Is there anything prettier than a display of assorted scones on various tiered trays? With a floral tablecloth, delicate china tea cups, and silver spoons? the sun angling through a window lined with soft muslin curtains, illuminating the faces of friends?
Read MoreI don't know if this is a true "hash" or not. From years of watching Chopped, people always seems to be criticized for calling something a hash when it isn't. The best I can find from a dictionary search is simply something cut up into small bits. I like this from the OED: "A mixture of mangled and incongruous fragments." Mmmm, yes, serve me some of that!
Read MoreAbout a year ago, Maria sent Sophie and me a recipe she developed for buttermilk potato cinnamon rolls with the caption: "I created this recipe and I think they were bomb diggity!"
They are.
Read MoreWe were watching the latest season of Chef's Table. The first episode came to a close, the credits began rolling, Noah turns to me and says: "I want that cake for my birthday."
Game on.
Read MoreA moist chocolate cupcake, filled with a crunchy chewy mixture of dulce de leche, toasted coconut, and pecans, topped off with a pile of rich and thick chocolate buttercream.
Why reversed? A classic German Chocolate Cake uses a coconut pecan frosting. These cupcakes rock the nutty duo on the inside (which is, I may add, an aesthetic win). The flavor profile is jacked up a notch by toasting the coconut and pecans, subbing out the evaporated milk mixture for dulce de leche, skipping over the traditional cake recipe, which uses sweet German chocolate, in favor of a deliciously deep and moist cocoa cake, and sweetening the deal with pretty swirls of chocolate frosting.
Read MoreThe very day that I finished this post on my at-the-time favorite brownie recipe, Noah broke the news to me: they weren't his favorite.
You simply can't imagine the depths of frustration into which his statement threw me. The quest for the best brownie recipe--one that we both agreed on--has been a bit of a preoccupation for me. After finishing that post back in October, I thought I could finally rest easy. But now I see that a part of me knew I would never find peace on this topic. Why else did I decide to include the word "current" bracketed off in the blog post title? (As in, "Sarahs [current] favorite brownie recipe.") At the very moment that I was gushing over how this recipe was "my perfect, everyday, brownie satisfaction," my subconscious was hard at work undermining my complacency.
Read MoreVisiting the Florida Keys, particularly Key West, particularly Hemingway's Home, has been on my bucket list for ages. After nine years of stalling, we finally decided to make the trip with some friends over Memorial Day weekend. We were doing this! The decision was made. We booked a hotel on Key West. And then...murmurings of a less-than pleasant forecast for the weekend began to emerge. Tropical Storm. Possible Hurricane. High winds. 100% chance of precipitation. Probably blinding rain. Some likelihood of water spouts. Maybe tornados.
Read MoreBoy, have a got a cake for your memorial day weekend!
Picture moist but light, not-too-sweet layers of vanilla cake kissed with coconut essence, sandwiched around a delightfully red strawberry jam and artfully smeared (a la royal wedding) with a fluffy blue ombre vanilla buttercream. It's summer appropriate, perfectly festive, and a tad more updated than your typical cookout fare (hello, red berry flag cake!). It's got a low-key blue and white vibe with a surprise dash of red inside.
Read MoreI remember, when the second Batman film came out, how everyone was struck by the depiction of pure evil in the character of the Joker. My dad, a philosopher often throwing a wrench in the common consensus, commented on how that’s not what evil really looks like. It’s a glorification of evil, he would say. Real evil in the world is far less spectacular, far more, if you will, innocuous.
Read MoreThis recipe is YUM.
I'm trying to think of another more intelligent way to explain it.
Let me put it this way: I made two loaves one afternoon. They were gone by the morning. Let me try again: I brought a loaf to a girls night. The four of us easily ate 3/4 of it in two hours. I may or may not have finished it off when I got home. Here's another scenario: I pulled a fresh loaf out of the oven, a friend stopped by, chat chat chat, 30 minutes later she says good-bye, and half a loaf is gone.
