my signature chocolate chip cookies

Where to even begin...a lot has happened since my last post. I moved to North Carolina, married off both daughters and welcomed two grand daughters since then.  I have been cooking, working, traveling and acclimating to a new geography while loving the role of guh-guh (grandmother).
These cookies are my go to travel cookie...take to a meeting, bake for the family or maybe bake a stack to stash in my luggage for a family vacation.  It is pretty awesome to pull out a yummy chocolate chip cookie from your carry on mid-flight! This recipe is a riff on a recipe from a cookie compilation paperback cookbook originally printed in the 80's.  This cookie is pictured on the book cover.  It is literally the only recipe that I have ever made from this book!  Here we go.

big but not too big and yes crunchy not soft

cinnamon rolls from america's test kitchen

easy cinnamon rolls

saturday morning...getting ready to bake some scones and the little one requests cinnamon rolls :)  how can you say no?  of course you can't....you go to the fridge, the freezer, the pantry and dig around....what do you have that you can make into cinnamon rolls...no frozen puff pastry....have to go full blown...find that good america's test kitchen recipe...it has been years since i made these...but they really are easy and very delicious.  at first glance it might look long and complicated but it is pretty easy just go step by step.  the recipe warns these are best warm but hold reasonably well for 2 hours...well i did also make scones...so the 3 of us could not eat all of them for breakfast....karen had one before supper and there were two for breakfast the next day and they were still good! i made just a few modifications to the recipe...i used mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese and added lemon zest and raisins...i love the crunchy puffed raisins in cinnamon rolls.

recipe after the jump

apricot, cranberry, almond scones with lemon glaze

scones....i love them....i am not sure tilly ever had a scone .....they were not in our family food repertoire....i don't think i ever tried one until i tasted one of karen's at breakfast one day...(karen is irish and scones are definitely in her repertoire) ..i traveled to Ireland with karen maybe 15 years ago and ordered scones there...WOW...do they do scones!!!!!   have you ever had a scone at one of the large national coffee shop chains in the US?  they are disappointing  to say the least....they aren't buttery or rich and they are tooooo sweet...i stopped bothering.  (they do have wonderful scones at balthazar in new york city!!! ) ina garten makes lovely scones but somehow they did not say EASY to me...until one day i saw tyler florence make these  ......... seriously i did not believe my eves.....how could they be that easy...i had envisioned rolling and cutting dough with biscuit cutters and lots of other complicated steps....these are ridiculously easy.....the basic recipe is tyler florence's that i have made countless times with fresh blueberries and they are wonderful...  combing through my new cookbook stack (thanks santa), i got some inspiration from  deb perelman's smitten kitchen cook book ....she specifically mentions experimenting with scones......so i took a tried and true recipe and messed with it....i used what i had...these were awesome!

i ate one before i took this picture!

recipe after the jump

death by chocolate pumpkin chocolate cheesecake

death by chocolate pumpkin cheesecake for thanksgiving dessert

This is from the Death by Chocolate cook book by Marcel Desaulneire.  He used to have a TV show...years ago....  My extended family moved to Williamsburg, Virginia about 15 years ago.  When I visited we always stopped for an awesome meal at Marcel's restaurant the Trellis. (sadly closed a few years ago) It was there that I bought the autographed copy of the cookbook.  Whenever I need something special that will wow the audience I pull something out of this book.   This is a double decker chocolate and pumpkin cheesecake. You make each cheesecake separately…the chocolate one is made in a spring form pan and it has the crust.  The pumpkin cheesecake…is baked in a regular cake pan without a crust then you put it on top.....and yes it is all topped off with chocolate ganache....wonderfully delicious and covers all cracked cheesecake issues....add the extra cookie crumbs on the sides to guild the lily...this is decadent and special...there are a lot of steps....none of them hard.

 recipe after the jump

buttermilk bananna muffins from william sonoma

crunchy warm muffins for a cold april day

its a chilly april morning...happens to be april fools day....and the furnace decided to take a rest....it's a new furnace... i throw on an extra sweater, turn on the oven and look around for something to bake.......i have an unopened quart of buttermilk and a bowl of brown bananas .......so i start hunting for a quick recipe for some hearty muffins to use up what i have.  nothing turned up in the cook books so i did a quick search on google and found this William Sonoma recipe.  this recipe looked good but the reviews made it sound like they were a bit savory and not sweet enough so i decided to add a crumble topping.....they came out so good.....delicious.....the furnace guy showed up...fixed the furnace and i sent him out the door with a bag of warm muffins........

recipe after the jump:

nigella's brownies 2 ways part 2

nigella lawson's cream-cheese brownies

ok are you ready for part 2? these are my favorite...a little chocolate cheesecake action in a brownie pan.  the cream cheese flavor adds a nice twist on the sweet rich brownie.  i especially like these chilled. these are easy to make and come out looking like you are a super star...remember the parchment paper.  they pack up nicely wrapped in parchment and stuffed in a zip lock bag for travel. gooey chocolate cream cheese is exceptionally good.


