Pretty Princess Parfaits

We had a knights and princesses party here for the Personal Assistant and Mr. Baby's birthday. It was super fun. The menu was pretty easy, but I did make a few special treats. Like these yummy parfaits. Mmmmm.

 

Chocolate Cherry Pancakes

I like pancakes. I really really like pancakes. But I am allergic to eggs. This is well documented at this point. The personal assistant as CSID (I should maybe explain that one of these days) and cannot eat sugar (sucrose) or "too much" starch. But I still really like pancakes.

Garlic Potato Leek Soup (No Cream!)

I love all holiday type foods, but I am tired of making fussy dishes for the moment.  It is snowing.  I opened a bottle of wine, and I need to make something easy.  I love Smitten Kitchen's Baked Potato Soup and I just received the last delivery from my winter CSA, so I'm flush with garlic and potatoes.

Easy Mashed Sweet Potatoes

As you know by now, my son eats very little variety, and I'm working on not being crazy about that.  One thing he never fails to eat is mashed sweet potatoes.  While my Cooks Illustrated recipe was delicious, I've been tinkering with a way to reduce the massive amount of heavy cream in that (admittedly heavenly) recipe. What I've come up with is incredibly decadent tasting, but much lighter.  And the best part is, my son has no idea that I've changed anything!

Pumpkin Pie Doughnuts

 I adore pumpkin and while I don't embrace the pumpkin spice coffee situation that happens this time of year, I do put it in everything else...bread, pancakes, muffins, pie, risotto....

I came across this recipe for Pumpkin Pie Doughnuts on the King Arthur Flour blog Flourish.

My first attempt was an A-, so of course, in the name of science, I'll need to reproduce this study in deliciousness.

Curried Greens

If You Give a Mama Some Greens

The CSA is filled with greens.  When she picks up the greens she gets chilly.  When she gets chilly she wants some curry.  When she wants some curry she'll need some garam masala.  After she's made some garam masala, she'll need some naan to go with it.  After she eats her curry and naan, she'll need to go back to the CSA to get more greens!

Weekend Project: Homemade Garam Masala

I work at a college that runs a program called "Friendship Families."  This program matches international students with contacts at the school or in the area.  We're not responsible for hosting our students, just checking in on them, taking them to dentist appointments, and making a homemade dinner every once in awhile.  One of our new students this year is from Nepal. As we were getting to know each other over the summer I asked about the foods she liked and promised to try to make them here.

Refrigerator Pickles

The thing I love about summer, especially late summer, is eating fresh food from the garden. Like refrigerator pickles. The recipe could not be easier...

Antique Strawberry Preserves II - The Recipe

This is the recipe I use.  I keep it just like this because I'm sentimental.  My grandmother, who tells stories of making this with her grandmother, Pearl, wrote it for me one hot afternoon. 

Sunday Pancakes

 Big ol' stack of love.

In my house pancakes wear many hats.  They are the special Sunday morning treat when my son and I wake up and my husband has his "sleep day."  (Don't worry, my husband is a good man, Saturday is my "sleep day".)  

They are also our weeknight "go-to" when we realize  a) there is no food that anyone wants to eat and b) mama has no motivation to cook.  We make them for company, or for one.  Don't eat cereal, toast, or pop tarts, just eat these.  Everyone will think you slaved over them - but you won't!

Potato Kale Curry

We used to live in Minneapolis.  We adored the place.  It was far from family but it was alive, it was busy.  It was full of people and colors and ideas that were exciting to two corn fed hicks like my husband and I.  Let's not forget the people...we made our family of choice there.  We quickly became used to our limitless choices.  For us, it was a virtual Eden of entertainment, and delicious food.  Unfortunately, five years ago we had to leave everything and move to a rural New England town for my husband's job.  We went from:

 To:

Weekend Project - Granola

As mentioned in my "About Us" introduction, usually I like recipes that are long and complicated.  Good recipes are like favorite songs, you feel the rhythm in your body and get lost in the details.

However, sometimes I like a good recipe that whips up easily, and is forgiving of "mistakes", especially if it is one I make often.  Jen's recipe for homemade yogurt is something I'm excited to try, since I recently began to make my own granola.  It started as an experiment, "Can I be a person who makes granola?"