Archive for the 'sweets' Category
First Honey Ice Cream, then Chocolate Cake
June 18th, 2011by Caroline After making the honey ice cream the other day, I had 6 egg whites left over. I could have made an egg white omelette, I suppose, but that’s not really my style. This is more my style: This recipe is similar — in look and execution — to Lisa’s chocolate roulade, though her [...]
Honey Ice Cream
June 16th, 2011by Caroline I am learning — slowly — that while San Francisco doesn’t offer the summer weather I grew up with (and long for) when school lets out each year, there are ways to compensate for that. Here at home it may be 60 degrees, with fog swirling in the street and a wind so [...]
Chocolate Brownie Frosting
June 1st, 2011by Caroline I don’t do elaborate kid birthday parties. Knowing that most children are happy with a treat and the chance to play with their friends, I don’t see any reason to knock myself out. I am lucky that my sons both have spring birthdays, so we can keep everybody in the backyard, and for [...]
The Only Brownie Recipe You Will Ever Need
May 18th, 2011by Caroline Last summer, to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary, Tony and I arranged back to back sleepovers for our kids with two different families, and thus managed our first two-night getaway together since Ben was born. We’d each been away longer on our own (or with friends and family), both for work and for [...]
Maple Easter Candy
April 22nd, 2011by Caroline Every year, I hope that maybe our Easter trip to my parents’ home in Connecticut will line up with sugar season, that window every New England spring when the temperatures sink below freezing at night but rise into the 40s during the day, with enough sun to warm the trees and encourage the [...]
The Birthday Menu
March 4th, 2011by Caroline The one day a year I am very happy to take orders from my kids is on their birthdays, when they know they can order up a day of special meals, culminating in whatever birthday cake they like. Ben’s birthday today falls on a school day, so I have no say over his [...]
Sugar on Snow, Literally
March 2nd, 2011by Caroline I am a big fan of letting the kids experiment in the kitchen to discover what tastes good to them. Ben, for example, went through a period of snacking on sun-dried tomatoes and graham crackers — a snack I never would have thought to offer the child but kept him happy for countless [...]
Birthday Cake
February 16th, 2011by Caroline Five years ago today, in honor of her milestone birthday, I organized a virtual birthday celebration for my sister by having her many friends post birthday cake pictures on their blogs. This year, with fewer of us blogging and more of us on Facebook, her friend Becca and I organized a somewhat different [...]
Valentine’s Hearts
February 11th, 2011by Caroline In years past, I have made heart-shaped chocolate sandwich cookies, I have made heart-shaped brownie ice cream sandwiches, and even homemade Ring Dings (or Ding Dongs, depending on whether your family bought Hostess or Drake’s Cakes). Last year, apparently not so much in the mood for sweets, I made a bright pink beet [...]
Triple Citrus Cream Cheese & Poppy Seed Coffeecake
January 21st, 2011by Caroline Before my mom went back to work full-time, when I was in elementary school, she cooked dinner every night and baked bread every Saturday. She made birthday cakes for all four of us kids and thousands (I’m not exaggerating) cookies at Christmas. But the one thing I don’t recall her making on any [...]