I have no recollection of the first time I tried monkey bread, but somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must have done something good because it was included in my growing-up experience. Whenever my mom made it she used store-bought bread dough, which made assembling much easier (I never once saw a jar or packet of yeast in her kitchen). She’d roll small pieces of dough into…
There has been a slight chill in the air the past week – just the faintest whisperings of September – so naturally I found myself in the kitchen baking bundt cakes. I used to make an Espresso Bundt Cake back in my bakery days, but I found the recipe slightly lacking and dry when remaking it in my home kitchen. I decided to revamp my Lemon Poppy Seed…
This just might be a perfect summer dessert: a chocolate cookie crust, no-churn (and so easy!) coffee ice cream, with a topping of caramel whipped cream and candied cacao nibs. The crust and ice cream base can be put together a day or two in advance, which also comes in handy. If you aren’t into the candied cacao nibs, crushed chocolate covered espresso beans would also be delicious…
**This post is sponsored by Dunn Brothers Coffee. As usual, all opinions are my own.** Coffee is a lot more than just a drink; it’s something happening. Not as in hip, but like an event, a place to be, but not like a location, but like somewhere within yourself. It gives you time, but not actual hours or minutes, but a chance to be, like be yourself, and…
I spent several summers in my almost 20’s frequenting Java Jack’s in South Minneapolis. It was a late-night, chain-smoking, Soundgarden-cranking coffee hangout, an odd choice for an early-morning, non-smoking, Sarah McLachlan-loving woman. But my sister and I drove there every single night after we closed down the shopping mall coffee shop we worked at, and spent our evenings out on the patio slurping down granitas with the regulars.…
This post is in partnership with The Quaker Oats Company. January is often a time of reflection and change, and after spending the past 15 months baking my little heart out for my cookbook and buying and consuming more butter than I ever thought possible, it’s time to pay attention to the foods I’m eating. I’ve always been terrible with moderation; I usually cut all sweets and fat…
I haven’t baked a lot with coconut milk, but find myself looking to it more and more for various reasons. I have many friends with food allergies or dietary restrictions and most of them are able to consume coconut milk, so I find it’s a good substitute for milk and/or cream in recipes. Also, sometimes I just need a break from all the dairy in my diet, and…
(1) Turn off the Radio. (2) Read all the good books you can, and avoid nearly all magazines. (3) Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again. (4) Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things,…
A few months back I took part in With Food + Love‘s “21 Days to Lean and Green” program. It’s a three week mind and body reboot, focusing on slowing down and putting yourself, and your health, first. It was a great experience – Sherrie is a constant and thoughtful encouragement, and in that short time she gave a lot of great tools to help me stop and…
‘In a way, baking stands both as a useful metaphor for the familial warmth of the kitchen we fondly imagine used to exist, and as a way of reclaiming our lost Eden. This is hardly a culinary matter, of course; but cooking, we know, has a way of cutting through things, and to things, which have nothing to do with the kitchen. This is why it matters. The…
