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Gringo’s Chicken Tikka Masala

No picture because, no matter what I do, I can’t make this dish look like anything other than cat sick. Mmmm, mmm, nummy! Last month, I had some tikka masala for the first time at Thali of India . It was eye-poppingly delicious. Tender tandoori chicken is simmered in a flavorful tomato cream – a […]

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (aka, Blondies)

Tasty little buggers. Essentially, these were a vehicle to try out a bag of Nestle Chocolatier 62-percent Cacao bittersweet chocolate morsels. Shane and I tasted them along with Ghirardelli’s 60-precent Cacao bittersweet chips. Alone on the tongue, I preferred the Nestle (!!!) but in baking, the Ghirardelli still has my heart (and palate). (Shane liked […]

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Retro Recipe Challenge #4: Poppin’ Fresh Barbecups

Retro Recipe Challenge #4 — Fall Favorites Deadline: 11:50pm EST Wednesday, November 15 How to put this delicately … sometimes in a woman’s life — or should I say month — she craves some high-fat, low-in-pretention food. With no one to answer to except a pet, a kick-ass cable package, and a long historical tell-all, […]

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Candy Corn Cookies

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 […]

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Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

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 […]

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Retro Recipe Challenge #3 Submission: Cowboy Cookies

Retro Recipe Challenge #3 Deadline: Sunday, October 15 at 11:59pm. If you’ve ever set foot inside a bookstore in New York State, chances are you’ve spotted this iconic book: First published in 1981, Applehood & Motherpie: Handpicked recipes from Upstate New York is a collection of recipes put out by the Junior League of Rochester. […]

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Coconut Layer Cake (Shane’s Birthday Cake)

Retro Recipe Challenge Deadline: Sunday, October 15 11:59 EST!!! This is another Maglieri cake. This is another cake recipe taken from Peter Kump’s Cooking School Cake Baking packet. This is another delicious cake with texture issues. The coconut flavor is lovely and brightened by hits of lemon. The frosting is very rich from its coconut […]

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Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (My Birthday Cake)

This recipe comes from the Peter Kump’s Cooking School Cake Baking Course Pack. The cakes are developed largely by Nick Malgieri. Maybe it’s my technique but every time I make one of his cakes, the texture is a bit off. The flavor is great, but the texture is not. Same problem with this cake. It’s […]

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Pie Test #1: Apple Pie with a Twist

The first pie tested for the pie contest was a variation on Betty Crocker’s classic apple pie recipe. I’d been thinking that Chinese five spice powder would be a nice change for a sweet dish, and took that idea for a test drive. I also made pie dough from scratch (Martha Stewart’s “Perfect Pie Crust”), […]

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World Bread Day: End of the Season Zucchini Bread

This is Carolyn’s recipe, which I had the fortune to taste when her daughter, Kathryn, recently made it. It was delicious – sweet, spicy, packed with flavor. Mine isn’t as flavorful, and I think it’s because I forgot to put in the vanilla. (Yeah. Oops.) It’s still very good, just not as delicious as Carolyn […]

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