When I was young, my mom went through phases in her food. There was the red wine and onion phase, the hot dog phase, the chocolate chip phase and the peanut butter phase. Although the hot dog phase made for some interesting combos, like the hot dog pizza she made once, it wasn’t her most shining culinary moment. But her chocolate chip and peanut butter phases still fill…
I’ve been using cookies as communication devices for years. The College of Cardinals uses a smoke signal to tell us there’s a new pope, and I use cookies to send messages too. They can say: I love you, I miss you, or Happy Birthday. After I left Pennsylvania in the early ’80s, I knew I’d lose touch with my family and my young nephews if I didn’t connect.…
Pretty much every baker in the United States has a carrot cake recipe. Each one is convinced that hers/his is the absolute best. Clearly, this can’t be true because mine is actually the best. It wasn’t always the best, but I’ve finessed and finessed it and now I’d put it up against anyone’s carrot cake recipe, even Joan, the queen of cakes. (My sister-in-law, Donna is going to…
Thank God the holidays are over. I can finally stop baking. Who am I kidding? I never stop baking. Here’s proof. I just stayed up until 12:30 a.m. baking cookies for my sister-in-law’s birthday. Today is January 6th. Her birthday was October 7th. But that’s why I had to bake cookies, I rationalized. This way she’ll know she’s special even though I’m three months late. They’re restitution cookies.…