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Vegetable-and-Cheese Strata

This is very tasty and simple to make, especially because all the prep work is done ahead of time. Don’t worry if it looks as if there’s very little egg compared to the veggies, cheese and bread: it all bakes up nicely. One note: I substituted a few shallots for the onions in the recipe […]

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Baked French Toast with Praline Topping

Trust me: it looks and tastes much better in person. Yesterday was a lot of fun, but I’m exhausted today! Lots of laughing, lots of playing Wii Sports (I have tennis shoulder this morning), and lots and lots eating food. Ham, turkey, strata, french toast, Irish soda bread, fresh berries, cookies, Easter eggs, cheesecake and […]

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Sugar Cookies & Royal Icing

I made these for Kian, who doesn’t like chocolate cookies (or chocolate at all, for that matter). He likes these very much, and they’re popular with Sadie and Shane too. (As for me, I’ll stick with the chocolate ones.) Instead of flavoring these with vanilla or lemon (mmm, lemon) I added a teaspoon of almond […]

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Chocolate Cookie Cut Outs & Royal Icing

Click here for cookie decorating ideas & tips. Two Easters ago, Shane, Kian, Sadie & I converged on my parents’ apartment in NYC. They threw a brunch and all of us, plus my Aunt Linda, Uncle Matt, cousins Chris and Matt, and Catherine, Matt’s wife, joined us. Catherine — charming, adorable, gorgeous Catherine — brought […]

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Cinnamon Raspberry Muffins

This is a slightly adapted muffin recipe and, if I do say so myself, they came out very nicely. The flavor is gently sweet with a nice contrast between the warm, spicy cinnamon notes and the bright and fresh flavors from the raspberry jam. The crumb is tender and moist and the sugar topping even […]

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Glazed Chicken with Carmelized Onions

Mmm, mmm! Steamy chicken goodness. The original recipe is called Caramelized Onion Chicken but, frankly, this recipe doesn’t have enough onions in it to justify that name. I doubled the amount of onions called for, and it still was pretty skimpy. So if you like onions (and I do), throw in two to three medium […]

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Roasted Balsamic Sweet Potatoes

If I had to marry a vegetable dish, this would be the one: Mr. Right. Roasting these sweet potatoes with a bit of balsamic, butter, and brown sugar gives a greater depth of flavor to their sweetness while adding complexity and a hint of richness. Simply put, they are superb. Run, run, run to the […]

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Cookbook Spotlight #3 — Old Fashion Apple Cake

About a month ago, I was thrilled to get an invitation from Breadchick and Sara inviting me to participate in Cookbook Spotlight #3. After Breadchick posted a recipe from Ships of the Great Lakes Cookbooks: Discover Their Culinary Legends for Weekend Cookbook Challenge #13, the book’s publisher, Paula McKenna, contacted her and asked to be […]

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Weekend Cookbook Challenge #14 Submission: Midinette

Of all cookbooks I have, a plain, black binder from Peter Kump’s Cooking School is my favorite. It’s stuffed with class recipes, and its pages retain scribbled notes, oil splashes, and traces of ancient flour. Though it’s an amazing book, it usually lies untouched on the bookshelf. When I think of its recipes, I remember […]

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Junior Mint Brownies

The idea for these brownies has been bouncing around in my brain for a few weeks. I’d found this recipe but was disappointed that the mints weren’t an ooey-gooey layer in the midst of a chewy brownie, but melted with butter and incorporated into the batter. So I set to solve that problem and came […]

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