I have a confession to make: I did not make this bread. I had to commission my mom to do it for me. When I was assigned to Kate’s blog I was *super* excited. Kate has tons of amazing looking recipes with beautiful pictures and I immediately selected a few that I wanted to try. My intention was to prepare these recipes for a baby shower that I was hosting this weekend. Then I got *super* sick on Friday morning and ended up in the ER on Saturday for extreme dehydration. The doctors loaded me up on fluids and meds and told me to go home and rest. No baby shower. No cooking. No Food Babbles blog recipe. I was bummed. Not wanting to leave Kate orphaned, I texted my mom and asked her to do the baking honors for me. She agreed and then came over today to drop off this gorgeous Lemon Blueberry Loaf for me to taste and share with you! Three cheers to mom for helping me ensure that my Secret Recipe Club post came together just in time for the big reveal on Monday!

My friend Bridget asked me if I would donate cookies to her school’s fundraising event. One of the challenges of being a food blogger is finding a home for all the desserts that I bake, so these kinds of opportunities are a great excuse to try a new recipe. Bridget specifically wanted me to donate a few already-baked cookies along with a couple of bags of frozen cookie dough so that the lucky winner would not have to eat 4 dozen cookies at once. I flipped through my must-make-cookies and came across this recipe that a friend had forwarded to me months ago.

After reading the directions, I realized that their assembly was way too complicated for me to ask someone else to prepare at home. It involved dividing dough balls into disks, mashing cream cheese between the disks and pinching the dough balls together while hoping that the cream cheese would not ooze out any cracks that formed. A tester batch was in order. I prepared one cookie as directed in the recipe and two cookies with a small amount of cream cheese pressed into the center of the baked cookie. A friend dropped by randomly and we taste tested the results. The cream-cheese topped cookies were a clear winner. My friend declared these cookies some of the best snicker doodles she has ever had. I’m not usually a snicker doodle fan, but I could see why she liked them so much. They are crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and the cream cheese topping is really something special.

I know what you’re thinking. Green beans aren’t that exciting. Well, I hate to break it to you, but you’re wrong. These green beans are exciting. In fact, often times they’re my favorite part of the meal. Unless, of course, they are served alongside these mashed potatoes. I’d probably choose the potatoes just because puddles of melted butter scream my name in the night. TMI? Okay, I’ll stop.

I’m not sure if mashed potatoes will ever be considered a health food, but I certainly don’t feel guilty about giving myself a double portion of these. Instead of having a stick of butter, they have a mere tablespoon. To give the potatoes that same smooth, buttery taste, a bit of sour cream and a splash of milk goes a long way. The secret to these amazing potatoes isn’t just the ingredients, though. It’s also in how they’re cooked. Cook’s Illustrated originally posted the recipe for their light mashed potatoes in one cookbook and their alternative cooking method for full-fat potatoes in another cookbook. I decided to experiment with combining the new cooking method with their light mashed potato recipe and boy oh boy! These were the fluffiest, smoothest, creamiest, most delicious mashed potatoes I have *ever* eaten. The cooler fall and winter weather is a perfect excuse to load up my plate with these spuds.

I promise you that if you try these mashed potatoes, you’ll never go back to the old ways of making taters again!!!

Continue reading: “lite” fluffy mashed potatoes

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted on Facebook asking the question, “What in the world should I do with the swiss chard growing in my garden?” Boy, oh boy did my readers have soooooo many suggestions! Eggs to soups to lasagnas to pizzas… the list goes on! I whipped up this scramble for lunch that day and I was surprised. I liked it! I really liked it! I liked it so much, in fact, that I made it a week later as a special breakfast for my husband. He loves anything savory for breakfast, so eggs doused in cheese is a real winner. I encouraged him to try these even though his negative sentiments towards swiss chard surpass mine! Brant loved this egg scramble and gobbled it up, swiss chard and all! And so we have a swiss chard winner!

Is your ideal breakfast sweet or savory? Because I’m *totally* a sweet person. In fact, I couldn’t eat this scramble for breakfast. For lunch? Divine. For breakfast? Ick. I gave my portion to Brant and reheated a strudel topped peach muffin for myself. How about you? Sweet or savory to start your day? 

