Archive for the 'chocolate' Category
Bake Sale Chocolate Chip Cookies
October 9th, 2010by Caroline On a recent episode of Top Chef: Just Desserts (yes, I watch it, and I watch Top Chef, too), the contestants were asked to make items for a bake sale. One made a milk chocolate ginger pudding. Another made strawberry shortcake. Have these folks never been to a bake sale?! The winning recipe, [...]
Eli’s Super Cake
September 28th, 2010by Caroline It’s been a heady time for the youngest member of our family. In the months since he turned five, late last spring, he has learned to swim, learned to ride a bike without training wheels, graduated from preschool, started kindergarten, joined a soccer team — and scored two goals in his first game. [...]
Frozen Hot Chocolate
August 24th, 2010By Lisa One of the magical things about trips to New York as a kid were trips to the whimsical Serendipity 3 after seeing a show or going to a museum. We went with family, we went with friends, and now, when we’re back east (which is not so often), we take our own kids. [...]
Strawbery Balsamic Cookie Crunch Ice Cream
August 5th, 2010by Caroline I usually don’t have much trouble getting my kids into the kitchen; we make sushi together, we make muffins, we make cakes and pancakes — mostly I bake with the kids, because mostly I bake, period. But anything I’m making, they’re welcome to participate, and they’re typically eager to help. Still, when a [...]
Classic Oatmeal Cookies
February 9th, 2010by Caroline There is nothing remarkable about this cookie recipe except, perhaps, that I have been following it faithfully for over 35 years, and if you read this blog periodically or know me at all, you know that I am always tweaking recipes for baked goods. But why mess with a classic? This is the [...]
Bittersweet Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramels
December 22nd, 2009By Lisa Christmas baking around here is more seat-of-the-pants and less ambitious than at Caroline’s, but we do bake some things every season to give as gifts to our children’s beloved teachers, principle, and school staff. Also, we live in a really lovely, diverse neighborhood, with many childless couples, older couples, older single people, and [...]
Christmas Candy: Salted Chocolate Pecan Toffee
December 15th, 2009by Caroline In his recent New Yorker piece about cookbooks, Adam Gopnik writes, “…cookbooks have two overt passions right now: one is simplicity, the other is salt.” This recipe, originally published in Sunset magazine, offers both. The boiling sugar makes it a poor choice to make with the kids’ assistance; just let them stand back [...]
Christmas Candy: Spicy Pumpkin Seed & Cherry Chocolate Bark
December 13th, 2009by Caroline I discovered this recipe last year in Catherine Newman’s Wondertime column, and now the only problem is making enough both to give away and keep some in the house for ourselves. I’ve made two batches already, and expect to make at least that much more before this holiday season is over. It is [...]
Nutella Almond Macaroons
November 21st, 2009by Caroline I own over a hundred cookbooks, and yet still subscribe to several magazines containing recipes and visit food websites frequently. My usual route through a magazine is read and tear, read and tear, saving those torn-out recipes to (eventually) file in one of my recipe binders and (someday) try. When I find good-looking [...]
The San Francisco Treat
August 1st, 2009by Caroline It’s not, despite the jingle, Rice-a-Roni. No, the true, old school, San Francisco treat is an It’s-It, a chocolate-covered oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwich, originally invented by George Whitney in 1928, and sold for decades at San Francisco’s Playland-at-the-Beach. Now that the playground is gone, It’s-Its are made in a small factory near [...]