I made this on a whim late last night and it was still cooling when I went to bed. Since the recipe was completely improvised, I had no idea if it was successful until I woke up this morning. So when I rolled out of bed (way too early), the first thing I did was cut into the cake! Continue reading →

And today we have the final recipes in the Holiday Recipes series I’ve been putting on with Amanda and Tyler of What We’re Eating.  At our pre-holiday dinner, Amanda made a delicious cranberry sauce that included persimmons and just a touch of fresh rosemary.  I would never have thought to add rosemary to cranberry sauce, but the combination was perfect! Continue reading →

Want to wow your guests during this year’s round of holiday parties?  Serve them this Smoked Tuna Dip and watch the compliments flood in. They’ll never know that you whipped it up ten minutes before they arrived!

I first tasted this Smoked Tuna Dip at a restaurant in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. We were there for a military function of some sort and this dip was set out on the appetizer table. We could not stop eating it and by the end of the night, my friend and I had pestered the owner enough that he finally gave up the recipe. Continue reading →

And here we are back to the holiday recipe series! Today we are focusing on one of my favorite parts of a Thanksgiving meal — the stuffing!!  Some people call it stuffing, some people call it dressing, I call it heaven on a plate!  But seriously, my family calls it stuffing regardless of whether it actually gets stuffed into a bird.

This Sourdough Stuffing with Apples and Bacon was not actually stuffed into a turkey, but feel free to do that if you want.  Keep in mind though, you’ll end up with a moister bird if you bake your stuffing/dressing outside the turkey because the breast meat starts to dry out before the stuffing reaches a safe temperature.  That being said, I still have a tendency to stuff a turkey because that’s just the way we’ve always done it in my family.  It just doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving without dry turkey and moist stuffing! Continue reading →

EDIT: Due to an error with my server, the original version of this post along with all of your comments disappeared!  Talk about bad timing!!  The only choice I have is to start from the beginning and ask you to please leave a new comment if you wish to enter the the contest for the knife giveaway.  All the same rules apply, but I am extending the deadline to allow everyone to catch up to the new development!  Thank you, and sorry for the last minute change!

Remember those gorgeous knives from New West KnifeWorks that I gave away last September?  It’s happening again!  But this time, I have the pleasure of giving away a beautiful 9-inch Chef’s Knife from their Phoenix Line.  And although I’m not keeping it, I just had to test this baby out before giving it away to one of you lucky, lucky people. Continue reading →

I’m sitting here on this beautiful Sunday morning eating the best scone I’ve ever made in my life.  Days like this are bittersweet.  On one hand, there’s almost nothing better than a lazy Sunday morning spent baking and lounging in my pajamas.  But what’s the fun in eating such a wonderful treat, when there’s no one to share it with? Continue reading →

Persimmons are perhaps the most beautiful fruit of the fall, but have you ever wondered if they have a purpose other than table decoration?  Where I grew up, persimmon trees were abundant.  While we didn’t have persimmon trees of our own, every fall my grandmother had persimmons ripening in the fruit bowl, thanks to generous neighbors. Continue reading →

So this is the second installment of our holiday recipe series, and I couldn’t be happier to share this dinner roll recipe with you!

In my family, the dinner rolls at our holiday meals are never homemade. For years, my grandmother would pick them up at a local bakery, but at some point we switched to the big bag of dinner rolls from Costco.  And I don’t think there’s anything wrong it.  My sister and I still love those rolls from Costco.  And really, even supermarket bakery rolls taste pretty good if you pop them in the oven for a few minutes. Continue reading →