recipe after the jump

nigella's brownies 2 ways part 1

there are lots and lots of ways to make brownies...i like them chocolaty, not too gooey always with pecans never walnuts...... sometimes with cream cheese in the middle... both of my favorite brownie recipes are from nigella lawson's how to be a domestic goddess cook book. ....both are wonderful and fairly easy to make.   big tip...get some parchment paper...it is the secret to great brownies.

first up the plain brownies...though there is nothing plain about these...there is so much butter and chocolate in here the pan is heavy...trust me they taste great....make them for someone you love or want to impress or thank...or even say you are sorry.....i promise they will do the trick.

just cut still a bit warm...goooey ooooooh 

recipe after the jump

ina's sticky buns

sticky bun heaven

i have tried lots of ways to make the classic cinnamon raisin sticky buns.....the "popping fresh kind"  (not so good),  an american test kitchen recipe  that is also pretty good but takes a little bit more time and... you have to make the dough ....best i have tried by far is this easy sticky bun recipe.....from my favorite ina garten cookbook back to basics (buy it!) easy sticky buns......there are a lot of steps but all are easy and i think it would be super fun to get kids involved in making these...a great family activity or for the grown up cook a rewarding sunday morning treat......they are best warm but they usually don't hang around long enough to get cold anyway.
recipe after the jump

Christmas cookies; lemon brown sugar christmas doggies and such

the cookie recipe is already posted with the easter shapes on the blog....kelsey works her magic with the royal icing.......they are too beautiful to eat.....but trust me they taste really good.

bailey, butch and sport

martha's lemon brown sugar christmas doggies, ponies, hamsters (talbot) fa, la, la, la, la.............

 

Christmas cookies ginger cocoa crisps

ginger cocoa crisps

20 years ago brit got off the school bus with a baggie of cookies and an illustrated recipe.  she was really excited to tell me how they had made cookies in class and colored a picture of the finished cookie on the recipe.  she wanted to show me how to make them...so we made them together that year...and every year at Christmas......sappy and sentimental...yes but these are some awesome cookies!!!! *and perfect for little hands to help with...... chocolaty with just the right kick of ginger.
recipe after the jump

Christmas cookies lillian's almond cookies

this is one of the christmas cookies i remember watching my norwegian mother in law lillian bake....the recipe is hers.   it is simple but wonderfully delicious.  it took a little trial and error on my part since my copy of the recipe was kind of cryptic....i have made some mistakes.....any way this version works.   when i bring mixed platters of cookies to work or to friends inevitably these are the cookies that people ask about.  i have done some research and this combination of ingredients is rare among the various norwegian traditional cookies you can find.  they are crisp...buttery...nutty....goodness and fairly easy!

recipe after the jump

lillian's almond cookies

peach blueberry cobbler

it's high summer .....i love it...the weather has been great in new england ....the local produce at the markets is lovely.  lars has a friend at work that has sent us tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic, spinach, peppers and basil.....thank you sue!!!!  last saturday i picked up locally grown corn, musk melons, blueberries, peaches...all yummy! early in blueberry season i loves the blueberry buckle but as soon as the peaches are ripe its all about the combo cobbler.....peaches and blueberries just scream cobbler to me. i cut this recipe out of a Real Simple issue 3 years ago...i made minimal modifications ( mainly replacing half the blueberries with peaches)..this is easy and it is delicious warm with hagen dazs vanilla ice cream and a spritz of whipped cream.

 blueberries and peaches from scotts

my recipe after the jump

ina garten's raisin pecan oatmeal cookies

i have made lots of  cookies over the years...mostly around the holidays.  my cookie mentor was not tilly though, it was my mother in law lillian.  she was born in norway and immigrated to this country in her late 20's/ early 30's.  she brought  to america, her pastry skills and a sense of duty to make the required cookies for christmas....regardless of time or money or the difficulty finding the perfect ingredients.... not to mention the fact that all of her recipes from home were metric.   lillian made all of the different kinds every year with potato flour, ground almonds ..things i had never seen before....and the finished products had to look perfect or she would throw them in the trash.....watching this process as a young bride was a shocker for me, since i had never actually seen anyone bake scratch cookies outside of home-ec class ......the thought of throwing out perfectly good cookies because the edge was a tiny bit brown, defied imagination.  ( i grabbed them before they hit the trash)  .....i am beginning to think the artistic perfection streak might have been passed on to my daughter kelsey, who will literally spend 6 hours creating gorgeous sugar cookies, that happen to taste good.  me, on the other hand....i am a different kind of cookie baker....i like cookies that don't require much decorating but taste really good!  so i do have a couple of lillian's recipe's that i will share around the holidays....but mostly i stick to the basics that taste good.  this recipe for oatmeal cookies is from ina garten's back to basics cookbook and it makes some seriously yummy cookies.

