tea, real vodka, real good. This not too sweet ice-cold cocktail is both fancy and backyard casual. Call it a fizz or call it a float. Have more than two, call a cab. If I had company coming over I would make this in a punch […]
A deliciously easy peachy frozen treat that comes together in minutes but can last in the freezer for weeks. The perfect fruity ending to a summer barbecue or a wonderfully cooling mid day treat. Are you drowning in superlatives yet? ‘Cause I’m sorta hot and cranky and so it’s hard for me to get […]
