Desserts

It’s December and it’s COLD.  The arctic cold front hit most of the country and it’s cold! It is the perfect day to reflect on all that you haven’t finished for Christmas.  Let’s see…mailing the adorable cards you had made (I mean you did wrestle the monkeys into nice clothes and scream and yell at them and the dog to sit still so you could get that perfect shot), get on Amazon and try to find something for the teenager living with you, finish decorating the tree and finally, deliver the neighbor gifts.  Oh yeah those people that look after your house while you are on vacation and call the cops because your alarm is going off for no reason at all. Well, those people deserve a sweet gift for putting up with your kids throwing a million balls in their side yard or tear up their front yard with their bikes or throwing a football in their tree and trying to climb it to get it out all the while breaking 12 branches. Oh, is that just me? My neighbors are […]

I have said this before, but I’ll say it again…I am not a baker:) We don’t eat a lot of sweets and I don’t like the exact measuring thing that goes along with baking. But, every now and then I will find a recipe that is super easy and always turns out perfect and this is one of those recipes.  Christmas Shortbread Cookies are delicious and not too sweet.  So many of the treats over the holidays have SO much sugar that it hurts your teeth.  These cookies are perfect with a cup of coffee or tea in the afternoon.

I “glazed” these with a quick powdered sugar/lemon glaze, but you can absolutely leave that off and they are still delicious.  And, I obviously used some Christmas cookie cutters, but you can cut them with a knife into squares or use a round cutter-no idea where in the world those Christmas ones came from. I have so much crap!!  I need to get rid of some much crap:)

A couple notes- 1) if your butter is […]

February is chocolate month! We are not huge sweets people in my house, but every now and then I love a great dessert. If I could narrow it down to 3 I would choose creme brûlée, carrot cake and pot de creme, pronounced POH-de-KREM. It means pot of cream and it is a French dessert dating back to the 17th century. You can make salted caramel pot de creme or vanilla pot de creme or CHOCOLATE pot de creme the list goes on.  It is silky and rich and oh so delicious and oh so easy! It sounds super fancy and time consuming, but I promise it is a breeze to make.

This is a recipe you can make a couple days in advance of a dinner party. When it comes time to serve all you have to do is take it out of the fridge and add a dollop of whipped cream and dessert is served!

One thing to note about a dessert that you cont cook-use the very best ingredients you can find or afford. I […]

This is a very traditional English dessert and there is is reason it is a tradition because it is amazing! Now as most people know, pudding in England or Scotland just means dessert so this is a specific pudding served for Christmas dinner. It is a spongy cake made with sugar, sugar, sugar and dates:) and then it is topped with a rich brandy or scotch toffee syrup. It is truly one of the best parts of Christmas dinner. It is rich, sweet, salty everything you want in a holiday dessert.

My family does not eat a lot of desserts, but there are a few that they cannot resist and Apple Crisp is one of them.  We are lucky because now days we can get fabulous apples all year round, but they are especially good in the fall.  Of course my family’s favorite apple is the Honeycrisp and they are the most expensive down here in Texas, but I buy them at Costco (yes angels are singing) and I can get 16 in a bunch!  We eat a lot of apples!  

I know the first few of weeks of back to school means Mom is going to make dinner every night, have big healthy breakfasts ready, come up with fabulous after school snacks and generally be the best mom in the world. Then May comes around and Mom is making a phone call to Pizza Hut, passing out pop tarts and driving through Sonic for an afternoon snack.  But, while we are all still feeling ambitious here is a recipe for amazing homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I made this batch and they were gone within about 10 minutes and I am not kidding.  These are such a great way to make a boring weekday special.

I do not bake much, but one thing I have learned is that I always use parchment paper when I am baking.  I have tried those silpats and they get greasy and are difficult to clean.  Parchment paper is easy and disposable.

What is a Galette? It is a French term for a freeform cake or pie.  In my words it is a lazy man’s pie.  It’s super easy and fast and you do not have to worry about making the crust look pretty or getting it into a pie plate.  Just roll out the pastry dough and place it on a cookie sheet.

