Amanda’s Chocolate Cookies
Amanda’s Chocolate Cookies comes from Amanda Hesser’s Cooking For Mr. Latte, where it is called Chocolate Chunk-Pecan-Coconut Cookies. As I have changed the recipe a great deal, removing the both the pecans and the coconut shreds, I have altered the name accordingly. The result is a hefty chocolate chip cookie,…
Wacky Cake Revisited
As more people are vaccinated and lockdowns lift, social life is gradually resuming. People are once more gathering and eating together. Sooner or later, you may be invited someplace, and you may be asked to bring a dessert. Many people, rightly or not, find the entire business of baking anxiety-inducing….
Some bloggers plan their posts down to the final punctuation mark. I am not one of these people. This time was different. I had a vision of four fruit galettes, beautifully arranged and photographed, their fillings warmly aglow. You get the idea. Of course, my vision failed to manifest. There…
Pandemic Cooking with Pantry Items
Social media is awash in titles like the above. They’re decidedly grim, but no sense messing around, is there? Unrelated pretty picture. I’m sorry if you’re sick of these kinds of posts. Who could blame you? By now you’re probably sick of just about everything. You long to go outside….
Little Lemon Cakes
Too many lemons is a first world problem, but there you are. We have a lemon tree in our yard, but so do lots of other Bay Area inhabitants. Free lemons aren’t always met with appreciation. Searching for a productive way to use up my lemon glut, I turned to…
Espresso Chocolate Truffles
Elizabeth David, writing her magisterially grumpy Elizabeth David’s Christmas, tackles edible gifting with her usual verve, writing: Those bottles of indeterminate sherry and port, Christmas puddings and tins of tea and fancy biscuits are survivals from the days when such things were distributed by Ladies Bountiful to old retainers, retired nannies…
Plum Galette
From Dictionary.com Goat Rodeo: a slang term for something going totally, unbelievably, disastrously wrong, and there’s nothing left to do but to sit back and watch the trainwreck. — Plum galette came about the way most of my recipes do: by accident. I had a glut of pluots…
Halvah Brownies
Every night after dinner I ask John what he wants for dessert. And every night, he asks if we have any brownies. By brownies he means: do we have any home-baked brownies? Specifically, David Lebovitz’s recipe for Dave And Kate’s Remarkable Brownies? Fortunately, the recipe requires little by way of skill…
Lemon Cake with Almond Flour
As I write, California is experiencing terrible fires. Here are some ways to help: The United Way is helping people affected by the Camp Fire. The American Red Cross is also accepting donations. The North Valley Community Foundation is accepting donations. To help animals impacted by the fires, the Conscious Cat…
Cherry Chocolate Brownies
Apologies for the delays between posts. Until last month, I managed a long-term case of patellar bursitis with regular cortisone injections. My doctor warned these shots would eventually become refactory. Eventually has arrived. It means delays between posts. — Let’s talk about cherries. They are in season, and of course,…