Happy Easter! I ran across a very cute idea for a spring dessert this Easter. We had little potted chocolate mint puddings with a sprig of mint “growing” out of them. The original Martha Stewart recipe is a very rich pudding, so I used my recipe from St. Patrick’s Day (with a couple changes […]
A fellow food blogger at The Tomato Tart came up with a cool idea to raise a little “dough” for a good cause through a virtual online bake sale. All of the proceeds will go to Second Harvest Japan, which is an organization that makes sure perfectly good food that can’t be sold through mainstream stores in […]
Happy March 17th! Guinness combines surprisingly well with chocolate, and those two together make the perfect St. Patrick’s Day pair. I made a very fun and festive dessert tonight called Chocolate Guinness Goodness :). It is chocolate and Guinness pudding served in a beer glass with Guinness flavored whipped cream smoothed over the top. The […]
This year, we had red jambalaya with chicken, shrimp and lobster for our Mardi Gras celebration. I’ve been working my way through the recipes on the Domaine Chandon website, and this one caught my eye awhile back. It seemed perfect for tonight, so I saved it until now. I must say, it was worth the […]
For our Valentine’s Day/engagement anniversary this year, I made a few festive and colorful recipes. I found them on the Domaine Chandon Winery website, and then I put my own personal spin on them. The menu included tiny purple potatoes with sour cream and caviar, troll-caught salmon with roasted red and yellow beets, orange crème […]
This January, I have been working my way through the Domaine Chandon Cookbook: Recipes from Étoile Restaurant. I associate sparkling wine with the beginning of the year, so it seemed like the perfect cookbook for this month. (In case you aren’t familiar with the winery, Domaine Chandon is best known for its bubbly since it is […]
A friend of mine introduced me to this cool new snack this winter. Kale gets crispy like potato chips in the oven. Who knew? I would have never guessed that is how it would turn out. They are a fun way to get more greens! They feel like junk food, but they’re definitely not :). […]
Happy 2011! I have been on a little Julia Child kick this winter…I watched the movie Julie & Julia again, I am reading My Life in France and I tried a couple of recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1. One of those recipes was for a pear clafouti, which we had […]
One of our favorite salads for Christmas is called a Three Kings Salad. It fuses a colorful group of three of the season’s best and tastiest :). I was inspired by the original recipe, which can be found at MyRecipes.com, but I added and omitted ingredients to our taste. It is forgiving, so use whatever […]
Today was Christmas cookie day at our house :). I spent a fun afternoon baking a couple of batches. I found the cutest little cookie cutters at Williams-Sonoma this year that made them extra special. They are shaped like a gingerbread man, a snowflake and a Christmas ornament, but the cool thing about them is […]
It is Christmas cookie season again, and I decided to try my hand at something new this year called springerle. They are traditional German anise cookies that use a special mold. My parents gave me a metal springerle board last Christmas, and I am part German, so I thought I would give them a try! […]
Happy Thanksgiving! For one of my favorite holidays, we hosted a little family get together at our house this year, and we made all of our traditional favorites – Slow roasted turkey breast with gravy (I tried a new recipe from America’s Test Kitchen this year for the main course, which I would highly recommend. The […]
Happy birthday to Rob! On this day, I usually make him dinner with his favorite ingredients including beef tenderloin, asparagus and carrot cake. This year he said it might be fun to try a less traditional main course to shake things up :). After searching my favorite markets, I found a rabbit! The menu included […]
Happy Halloween! For one of my favorite holidays, I tried a fun idea this year from Sunset magazine for deviled eggs with little black olive spiders on top. Super cute! Just choose your favorite deviled egg recipe, or use the one below for a very simple and reduced fat version. Deviled Spider Eggs 6 hard-boiled […]
Happy Sweetest Day! This is one of those little holidays that gives us an excuse for a little celebration. I am all for that :). I decided to make a special dinner menu to mark the occasion. The recipes were from a really good book I read this year called A Homemade Life: Stories and […]
One dessert that I make over and over again for special occasions is my favorite carrot cupcake recipe. Most recently, I made a batch for my mom’s birthday this month! (Pictured) They have a surprising amount of carrots, and you really can’t tell you are sneaking in a whole grain with your dessert either. I […]
Rob and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary today with a romantic dinner at home. Cooking is always a fun way to spend time together, and there’s nothing we like more than to create a nice meal and enjoy it outside on a warm summer night. To us, that’s a perfect evening together…The perfect way […]
*About the photos This is Seafair weekend in Seattle, which is an annual summer celebration including hydroplane racing and an air show featuring the Blue Angels. We live very close to the flight path where the Blue Angels fly, so I get a great view of the synchronized air show from my kitchen. Occasionally, the […]
Every August 1st, Rob and I celebrate two little anniversaries. It marks the day I moved to Seattle, as well as the day Rob and I moved into our current house together. We celebrate all kinds of little anniversaries like this one. They give us an excuse to have a nice dinner or to do […]
I promised to share my recipe for our favorite strawberry cheesecake tart, and here it is! 🙂 I usually make at least a couple of these tarts in the summertime when strawberries are at their peak. It’s one of our very favorite recipes. It is also pretty enough to share with company. The original recipe […]