Here’s an idea for a dip that moves beyond the usual sour cream and onion or even seafood and cream cheese based offerings. It will be a nice alternative for any vegans in the crowd, but make plenty as your non-vegan guests are sure to scoop it up as well. Great for pairing with apple…

  Recently, some friends joined me in the kitchen for a little Christmas baking and a lot of fun. We made breads (yeast raised coffeecakes full of apple butter and raisins and cranberry/apricot and pumpkin applesauce quick breads) along with the two choices featured today, Date Balls and Pretzel Reindeer. Date Balls for Christmas When…

For many years, I will admit that I resisted trying pumpkin soup, thinking of this fruit of fall only meant for pies and maybe some sweet breads. However, once I tried it, I became a fan.  Now, with so much pumpkin pureed (see the last post for details), it seemed time to do some experimenting,…

I love so many of the sights, smells, and sounds of the yuletide season. Trees, lights, spicy baking smells, and classic Christmas music (we’ll ignore for now the less than wonderful stuff that fills too many background music channels at malls and stores). It’s all really wonderful, especially when we finally get a couple of…

A local grocery chain has their 15 oz cans of tomatoes and chiles on sale this week and I was getting hungry for lentils. A little rummaging in the cupboard and I came up with a vegetarian main dish that would be great for left over baked or boiled potatoes* and can be made with…