Read MorePerhaps your best friend who lives in another state just gave birth to a brand new baby, and you want to show her you're there for her. Or you are bringing a new mom a meal and want to add a little something "extra" to help her along in those first few weeks. Maybe your sister-in-law is in the hospital with a new precious bundle, you're stopping by to say hi, and want to bring her a gift. Or you're attending a baby shower next month, and you're looking to put together a present that is thoughtful and unexpected. Who knows? You might be a postpartum mom yourself, looking for ways to treat yo' self!
Whatever the scenario, we've compiled a list of helpful (and fun!) little ways to shower the postpartum mom in your life with love. If you don't know of any new moms, save this post for the future!
Read MoreI was flipping through the weekend newspaper a few months back when I passed over an interview with Jeni Britton Bauer. I probably would've continued flipping pages, but there was an inset recipe for hot fudge sauce that made me pause. Putting two and two together, I realized this was Jeni of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.
Read MoreI had a ton of fun making iced wedding dress sugar cookies for a bridal shower over the weekend. Usually, I don't have the patience to do a classic iced cookie, with the multiple steps of outlining, flooding, and then finishing with decorative piping on top -- not to mention the time waiting for the icing to dry in between, compounded when you are using multiple different colors!. More often than not, when making iced sugar cookies, I opt for the far simpler wet-on-wet technique (which can actually yield quite stunning results). You can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was by how therapeutic these classic iced sugar cookies turned out to be for me, especially when spaced out over a couple days. I particularly loved getting lost in the piping of the dress embellishments. It proved a tremendous creative outlet.
Read MoreNot gonna lie, I'm not a huge fan of the rice teething crackers that fill the baby aisles these days. They're sort of flavorless, insubstantial wafers that break down into a soggy mess and, once hardened, are impossible to clean up. Years ago, I remember seeing zwieback toast packaged and marketed as teething biscuits, but after looking around, it seems that both brands I recall have discontinued the product. Bummer! But then again, perhaps not. In my online quest, I discovered many recipes for making zwieback from scratch at home. I decided to give it a try.
Read MoreFor Easter this year, I fell in love with the idea of doing a Robin-egg-themed dessert...something that was a beautiful speckled blue. In the course of my pre-holiday shopping, I came across these turquoise Wilton candy melts (you can find similar ones here) and I was sold on the idea: I was going to make Robin Egg cake bites! Perfect for an Easter brunch (next year!) or any Spring-themed spread, these moist chocolate cake balls are shaped into ovals, dipped in blue melting chocolate, and speckled all over.
Read MoreWe grew up getting our babka from a local Polish Deli. It wasn't until later on that we began making it ourselves. We love a good chocolate babka, but this sweet cheese babka, with swirls of rich cream cheese filling and piles of crumble on top, will always take first place.
Read MoreI got a little bit side-tracked last time I attempted to write a post on baby registry ideas. I'm going to pick up the topic again here, and hope to make it through to the list this time around!
What I want to say (or really, pick up saying) is that I benefited (and still benefit) so much from having a community of women to turn to for advice when it comes to parenting. Just the other day, I was texting my mom, my sisters, my sister-in-laws with questions about potty-training tactics. And before that, it was questions on double-strollers. And two years ago, it all began with an email begging them to help me wade into the waters of making a baby registry.
Read MoreThere's no way around it: these brownies are ridiculously indulgent. Moist, super dense, super chocolate brownies, baked with a Guinness Stout reduction that gives them an earthy dark depth, brushed with Bailey's cream, you know, to lighten things up, and then topped with more Bailey's in a brown butter icing party. And no, that isn't a typo in the title. I meant "brownie fudge" not "fudge brownie," because these rest solidly somewhere between fudge and brownie...and probably more fudge than brownie!
Read MoreThere was a bowl filled with 10 cups of homemade chicken broth in my fridge that was fast approaching the 1-week mark. I'm not 100% positive about how long various things stay "fresh" in the fridge, and I suspect it is oftentimes longer than the standard safety recommendations*, but in general I operate under the 1-week policy. Under a week? Eat it. Over a week? Toss it. It's that hazy 6-7 day area where I know my logic is a bit spurious. It's okay to eat at 11pm on Day 6, but by 9am on Day 7 it has got to go.
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