Pile of Shingles

This pie got rave reviews in spite of the odds against it. What odds do you say? Well primarily because I didn't cook it enough. Adorable right? What happened was that I was trying so hard to bake the pie in advance without overcooking my beautiful lattice work. In hindsight this was a real low risk and silly to be concerned with. I normally make things to be consumed rather immediately and then perhaps as leftovers. I ended up making this pie again by request for my parents on New Years. If you chose to buy pre-made crust... it will take you less than 10 minutes to put together. Isn't that incredible? A delicious and impressive pie so quickly. The secret to kicking it up a notch is absolutely the almond paste. Sure, you could skip that step but then you are just making a normal apple pie. Here's how it goes. Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a large bowl, combine the sliced apples with the lemon juice. Whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in ...

I have made a lot of macarons recently - or so it feels. I made two batches of peppermint macarons in early December. I got a little fancy with my piping bag food coloring to create red swirls. But this weekend, I felt the urge to make another batch but it did not feel exciting to do more peppermint ones. That's how I ended up with gingerbread macarons. If you can make regular macarons, there is nothing stopping you from these seasonal favorites. I was a little nervous about how the spices would affect the almond batter consistency ... even though it is such a small amount. These shells are so ridiculously finicky that you don't want to mess with them too much. The last time I made macarons I changed up my recipe a bit and I feel pretty great about them now. What did I change? Lowered the temp significantly to 300F and added more dry ingredients to the whipped merengue. This tutorial from Tasty is the best macaron tutorial I've ever read . I will now always look...

These cookies are addicting and delicious .... and I absolutely made some mistakes when I was making them. But wow, if you aren't interested in trying them ... please show yourself to the door. Although technically an oatmeal cookie, it is lacking all the things that make people sad like raisins and a heavy oat textures. Sure there are a lot of oats in the recipe but you can't really tell because they are blended down to a finer texture. My recipe came out a little bit different than the original but primarily because I freaked out about moisture. I was so worried about the dough not being able to keep together that I added about 3 tablespoons of melted butter to the dough. I'm a big fan of the result. They are almost permanently chewy but still strong enough to keep their shape and get covered in glaze. https://www.acozykitchen.com/iced-oatmeal-cookies#wprm-recipe-container-41513 To Make the Cookies: In the bowl of a food processor, grind the oats to a flour...

While the internet and social media can sometimes be terrible places, they have brought two wonderful things into my life. Cake decorating and macaroon videos. Both of which collided into this peppermint macaroon.  With each passing recipe, I'm growing less and less scared of piping bags. I have also been watching the "Great British Baking Show" each night so I'm sure that helps too.  The peppermint swirl would be better accomplished with gel food coloring but I'm not about to buy more food coloring until I finish what I have. I'm stingy like that. In full disclosure, I also used some leftover buttercream that I froze from this summer from the not so successful matcha coconut macarons . It worked like a charm and I love the coconut flavor... it was not too aggressive with the peppermint either. Set your oven to 325 F Combine your almond flour and powdered sugar in a flour sifter and sift until you have a nice, pretty pile.  In a mixing bowl, bea...

If you want to unnecessarily get people excited, tell them you need child-safe ornaments on your Christmas tree. The real story is that sweet Ginger Rose wagged her tail just right to sling one off the tree and shatter it against the table. I knew time was ticking a bit on the ornaments I made in 2015. They are glass balls and by some miracle they made it four years without shattering one. But - I have more kids running around here these days and it was time for a change. I like making things myself instead of buying them. Plus, then I don't feel bad when I want something different. There is limited emotional attachment to those 60 glass ornaments from 2015. Sure I do remember making them and having fun and then letting my family each make a couple - but it wasn't like I was on a special vacation and bought an ornament. For some perspective, here is the history of prior trees: 2012, 2013 = twine balls 2014 = disks with holes in them 2015-2018 = hand painted balls 201...

I've skipped right over Thanksgiving and into Christmas. While I normally am eager to make the switch, I feel more aggressive than normal. My excuse for decorating in November used to be that I was taking advantage of having Veteran's Day off from work.  However this year, I'm just plain aggressive. I had my outdoor decor all set up a week for about a week before I turned on the lights. In the spirit of being extremely ready for the Christmas season, I also took care of my Christmas Cookie Swap. My friend Becca of The Salted Cookie runs a swap each year. Last year I made  these matcha cookies . They were good but not really amazing. I am terrible at melting chocolate... and then the subsequent dipping of cookies into the chocolate felt clumsy.  I can't remember where I saw this initial recipe but the person talked about how irresistible these little meringues were - and they were right. They are just sweet enough and just peppermint-y enough and just the ...

