What do the states of Maine and Pennsylvania have in common?

1) They voted blue in the last election;

2) They include towns named Falmouth, Union, and Smyrna;

3) They have a rich and robust Whoopie Pie history;

4) All of the above.

If you guessed “all of the above,” congratulations! Not only are you a student of politics and an astute map reader, you’re obviously a food historian well versed in snack cake trivia. Because Maine, and Pennsylvania’s Amish country, both have legitimate claims to being the birthplace of an historically little-known (outside their own region) snack cake phenomenon: the Whoopie Pie. (more…)

Warning: this is a shameless (but oh-so-true) plug for the Zojirushi bread machine.

I love my Zojirushi because I use it to knead bread dough, and it does the job more thoroughly (and produces a higher-rising loaf) than kneading by hand or stand mixer. I love it because the non-stick bucket rinses clean so easily. And because I can add the ingredients, press a button, walk away, and come back 90 minutes later to a smooth, elastic, beautifully risen ball of dough, ready to be shaped into pizza crust, rolls, sticky buns, sandwich bread…

So what’s with the peach cobbler? (more…)