It isn’t Christmas at the Conklins’ without Gingerbread with pears
Recipe: My Grandma Conklin’s gingerbread with my Mom’s touch of adding a caramelized pear topping.
I should probably start this blog off by saying that no, I am not confused about what time of year it is. I’m aware it’s nowhere near Christmas – a person need only step outside in the 100-degree-index heat (gross!) to know that couldn’t possibly be the case. It is, however, cultural awareness month at work (or is June in general cultural awareness month?…) and tomorrow the health care team is having a cultural diversity lunch. Everyone is supposed to bring in some sort of food that is part of their culture or that they always had growing up. It took me a while to come to this conclusion, but I eventually realized that the perfect thing to bring in was the dessert my family traditionally makes every holiday season: gingerbread with pears.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, or How I Learned to Fall in Love with Peanut Butter All Over Again
Recipe: A chocolate-peanut butter cookie with peanut butter in the middle.
For the last few years, I’ve been on a sort of peanut-butterless diet. It was just one of those things that happened I suppose. I lived overseas in a country that doesn’t sell peanut butter (as far as I can remember…) and when I got back, I got swept up in cooking new and interesting foods. And, poor peanut butter, it got left behind.
Chocolate-chocolate chip cookie and strawberry gelato sandwich – the adult version of a childhood summer favorite
Recipe: A chocolate-chocolate chip cookie and homemade strawberry gelato sandwich.
As a kid, when the ice cream man was rolling around the neighborhood during the summers in his then-not-sketchy truck (I have to say then-not-sketchy truck because, whoa, what happened to the ice cream truck in the past ten years?? Sketch city! Yikes.), I would always get one of two things: the pink panther head on the stick (the yellow gumball eye was totally the best part!); or an ice cream sandwich. I have to admit, the ice cream sandwich has fallen a little by the wayside as I’ve gotten older, but not because they aren’t completely fantastic. I think as adults, we just have fewer obvious opportunities to choose them as a summer treat. Which is kind of a shame, actually. (Although let’s be honest, at this particular moment if I could choose the pink panther head on a stick or an ice cream sandwich, I’d choose the pink panther head on the stick. But alas, that’s for a different blog when I find a random recipe online for this long-lost dessert.)
Chocolate malt cupcake review, and what’s next you ask? Heaven. Chilled strawberry, chocolatey heaven is what’s next, my friend.
The chocolate malt cupcakes turned out ridiculously well!! They were like eating a chocolate malt milkshake in cupcake form and it doesn’t get much better than that. The frosting was, as I feared, a little flat so next time I’d definitely beat it up more, but it still tasted really great and everyone seemed to enjoy them. So thank you random blogger who posted this recipe – YOU ROCK. This one’s definitely going in the future-bakery-must-have stack.
Eat your heart out, Malt Balls!
Recipe: A chocolate malted cupcake with a chocolate malted whipped frosting… ohhhh yeah…
I’ve known my best friend, Cari, since the first day of second grade, which means we’ve known each other for nearly, holy crap, 20 years… yowzah, we’re old. Anyway, among my earlier memories of us hanging out in elementary school are sleep overs at her house. Now this was awesome for a number of reasons. First, and most importantly, they had a PING PONG table in their LIVING ROOM. And it rocked. Secondly, in the morning, Cari’s dad, Mr. Crosby (I know, I know, I’m an adult now and should call other adults by their first names, but there are some people who are always going to be Mr. X or Mrs. X and that’s just how it is) would make pancakes and we’d get his “special syrup.” (I later learned it was really just the real stuff, as opposed to Mrs. Butterworth we always used). But on one of these occasions, I remember Mr. Crosby making us milk shakes. But not just any milk shakes. Chocolate malted milk shakes. And thus a favorite milk shake was born in the heart of this then-young gal. I can’t thank you enough, Mr. Crosby…
A review and what the hell, pesticides??
So the blueberry cornmeal cake was good. The co-workers seemed to enjoy it and commented, more specifically, on how the ricotta cheese gave the cake a nice tanginess. For next time, I think I’d add more blueberries because, really, you can’t ever have too many blueberries! And I’m still considering adding a cream cheese layer. Surprisingly, I think I could do with a little less of the cornmeal flavor… Anyway, overall it was fine – a good ‘hello, summer!’ cake.
Exercises in Glucose Replenishment: My weekly experiments in baking 