Part of my family and I were enjoying a pre-Valentine’s day simple supper of soup and bread, with the Chocolate Cherry Cookies I had made for the holiday. I mentioned that, if the cookies passed their taste test panel, I’d be putting them on this blog. Misunderstanding which part of the menu would be added, my…

Still trying to think of something sweet you can whip up as a valentine treat for friends or family? While these cookies aren’t heart-shaped (which confused one 3 year old briefly when they were introduced as “Valentine cookies”), they do have chocolate and sweet maraschino cherries, two ingredients just right for the holiday. I first…

Way back when, when our grandmothers did a lot of baking, they had some very basic cake recipes that could be tweaked into something special without a lot of effort. Taking a plain white cake and marbling in some chocolate to part of the batter was one of those things. This recipe does the same…

Whether in the late fall, when the first snow of the season may have started to fall or here, in mid-winter when the nights are still long and it seems like spring is still weeks and weeks away, the fragrance of something apple baking in the oven is a wonderful warming thing. Generally kind on…

Here is a hearty soup for a cold winter evening, perfect for vegans if you use vegetable broth, but still hearty enough for the most carnivorous family members. This warms up well too, so pack leftovers into single meal sized containers tot take to work or school for a quick warm up in the microwave….

I was looking for a dessert recipe that would use more than a cup of applesauce and would be something a little different than what I have recently tried. I remembered someone once talking about a “fabulous” applesauce pie they had had, so I started researching, not expecting to find many options. Wrong. A search…

Since today is only day 9 of this year’s Twelve Days of Christmas, it’s not too late to think about making some “figgy pudding” for those late cookie trays or mid-winter snacking. Yes, I know; figgy pudding should be steamed, but the original takes a lot of time and equipment to pull off. This adaptation…

So you don’t like beets but you’ve heard of all the wonderful antioxidants and other nutrients they provide? Well, here is a salad that even non-beet eaters have been known to praise, and even have seconds and third servings. This is best made with beets you have roasted, but you can improvise with canned beets–just…

Sometimes in this season of rich desserts, we may still crave something a little sweet to top off a meal. One very seasonal approach is to make your favorite pumpkin pie filling but then just put it in a heavy glass casserole dish and bake it without a crust. While there is still a significant…

The colors of fall are deep and rich, golds and bronzes and deep russet reds. And then there are the rich purple colors of Concord grapes. Throughout my childhood, baskets of these grapes were part of the fall harves, and the smell of my mother’s simmering grape juice often met us as we burst home…