a little zaftig

Quick Chicken Fricassee with Olives and Broken Cherry Tomatoes

by Laura 26 March 2011

This quick chicken fricassee is a perfect lazy night’s cook up. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are rich and ready quickly, and the sauce is three simple ingredients: white wine, briny olives, and the best cherry tomatoes you can find. By the time they simmer down to a pan sauce, the chicken thighs are fall-apart tender [...]

Read the full article

Meyer Lemon Mascarpone Muffins

by Laura 23 March 2011

We’ve been on a muffin tear this week. But our Honey Girl’s Mr. Right arrives tomorrow morning from Alabama for a visit. And since his favorite meal of the day is breakfast, she’s test driving another muffin idea we had tonight to make sure it’s perfect for an airport basket-full-of-love welcome. As we were walking [...]

Read the full article

Four-minute Chocolate Chocolate Cake for One

by Laura 22 March 2011

We took our first two-hour walk of the season today, through the woods and marshes near our house. Slippery ice, squishy mud, the first glimpses of patches of green since our November snow fell, honking geese, loud woodpeckers at work, and Little Annie as happy as can be. Welcome Spring! When we returned, muddy pawed [...]

Read the full article

Orange Chocolate Muffin Pudding

by Laura 21 March 2011

Sometimes I feel a bit like the bear family that Goldilocks disturbed, or at least how I imagine they would feel, not really bothered so much as surprised. Surprised to come home to find their bedclothes rumpled and their chairs sat upon. Except that it’s not a not-so-little bear that’s disturbing my house. It’s my [...]

Read the full article

Orange Chocolate Muffins

by Laura 20 March 2011

My Honey Girl loves a good muffin. Not an oil-oozing, oversized piece of pound cake in a muffin paper. A true muffin. Dainty. Well flavored. Muffin in nature with little relationship to cake. She made these the day she arrived from college for spring break, from a recipe I improvised when she asked for one [...]

Read the full article

Oatmeal Chocolate Coconut Cookies

by Laura 20 March 2011

These crispy-at-the-edges, moist-and-chewy-in-the-center cookies are a staple in our cookie jar and a snap to make. Share This: Recommend on FacebookShare on PinterestShare with StumblersTweet about itEmail a friend

Read the full article

Poached Pear & Fresh Ricotta Turnovers

by Laura 18 March 2011

I’m not very good with non-critical deadlines. Taxes, work, all good. But I think I have missed entering the Pillsbury Bakeoff about ten times, and last time around I didn’t check the time of day that entries closed and, busy checking my recipe for the nth time, missed it by 11 minutes. So, it should [...]

Read the full article

Lamb Stew

by Laura 17 March 2011

The birds returned to Minnesota two weeks ago, on a day when the temperature was negative one. They are the first harbingers of spring for me, when the world still feels impossibly cold for birds, and it’s hard to imagine little green blades rising through the frozen earth. Now their twitter tweet-tweet-tweet is a morning [...]

Read the full article

A Banana Bread Spectacular :: From Plain Jane Loaf to Homey Dessert: Banana Bread Sautéed in Clarified Butter with Caramelized Bananas & Flaming Whisky Sauce, Tea Cake with Celtic Crossing Frosting, and More!

by Laura 16 March 2011

Thumbnail image for A Banana Bread Spectacular :: From Plain Jane Loaf to Homey Dessert: Banana Bread Sautéed in Clarified Butter with Caramelized Bananas & Flaming Whisky Sauce, Tea Cake with Celtic Crossing Frosting, and More!

Our Sweet Boy Freddy woke up to a happy surprise. His friend Carly came over to bake with me Sunday morning. Much silliness ensued. I told my friend William yesterday that I suffer from recipe brain. It’s a blessing, until it isn’t. It wakes me up, keeps me up, and seldom lets me rest. I [...]

Read the full article

Tipsy Pudding with Spiced Wine & Honey Cream Cheese

by Laura 15 March 2011

I remember the St. Patrick’s Day of my childhood as the day of the Irish Sheridan sisters: there were the twins, Marguerite and Mary, and Kathleen, whom I also called ‘grandma,’ and Delores, my grandma, the youngest. We have pictures of them, all decked out in green and standing in a row, smiling brightly, a [...]

Read the full article

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →