French macarons are meringue-like almond cookies that are filled with jams, buttercream or ganache. They come in several different flavors, and macarons happen to be the perfect virtual baby shower treat for my dear friend Amanda from {i am baker}. Lately I feel as though there must truly be something in the water, such is the number of pregnant friends I have. However, in just seven short days one of them will no longer be pregnant. Instead, she’ll join the ranks of “other moms with... more

Food is a passion. I’m not sure that it necessarily comes out all the time as I tell you about the mess my kids and I made, how I have taken to making my own fruit snacks or that I’m making ice cream in the fall, but I hope it does. I hope that you can see my relationship with food is one that I’ve fought for and continue to fight for daily. It’s important to me, and it’s important for me to share it, this time with an apple pie cheesecake topped with a salted caramel... more

Fall somehow made its entrance last week, and then just yesterday it was October. I am suddenly feeling the push to tell you about pumpkin, apples, baked squash dishes and, well, Halloween treats, but I’m still in ice cream mode. Salted caramel ice cream, to be exact, which isn’t such a bad thing when it comes to fall because, well, salted caramel ice cream pairs perfectly with all those warm fall desserts like apple crisp and pumpkin pie. It cuts the sweetness just enough and lingers... more

Maybe I named this recipe for lemon frozen yogurt the “Yogurt of the Gods” because it has Greek yogurt in it, which instantly makes me think of Greek mythology, or perhaps it was birthed out of how heavenly it tastes. Still, though, there’s a chance that I named it that because my kids have been watching The Lightning Thief, reading the Percy Jackson books and pretending they can control massive amounts of water like any true son of Poseidon could. Maybe it’s a combination... more

Yesterday I was making blueberry crumb bars for Babble when I decided I needed use up some of the produce in the fridge. We were headed up to the Boundary Waters, and I had, well, a lot of produce that wasn’t scheduled to be packed in the cooler and carted up there with us. As I stared at the cherries that had sadly been neglected as life took over and deadlines loomed, I decided they would work perfectly in the crumb bar recipe I’d just tossed into the oven. The cherries had originally been... more

When we embarked on the homemade ice cream path, the next obvious step was consumption of all the delicious gelatos and ice creams that were filling the freezer. First we ate bowls of vanilla bean gelato with mint leaves for garnish, we smooshed it between cookies, made shakes with fresh strawberries, topped it with strawberry sauce and, of course, as root beer floats. Note: Good root beer floats always starts with a good root beer. Goose Island? Pure cane sugar? Check. While dating Ole, I learned... more

The high today is supposed to reach 90. It makes it hard to believe that just two weeks ago I was waiting for the overnight lows to stay above freezing before I put my seedlings in the ground. I am hot and sticky, and I am dreaming of the technology that is called central air. You may have heard of it? I had it at one point. In fact, I had it my whole life until we purchased our own home. Now? I make ice cream and stand in the laundry room on the cement, eating vanilla bean gelato out of the... more