Continue reading: egg, cheese, and swiss chard scramble

First, don’t you dare turn your nose up at this pie yet. You haven’t even tried it.

Second, I did try it. It’s good. And it doesn’t taste like jalapeños or jelly.

Third, I made this pie way back in August (remember that part, where it was summer and all?!) and then September ran away with me and tomorrow is the first day of October so September’s pie of the month almost turned into October’s pie!

Continue reading: pie of the month: pear and jalapeño jelly pie

I never thought I’d find a blueberry muffin recipe that could compare with the one that I posted earlier on my blog. I don’t even know why I tried this muffin recipe since my usual motto is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but I’m so glad that I did try these because they are incredibly delicious! These were so moist and tender and the crumb topping was crunchy (just like I like it!) and if served with a pat of cold butter it deserves at least 5 stars!

Try both recipes and let me know what you think. Lemon-sugar topping or streusel topping? Or both?

Before we begin, I have a confession. I did not make these. I delegated the task to two of my favorite students who were here baking with me to prep for this shower. I figured that this recipe was easy enough to leave them to do on their own. Sure enough, they handled it like champs. If high schoolers can make this, YOU can make it. And you won’t at all regret the decision to do so.

Just like the chocolate things, these need a new name. I’ve been calling them cheesecake truffle bombs when talking with my friends about them, but I didn’t want you to think that I called them that because they were a bomb. Quite the opposite! They were a hit! Who doesn’t love mounds of cream cheese dipped in chocolate, sprinkled with pecans, and drizzled with hot caramel?

My mom and dad, some of my biggest food critics, wanted these to have a more pronounced cream cheese flavor. I would recommend using the smaller amount of graham crackers in the cream cheese mixture to start, and then adding more to taste. You want the mixture to have some tang because the chocolate and caramel add plenty of sweetness. I also might suggest sprinkling these with a few flecks of fleur de sel before serving. You know me… I love adding salt to just about anything.

I threw a baby shower for a friend on Saturday. I love making creative and tasty foods, but I am *not* a good theme party hostess because I am terrible at pulling off decorations and games. In fact, I was making up the rules to Saturday’s games as we were playing them. That’s how much of a procrastinator I am when it comes to tackling a project that is not “my thing.” For Saturday’s party, I told the guest of honor that she could depend up me for food and maybe games, but decorations weren’t happening. She is very gracious and was fine with this arrangement. As I was talking with friends about the party, I realized I should at least make *something* that was baby shower themed. Enter these sugar cookies, decorated with a K for their little baby, Kavin.

When I’m not procrastinating, I’m delegating. My friends are in awe of my delegation skills. I’m not sure how one could be in awe of a skill that is essentially passing off one’s work to another person. It’s simply a matter of asking. We had 4 girls from Utah staying at our house this weekend through the www.couchsurfing.org program. As soon as they stepped in the door, I had them roped into decorating these cookies. It’s not that I couldn’t do it. It’s just that they could! And given that they were staying at my house for three days, they weren’t really in a place to decline my request. I have made these cookies loads of times in the past. I make them for every major holiday as cookie decorating is a fun way to spend time with family while simultaneously giving your hands something to do. Some sugar cookies puff when baking, meaning your little snowflake can end up resembling a snow cone, but not these! They stay perfectly in place. And as long as your icing is the right consistency, they are so easy to decorate. Or, at least, that’s what my house guests tell me!

I personally don’t eat sugar cookies (what’s the point!? there’s no chocolate!) but I hear from other sugar cookie fans that these not only look delicious, they also taste fabulous. That’s a twofer, folks. Everyone loves a twofer, so make these cookies for your next gathering and watch people ooh and ahh at them and then gobble them up!

Despite the fact that the pancakes in the above picture are obviously overcooked, let me tell you how satisfying these were for breakfast. Unlike my usual blueberry pancakes, these felt healthy. (Well, they felt healthy until I topped them with a slab of butter and a hefty dollop of whipped cream. ) With all those oats and whole wheat flour, I was full after only one pancake. And don’t fear; these aren’t healthy in the “gosh, these pancakes are as dense as bricks” sense. I wouldn’t do that to you, I promise.

Blueberries and lemon are a classic combination. I think you’ll like their flavors in these pancakes. It tastes like summer no matter what time of year you serve them!