Tag: Christmas

Spanish Hot Chocolate – For Sipping or Dipping

A Taste of History Following our snow day last Thursday, it got cold. Cold for Portland, that is. The roads cleared and life got back to normal but snow lingered in the back yard and the air stayed fresh and chilly. My craving for Hot Chocolate lingered too. I have […]

Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Ganache

It’s Christmas week and things are looking festive. Winter is officially here and the short days end in darkness punctuated by festive displays of light. My sense of taste has stopped craving a palette of corn and pumpkin and turned to peppermint and chocolate. I saw these little cookies near […]

Pecan Praline Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting served on a glass plate and resting on a snowy ledge.

Pecan Praline Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting

Pecan Praline Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting are deliciously buttery and rich with brown sugar and pecans. They are not difficult to make but they do require an extra step for the frosting. That extra step makes them pretty and doubly tasty, therefore perfect for the holiday season.

Chocolate Orange Olive Oil Cookies served on a white plate.

Chocolate Orange Olive Oil Cookies

Rich and luscious, the recipe for Chocolate Orange Olive Oil Cookies incorporates a variety of superfood ingredients, often recommended as smart additions to a healthy diet, into these wonderfully indulgent two-bite sized gems.

Lessons from Childhood – Chocolate Macaroons

The Virtues of Coconut? To be honest, I didn’t think I liked Macaroons. In truth I have always avoided them. It was never even a challenge to say no to an offered tray of those nubby golden mounds. My aversion to flaked coconut was written in my mind as a […]

Twickers Bars are stacked on a plate showing their layers of cracker, caramel and delicious topping.

Twickers Bars

These really are delicious, taking that sweet/salty, chocolate/peanut butter taste phenomenon to a new cookie bar extreme. They really do taste like Twix candy bars, only better. Try them. You’ll see.

Cranberry Orange Baked Oatmeal scooped from a serving dish into an individual bowl.

Cranberry Orange Baked Oatmeal

Topped with a thin browned crust of toasted oats and flecked with cranberries, baked oatmeal has the appeal of a breakfast dessert. Even so, it is packed with wholesome ingredients. When drenched in milk, it makes a creamy porridge of oats that are nicely al dente in texture.

A Slice of Eggnog Pound Cake decorated with chocolate stars as a Twelfth Night Cake with figures of the Three Wise Men on camels in the background.

Twelfth Night Cake – Eggnog Pound Cake

This recipe for Eggnog Pound Cake makes a beautiful Twelfth Night Cake. Baked in a decorative pan and dusted with powdered sugar, then adorned with simple white and dark chocolate stars, this cake is both pretty and delicious. What makes it particularly special, however, is that the guest who finds a chocolate coin hidden in their slice wins a small prize as we celebrate Epiphany.

Frozen Holiday Terrine

Simplicity. That word has a special meaning at this time of year. As Christmas Day approaches simplicity is something I seem to physically crave. It’s not that I don’t enjoy complexity. December often begins that way with boxes of decorations to be rediscovered and arranged, a calender bursting with obligations […]