Nutter Butter cookie cake, a guest post by Miss Erin

Because sometimes you need a good chuckle and a dessert maker that is absolutely as sweet as the treat, I asked my adorable niece Erin to guest blog today. She is six-years old and carries most of her body weight in her big blue eyeballs. Sunday afternoon she invented her own cake. Erin’s Cookie Cake [...]

Keep your garlic cloves and keep your tomatoes closer (A Mario Puzo inspired guide to making spaghetti sauce)

The closest any member of my family has come to being Italian was a 16-month period beginning in 1985 when my mother insisted on calling my new boyfriend "Vince Scallopini". "That's the veal, Mom, not the Vince" I'd say repeatedly. She'd laugh and continue undeterred right up until our wedding when she decided "Laura Scallopini" [...]

A 12 Twinkie Salute

Molly and I baked Twinkies last night in a cross-generational salute to a squishy snack cake we both thought would last forever. I trace my own nostalgia for the somewhat tasteless treat to my Catholic grade school years during which Hostess snacks proved a sweet antidote to the stress of life with Sr. Rose, the [...]