The first day I met my husband, he shared a little analogy with me. “Dave is to strawberries as Melissa is to muffins.” (I had just finished telling him that muffins were my favorite thing to eat, ever.) As we got to know each other better, he totally held up his end of that analogy […]
I sometimes joke that my entrance exam into my husband’s family was learning the recipe for rhubarb pie. Dave really loves rhubarb. But he has never even batted an eye at my suggestions of non-pie rhubarb desserts…until one day last week, when he suddenly looked up and asked me to make him a rhubarb coffee […]
I must say, I love ice cream. I love it all year long! But there is something magical about ice cream on a hot day. The way it drips down your fingers and chin, the cold, refreshing sweet cream on your tongue… I heard the ice cream truck touring through the neighborhood a few days […]
Pound cake sometimes gets a bad rap…which, honestly, I could never understand. I grew up on church potlucks and friendship loaves. Pound cake was always prominently featured, and I looked forward to every dense bite! The pound cakes of my childhood memories were never dry or boring. They were the reliable staples amid a table […]
My baby is 1!! How did that even happen? In keeping with my goal to one day turn into Annie of Annie’s Eats, I planned the heck out of a birthday party for him. I landed on a Curious George theme (from the books, not the show), because my kid looooves to investigate anything he […]
I tried a blueberry. It was tart…and not blue on the inside. I didn’t really care for it. But apparently, blueberries still make an amazing cake, especially when combined with crunchy cornmeal and nutty wheat flour! My in-laws devoured this cake…and I have to admit that the crumbs I sampled were pretty delicious! Grab a […]
Did you know that the English word cherry is actually the result of a misunderstanding? That’s right. Back in the thirteenth century when we were stealing all kinds of words from French (ahem), those Anglo-Saxons heard the French word cherise (modern French cerise) and assumed it must be plural! In fact, it wasn’t…but we hacked […]
Well by now, you probably all know how much I hate fruit. But if you ever met my dad, you would seriously wonder how I turned out this way! He never met a fruit he didn’t like. In fact, he prefers fruit over chocolate (gasp)! So this year I got to play the host for […]
It’s Secret Recipe Club time again! I have wanted to try making olive oil cake ever since my mother first figured out that she was lactose intolerant. Plus, you know me: I like to throw myself into recipes that sound a little weird. So this month, when I was perusing A Spoonful of Thyme, this […]
I have never been one to celebrate or otherwise observe St. Patrick’s Day. I was always the kid who forgot and wore blue and got pinched all day long, while exclaiming that no one had the right to pinch me, regardless of what color I was or was not wearing. But! I married an Irishman. […]