Category: Dessert

Dessert

Flashback Friday – Did Someone Say Pie?

by Wendi4 Comments on Flashback Friday – Did Someone Say Pie?

Flashback Friday

The following originally appeared on 7/16/08 at Exit 51

Did Someone Say Pie?

It’s almost lunch time and I foolishly checked out the Washington Post Food Section.  Give me a moment while I clean up the slobber that is smeared all over my monitor.

Now, I can’t vouch for these recipes but when you’ve got Rose Levy Beranbaum and the Washington Post involved, I’m thinking the recipe is going to be pretty good.

Yes, this does mean that I will be taking home recipes for flaky cream cheese pie crust, cherry lattice pie, and perfect peach pie. Lord have mercy on me.

Dessert, Sweets

Chocolate No Bake Cookies

by Wendi19 Comments on Chocolate No Bake Cookies

I don’t have very many food hangups but the ones I have are well established.  I will not eat pickled beets, pickled herring, liver and onions, tacos, sushi, or fudge.  It’s a very random list and there really is no connection between the items other than I will go out of my way to avoid eating them.  Donuts used to be on that list after working at a donut shop in high school.  I would leave after a shift and the smell of donut grease was on every strand of hair, every fiber of my clothing, and even my shoes and socks.  After a very long estrangement, donuts and I are finally back on friendly terms.  In that example, the food hangup was the result of being exposed to the food for prolonged periods.  However, sometimes the food hangup predated any long term exposure to the target food so that the eventual exposure was made all the more painful.  Fudge falls squarely into that category.  Continue reading “Chocolate No Bake Cookies” →

Dessert, Main Course

Flashback Friday – I Am

by Wendi5 Comments on Flashback Friday – I Am

Flashback Friday

The following originally appeared on 7/14/08 at Exit 51.

I Am

My own worst enemy.  There I’ve said it.

In anticipation of a crazy week, and because the line at the deli had twenty people ahead of me, I tried to cram several cooking projects into one short Sunday.  By the time the lower fat, vegan friendly, deep chocolate cake came out of the oven, I was well into pasta sauce for baked pasta, and had yet to begin the chicken or mushroom cream sauce for a casserole (think chicken and cream of mushroom soup bake with rice…only WAY better).  Somewhere between assembling the baked pasta and furiously trying to reduce the creamy mushroon sauce, I lost all enthusiasm and most of my patience.  And the cake had yet to be dressed. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – I Am” →

Breakfast/Brunch, Dessert, Sweets

Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins

by Wendi29 Comments on Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins

Do you ever have the kind of day where you don’t know if you’re coming or going?  Where you can’t tell up from down?  Or whether it’s time for breakfast or dessert?  I can’t exactly help you cope with the first two things on that list.  But the third, I’ve got covered thanks to Three Baking Sheets To The Wind.

She posted about this Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffin that immediately got me to wondering…well, which is it – a pancake or a muffin?  Curiosity piqued as it was, I didn’t fool around letting this question, or recipe, linger.  My brain, and my recipe folders, are too congested to let burning questions such as this go unanswered, just bouncing around.  What follows is the official transcript of the conversation I had with myself after these had been mixed, baked, cooled, and consumed. Continue reading “Chocolate Chip Pancake Muffins” →

Dessert, Sweets

On Call

by Wendi4 Comments on On Call
image from http://www.istockphoto.com

While I’m away on my imaginary vacation, I’m leaving the pantry stocked with posts from Exit 51 that would have been part of the Flashback Friday series. The following originally appeared on 7/3/09 at Exit 51.

On Call

The moment I picked those berries, the clock started ticking.  One reason the strawberries you buy at the grocery store taste so blah is because they’ve been in suspended animation.  They get cold stored which prolongs their shelf life.  Fresh picked berries, however, have essentially been removed from their life support system.  The morning after harvest, the berries I had set aside from the mega batch of jam were already starting to dry out and wither.  Their once shiny exteriors were flat and dull.  I needed to get these berries into the kitchen stat.  Luckily, the recipe on call that day was Strawberry Frozen Yogurt.  I was asked to assist. Continue reading “On Call” →

Dessert, Sweets

Peanut Butterfinger Cookies

by Wendi10 Comments on Peanut Butterfinger Cookies

So what does one take to a potluck hosted and attended by food bloggers?  With enough forethought, I imagine that I could have pushed my creative boundaries to come up with something more original than cookies.  But I had to keep in mind that whatever I chose to make had to transport easily and not require refrigeration or reheating.  Oh, and it needed to be simple enough to work into a weeknight that was filled with the likes of Mad Men, The Closer, and Real Housewives New Jersey.  Because when I jump on board the crazy train that is RHNJ, my attention for anything that does not involve hair pulling, table flipping, or botox parties stays behind at the station.

