Archive

Ever since my interview with Jason Smith, winner of Food Network Star, season 13, I have been craving Derby Pie, at which time I discovered the name for it was registered as a trademark in 1950.  To keep the name from turning into a generic term, like zipper, those who staked their claim to Derby […]

I am considering renaming these Strawberry Shortbread Bars from Heaven since they look and smell divine, but I haven’t even tasted them yet.  I’m dying to take a bite! I just took the 9 x 13 pan out of the oven, plus it’s after midnight and I have no business eating anything right now.  I’m just […]

I have tried several peach cobbler recipes and none have come close to what I would consider peach cobbler perfection. My quest continues. In the meantime, my Pacific Northwest friend, Tina, baked a rather tempting looking peach crisp last week and shared her recipe with me. She put a lot more of the crumbly crisp […]

Recently I ordered this cool ice cream sandwich maker because who doesn’t love ice cream sandwiches? Why would I buy this contraption when I can just go buy a box of FatBoys at the grocery story?  Why not?  Think of all the possibilities of flavors and combinations!  It could easily be one of those one-hit-wonder […]

I’m a connoisseur of brownies and absolutely love the texture of this simple and relatively basic brownie creation that uses semisweet chocolate chips plus cocoa powder to create chocolatey brownie goodness with its signature shiny top.  I also like that this version makes a small, just-right sized batch in an 8-inch square pan. Semisweet Brownies […]

Last Sunday we invited two sweet young women over for dinner and one was leaving Texas to return home to Utah. I asked what her favorite dessert was and she said German chocolate cake, so I baked it for her, experimenting with a devils food cake recipe for the first time.  I plan to share […]

Homemade vanilla pudding paired with Nilla Wafers and banana slices has been around as long as I can remember.  It screams down-home goodness and when you add individual mason jars to the mix, you’re bound to get irresistible reviews of portable, bottled up happiness.  July 2017 has been the month of all things in a […]

There’s no shame as a baker in using boxed brownies, in my opinion.  I love the taste and have baked plenty of batches and made every kind of variation with the mixes.  In fact, when I bake brownies from scratch, I usually compare them to boxed mixes when deciding how well I like the recipe. […]

My first job besides babysitting, barely out of elementary school, was in a cherry orchard picking fruit from trees and filling woven baskets. We were paid by how many cherries we picked–it took a lot of work to fill one basket. There were several young kids like me who worked there as well as professional […]

Cake for breakfast isn’t something I would want all the time, but yesterday I was in the mood for strawberry shortcake.  I had some whipping cream in the refrigerator, but am saving it for making pralines. I wondered how the flower-shaped cupcakes I had just baked would taste in a French toast style, covered with […]