You can make a galette with anything you want-berries, apples, pears or you can go savory and fill it with chicken, vegetables, ricotta…. there are a million things you can put into a pastry dough. For this recipe I made a sweet galette as a treat for the boys when they got home from school.  I don’t make desserts for normal family dinner.  First, I don’t have time and second we don’t need the extra sugar!

As you can probably tell from my posts, I am not and my family is not big dessert eaters. It has just never been apart of my cooking routine and my husband doesn’t like sweets so I don’t make them.  Now, don’t get me wrong, my kids eat plenty of sugar from Twizzlers, Skittles, Girl Scout cookies…which is another reason I don’t need to make desserts.  But, every now and then I will make something sweet for a birthday or special event.  It was my husband’s birthday last week and I made these AMAZING little sweet treats.  

Baby its cold outside!  Its pretty cold in Texas, but I know a lot of the country is bracing for an extreme arctic freeze. Since this cold front is coming over the weekend it is going to hinder a lot of plans and parties.  So, if you are stuck inside and you have little kids, I am sorry:) There is nothing worse than being stuck in the house with little ones that are bored. My solution is to just drink! 

People say the best part about Thanksgiving is the pies!  I do not disagree.  Thanksgiving Thursday is pretty much the only day my family eats pies.  No one really loves Pumpkin Pie so we don’t tend to have that one, but we always have a traditional Texas Bourbon Pecan Pie.  Side note, the way us Texans say pecan is “PUH-KHAN” not “PEE-CAN”. Go ahead and say it out loud.  See???  Sounds better, right:)?

I feel like we are finally in a rhythm with school-kids are going to bed on time, because they are exhausted.  I can happily say that my kids wake up happy 3 out of 5 school days. That’s good, right?  We have cut down the amount of after school activities considerably and this year our house has gone from three kids to two. Which, by the way, makes a huge difference!  What were we thinking when we decided to go for the third??  I’m just kidding!!  The third child makes life so fun and adds such a fun dynamic to our family.  But, it is more chaotic for sure.  

When I was a little girl my Dad and I were in Indian Princesses. It was so much fun! We got to spend time with our Dad and our friends and do really cool things like camp outs, making leather vests to wear to campfires or carving walking sticks. How fun is that for little girls?  Honestly, I think the Dads had more fun than the girls on the camp outs and I am certain there was no alcohol involved in their fun.

One month we had a “camp out” at my friends house and we made S’mores on the grill because the responsible dads did not want to build a bonfire in the backyard, seriously?  But…the s’mores were SO, SO good! I love the idea of s’mores on a summer night, but sometimes you don’t have a fire going or you have little people around and you don’t want to spill your drink while helping them turn the marshmallows into flame throwers. So..what is a drink holding, partying parent supposed to do so their little precious children can enjoy summer s’mores?? That’s […]

When the blueberries hit the grocery store I buy them almost everyday, because I am at the grocery store almost everyday. Lucky for me my neighborhood grocery store is small and close and has all the necessary staples. I honestly do not know how much I spend at the grocery store every week, but I am sure it is enough to sustain a small country.  

Puppy Chow, Muddy Buddies, Monkey Munch…Everyone has had this snack/candy/dessert.  My grandmother used to make it and I just remember loving it as a kid.  It is so easy and will be gobbled up in a flash.  I often give this to my boys before a game to give them some extra umph in case they have used all their energy being straight A honor students during the day. It has sugar, protein and easy to eat in the car. 

This weekend was rainy and yucky.  The kids were in the house along with most of the neighborhood. Needless to say the house looks like a tornado came through it.  I wonder if insurance covers that? Seriously, there are about 500 gatorade bottles, goldfish and toilet paper all over the house.  I really have no idea why toilet paper was the “toy” of choice for them, but….  I have just closed the doors to all the rooms and have taken refuge in my office.  I am waiting for the cleaning fairy to come visit in the night.

Don’t pass over this recipe because it sounds strange.  I promise you will love it!  This is probably not a dessert you want to serve to your kids unless you want them to go to sleep, then give them a big helping, just kidding.  Because it has a lot of alcohol in it and it is not cooked the alcohol does not burn off so it’s not really for kiddos.