for the love of pie
Baking a pie is always a labor of love. Not that it is particularly difficult to do—especially if you have a recipe for good crust, put anything in a good crust and it’s sure to taste good—but it is a multi-step process and it takes a little time. First you have to make the crust (and in some cases bake the crust) and then you have to fill that crust and bake it all over again. This pie was no exception. It was, in fact, a somewhat laborious labor of love. Especially because I don’t own a cherry pitter. I spent three hours the night before baking this pie slicing sour cherries in half and removing their tiny little pits while watching old episodes of The Simpsons. By the end, I was covered in sour cherry stickiness up to my elbows. Andy (my husband) thought that I was crazy. But it was for the love of pie. Besides, what else do you say to your friend who asks if you want two pounds of freshly picked cherries except, “Why yes. Yes I do?” Continue Reading →
nectarine and berry galette
Galette: (noun) a flat round cake of pastry or bread, often topped with fruit. Aka, a French free-form tart. Aka a fruit pie, minus the pie plate. Aka an unfussy, fancy looking dessert. This is my experimental galette. I simply threw everything on a baking sheet, and hoped for the best. It was delicious! I couldn’t quite figure out how to actually move the galette (a cake lifter?), but everyone will be distracted enough by the delicious taste to care much about what the plate looks like. I declare this experiment a success! Continue Reading →
chocolate chip cookies
I have a giant sweet tooth. As in, I have one ginormous chomper (because all the sugar consumption has destroyed my other pearly whites) and the only thing that can satiate it is sweet sugar. It is why the last several post on this site have been cookies and crisps and it is why I am currently thinking up the beginnings of a galette recipe as I sit here writing about chocolate chip cookies. This chocolate chip cookie recipe is one that I have been making since I was allowed to use the oven by myself. I don’t know where it originated, but it makes some delicious cookies. If you have a better one, please let me know in the comments bellow—I would love to try it! So without further ado, I present to you: my favorite chocolate chip cookies. Continue Reading →
one for the dogs
I made cookies for my dog yesterday. To some, this may qualify me as a crazy person. Living in a town like this, where seeing puppies sitting at the bar is a common occurrence and sharing a water bottle with your dog during a hike is the norm, cooking for my dog seems like a completely normal thing to do. Although writing this now, I am reminded of an episode of This American Life where Ira Glass talks about his allergy plagued pitbull and the lengths he goes to to cook meals for him. Ira thought this normal behavior as he told his story, while the rest of us listening couldn’t quite believe the efforts and energy put into this relationship. I guess my point is that we will go to great lengths for the ones we love. And to us those lengths are effortless. So I made cookies for my dog yesterday. And it was fun.
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grandma’s potato chip cookies
Potato chip what now, you ask? That’s right. Potato chip cookies. A light, flaky cookie features salty, crunchy potato chips in all their glory. My grandma made potato chip cookies when I was a little kid. She passed away while I was young, just eight years old, so, really, about the only thing that I remember about these cookies is that they were cookies that had potato chips inside. Cooooool. My sister made a batch recently and they were fantastic. If there is one thing my family does right, it is desserts. My uncle makes a killer cinnamon roll, my dad has perfected my grandma’s pies, my mom makes the best cookies I have ever eaten (Christmas and otherwise), and my sister makes lemon bars to die for. So in the spirit of family dessert pride, I bring you my (slight) variation on potato chip cookies. Continue Reading →