ShareTweet When I think of a mouth watering dessert, I usually picture something hot out of the oven, something oozing with dark chocolate ribbons. But the fridge, or even the freezer, can be just as effective in creating magical desserts. After a few hours in the fridge, this chocolate mousse trifle is layer after layer… Continue Reading
Category Archives: desserts
Chocolate Souffles to Close out Valentine’s Day
ShareTweet After frantically making Valentine’s Day cards for too many kids tonight, I’ve become a full fledged Valentine’s Day grump. Now that there’s no candy exchanged in our schools, I don’t really see the point. The moms race around to help their kids make these little cards as well as a pretty little box to… Continue Reading
Classic Vanilla Rice Pudding from the Downton Abbey Cookbook
ShareTweet Have you fallen under the spell of Downton Abbey yet? Judging from my Twitter and Facebook feeds, it seems as though more people are passionate about the fashions and scandals of the Grantham family and their servants than about the upcoming Superbowl. I certainly am. My Sunday nights are devoted to Downton Abbey, and… Continue Reading
a Few of My Favorite Pie Recipes
ShareTweet Today is National Pie Day! There are so many goofy holidays nowadays, but National Pie Day is one I like. I don’t remember much about Pi beyond 3.1416, but I do know pie. So today, in honor of National Pie Day, here are my favorite pie recipes. Brownie Meringue Pie: What could be better… Continue Reading
Chocolate Pot de Creme: an Obsession Worth Every Calorie
ShareTweet Some recipes just beg to be made again, and be made again quickly. I made Rooibos Pots de Creme last week and they were so creamy, so decadent, that I had to make another batch. I’d be playing tennis or talking to friends, and suddenly all I could think about was sinking my spoon… Continue Reading
Pear Rooibos Vanilla Pots de Creme
ShareTweet Is custard your idea of comfort food? If so, you’ll love these little cups of French creamy custard. Pot de Creme means cup of cream and that’s literally what this dessert is: a slow baked concoction of heavy cream, eggs, sugar, and spices. This is the kind of dessert that can easily be served… Continue Reading
How to Make Salted Caramel Sauce
ShareTweet Salted caramel is a trend I can’t imagine getting tired of. I get bacon fatigue. Bacon donuts, bacon ice cream, as a nation, I’d say we’ve achieved bacon overload. But call me naive, I don’t think we’ll reach that point with salted caramel, as long as it’s made with quality ingredients. Real sugar. Real… Continue Reading
Salted Caramel Apple Bread Pudding with an Asian Flair
ShareTweet Dessert is pretty much synonymous with chocolate in our house. Chocolate souffles, hot fudge sundaes, and fondant au chocolat… as long as there is chocolate involved, my kids, my husband, and I just can’t say no. Fruit desserts, on the other hand, can be a tough sell, but at the height of apple season,… Continue Reading
Give Fall a Tropical Kiss with Mango Souffle
ShareTweet For years, I gave mangoes a wide berth at the supermarket. Not because of any distaste for them, but because in my mind, mangoes were tropical vacation extravagance, not a fruit to be offered up as an afterschool snack. I love mangoes, love their exotic fruitiness, their juicy texture, and their luscious golden color,… Continue Reading
Not So Humble Pies Cookbook Review
ShareTweet Is there room in your kitchen for cookbooks dedicated to a single type of dish? There should be, as great exhaustive cookbooks about a single topic can be a powerful source of inspiration.My current favorite is all about pies, and author Kelly Jaggers makes it clear that she aims to dazzle us with her… Continue Reading
Just a Simple Little French Cake: Fondant au Chocolat
ShareTweet French food has a reputation as being fussy, fancy, and complicated to prepare. While the elaborate sauces served at restaurants like Le Bernardin are great examples of French cuisine, they’re not representative of the type of cooking done at home in French families on weeknights. French cooks, just like American ones, have recipes they… Continue Reading
Celebrate Summer with Individual Raspberry Crumbles
ShareTweet One of the special pleasures of summer is a warm raspberry cobbler at the end of a leisurely meal on the patio. Cobblers are so easy to throw together and very forgiving of changing dinner schedules. Topping a crumble with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream and having the cold meld with the… Continue Reading
Tomato Tarte Tatin
ShareTweet Summer goes hand in hand with tomatoes. “> It doesn’t matter that the real beauties of summer, the sweet local tomatoes, haven’t arrived yet. As soon as the temperature rises, I crave tomatoes for breakfast lunch and dinner. We eat them raw. We toss them in quick and easy pasta dishes. We slice them… Continue Reading
Are We Ever Too Old To Enjoy Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce?
ShareTweet Is there anything better than a hot fudge sundae? I spent a summer scooping ice cream at Haagen Daz in Paris, developing a scooping muscle in my right hand that I still have to this day. I wish I had a picture to share of the sexy little lace apron and black skirt I… Continue Reading
Say No to Sweets with Crispy Cheesy Chicken Tenders on Baby Spinach
ShareTweet Today I’m partnering with Sargento Cheese to challenge you to cut out sweets to restore energy in your body. My greatest sweet addiction? Nutella. Hands down. No contest. I love it in jelly rolls, on toast, bananas, or even just spoonful by delicious spoonful. But a few minutes after that last decadent bite, the… Continue Reading
Food As Love: Chocolate Toffee Meringue Trifle
ShareTweet Food is love. My courtship with my husband evolved over food. On our first date, he made me dinner, a sweet and tangy chicken stew that we balanced on our knees in his tiny studio. The next night, I cooked for him: a simple French meal of sole with a light sauce and some… Continue Reading
Rustic Pear Tart
ShareTweet Rustic Pear Tart Amish Chicken Slow Roasted Baby Beets Hand-Carved Turkey Heirloom Tomatoes Micro Greens Isn’t it amazing how one well chosen adjective can make a dish sound irresistible? Once a marketer, always a marketer. My days slogging hours devising marketing strategies in a little cubicle are long behind me, but my fascination with… Continue Reading
In Honor of National Pi Day: Shortcut Peach Tarte Tatin
ShareTweet Today is National PI Day, which pretty much takes the cake (ha!) for random national holidays. The fun factor of anything involving pie definitely overcomes the randomness factor and makes it definitely worth celebrating by making, buying, giving, and eating lots of pie. National Pi Day is tied with World Nutella Day in my… Continue Reading
With Crepes, It’s All About the Pan
ShareTweet We flipped crepes for dessert last night in celebration of Mardi Gras. Although we don’t keep Lent, we do believe in celebrating anything that involves a fun dessert, especially when the excitement of flipping crepes is involved. The kids like their crepes with a pat of melting salted butter and a generous sprinkling of… Continue Reading
Chocolate Fudge Terrine Drowned in Vanilla Cream
ShareTweet Romance doesn’t mesh well with calendars. I had a cake in mind for Valentine’s Day, a cake I had not made before but that still craved: a rich chocolate terrine drowned in a sea of vanilla cream.I imagined it as the perfect end to a romantic dinner of roasted pear and goat cheese appetizer,… Continue Reading
Breaking the Sugar Addiction with Meringue Topped Clementine Sorbets
ShareTweet This morning I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and stepped on the scale. Time seemed to stand still while the digital display went dark then it spat out the number I’d been dreading to see since my 6 week postpartum checkup: 140 pounds and a vengeful half. I thought long and hard about… Continue Reading