I rarely make things that are artificially colored. I just generally don’t like the way that they taste — not to mention how they often look — but every once in a while there are exceptions. Case in point: these Mini-M&M Brownie Bites, all dressed up in Spring and Easter colors. While yes, there is an overload of pastel here, it is the exception in my baking. The brownies are my “from scratch” recipe — no box here — and I painstakingly divided the colors from the mini-M&M packages. Yes, I am insane! 🙂
holidays
Happy Valentine’s Day! OK, it’s still a full on 10 days until Valentine’s Days, but I like to make cookies ahead of time. And Linzer Cookies it is, because I seem to *always* make Linzer Cookies at Valentine’s Day. This year, I went with some of both my standard (raspberry) but also Passion Fruit, which is a jam that is harder to find. Search around for a bit – it’s worth it (note: I found it in a Latin American bodega… language lesson of the day is that passion fruit in Spanish is Maracuya!)
Nougatkipferl have never been my favorite of my Christmas Cookies to make. There are a number of things wrong with the recipe that I have been using for years, not the least of which is that nougat is really hard to find in the US. Substituting Nutella has usually worked, however this year, Nutella’s ingredient / composition changed somewhat (to much controversy, actually), and that made it more difficult to bake with. So, after a fail or two with the dough, I started from scratch and came up with this recipe. It has a little bit of corn syrup in it, which is not my favorite thing, but seemed to help with the dough’s consistency when I was rolling it out.
Every year, I seem to make another variation on cranberry sauce. There have been versions with ginger, apple, port wine and this one, with Rosemary and White Balsamic. It’s a great little combination, though you really have to like rosemary as it is pretty powerful as far as herbs go. It will go great with your turkey dinner though. Tick tock, almost Thanksgiving!
It’s getting to be that season where you might have to “feed a crowd”. You know, those times when there might need to be enough food for a dozen, or two dozen people. Enter this pie. It’s designed to feed a crowd, between 20-24 people. It’s a pretty big canvas too, so you can easily work on your lattice skills or, as I did, play with some cookie cutters to make a cute little pattern of flowers. Either way, it’s yummy and will be sure to be enough for the whole gang.











