Honey in the morning, honey in the evening. Honey is a staple in my Sicilian kitchen.  I drizzled this light, delicately scented gift from the bees onto rustic breakfast sandwiches.

Assembly was a breeze – toasted crusty ciabatta bread + a layer of marscapone + strawberry slices + honey = sticky fingers and a delicious way to start the day.

For a simple salad to accompany pasta minted carrot salad was a perfect contrast. I put it together before I began to cook the pasta so that the dressing would wilt the carrots a bit. Here’s how I did it: … read more

A couple of weeks ago my friend Edie told me about friends who had moved to San Francisco from Vermont.  ( I’m sure that they didn’t move for the natural beauty, this Vermont sunrise was worthy of Maxfield Parish.) They created Recchiuti Confections with the idea “… once you introduce people to truly exquisite chocolates they will be won over instantly and forever.”  The next day Edie sent me a link to the Hot Chocolate Recipe Contest. I called to find out where I could buy some of the Hot Chocolate wafers and was surprised when I was told that they would send me a sample. The chocolate came a few days later – they were yummy. The wafers are meant to be used to make a perfect cup of hot chocolate but I decided to create a new cake that would feature this wonderful semisweet chocolate.

I was inspired by a package of dried mission figs in the pantry and decided that figs and chocolate would be an interesting combination. I emailed my recipe for a Chocolate Figgy Cake with coffee mousse to Recchiuti and I am waiting to see it they agree with my friends who declared it a winner. Their site says that the winning recipe will be announced before Valentine’s day.

Here’s the recipe, written in cookbook recipe style, that I sent: … read more

Saturday was a beautiful, cold, gray, windy, winter day.

I’m not complaining, the air above the frozen pond was white. (Can it be so cold that fog freezes?) The trees on the hill were  black and created a startling contrast to the white field. The alpacas were cozy inside their upscale fleece. Rosie, working on her version of a canine snow angel, was frequently distracted by the scent of creatures tunneling beneath the icy crust of snow. On the other hand, I wanted pie. Not a frozen pie from the market, not a pumpkin pie made from a tin of pumpkin, not an apple pie, I wanted a pie  that would leave pink streaks on the plate. I was missing summer pies.

What to do — I opened the freezer and found a bag of cranberries and remembered that I had once made a cranberry pie but I couldn’t remember how. I had to be adventurous, think creatively and get started. I had an unbaked pie crust in the freezer and I began by rinsing the cranberries and thinking of pies past. I knew that the birds would be pleased with the pie if I wasn’t. Luckily –

It look good enough to slice.

One bite

After the next

Sorry birdies — maybe next time.

Here’s how I made it.

… read more

Mathea Tanner is the cook, writer, artist and brains that make Peas Love Carrots one of the food blogs I love to visit. Her recipes for penguins, snowmen and lambs will make you want to rush to the kitchen even if you are a vegetarian.  I’m pleased to be able to introduce you and her blog, peaslovecarrots, to you.

I often have these moments of excitement when I think I’ve had an original recipe idea only to rush to my computer and have Google tell me that I am last in a line of hundreds to have it.  I’m left wondering if in the past I’ve seen these recipes somewhere or another and forgotten about them, only to resurface again as subliminal faux-epiphanies.  While it’s not a bad thing to do something that’s been done before, it does take away the feeling of being some sort of culinary explorer, charting unknown waters.  Every now and then one likes to feel like a discoverer, right?

The other day I day I decided to make rainbow cupcakes. [/dontprint] … read more

Cookies are simple to make with few ingredients and can be modified to include fruit, nuts, seeds, and spices, and rolled, cut and decorated for any occasion.

Whether making and sharing easily transportable energy bars or delicate treats served on fine china, cookies are a sweet way to say, “I love you.”

Since my early attempts at cookie baking, I have been fascinated by the endless variety of both names and flavors of cookies. There are snaps, sandies, hermits, dainties, thumbprints, gems, biscotti, pizzelle, crisos, mondel brot, tray bakes, gems, moon cakes, whoopee pies and snicker doodles. I enjoy saying Karlsbader Oblaten as much as I enjoy eating the delicious butter wafer made crunchy with coarse sugar and groundnuts. Learning names of exotic cookies and tasting them is a hobby similar to stamp collecting but one I find more rewarding.

When my younger son, Matthew,  was eight he had a cookie stand during an annual two day garden tour in our neighborhood. We baked trays of cookies and after two very successful days, he was able to made a hefty deposit to his drum kit fund. Toffee cookie bars, called toffee tray bakes in the UK, topped with nuts and chocolate were the most popular. Here’s how we made them a few days before the garden tour: … read more

In November, I decided to try my hand at creating a recipe that featured Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry for a contest. I have never thought of myself as a competitive cook but decide to give it a whirl.

I signed up, got a coupon in the mail that I redeemed for one package of Puff Pastry. I opted for sheets rather than for the shells primarily because I had absolutely no idea what I was going to make.

The pastry waited patiently in the freezer for about ten days until lightening struck and I was inspired by the food in my fridge and a recent visit to Sicily. I had fresh cranberries and fresh ricotta cheese – hmmm, how about Cranberry Cannoli Puffs, a simple dessert made with a minimum number of ingredients.

I submitted the recipe and I thought that the contest rules required that I not tell a soul what I had made until the contest was over.  I got an email last week that said that I was free to share my entry so –  Here’s how I did it:

… read more