A Cup of Sugar ... A Pinch of Salt

Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Quick and Simple Blueberry Almond Cake

It’s Blueberry Season! I know, many of you might say that it is almost always blueberry season, but for me, “real” blueberries — the sweet, tart, bursting with flavor despite only being a 1/4 of an inch big, one that you rake from the barrens in Maine — are the only blueberries that count. If you make this blueberry cake, seek out the little gems and if you can’t find the real Maine wild blueberries fresh, go for the frozen ones (Wymans are great) but avoid fresh cultivated ones that are about the size of grapes because they sink to the bottom of your loaf cake and make a mess.

7. August 2026

Appetizers/Starters, Savory Snacks

Cajun Deviled Duck Eggs with Crispy Onions and Bacon Bits

And now for something completely different. I ended up with a half dozen farm fresh duck eggs from a farm stand. They were out of chicken eggs, but I decided I still wanted to experiment, so I ended up with these gargantuan eggs. Here’s a secret though: they are just like the chicken variety only bigger, so if you’re going to make these and don’t want to deal with the ducking part, just use 6 chicken eggs and do the rest of the recipe the same. They are big and delicious and a great appetizer, though you’ll only need one for a snack.

4. August 2026

Breakfast/Brunch, Sweet Snacks

Apricot Cardamom Muffins

Here is another simple and quick muffin recipe. Pretty much all my standard muffin recipes follow the same format, and you can swap out the berries or the fruit (or the chocolate chips of whatever). They are ready, start to finish, in under an hour and this time, I had almost overly ripe apricots, so I went with that as my “mix-in” option. Easy to have ready on the breakfast table.

27. July 2026

Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Red Velvet and Vanilla Marbled Cupcakes, Double Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

It’s about once per year that I make something “Red Velvet-y”. OK, maybe twice per year. That usually coincides with my best friend’s birthday, because she is crazy for red velvet anything. This year, I went with Red Velvet and Vanilla Marbled Cupcakes, Double Vanilla Frosting with festive sprinkles. Recipe makes a ton of cupcakes (like 25 or so) so if you need to feed a crowd, here you go!

27. July 2026

Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Mixed Berry Cheesecake Crumble Bars

This is my 4th attempt at making these Mixed Berry Cheesecake Crumble Bars. Well, first they started out as Strawberry Shortcake Cream Cheese Bar (disaster). Then I tried Raspberries. Not much better. Switched to mixed berries and the rest of the recipe (the cream cheese, the eggs, the Greek yogurt) got a complete overhaul. It wasn’t really about the berries, it was always about the ratios of the ingredients and the technique, times and cooling in between. When I finally got it right, these are perfection. And now the berry types won’t matter either. I might try it as a cheese cake pie variation later this week too. Proud of myself for finally figuring it out.

20. July 2026

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