Just four simple players: caramel, chocolate, pecans, and sea salt.

Yet the the beautiful music these four friends make together – soft with crunchy, salty with sweet, nutty with chocolate with caramel – you’d think you were hearing a symphony, rather than a string quartet.

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Hurray, hurray, it’s a happy day! Today, November 15th is National Bundt Cake day. Join us for a quick look at turning your favorite sweet dough recipe into a choco-caramel filled bundt-tastic celebration of the day.

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Don’t you want to just pick up your fork and stab the computer screen right about now?

This apple upside-down cake, with its drizzle – no, make that a flood – of apple-flavored caramel, oozing over the top and dripping down the sides, is probably the most over-the-top apple dessert I’ve ever eaten.

Never mind probably; it IS the most ridiculously delicious apple anything I’ve ever had.

Trust me, it was SO tough when Sue and Andrea, my fellow test kitchen bakers, were testing this recipe. And testing, and testing, and testing…

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Are you ready for some fun buns?

Cinnamon buns usually bring a smile to your face, but these bring a great big grin – maybe a little lopsided, but a smile as wide and high as a country mile. (more…)

I’m sure each of us in our own time have experienced serendipitous events where something fine and good and true arises from a sad or stressful situation. Sometimes it’s a small thing, like…

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Blame it all on Bingo. No, not Bingo the game but Bingo the dog. You know Bingo, right?

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I still remember my first bread pudding, back in the early 1990s…

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I know how hard you’ve been working lately. Between getting ready for winter, cooking and baking for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Oh, My Aching Back Tuesday, it’s all been sitting on your shoulders.  Personally, I think you deserve a break…

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What could be better than a big bowl of freshly popped popcorn topped with a little butter and salt? Well honestly not much; but for me, my friend Carol Colby’s caramel corn rates tops on the list.

I’ve known Carol pretty much since I moved to town 16 years ago. She worked at the local post office; and before I met her, I was fascinated by her waist-length red hair. It was just lovely, and so is Carol. (more…)

Have you ever baked something that made you do the Daffy Duck? You know, the cartoon scene where Daffy runs about yelling, “I’m rich, I’m rich, whoop, whoop, yippee, I’m rich!” He’s bouncing around on his head, feet, hands, and rump in a spastic outpouring of sheer joy. Yep, the Daffy Duck.

Not everything we bake here in the kitchen gets us to do the Daffy Duck. Sometimes we do the swoon, the table grip (hold me Ralphie, I’ve died and gone to heaven). Susan Reid’s creations often get me to do the swoon. That woman knows how to cook. (more…)