Ricotta is often on the list of things I fail to finish in my fridge. A recipe will call for a half cup and then it'll just sit there slowly expiring with my good intentions. But - if I'm going to make budget decisions and buy generic cereal... I should also be mindful of my wasted $1.50 on the remaining ricotta. Coincidentally, my mom dropped off some surprise bananas a few weeks ago. While my siblings will eat bananas as a snack, I only eat them baked. Brief flashback to the banana cakes from earlier this summer: banana cinnamon cake , cinnamon banana muffins , and banana hazelnut cake . Thankfully, ricotta can be used in a banana bread. Ricotta will give it a very moist result.... unfortunately I slightly overcooked this so some of the moisture wasn't there. But, I would definitely do this again. Preheat your oven to 350"F In a medium bowl whisk together the olive oil or melted butter and sugars together until creamy. Add the vanilla extract, ricotta chee...

  I've been holding on to tomato growing season as long as I possibly could. I really pushed the limits this year.... but I also believe that I really utilized my tomatoes as best as I ever have. I have processed and canned a whole lot of sauce. It has been living in stacks on my kitchen counter since mid-September so time to divide up the winnings and store for Winter. I worked pretty hard to ripen the most tomatoes possible but still ended up with many green ones. There are some fairly traditional recipes for green tomatoes: fried green tomatoes and relish. I didn't not have it in me to do any more canning so I turned to a 3rd option.... this green tomato bread. I think you can put it in the zucchini bread bucket if you are looking to classify it.  Frankly it would be hard for this bread to be disappointing. It has all the components for success: butter, sugar, and cinnamon. The tomatoes are finely diced enough that they don't affect the consistency of the brea...

Here is another dish to sneak some veggies into your diet... also who doesn't love mac and cheese? I was hosting a small gathering for Halloween. Halloween is a big holiday in my neighborhood. Houses don't go crazy with decorations but there are endless amounts of kids running around. I buy my candy in bulk from Amazon and simultaneously pray that they come and eat it all ... and also that I don't run out. I fell in love with this recipe from Food52 because it optimizes for crunchiness. We are a family that would fight to the death over the corner pieces from a Stouffers mac and cheese. There were some comments that it could be cheesier - and I get that. So if that is you, just amp up the cheese but honestly I loved it! You get a bit of a crunch on the bottom of the pan and on the top. The pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas) were a hit as well. My mom commented on them several times. Here's how it goes. Heat oven to 475°F. Grease a 11x17-inch sheet pan with rimme...

I am 100% over eating caprese salads with burrata. I go real hard on them in July and August... so when tomato season really kicks into gear I'm just tired. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of buying more burrata at Trader Joe's one day. I was feeling ambitious and also like "I still have so many tomatoes in my garden" guilty.  Thankfully, I scrolled past this baked ziti recipe on Instagram one day and was saved. It would be a home for so many things from the garden: tomatoes, basil, and peppers. Plus, it would be a very different use for burrata.  If you are ever looking to sneak vegetables into a dish, this one is for you. I barely even noticed the carrots and mushrooms when I was eating. That being said, it was not as creamy as I would like. I might recommend adding like 30% more if you make it. But also it was totally fine! I just had a slightly more sinful and gooey image in my mind when I was chopping away. Also, if you aren't into burrata....

Technically this is a pumpkin loaf... but I don't want to call it that. I'm not a huge pumpkin flavor person. I've never been one for a pumpkin spice latte. Pumpkin pie? No thanks. I do get on board with other seasonal flavors. Gingerbread, peppermint, etc. It feels like there are others but I can't think of them right now. I came across this recipe on Twitter and it won me over . I think because it was not screaming "I'm a pumpkin loaf". The most amazing part of it was that I only needed two things to make the whole recipe happen. The end result is incredibly delicious. The ginger cuts the traditional pumpkin flavor into an unexpected harvest flavor. Does that make sense? Maybe not. You'll just have to make the loaf and see. I was feeling particularly ambitious on this occasion so I decided to make my own butter as well. While that might sound aggressive, homemade butter is very easy. It only requires patience, a stand mixer and heavy cre...

This weekend I very intentionally flipped through several of my recipe books to find a new recipe to make. After a couple books, I found things that I would want to make some day but not right now. While I don't have a million cookbooks, I certainly have enough that it would be great to find some inspiration from them in the kitchen as opposed to just for decor. I ended up finding this recipe in a fall edition of Real Simple magazine . It was not lying when it said 20 minute prep time. I barely did any work here. In fact I did more work taking pictures of the meal cooking over 6 hours than I had done preparing it. In short, I highly recommend this for people who are busy or just want to be surprised by a tasty meal on their counter 6-8 hours later. I will say it has certain "intensity" or "heat" to it that might not be super suitable to kids? I'm not sure what kids eat. I'm not a person that loves hot flavoring but you could just cut back on th...

