This simple, delicious apple cake may be my new favorite fall dessert.  It is moist, tender, packed with tart apples and cinnamon, and very easy to prepare.  What’s not to love? Continue reading →

Although this was my first time making them, I’m beginning to think that these warm and spicy pumpkin doughnuts are going to become a fall tradition around here.  Filled with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and even a hint of cardamom, these doughnuts will warm your soul on a crisp autumn morning.

Have you ever made doughnuts from scratch?  The closest I had ever come to making doughnuts was back in my college days when I learned how to make faux doughnuts (fauxnuts?) by poking holes in refrigerated biscuit dough rounds and frying them up in a skillet.  They were pretty good if you dipped them in sugar and ate them warm, but not quite the real thing.  Ok, not even close.

I have memories of the real thing, though.  You see, my mom made homemade doughnuts for us once.  They were yeast-raised doughnuts, the kind which are lightly glazed or sugar-crusted on the outside, but only slightly sweet and impossibly soft and fluffy on the inside.  Though I was small, and the recollection is a bit fuzzy, I know in my heart that they were the best doughnuts I’ve ever tasted.  While the “hot now” sign at Krispy-Kreme may make your heart flutter, I’m telling you that nothing compares to a doughnut fried up in your own kitchen.  My mom only made doughnuts once that I can recall, but that one memory fills me with so much warmth, I know that I have to make doughnuts from scratch one day for my own children.  Yes, food memories are powerful. Continue reading →

Click any of the photos above to be taken to the recipe.  Enjoy!

Did you know that cantaloupe and ginger pair well together?  I didn’t, but I do now!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about chilled soups.  I like to eat them, but for some reason I’ve never made one for myself.  I keep buying vegetables thinking I’m going to throw them into my fancy new blender and create some amazing new soup, but then I forget and use the vegetables for other things.  The most recent example is celery.  I was thinking about making a light cream of celery soup and chilling it.  But then I had this bizarre celery craving and literally ate the entire bunch of celery in two sittings.  Yes, there was homemade blue cheese dressing involved, so perhaps that had something to do with it.  Regardless, the celery was gone and I had no soup.

So when I heard on twitter that another virtual lunch was planned, this time centered around chilled soups, I knew I had to jump in.  Do you remember our virtual BLT Lunch from a while back?  Well, the usual suspects are at it again today.  Cheryl, who resides in New York, is today writing from Singapore about her Mum’s Green Bean Soup Recipe, while Ellise writes from Paris about Zucchini-Cilantro Soup.  And of course there are many more.

My original plan was to create a cucumber cantaloupe soup with fresh ginger and mint.  But, as you might have guessed, I accidentally used all my cucumber and mint making something else (tzatziki, to be exact).  So when I remembered last night that I needed to create a soup for today’s lunch date, I didn’t have much to work with.  But there was no need to worry, this ‘minimalist’ Cantaloupe Ginger soup is delicious and refreshing and I’m kind of glad that I didn’t add the extra ingredients.

I think this soup would work equally well as a starter or a dessert if you want to serve it in the evening.  But today, it will be lunch.  As with all of my recipes, this one should be customized to suit your own taste.  I added a bit of half & half at the end and felt that it smoothed out the flavors nicely, but feel free to experiment and see what works for you.

Chilled Ginger Cantaloupe Soup

1 cantaloupe, seeded and cut into chunks
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (or to taste)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tablespoon of honey (or to taste)
small pinch of salt
1/4 cup milk, half & half, or cream (optional)

Put cantaloupe, ginger, lemon juice and honey in a blender, and process until completely smooth.  Add half & half (if using) and blend until combined.  Taste and adjust amounts of honey, ginger or lemon juice if desired.  Serve well chilled.

Yield: 2 servings

Other Chilled Soups from the ‘Let’s Lunch!’ Crew:

• White Gazpacho from Serve it Forth
• Chilled Poached Pear Soup from Blog Well Done
• Chilled Strawberry Soup from The Naptime Chef

Don’t forget to search Twitter for #LetsLunch to see what the rest of the group is bringing to the party!  And I just have to tell you one more time:  I love my blender!

As you all know, I am a huge fan of simple recipes.  What you might not know is that buttermilk is a staple in my house and I am almost never without it.  I even keep powdered buttermilk in the pantry for those rare times when I don’t have the fresh stuff in the fridge.  It adds such a nice flavor and texture to baked goods that I’ll often adapt recipes to include it even when it’s not originally called for.  So when I saw a recipe in last month’s Gourmet magazine that was simple, included buttermilk on the ingredient list, and looked absolutely delicious, of course I had to try it.

The recipe I’m referring to is Raspberry Buttermilk Cake.  I didn’t have any fresh raspberries on hand, but I did have a handful of blueberries and a pint of strawberries in the fridge, so I decided to adapt.  Although I know the raspberry version is probably delicious, I’m really glad I opted to use the berries I had on hand.  Not only was it a great combination, but this would be a perfect Red, White, and Blue Cake for a Fourth of July barbecue.  Served with whipped cream and extra berries, it would be both festive and delicious. Continue reading →

With today’s modern ice cream makers, frozen fruit mixtures like granitas and sorbets can be whipped up in no time! Usually containing only fresh fruit, water and sugar, Sicilian granita is one of the simplest frozen desserts breakfasts you can make.

We moved back to the California from Sicily a year and a half ago and one of the things I miss most is the granita from Catania. I can’t believe that it took me this long to figure out how simple it is to make granita at home!

My first attempt at granita was a few weeks ago, when I made brioche for The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.  Since I was making brioche for the first time, it only made sense that I attempt some homemade granita. In Sicily, granita and brioche are eaten together for breakfast during the hot months of summer.  It might sound strange, but don’t knock it til you try it!  You’ll also see Sicilians eating ice cream sandwiches of brioche and gelato, another tradition of which I highly approve! Continue reading →

This post marks a couple of firsts for me.  This is the first time I’ve ever used rhubarb and it’s also the first time I’ve ever made homemade turnovers.  You probably won’t be surprised to learn that I now love them both!

I’m not sure how I’ve made it 34 years without ever touching fresh rhubarb.  We just didn’t eat it growing up.  I don’t think there was any particular reason for it, we just didn’t.  I know I’ve probably tasted Strawberry Rhubarb Pie at some point in my life, but I can’t really recall ever knowing what rhubarb even tastes like.

Luckily, my friend Allen suggested that I try making something with rhubarb. If he hadn’t put it in my head, I probably would gone another year without giving it a go.  And once he suggested it, I started noticing rhubarb recipes everywhere.  It seemed like I was the only in the world not eating rhubarb on a daily basis.  I was determined to give it a try. Continue reading →

Every time I read a food magazine, I find tons of new recipes I’d like to try.  But very rarely do I get around to making any of them.  Most of the recipes I read in magazines and books just get filed away in my head somewhere and when I’m in the kitchen, I pull bits and pieces of information and inspiration from that jumbled library I call a brain.  But every once in a while, I find a recipe like the Key Lime Coconut Cake in the latest issue of Gourmet that must be made immediately. Continue reading →