these are best enjoyed light brown and crunchy

recipe after the jump

strawberry rhubarb crisp

tilly used to grow rhubarb in her garden.....all along the stone wall there was mint and rhubarb growing like crazy and trying to take over.  when i was little i would pick stalks of bright red rhubarb and try to eat it......so sour.....it used to make my grandfather laugh.   my sister and i would get a bowl of sugar and dip the ends of the rhubarb into the sugar and munch away.  every summer tilly would make strawberry rhubarb pie.....it was so good.  years later when tilly was in her 70's and 80's she would pick me a bunch of her rhubarb and bring it over to my house as a gift.....now i have to hunt the farmers market or get karen to grab me a bunch from whole foods in west hartford.   britany and i tried some different rhubarb and strawberry combo recipes last summer....some successful......one ...not so much.....it looked very pretty but it did not set, it  kind of turned into a pink blob....not so good but we laughed a lot!!!! ( and of course we tried to eat it.....it tasted pretty good but what a mess).  last month's food network magazine had an ina garten recipe for strawberry rhubarb crisp.....that sounded amazing.....all the strawberry rhubarb yumminess and no fussing with pie crust.  i made it memorial day weekend with britany, emily, and kelsey.  (we cooked all weekend......had a blast)....oh and the crisp was wonderful........(also awesome to dollop on top of greek yogurt for breakfast)

beautiful red and green

crunchy bubbly goodness

recipe after the jump

rita's blueberry buckle

twenty years ago i dragged the girls and my two sisters to a work picnic.....back when i worked as a head nurse for our local community hospital.  it was a grey day....one of the surgeon's invited the group of us out for a ride on his sail boat.....what an adventure...as was his customary way he shouted orders.....only these were sailing orders....not a one of us had a clue what he was talking about ......we could not stop laughing....it was a great day...lots of smiles and good food.  one of the staff brought an absolutely amazing blueberry buckle.....we begged for the recipe...which she was nice enough to share.  (i still have the battered and stained recipe card she hand wrote)  for the last 20 years i have been making this recipe every blue berry season...i have made one change...i make it with buttermilk instead of milk.  thank you rita for this recipe! and thanks to wild bill for the wonderful sail boat ride.

love in the oven

recipe after the jump

fresh lemon mousse

a homemade dessert is like a hug.....it can be a personal signature.....  a little message that says "i care enough about you to make you something special." i learned that from tilly. if she made you a special dessert it was because she loved you and wanted to make you smile. it felt like a hug! ..... i love to make dessert when guests are coming over, or even for a business meeting where people might be traveling from far off cities.  there is nothing like opening up a box of homemade frosted chocolate cupcakes for a group stuck in a 4 hour meeting....really gets the creative juices flowing.  my favorite traveling desserts are cookies and cupcakes....but with no oven i had to get more creative.  (new stove with oven on order....ETA 2 weeks...YAY) if you ever need to make a beautiful dessert ( and maybe you don't have access to a working oven) you might try this wonderful recipe from ina garten (it's in my favorite book back to basics).

light and and little bit tart

full recipe and step by step pictures after the jump

cracked chocolate earth

i saw tyler florence make this on tv.  i have never tried to make a flourless chocolate cake...it looked so easy to make and fantastically delicious....i had to try it.  the recipe is available on line at the food network website and also in tyler's ultimate cookbook.  i have made a lot of tyler's recipes and they are fairly easy...even though i tweak them a bit they still come out really good.  for this cake i followed the recipe in the cook book as is....then i noted later that the online recipe has a cooks note saying you can use half the butter....i have not tried it that way.  since we liked it a little gooey in the middle i reduced the butter just a bit the second time i made it but not by half......that is the recipe i will quote here.  this is a beautiful cake...wonderful served warm with haagen dazs vanilla ice cream.  the cake below is on a cake plate that tilly had saved from her mother.....my mom would call it depression glass....i don't really know how old it is but it is special to me.  i keep in my antique oak china cupboard which also belonged to tilly's mom..... along with some other pieces tilly liked to use on thanksgiving.

recipe after the jump

lemon brown sugar cookies with royal icing

every holiday my daughter kelsey makes some kind of cut out cookies.  for this endeavor I am the sous chef.  i help set up, clean up, fetch ingredients and encourage her .....but mostly i watch the artist at work.  she turns out beautifully creative works of art that honestly are too pretty to eat.....these lemon brown sugar cookies tasted delicious!  this is a martha stewart recipe from her collection of recipes for every day cook book.  happy easter brother.....(inside joke those old easter egg dye/decorating kits had some ridiculous stickers in them...we don't have any brothers at our house so the dog had to wear that sticker...every easter we wish each other "happy easter brother!")

kelsey's ducks and carrots