Does actually sifting flour make a difference in cookies? Maybe.  All I know is these cookies are delicious. They are beyond simple. Just a chocolate chip cookie. I refuse to compare the recipe to another one because I need to believe the recipe is a little bit of magic. In full disclosure, this recipe is from The Gilded Hotel in Newport. I stayed there earlier in the Fall for a birthday weekend. The place was super cute but they also served chocolate chip cookies nearly on command. There were cookies at 4pm when we were getting ready for dinner.... and again at 1:30 AM when we got home for the night. Did I eat a chocolate chip cookie in bed? No. I ate two. When we were checking out the next morning, I casually asked if they ever gave out the recipe. Without even a second thought, they gave it up. I love when people share like that. Why keep all the good stuff for yourself? I'm still busy telling everyone how amazing the all the food was at this hotel. One night this...

A couple weeks back I had the best quiche ever. It made me realize how lazy and terrible my quiches had been to date. I just would mix eggs and milk and call it a day. BUT, this new quiche was so perfect. I legit could not stop talking about it at the brunch. I came home with the motivation to drastically improve my quiche. I knew right away that the answer would not be low calorie. I was adding way too much egg and needed to swap that with some heavy cream. I did some quick googling and came upon a recipe literally titled " Best Quiche Recipe ". My suspicions were true.... more heavy cream and whole milk. This recipe did help me realize two things. One? I'm not sure where my pie plate is. Two? I forgot that I threw out my pastry brush last Spring. What did I learn this time? Springform pan // Wonderful swap. I love how deep it makes the quiche and the overall structure. It does however essentially double the cooking time. I never use pie weights // Not once...

Good news. You can make healthy food even better with two small tricks. One? Cut the vegetables into adorable shapes like half moons. Two? Make this super easy dressing and pour it all on. Last weekend I stayed at The Gilded in Newport . The food was so amazing that since checking out I have asked for two of their recipes... and they have actually emailed them to me. At some point in the near future I will absolutely be making their chocolate chip cookies, but until then I make a version of their incredible tomato salad.  Their tomato salad was a bit different than mine. I refused to go to more than one grocery store (TJ's doesn't have fava beans) and needed to amp it up a bit to be more filling. The real reason this salad is amazing is the dressing. It is so light and flavorful without being too much of anything. You don't feel like you are eating a bowl of cilantro. I can see myself making a dressing like this for many years to come.  Changes I made: - Swapped fava...

Woah. I had no idea that these little bitty eggplants could be so delicious. I think I have always turned away from eggplant parmesan because of the eggplant. In hindsight that is truly ridiculous because nothing can be terrible when you cover it in cheese. When I was planning my garden this year, I really wanted to include a patio baby eggplant. The patio baby produces plants that are much smaller than traditional plants. They are ideal for growing on patios (obviously) and for people who don't need a ton of large produce (single people). I did try to grow this same variety last year but it was largely unproductive. The plant has been bursting with little eggplants for much of the summer but I didn't get around to really using them until this week. Until now I've been forcing them on people who come for tomatoes. You want some fresh tomatoes? Take an eggplant as a bonus item. Making eggplant parm doesn't take a lifetime but it does have more steps than I'd...

This is the story of a last minute dessert. A dessert with the best of intentions that went from idea .... to failure... to success. Dare I say, an even better success than it would have been it everything had worked out. I invited my friend Ann over on Saturday for dinner. I lured her over with the promise of fresh buratta and garden tomatoes. Since that did not feel like enough of a meal, I wanted to "whip up" a dessert real quick. Although I have a healthy stash of ice cream sandwiches in the freezer, I kind of wanted to show Ann a good time. Not a "do you want mint chip or funfetti frozen yogurt ice cream bar?" time. I've made galettes several times before and they've been incredibly easy. The first time I made one, I also made my own ice cream . The most "complicated" part is making a pie dough but if that stresses you out, you can just buy a pre-made crust. But when I was grabbing some last minute prosciutto at the store, I didn'...

Did I paint my nails just for this picture? Yes. Did I paint just the left hand? Also yes. How long did it take for me to paint the right hand? 48 hours. I've been this way for years. It either takes me an hour to do my nails... or days. Or I never finish and I just start over again with fresh polish. But back to the macarons. I bought matcha back in December for these cookie swap cookies . It's a really unique flavor profile. If someone tells you they don't like matcha, I feel like they are being picky. Matcha absolutely has *some flavor* but its also like *no flavor* at the same time. I came across a recipe for mango coconut macaron ... which sounded great. But I didn't have any mango and it felt like a lot of work. I did have matcha and the flavors matched up well. Like I said, matcha isn't that strong of a flavor in general. Or I have low bar matcha. That could also be true. A few notes about this recipe / attempt: - I don't think it is advisab...