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...