Laura Rebecca's Kitchen

A quick pic using Shane’s digital camera — my camera (with allllll the other pictures) is holding its images hostage… This month’s DB challenge was hosted by Jen of The Canadian Baker. She asked us to make Lemon Meringue Pies as “it is something [she’s] always wanted to try to make and [she] also wanted […]

I used to date a man who loved the cocktail hour at wedding receptions; the combination of elegant mixed drinks with a panoply of carefully prepared finger foods proved too irresistible. Forget the cake, or the carefully plated fish-or-chicken entrees, the cocktail hour was where it’s at. After last night, I’m reminded why I agree. […]

Kicked Up Green Bean Casserole: pretty, by casserole standards. I’ve never been a fan of the traditional green bean casserole but Shane really likes it, so I’ll make it on occassion — most recently, for Thanksgiving. I’m not crazy about green beans anyway, and the regular recipe yeilds a bland-tasting and grey-looking casserole. For Christmas […]

An email from Mark, verbatim: It was one of those awkward social mixers at the beginning of my first semester at The University of Alabama in 1990. All the grad students were invited to the home of the one of the professors, so we could get to know each other and meet some of the […]

Sometimes, a cookie is so tasty that, even though you’ve planned to blog about it, you eat all the treats before you have a chance to take pictures. These cookies fall into that category. (But Jerry let me borrow his photo — Yay, Cooking By The Seat of My Pants!) On Saturday night, we had […]

It’s that time again, folks: posting day for the Daring Bakers! This month, our host, Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups, challenged us to make Tender Potato Bread from Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour & Tradition Around the World . Tanna gave us a lot of leeway […]

Mmm, Cinnabon™. A few weeks ago, I got an invite from Lis — did I want to join her and several other food bloggers in a live baking project? Um, yes! Lis purchased a “Top Secret” recipe for Cinnabon’s™ cinnamon rolls to compare with the results of our recent DB cinnamon roll/sticky roll challenge. After […]

This butternut squash risotto an ideal dish for a cold, fall night. Like all good risottos, it’s rich and creamy, with brimming with flavor from the chicken stock, white wine, and onion. The squash’s flavor takes a backseat in this dish, but clearly, its sunny, bright color is at center stage. All this needs is […]

I just had another piece of this lovely cake and here’s the thing: it’s delicious, but it’s supposed to be gingerbread, and it doesn’t taste like gingerbread to me. This is Nigella Lawson’s “Fresh Gingerbread with Lemon Icing” recipe and I have to ask, where’s the spicy hit? I even doubled the amount of ginger […]

Before our Halloween/Dessert party, I asked the Daring Bakers for ideas. Peabody suggested I make Gingerbread Pumpkin Bars; she’d just made them with great success. So, I happily followed her suggestion, and she is so right: these are delicious! Spicy and sweet with added depth from the molasses, they are wonderful. The base is rich […]