Treats for appetites of every size
For some reason, whenever I’m baking for fellow teacher friends (and the dessert is not going to school), I always turn to my Boozy Baker cookbook. You’ve seen a recipe from it before in my Nightcap Tart. Maybe it’s because it was Friday. Maybe it’s because I have a pretty well-stocked bar despite not drinking hard liquor. But I found myself reaching for it again this week after inviting some of those teachers over for a working Friday night.
Ah September. It’s finally Fall. It no longer feels like you’re going to melt when you go outside. And sweatpants are finally comfortable again. Oh, and school is back in session.
So I’m kind of obsessed with trail mix. If it’s got dried fruit and nuts, I’m in. Add some chocolate covered anything and I can’t stay away. And the king of all trail mixes is the orchard blend trail mix from BJ’s. It’s almonds, pistachios, raisins, dried cherries, and dried cranberries. Salty, chewy, crunchy – the whole package. So before I came back down to New Jersey for the school year, I made sure to pick some up on a trip to BJ’s with my dad – two whole bags. For two weeks, I was good. I kept them closed …
This post marks exactly (well, 2 days from exactly) 1 year of SMiLes by Meg. In deciding what to make to mark this occasion, I wanted to go big. I wanted to make something that was quintessentially me. And I wanted it to be crazy complex and impressive to look at and eat. But then I became paralyzed. What would I make? What recipe would fulfill everything I wanted it to do and more? I couldn’t decide.
I am officially back in New Jersey. School starts next week, and my summer is coming to a far to fast close. After spending the last couple months indulging in the luxury of hanging out with my family and not planning lessons, coming back here was a bit of a shock. That shock was not improved by the fact that my AC unit had leaked, causing my floor to buckle into a mountain range.
On Friday, I played a round of golf with my dad (I get out maybe once a year) and we were discussing summer desserts. I, personally, am of the belief that any real dessert has to include chocolate, and the denser that chocolate, the better. However, my dad, also a sweets connoisseur, was arguing for the merits of a light, sweet, lemon meringue pie. I have always shied away from meringue, because some part of me was convinced it was far too hard to make (it’s not), and have never actually truly made a pie from scratch, crust and all. …
This weekend, I had the pleasure of hosting the lovely Molly Hayes for plenty of beach time and country music. And since we went to college together, we decided to recreate a treat from a favorite bakery in New Haven: Claire’s. Thanks to Marj, I have the Claire’s cookbook, and the cookbook has my absolute favorite cake from the store: Lithuanian Coffee Cake.
Full disclosure: I made these on the 3rd of July, not the 3rd of August. But as I mentioned earlier, when you don’t have a staff room to drop the treats off in on Monday morning, you have to save some recipes for later if you want to save yourself from death by diabetic coma.
This weekend, I didn’t have to bake at all. I had three lovely sous chefs to do all the work. I just diced some strawberries and they did the rest. Here they are, hard at work:
Last week, I was mean. I only gave you half of the recipe to the treat I was making. However, this week, I plan to make that up to you. So, if you have not yet finished all of the chocolate ice cream (which I realize is unlikely, I barely had enough to use one day later, let alone a week), you can combine it with today’s cookie recipe to make some pretty unbelievable ice cream sandwiches.