How does this always happen to me? December starts and it seems like I have so much time to get ready, and then I add one or two new baking projects to all the other baked goods I usually make, and before I know it I am baking at 7AM and again at 7PM! It’s a good thing I enjoy it. Years ago, when my girls were little, I had the bright idea of keeping them entertained in the lead-up to Christmas by giving each of them a small gingerbread house to decorate. The recipe was one I found in a magazine back in 1971. It was a clunky recipe which made a hard gingerbread which was not great for ...
Baking
PUMPPLE PIE
Pumpple Pie is an easy to make apple and pumpkin pie with bourbon-soaked raisins. It’s a spice and fall flavor-filled extravaganza! There are so many reasons to make this pie for your Thanksgiving: Smaller Thanksgivings mean one pie instead of two or three and this lets you get most of your favorites in one pie. In our area there has been a shortage of canned pumpkin. This recipe uses half a can so you can make a “pumpkin” pie and another pumpkin treat. Or make it because it’s different and delicious. As for me, I am making it because there is no length to which I ...
THE FINISHING TOUCH: SUGARED FRUITS
You’ve heard it said before: you eat with your eyes first. It’s why I walk through a restaurant and look at the plates on the tables around me, and ask myself “What looks good?” It’s why we linger in front of bakery shop windows with their displays of carefully constructed tarts, cakes and pastries. And it’s why we are so disappointed with something doesn’t taste as good as it looks. The winter holidays are upon us. It’s a time when bakers like to shine, dusting out their recipes for pies, cakes and cookies. Every holiday table finishes with a flourish of dessert. We’ve beaten, ...
IT’S ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING BROWNIES
Did you stress-eat leftover Halloween Candy last night? Are you elated, disgusted, relieved, panicked, trepidatious or just happy to have something (or nothing) decided? It’s been a long year of jumbled up emotions and the last month felt like the previous six months before it ramped up and jammed into four weeks! Now it’s all over except for the shouting. The cake is baked. The deed is done. You know what we need? We need chocolate. Chocolate in its most American form. The one thing we can all agree on. The Brownie. Did anyone happen to see this season’s Great British Baking ...
TAKING IT A DAY AT A TIME WITH SPICED APPLE OATMEAL COOKIES
Fresh apples and butterscotch chips take these spiced oatmeal cookies to another level! Has time ever been so surreal? The days seem to drag on forever and yet it’s already mid-October. This year has been a tough ride but it almost over. Except what if it isn’t? My newest fear is: What if it’s not just 2020? What if this chaos and discord continues? When I think of that, I turn off everything, go for walk and come home and bake cookies. Then I go for another walk and drop the cookies off at a friend’s house. By the time I do all that I feel better and the day has passed. Did I ...
APPLE TART FOR BEGINNERS: NO ROLL PASTRY
With its stylized layers of apples and free standing crust, an apple tart is one of the most impressive things a home baker can bring to the table. It looks so hard to make! With this recipe, it's not. If you can slice an apple and press dough into a pan, you can wow your friends and family and enjoy a home made apple tart with pride! We went apple picking last weekend. It was a lovely sunny day with just a hint of coolness in the air. The orchards were pretty crowded but we headed back to where some of the lesser known apples were growing and found ourselves alone in a wonderland of ...
PUMPKIN BISCUITS
It’s Fall! All hail pumpkin and pumpkin spice! It seems like every year the stores try to push us into the next season long before the present one is finished. Pumpkin products have been on the shelves of my local markets since August. In my quest to enjoy the products of each season when they are in season, I have studiously ignored this. Yesterday, however, was the first day of Autumn. With everything else that’s been going on it seems like the weather gods are giving Western North Carolina a bit of a break. This September has moved from the heat of summer to the cooler days and ...
BACK TO BASICS WITH QUICK BREAD: NECTARINE AND MANDARIN ORANGE BREAD
A Basic Quick Bread Recipe is used to make a sweet, moist bread featuring fresh nectarine puree and dried Mandarin oranges. People often comment on how unusual my life has been: the many places I have lived and how different that is from their lives. It is true I have lived and traveled all over the world. But what I noticed is, that while the setting was different, the things we were doing, wherever we were, were the same things our families were doing back home. Thus it was that I sat on a beachside terrace in Bali and listened to my brother-in-law explain chemical equations ...
JUMBLED UP FRUIT BREAD: PEACH, BLACKBERRY AND WATERMELON
I’ll admit it. I am a sucker for the fruits of summer. Don’t ever leave me alone in a Farmer’s Market or I will return with half bushels of peaches, tomatoes and plums, a dozen (or more) ears of corn and at least one large watermelon. Not to mention berries of all sorts. As if I don’t have enough in my own garden! There comes a time when it is necessary to use these wonderful products or watch them go bad. Sometimes it calls for a touch of ingenuity, sometimes it just needs luck. A go-to of mine has always been quick bread. Quick breads are made with baking powder or baking soda ...
SUMMER IN THE SOUTH: PIMENTO CHEESE TOMATO PIE
When I think of summer in the South, I think of my childhood days at the beach where the food seemed to center around fresh ripe red tomatoes, slightly spicy pimento cheese, and fresh fruit pies. The days were filled with salt air and ocean and the evenings meant family around the table. This summer I am up in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Other than that little has changed. I make a mean pimento cheese; my tomato plants are laden with deep red orbs of deliciousness; and pies are my thing. So I put them all together and created a Pimento Cheese Tomato ...
