A bit of a strange bird, this one, but a good bird, a good bird. I like it a lot. Last summer, I made this recipe with blackberries, I presume because I didn’t have a cherry pitter, and lord knows how you pit cherries without one! What did they do before cherry pitters? Well, traditional [...]

“Good not great” (as in Dwight Schrute’s quick assessment of Michael Scott’s breath) is the phrase that keeps popping into my head when I think of this sorbet. It does the trick, the “trick” being that it satisfies the craving for something sweet and cold when you’re feeling too fat and/or guilty to have ice [...]

I’ve been sitting on this post for an unacceptable amount of time, not because I didn’t have anything to say but because there is so much to say, and not just about these chocolate chip cookies in particular but about the whole wide world of chocolate chip cookies in general. Because, more than anything else, this recipe taught [...]

I asked/ordered my sister to make me this cake for my birthday. Then, I suggested/insisted that she take pictures of the process and convinced her that she wanted to do a guest blog post. Today is her birthday (the nerve she had to be born so close to my birthday!) and, as a birthday present [...]

What you see here is the result of an 11 p.m. chocolate craving satisfied at around 1 a.m., while the husband was in blissful dreamland (or so I assume since it would be impossible to have nightmares with the scent of baking brownies wafting through the house, although there’s always the possibility of dreaming of [...]

We have two strawberry plants in our backyard. These strawberries are not from those plants. Yes, I cheated on my strawberry plants. They’re adorable and all, producing, oh, maybe five or so berries a week, the cutest and tastiest little berries eva, delightful and satisfying when popped swiftly into our mouths or sliced over our morning yogurt or [...]

I was dying while making these. Just trembling with excitement and anticipation with each disgusting, I mean delicious, layer. Layer 1: melted butter; layer 2: crushed-up shortbread cookies (and so just to clarify, we now have buttery shortbread cookies soaking in melted butter); layer 3: sweetened shredded coconut; layer 4: chopped pecans; layer 5: top-quality dark [...]

So in the midst of all the bake sale baking, there was also this pineapple upside down cake. I was invited to a Disco Pineapple Party (because disco balls and pineapples look strikingly similar, especially when you spray paint a pineapple silver), and when I received a text from one of the hostesses asking if I’d [...]

If I make a recipe twice in the span of three weeks, you know it’s a keeper, especially if I don’t make any adjustments. I love these things. Not only are they absolutely delicious, with a hint of almond in the crust, a cherry filling that’s the perfect balance of sweet and tart, and a [...]

Every time I make these I feel like a total cheat and also an evil genius. Evil genius trumps, though, because this recipe is awesome, and you’re going to love me for it. It’s also yet another testament to the magical powers of sweetened condensed milk, which has recently graduated to the category of “staple” in [...]

Is this not one of the most gorgeous things you’ve ever seen? Let’s just admire it for a moment.

So remember when I made that Absurdly Easy Chocolate Fudge and I, um, went a little crazy, going off about a city of mini fudge people up in arms? And I vowed to make a more authentic fudge, the kind of fudge my mother remembers coming home from school to? Well, it only took me [...]

I know ya’ll were just chompin’ at the bit for another ice cream recipe! If you do not yet own an ice cream maker, you should really just buy one now. It will be the best-spent $59.95 (plus shipping & handling) of your life. Order now and receive a bonus freezer bowl! This offer is too good to pass [...]

I remember very clearly the first time I made this cake. We had just moved to our new place in Brooklyn and I was sick and I was PISSED. Because I hate being sick (who doesn’t?), and it tends to happen to me when I move. I guess you could blame that old intangible enemy stress, [...]

I say it every year and I’m going to say it again this year, probably way more times than anyone wants to hear it: Passover desserts need not be repulsive. The trick, in my opinion, to a good Passover dessert is keep it simple. Truffles. Macaroons. Ice cream. Candied nuts. Flourless chocolate cake. All of [...]

This is really embarrassing to admit: I started a fire in my oven while making this. Like an actual fire with flames in the bottom of my oven that my husband had to put out by pouring water on it, and it sizzled really loud, and it was scary. We’ve reached a new low over here…or [...]

It occurred to me that I didn’t even mention the reason for the dinner party in my last post. Not that there needs to be a reason for a dinner party, of course, but it does help to have some excuse or motivating factor, and the excuse in this case was that my very lovely [...]

dale, i’ve realized throughout this weekend that your gift to me was without a doubt the most thoughtful present i have ever received. seriously. you put all of my favorite things into one glorious cardboard jar and you put lots of work into making and combining all of those exact select favorite things of mine. [...]

These cupcakes absolutely require an exclamation mark because they make me so happy and excited!!! They are a long-standing tradition. When I was growing up, my mom would make them every single year for St. Patrick’s Day (and still does). I thought they were the coolest things because they were green inside, of course (and not [...]

There’s an imposter in the room! And I must admit, I was seduced. When this recipe landed in my inbox, it wasn’t so much the “easy” that got me (I’m not afraid of a challenge) but the “absurd” (such a great word, “absurd”). And let’s not discount the featured ingredient here: sweetened condensed milk (“Milk [...]

So I realize that “muffin cakes” seems kind of redundant…either that or oxymoronic, but what I’m trying to get across here is that these were supposed to be cupcakes but were really more like muffins. A muffin-cupcake hybrid, if you will. Denser and cakier than cupcakes, and maybe less sweet? (Ummmm, I was pretty drunk [...]

Dear Chocolate-Raspberry Squares, I miss you so much already! I know we were only together for less than 24 hours, but those hours were some of the most intense and magical hours of my entire life! I don’t wanna freak you out, but…I think I may be falling for you…hard. When we were together it was [...]

Growing up, the only chocolate chip cookies I ever made, with my mom and sister, were the classic Nestle Toll House ones. They always came out really flat, and we never knew why, but they were perfect. The first time I attempted to make these cookies away from home, they just didn’t come out the way [...]

So let’s see…five posts so far, two are ice cream. Yup, that seems about right. I mean, I clearly had to make this ice cream, for two reasons: “speculoo” I still had a ton of lemons from the big bag of organic lemons I bought to make those lemon bars. How many times can you use the [...]

I thought these were going to be a tots disast (right, “disast” is an abbrev. for “disaster,” not a typo, and obvi “tots” is “total”). The anxiety began when I realized that I forgot to take the butter out of the fridge to soften. I do this all the time, actually, clearly pointing to the fact [...]

Whenever anyone asks me how I’m not obese, I answer honestly: I hit the gym…a good amount! Now what I don’t usually tell them is that, quite serendipitously, my gym happens to be right across the street from the good grocery store (14 blocks from my apartment), so that whenever I “need” to go grocery [...]