November 28th, 2012 by
“Caution: construction ahead.” Those are words you never like to see on a roadside flasher.
But when they’re applied to gingerbread, and chocolate, and candy, and royal icing?
Throw all caution to the winds! And rev up your imagination, because it’s time to enter our Gingerbread House Decorating Contest, which runs now through Dec. 31, 2012.
November 27th, 2012 by
Recipe: Gingerbread Cookies
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens… ah, mittens! Such a delightful part of winter. The snowiest days can seem a little bonnier and brighter if you have a warm, soft pair of mittens. Why, just the other day at my knitting circle…
November 26th, 2012 by
Recipe: Caribbean Rum Cake
What is it about the tropics that makes people so relaxed? Everything proceeds at a much slower and more civilized pace. Wound-up businessmen trade ties for tan lines, and harried mavens literally let their hair down, braided in sparkling beads. Even my parents have had their share of island adventures…
November 23rd, 2012 by
Recipe: Thanksgiving Stuffing Loaf
We wait all year for Thanksgiving, bake up a storm for 3 days prior, then POOF!
It’s all over in about 30 minutes flat.
The soft dinner roll leaking its melting pat of butter; bright, tangy fresh-cranberry sauce; the perfectly roasted bird, mashed potatoes enhanced with cream, the family’s favorite comfort-food side dish (green bean casserole? Sweet potatoes with marshmallow?)…
Enjoyed, and gone.
Gone – but in some cases, not forgotten. While the chocolate cream pie and cherry cheesecake may have vanished, and the turkey been turned into pot pie and soup, you can re-create stuffing’s wonderful signature flavor any time of the year – without even resorting to Stove Top.
November 22nd, 2012 by
Recipe: Custard Pie
Did you know there are still Pilgrims celebrating Thanksgiving today, nearly four centuries after America’s original Thanksgiving dinner?
November 21st, 2012 by
I promised to get busy developing some yeast recipes for the sourdough starter that I introduced a few months ago and thought English muffins would be a good first challenge. I’ve had a fair taste-test run with a variety of gluten-free English muffins; mostly the kind you buy frozen in the grocery store.
Deal-breaker #1: One muffin costs about the same amount as the ingredients to make them at home. Make your own batch!
Deal-breaker #2: Most all of them were shaped like English muffins, but when broken into, were no different than a lightened gluten-free white bread: soft and spongy with an even crumb, no nooks or crannies.
I may as well have taken a biscuit cutter to a loaf of bread and saved the money.
November 19th, 2012 by
Recipe: Triple Chocolate Scones
Thanksgiving is SO not about chocolate.
Chocolate cream pie? Maybe.
But chocolate cake? Chocolate chip cookies? Chocolate ice cream?
Try pecan pie, pumpkin bread, and ginger cookies. Cranberry cake. Apple crisp.
Chocolate, for one day in the year, takes a back seat to all its usually subsidiary flavors.
Notice I say, for ONE day of the year: Thanksgiving. And really, what’s to prevent you from slipping a bit of fudgy goodness onto the menu really early in the day Thursday? Triple Chocolate Scones go wonderfully well with your morning cup of coffee.
Plus, they augment the coffee’s caffeine as you’re prepping the turkey at 5:30 a.m…
November 13th, 2012 by
Recipe: None
Did you catch that?! More than 50 King Arthur Flour employee-owners volunteered more than 100 hours to make and sell 5,000 cookies, raising $13,500 for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer! Talk about good cookies. Combined with a dollar-for-dollar match from OXO, another Cookies for Kids’ Cancer partner, King Arthur Flour generated a total contribution of $27,000!
November 12th, 2012 by
Recipe: Black Friday Bread
This bread uses Thanksgiving leftovers.
And THIS bread uses Thanksgiving leftovers.
What “secret” ingredient do they have in common?
November 9th, 2012 by
This recipe was born of desperation.
And a full measure of devotion.
With a soupçon of despair…