SMiLes by Meg

North End Cannoli

Friends, another chapter of SMiLes by Meg is coming to an end – this is my last weekend in Boston! Tomorrow I move down to Washington, D.C., with a new kitchen and a new bakery scene to explore. Obviously, if I’m moving tomorrow, my kitchen is very much packed up already. And I didn’t think that just using a spare recipe would be a good way to mark my last weekend here (also, I didn’t have a spare recipe…) So, this week, I convinced Madison and my Mom to help me out with something a little different – a taste

Single Chocolate Chip Cookie

Have you ever thought, “What I really need right now is one large chocolate chip cookie, but no more than that?” This blog is for you. In the past, I’ve taught you how to make a mug brownie, and last week I started my small batch baking kick with some Funfetti cake. But a single chocolate chip cookie feels so much more decadent. In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, oil, water and vanilla extract with a rubber spatula until combined. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and stir to combine. Add the chocolate

Mixed Berry Crisp

Hi all. Did this post come after midnight? Maybe. Was that because I was having a great Sunday hanging out with my family? Definitely. Don’t worry – Erik informed me I still have 4 hours (ish) Alaska time before this is late. Start by combining the berries, cornstarch, brown sugar, lemon juice and salt in a medium bowl. Spread into an 8×8 pan sprayed with cooking spray. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, almonds, almond meal, brown sugar and salt. Sprinkle in the olive oil and stir until combined. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit. Bake at 375°F

Lime Curd Bars

Happy Father’s Day! My dad likes lemon meringue pie, but I’ve made that before, so I decided to try to make something in the same family. Boston is in a heat wave (it is so hot out), and I initially wanted to make something no bake. However, when I found these, they seemed perfect – quick to make, didn’t have to buy many ingredients, and in the general family of lemon squares (but lime!). Start by making the graham cracker crust. In a medium bowl, toss together the melted butter, graham cracker crumbs and sugar until the texture of wet

Strawberry Sorbet

Hi friends. A word on the murder of George Floyd before I get into this week’s post below. I, like many of you, have felt a lot of things. Anger. Sadness. Hopelessness. Restlessness. I’ve been thinking a lot about what my role can or should be as an activist. I really struggled to decide whether to say anything here at all. But, in the end, I decided it would be irresponsible to let another week go by without using this platform in some way, and I think this blog reaches a different audience than my Instagram account, where many of

Chocolate Chip Meringues

So last week when I made bourbon vanilla ice cream, I had 7 left over egg whites. I asked Instagram what to do with them, and 4 different people told me I had to make Smitten Kitchen’s chocolate chip meringues. With that much independent support, I obviously looked them up. You guys. These only needed two egg whites. How was that supposed to solve my problem. There wasn’t a world in which I should be making 3.5 batches of meringues. Fortunately, I love egg tacos, and egg whites did fine for those this week. I saved two, and here we

Sweet Potato Bread

There’s a lot going on out in the world these days, but one of the silver linings is that engagement on my baking social media posts is way up – you all must be stuck in the house all day without anything to do or something. For me, baking is a way to bring order and control when I feel like other aspects of my life are not in control. I think a global pandemic is pretty high up there on the “out of control” spectrum, so it was really nice to be able to take an hour this morning,

Tahini Brown Sugar Cake

When I picked this recipe, I didn’t mean for it to be a clear-out-the-pantry recipe. And I’m not sure what it says about my pantry that this recipe did clean it out – I only had to buy some buttermilk and unsweetened chocolate, and happened to have everything else on hand. I did pick it entirely because I wanted to use my sprinkles. I didn’t expect this, but leaving the sprinkles in an airtight jar resulted in them all starting to clump together. I’m guessing because our apartment is a bit on the warm side, and maybe because I should

Pumpkin Flan

This Thanksgiving, Erik’s sister, Sarah, hosted us in San Francisco, which is weirdly basically halfway between Boston and Anchorage. We got to spend the weekend with Erik’s family, which was lovely, and meant lots of good eating. For Thanksgiving itself, Sarah let Erik and I help out with dessert, which was pumpkin flan and blackberry pie. Erik is the flan expert in our relationship, so pumpkin flan was an obvious choice as our contribution. It was a team effort, with Sarah and Trevor staying up to take it out of the oven when the time difference finally caught up to

Blueberry Rhubarb Compote

People will probably have a number of complaints about this post. For example, you may be thinking, “Meg, you just made a Blueberry Rhubarb Galette. You can’t repeat flavor combinations so quickly.” If you have that complaint, you obviously aren’t in Alaska right now. When I arrived in Alaska last week, Erik had acquired, no joke, an entire trash bag full of rhubarb, cut out of a friend’s yard: And then, while I was there, another friend, Nate, brought over a full Tupperware of blueberries he had picked himself along a trail somewhere. When you have access to rhubarb and