If you had to choose one food and one food only to eat for the rest of your life (setting aside the obvious issue of nutrition), what would you pick? I’ve loved fruit for as long as I can remember, and I know that strawberries in particular would earn a place on my shortlist. ...
Dessert
Black Forest Poke Cake
In a rather uncharacteristic turn of events, it has been over a month since I last posted a recipe for a dessert (or even a dessert masquerading as breakfast). But today, I’m ending the savory streak, and with a recipe that is wholly worthy of breaking the dessert fast: Black Forest poke cake! ...
Chocolate Irish Cream Truffles
I know very little about Irish cooking. As far as I can tell, I don’t have a drop of Irish blood in me. I’ve never been to Ireland. I have been to a few Irish pubs and eateries, and while I do love me a good boxty (my love for potatoes is no secret), my most memorable Irish restaurant experience was an unfortunate incident in which I eagerly dug into a scoop of Guinness ice ...
Lemon Snack Cake with Raspberry Frosting
I knew I hit the cake jackpot with this lemon snack cake as soon as I took it out of the pan, when I scraped the crumbs off the parchment paper and ate them. It was love at first bite! This cake is ridiculously moist, full of cheery lemon flavor, and topped with perfectly tart yet sweet raspberry frosting that is so vibrant that it puts artificially colored frostings to shame. ...
Poppy Seed Blood Orange Bars
These poppy seed blood orange bars were a real labor of love…or probably more accurately, a testament to my stubbornness. What you see above is a bar comprised of juicy, tangy orange curd and a buttery crust replete with tiny pop(py seed)s of crunch, whose vibrant color is cheery enough to brighten any cold, dreary winter day. This was not the case with batches one and two. ...
Peanut Butter S’mores Dessert Nachos
I’m not from what you would call a “football family.” My dad did break his collarbone playing football at Notre Dame, but it’s not actually as epic as it sounds: he wasn’t on the football team at Notre Dame, but he was a student there and happened to break his collarbone during a pickup game of football. Fast forward several years, and I can count on one hand the number of times ...
Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cookies
As a child, mint and I did not get along. I tolerated it in toothpaste, but that was about it. Mint chewing gum, mint chip ice cream, and candy canes could have disappeared off the face of the planet and I wouldn’t have shed a tear. At some point before high school, however, my taste buds reconsidered, and I began chewing mint gum by the Costco (brick-sized) pack, making up for lost time with mint ...
Ginger Spice Peanut Butter Cookies
When I was a child, I asked my mom what her favorite season was, and she told me that it was fall. I was a little insulted, assuming that it was because my brother and I went back to school in fall, but now that I’ve moved to the Midwest (and grown up and realized that not everything is directly related to me), I better understand her reasons. Fall in the Midwest (which is also where my mom grew ...
Apple Maple Pecan Cheesecake Bars
Today, I'm excited to share with you one of the most quintessentially fall recipes I have ever created. It’s got apples. It’s got maple syrup. It’s got pecans. It’s got gingersnaps. It does not have pumpkin, but there are more pumpkin recipes in the works, so worry not! I’ve been planning out the details of these apple maple pecan cheesecake bars ever since our trip to the apple orchard a few ...
Chocolate Zucchini Banana Bread
After doing a quick poll on Facebook the other day about people’s favorite bread (zucchini, banana, or pumpkin) and seeing no clear consensus, I decided to try making a combination of two of the breads in the running. Since it’s still technically August and I try to resist baking with pumpkin until at least mid-September, I went with banana and zucchini. ...