So I pulled out my “dessert” binder and looked for inspiration.  I mean I have a ridiculous collection of recipes that I’ve made and liked enough to photograph, develop a story about, post for your use, and print for mine.  But nothing was really calling to me.  It wasn’t until I stumbled across a post on Plain Chicken that I got inspired.  By Butterfinger.  You know, the chocolate and peanut butter candy bar.  I can only say that the Universe meant for us to be together. How else would you explain me finding a recipe (on a site that I had never been to before) that called for 5 king size Butterfinger candy bars on the same day that I happened to stop at 7-11 for a Diet Coke and saw a ginormous display of Butterfinger with…wait for it…coupons? Continue reading “Peanut Butterfinger Cookies” →

Dessert, Sweets

Don’t Judge a Book By the Cover

by Wendi2 Comments on Don’t Judge a Book By the Cover
image from http://www.istockphoto.com

While I’m away on my imaginary vacation, I’m leaving the pantry stocked with posts from Exit 51 that would have been part of the Flashback Friday series. The following originally appeared on 7/20/09 at Exit 51.

Don’t Judge A Book By The Cover

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.  Not only is that some commercial tag line, it’s also the God’s honest truth.  Sometimes, bad first impressions can’t be overcome.  Other times, if you look past them, you find that you were totally wrong.  Like that time in middle school when both Kristen Heher and I thought each other was trouble, with a capital T.  Maybe we were, but after we got to know each other, we were best friends for two years.  As hard as it is for me to admit when I am wrong, it’s even harder not to share with you something so ugly it’s good. Continue reading “Don’t Judge a Book By the Cover” →

Dessert, Sweets

Waste Management

by Wendi4 Comments on Waste Management
image from http://www.istockphoto.com

While I’m away on my imaginary vacation, I’m leaving the pantry stocked with posts from Exit 51 that would have been part of the Flashback Friday series. The following originally appeared on 7/24/09 at Exit 51.

Waste Management

Buying items just because they are on sale is only a bargain if you use them.  Otherwise they’re a  huge waste of money.  Impulse grocery shopping usually comes back and bites me in the butt.  My most recent example?  Those cherries on sale at The Fresh Market were a great price.  I was expecting cherries as delicious as the ones I got direct from the farm at Baugher’s.  What I got instead was a heaping serving of disappointment. Continue reading “Waste Management” →

Dessert, Sweets

Flashback Friday – Know When To Say When

by Wendi7 Comments on Flashback Friday – Know When To Say When

Flashback Friday

The following originally appeared on 6/2/08 at Exit 51

Know When To Say When

I have a handful of recipes that try and create homemade versions of popular treats – Thin Mints, Peppermint Patties, and most recently, Oreos. I adore the idea of a diy approach to a classic. Really, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to have Thin Mints anytime they wanted? Nothing to get in the way of enjoying minty thin goodness on a whim.

But here’s the thing that nobody says. It’s a lot of freaking work. I read over the recipe and think ’sure, I can do that’. But it doesn’t occur to me that this undertaking will consume hours of my life. Hours that I can never get back. And why? All because I had to see if I could do it. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Know When To Say When” →

Dessert, Sweets

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes

by Wendi18 Comments on Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes

I am bad with numbers.  Really, my SAT Math scores were dismal.  For example, my math skills are so bad that when a  cake recipe calls for 8 inch or 10 inch pans (and I only have 9 inch pans) I will either decide not to make the recipe or forget about pan size altogether and make cupcakes.  My brain does not calculate volume.  That’s how The Mistah and I started out with a recipe for Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake but ended up with cupcakes instead. Continue reading “Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes” →