Laura Rebecca's Kitchen

This is a hollowed out “Book of Spells” holding (a portion) of tonight’s candy booty for the Trick or Treaters. The inscription reads: Away with bean and broccoli spear! Banish carrot sticks from here! Shun the dull and humdrum treats. Keep this vessel filled with sweets!” — Sadie the Werewolf wishes you a terrific Halloween!

These candy corn-shaped cookies from BettyCrocker.com were too cute not to make. They didn’t come out as precise as Betty’s (she must have a construction grade level in her kitchen) but they are darling. Some baked up as tricks. Some baked up as treats. Some give new meaning to the term “food porn.” I found […]

Pumpkin spice pancake with scrambled eggs. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And on a day that’s celebrated by the young gorging on candy and the “old” by downing fun mixed drinks, a good breakfast is especially important. Next time, I’ll increase the spicy kick with more cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, but […]

At left, buttermilk mashed potatoes accompanied with meatloaf and veggies. The word “buttermilk” in a recipe always sucks me in. Buttermilk pancakes? Yep. Buttermilk. Buttermilk fried chicken? Yes, please. Buttermilk mashed potatoes? Definately! Unfortunately, these are good but not as good as I expected them to be. They’re a bit creamier than regular milk would […]

I was clicking along in cake decorating class, not having too much of a problem — until last week. We didn’t decorate anything, just practiced piping. Piping kicked my ass. I couldn’t do anything right. Reverse shell, writing letters, creating leaves: everything I touched turned out poorly. Because we didn’t frost anything and I had […]

See those mashed potatoes? The recipe is a’comin. The day I made this recipe, it tasted pretty good. The next day, it was fantastic. So make it a day ahead, reheat, and enjoy with abandon! This recipe makes two loaves or, for a kid-friendly twist, put the mixture into 24 muffin cups. Meatloaf With Chili […]

I wish this picture did the flavor of this cake justice. I found this recipe on JoyOfBaking.com and slightly adapted it only because I couldn’t find our bottle of maple syrup. No matter — this is an amazingly delicious cake! Why can’t all cakes be like this? The cake is moist and delicate, with a […]

They started out in neat rows, but as I didn’t have a turkey baster, I gently flipped them while baking. If you have a type A personality like me, it should come as no surprise that I’m already testing out recipes for Thanksgiving. It looks like a small one this year — just us and […]

Dragon doing a karate shoulder stand. KYOP! Sadie has started her own blog: Karate Dragons! It encompasses her two current loves — yes, you guessed it — karate and dragons. It’s pretty amazing, especially when you consider the primary author is 8 years old. Take a look and if you’d like to send her a […]

From “The Vegetable-Industrial Complex” by Michael Pollan, published 10/15/06 in The New York Times: Soon after the news broke last month that nearly 200 Americans in 26 states had been sickened by eating packaged spinach contaminated with E. coli, I received a rather coldblooded e-mail message from a friend in the food business. “I have […]