My husband loves a good piece of cake with his coffee for breakfast. His breakfast-of-choice for many years, pretty much every morning. That was before we married and my heckling him about eating a healthier breakfast like oatmeal or avocado on toast. Not much fun, but I do want to keep him around a long time.
Blackberry Pie, adapted Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book recipe
So hubby and I are strolling through Costco with our three younger boys in tow pushing through some heavy aisle traffic (of all days, we go on a Saturday, ugh) with our huge shopping cart when we pass by stacks of fruit pies, you know those humongous pies full of every ingredient we cannot and will not eat. My boys couldn’t stop ogling. You would think it was some hot babe who just walked by in short shorts.
Chocolate Chip Cookies {gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegan} + Mother’s Day gift ideas and our trip to NY
We are back home from our NY trip. It was so nice to see everyone and explore all the up and new in my old hometown. It’s also nice to be home.
Now that we are back home my three younger boys are back in school (a sigh of relief), my oldest son back to pounding away on his (first) screenplay (graduated film school May ’14), hubby back to work in solar energy and me sorting all the laundry, mail, homework, stocking fridge, cooking, dishwasher repair, you know? … I know you do.
Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday Layer Cake, made gluten free + dairy free = Happy Birthday to me
Lots of me and birthday thoughts before the recipe, jump over if you want to head straight to the recipe (no offense taken).
So, it’s my birthday, no. 45, on this gorgeous green planet. I think because I have reached the mid-forties hump I left off the exclamation point on the end. It’s not that I’m not excited, well, I am, just not as much as say my 21st or 40th – twenty-one for officially becoming an adult/feeling “free”, and forty for throwing the feeling of “people pleasing” out the window and embracing the “who cares” approach – just not “BOOYAH!” excited.
Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie for Pi Day!
Hey friends, did you know today 3.14.15 is Pi day??
Not being much of a math geek it completely slipped my mind until Deb, over at Smitten Kitchen (click here to see her recipe) reminded me of this incredible once-in-a-lifetime event. Literally. The next time around is in oh, a hundred years or so, well to be exact. So, of course I had to bake a pie for this ultimate occasion, not that we reaaally need a reason to bake pie. This is kind of like a naughty nut-free pecan pie: no nuts detected yet bamm! rich bittersweet chocolate lining the entire pie shell. YES. Thank you ladies over at Four and Twenty Blackbirds for being so naughty.
Jam Filled Purim Hamantashen Cookies {gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegan}
Since we were real good with eating our vegetables this week, let’s eat cookies. Jam filled cookies that will make your heart go pitter-patter.
Hamentashen cookies!
A classic dessert that we traditionally eat on the Jewish holiday, Purim. What is Purim all about? Click here to learn more.
Lemon Curd
Lemon curd is a delicious addition to tarts (see here for crust recipe and meringue recipe here, cookies, bars (see lemon raspberry bars recipe here), cakes, pancakes, crepes … or just simply, and liberally, spread on toast with a cup of tea (if your lucky, lying in bed with your significant other eating the lemon curd on toast, or what have you, without any kids screaming and jumping on the bed).
No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
Simple and easy is better sometimes all the time. When you can get away with it. This pie has your back.
Not always the case when baking. There are usually a few steps/preparations, and a bit of a process when baking, and then there is the trial and error of gf/df/sf baking (and egg free when my oldest is joining us) but don’t get me wrong, it is certainly worth all the effort when you take that first (right out of the oven) joyful bite. BUT, when a pie like this is simple and doesn’t require baking, HELLO, let’s get this party started!
Poached Pears with Chocolate Ganache for New Year’s Eve (gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegan)
Chocolate Peppermint (Brookie) Cookies
In case you have a little more baking muscle in you and not quite tired of sugar just yet (me? never) I have a chocolate peppermint cookie, more like a brookie recipe for it’s brownie like center, that I had to share with you before Christmas.
I have always admired chocolate peppermint bark at Williams Sonoma from afar, which pushed me to create my peppermint bark marshmallows, but that wasn’t enough. It never is, is it? I had to create something chocolate/peppermint in a cookie form.