Few foods find themselves intertwined with the highs and lows of life. Chicken noodle soup is reserved for an illness. Chocolate cake is reserved for a promotion at work. Pumpkin bread fills all the in-betweens. Eating a slice of pumpkin bread gives me the ultimate food warm and fuzzies.
As the leaves turn from yellow to brown, the smell of homemade apple pie fills permeates my house. I love opening the door to the smell of butter, cinnamon, apple, and sugar. Apple pie lends a level of nostalgia to the holidays that makes the endeared Thanksgiving pumpkin pie jealous. I’ve heard what sound like fairy tales of my grandmother Ruth’s fried apple pies and her homemade apple pies. I never got to taste these fabled treats, but my mother has kept their memories alive. Unfortunately, she does not have the recipes to pass along – since no one expected her to die so young. The dollops of butter carefully placed on the top of this pie are an ode to the memory of my grandmother Ruth. According to my mother, I still haven’t perfected the amount of cinnamon.
A picture is worth a thousand words, or 774 to be exact, generated by the discovery of a cat wandering through the corner of a photo I accidentally took when learning how to use my tripod. After Thanksgiving 2021, I remember fiddling around with my new tripod and struggling with the 90-degree arm. I must have been testing the setup and lighting when I snapped this shot. After taking hundreds of photos while preparing a recipe, I troll through the kaleidoscope of images in Lightroom. I delete the pictures that are out of focus, to dark, or feature my son’s latest lego construction project. How this photo was not deleted, I do not know. But now that our beloved Bella has crossed the rainbow bridge, this photo has taken on new meaning.
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” This is my favorite movie quote – ever – from the 1972 classic The Godfather. As the daughter of a Sicilian immigrant, I cannot think of a more iconic Sicilian dessert than the cannolo. The process of making cannoli is somewhat laborious. But don’t worry – this cheesecake is super easy and has all the flavors of a cannolo.
There is something magical about Christmas themed treats. For me, sugar cookies are the epitome of Christmas sweets with Italian flag cookies taking a close second. And now, what birthday party or baby shower is complete without themed sugar cookie? I’m not talking about the Pillsbury sugar cookie rolls that you slice and bake. Although, these do evoke a certain childhood nostalgia since they had to fill in the gap years when my mom went on a sugar cookie baking hiatus. I’m talking about the painstaking make-from-scratch sugar cookie dough that you hope might roll out correctly. Then, you pray that the dough will hold its shape as you press the copper or steel cookie cutters into the soft sugar dough.
The excess amount of heavy cream in this cheesecake gives it a velvety texture and cooking the cheesecake in a water bath takes it to the next level.
There is something magical about a warm chocolate chip cookie. Add a glass of whole milk, and it takes the experience to another level. So why not try my hand at homemade chocolate chip cookies?
I have always loved gingerbread cookies and over the past twenty years have tried several different recipes for my Christmas cookie bags. This is a lovingly adapted recipe from the now defunct Gourmet Magazine. It is the best that I have stumbled upon in terms of the balance of the spices and the degree of fluffiness. It is also a very forgiving dough…so you can mess up and re-roll it several times which is great for toddlers.
