dessert Archives * Strong Coffee to Red Wine

Hand Pies & Date Paste

Published January 25, 2019

This post was planned way before I got hooked on the Great British Baking Show. So I need to come clean right away. I did not make my crust; I bought it at Whole Foods back in December. But I did make the fillings for these hand pies, and I am quite pleased with the result. But before we get to the hand pies, we have to talk about the date paste because that is what started this entire post. What to do with all these Dates A while back I bought a huge bag of dates at Costco.…

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Peaches Make A Delectable Compote

Published July 26, 2018

I have a love/hate relationship with peaches. I L.O.V.E. fresh peaches. They are one of the summer’s little treasures that you have to search out. Those picked too early never get the sweetness that you desire, and those picked too late, well read on because there is a problem. Peaches ripen in a nano-second and then quickly begin to lose freshness, flavor, and juiciness. If all of your peaches hit peak ripeness on the same day, you have to devour the entire basket within 24 hours. Or you run the risk of taking a single bite and then tossing in the trash because it…

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A Great Little Book ** Transparency ** and a Recipe

A Great Little Book Transparency and a Recipe

Published July 13, 2018

Before I get to the book and the fun dessert recipe, I want to ask you a favor. Transparency When I started this blog over eighteen months ago, one of my goals was: The blog should generate revenue. Was I gonna be able to quit my “day job”? No, at least not right away. But could it supplement my income as I transition my photography business? Here I thought the answer was, Yes. As I moved forward, I learned that while women’s fashion bloggers can make a decent living promoting what they wear and blog about, wine and food bloggers…

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Dinner for Six Part One: First Course

Dinner for Six Part One: First Course

Published February 26, 2018

This past weekend Gary and I had two couples over for dinner. I had several recipes I wanted to try and needed a few guinea pigs. Enter Bryan & Craig and Shawn & Michael. For me, this was an all-day affair as I just decided what yo make on Friday morning and I needed to get to the store asap. But my Friday was a hot mess with a wine delivery by UPS that I had to sign for so I could not leave the house until it arrived. And that was at 4:30p and I had to pick Gary up at…

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Lemon Curd from Natalie’s Lemon Tree

Published December 21, 2017

My neighbor, Natalie of Designer Bags & Dirty Diapers, has two lemon trees in her yard that are prolific producers of huge, juicy fruit. We have two lemon trees that produce nothing but thorns. Thankfully, Nat is very generous with her bounty and tells us to take what we want. A friend of mine who is a food photographer and stylist had just made lemon curd, and it was fantastic. So I asked for the recipe. Fresh lemons right off the tree would make fantastic curd. Here we go! I have made it twice. It is really delicious. And yes, I…

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Pumpkin Pie Bread Pudding

Published December 4, 2017

During my childhood, we ate pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I love love, love pumpkin pie and I can never get enough of it. I also love croissants and bread pudding too. So this year I had the hair-brained idea to make a bread pudding using croissants and pumpkin pie filling. To make the custard I slightly modified the recipe for the pumpkin pie custard by adding more liquid and eggs and adjusting the spices. This dessert has a milder flavor than pumpkin pie but still enough to satiate my cravings. My turkey may be the centerpiece of Thanksgiving, but to…

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Apple Crumble and Sunday’s Tasting at EOX

Published October 20, 2017

It is autumn, so my cravings for apple desserts has been building. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a crumble, a crisp, a cobbler, a buckle, a Brown Betty, a grunt or a slump. Confused? A crumble has an oat-based streusel topping. A crisp has a streusel topping sans oats. A cobbler is topped with individually-dropped biscuits. A buckle uses a cakey batter underneath the fruit and as the fruit sinks to the bottom the cake “buckles” over the edges of the fruit. A grunt and a slump is the same thing; it just depends on where you live. They are both cobblers that…

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Best Laid Plan * Irma * Binge *

Published September 11, 2017

Earlier last week when Irma had not chosen her course there was uncertainty abound and lots of folks making decisions before having all the information. While I am not a Lowcountry native, the last 13 years have taught me a great deal about tropical storms and hurricanes. For us, since we do not have kids and we are not sickly or elderly, we have options based on storm severity. For others, they got out of dodge before the storm turned north making Charleston a ghost town for the weekend. One of the things that we learned last year with Hurricane Matthew is…

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Peach Galette & A Cheese Story

Published September 1, 2017

I would like to tell you that the everything you are about to read was planned to happen. But it was not. How the Peach Galette turned out perfectly is as shocking to me as it may be to you. The cheese… well that is just down right crazy. Read on and feel free to laugh or cry. I’m having a glass of wine. A very large glass of wine. Who Moved My Cheese? I was at the grocery picking up a few things I needed for my fresh peach galette crust. (who keeps unsalted butter in the house?) As…

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Pineapple & Coconut: What is Not to Love

Pineapple & Coconut: What is Not to Love

Published June 13, 2017

A Piña Colada Pie My sister made this pineapple and coconut delight a few weeks back, and I knew then I have to make it for Saturday Dinner Club. It is the perfect summer dessert, and although there are several “cooling periods” in this process, it is a relatively easy pie to make. You may want to make two pies. Trust me when I say that you will want leftovers to nibble on after the party is over. Ingredients 21 pecan shortbread cookies, crumbled in food processor 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon melted butter 1/3 cup sugar…

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Tag: dessert