World Cup of Yum

Pasta with Burst Cherry Tomato Sauce and Fried Caper Crumbs

Cookbook Club – America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Illustrated For February’s Cookbook Club, people were able to choose recipes from the America’s Test Kitchen website and cookbook and the affiliated Cook’s Illustrated magazine and cookbook. To see what we selected from the thousands of recipe options, go to my cookbook club site. For now – my…

Lavender Madeleines

Now that I have lavender sugar, my first experiment in using it was these Lavender Madeleines, which I have to say turned out great. I have had this worm in the back of my mind about making madeleines ever since I watched the movie The Transporter (yes, Jason Statham is one of my guilty pleasures…

Lavender Sugar

I was gifted some lavender, which my friend grew and dried herself. I love the scent of lavender and the wonderful fragrance it adds to baked goods, so I was excited to try incorporating it into my baking. The first step was figuring out how to work with it, and after consulting with a chef…

Caramelized Cabbage with Bacon

I crave this cabbage dish. How many cabbage dishes can you say that about? But I kid you not. The caramelized sweetness of the cabbage with crispy bacon bits and a touch of spice make it a savory spicy sweet bit of heaven. Do you think dessert cabbage could ever become a thing? Guessipe 1…

Medicine Ball Tea

Medicine Ball Tea was a customer-created Starbucks “secret menu” item that developed such a cult following they eventually put it on the regular menu as Honey Citrus Mint Tea. Lots of people swear by its medicinal properties for alleviating cold and flu symptoms. My boyfriend had talked repeatedly about how delicious and healing the tea…

Orange Creamsicle Ricotta Mousse

My boyfriend loves orange creamsicles, so I decided to try making Orange Creamsicle Ricotta Mousse. When you have super high quality ricotta, it’s really easy to make delicious things. It only involved a few ingredients, but my boyfriend and dinner guests were very impressed by this fancy-seeming dessert. Guessipe 4 cups ricotta, drained over a…

Whipped Ricotta Fettunta

I got another ricotta bounty from my cheese supplier (AKA friend who works for the best Italian cheese company ever). There is an Italian restaurant nearby that I used to go to specifically for their Whipped Ricotta Fettunta… until it occurred to me that with the incredible ricotta from my friend I could probably make…

Peperonata

One day I was looking for something to do with some spare bell peppers, and I remembered having peperonata when I was in Italy. It’s a stewed bell pepper dish which often also includes onion, garlic, and tomatoes. All I happened to have on hand was bell peppers and red onion, but it still came…

Pizza Sauce

My boyfriend is obsessed with pizza. I got him a pizza stone for Christmas one year, and he has been steadily honing his pizza-making skills by throwing regular pizza parties. My role is to make the pizza sauce. This recipe was one from a friend which I have tweaked to give it a bit more…

Quick Stewed Eggplant with Coconut

Cookbook Club – Holiday Year in Review 2021 Our December Cookbook Club is traditionally a year in review event where we pick recipes from any of the cookbooks we’ve used that year. But because of COVID we were only able to gather for about half the year. That meant we had fewer cookbooks to choose…

Spicy Italian Sausage with Kale and Tomato

This dish uses just a handful of ingredients and a single pan, but the flavors of the sausage, kale, and tomato go so well together that you don’t need anything else. My boyfriend says it’s like a really delicious pasta, only without any pasta – that’s a glowing endorsement from someone who would live on…

Apple-Cinnamon Cereal Snickerdoodles

Cookbook Club – Holiday Cookie Swap As a bonus Cookbook Club event, we did a holiday cookie swap where each person chose a recipe from either BraveTart, The Cookie Collection, or Dorie’s Cookies. Then we all got together and swapped cookies, so you went with one batch of cookies and came home with a variety…