SMiLes by Meg

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Cake

This week we went to Cate and Jonathan’s house for the first time since moving to DC! It’s wild that the pandemic has meant that I’ve been here for 9 months without getting to just have dinner inside with friends, but now that we’re all vaccinated, we’re making up for lost time. When Cate tasked me with dessert, I wanted to make something a bit more elaborate than I’ve been making recently, and I wanted that thing to be out of an Ottolenghi book, since Cate is the one who introduced me to his restaurants/recipes. I picked three options and

Strawberry Lime Black Pepper Popsicles

Get ready. This blog is about to become very popsicle-focused. Also, more importantly, Happy Mother’s Day! Mom, when you come down to visit, I promise to have perfected a coconut version of these. Last week I saw popsicle molds at Whole Foods and, in possibly my best impulse buy of the current phase of the pandemic, decided I needed them. I like cold desserts for the summer, but ice cream is kind of fussy, mostly because of how many egg yolks it takes. Popsicles, however, are quick, require no egg yolks, and even get Erik approval (since they’re basically frozen

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

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

Homemade Pocky

I saw these on the New York Times cookie spread and knew I had to make them. I love pocky, and can never eat just a few. They’re crispy, chocolate, and are cookies, so there’s not much not to like. The best part? These ones are easy. They don’t actually make good cookie tin cookies (they break kind of easily and therefore shouldn’t be packed with lots of other cookies, but I think they’d look great out on a platter for dessert at one of the eighteen holiday parties you’re probably going to this week. In my cookie marathon weekend,

Strawberry Fool

What a difference a week makes! Today, I came home from 3 days on Nantucket with my mom, where we shopped, biked, and ate/drank particularly well. Then, when we got back to Duxbury, I got to see my cousin, Jim, get married! And now I’m sitting on my couch, watching Stranger Things (don’t worry, Erik, I’m rewatching the first couple with my mom, not watching new ones), and tomorrow I still have another day to enjoy the sun! Now, everything hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies (though there were definitely a lot of both). If you were in the Boston

Pop Tarts

I’ve been craving Pop Tarts since taking the ferry up to Alaska. They had them on the boat, but I couldn’t justify buying them, since we had plenty of snack food already. But it put the idea in my head, and every time I walk by them in the store I think about getting a box, before I remember I already have oatmeal at home. Finally, I decided the best way to be able to justify having Pop Tarts around would be to make them myself.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

There really isn’t a whole lot better than baking a pie with fresh ingredients from a farmer’s market. You’re supporting local businesses. Everything is super ripe and perfect. You get to buy the ingredients outdoors. Even someone who doesn’t like pies or fruit-based desserts (that would be me) can appreciate how good it feels to do this. So when we were walking through the farmer’s market at Harvard and a vendor had both strawberries and rhubarb, I couldn’t just not buy them. And, as luck would have it, strawberry rhubarb is Erik’s favorite pie!

Strawberry Shortcake

Happy Easter! After a wonderful day with family out in Duxbury, I’m still not quite ready to go back to school work, so blogging it is! This year’s Easter recipe evolved quite a bit from its original idea, and strangely went from more adventurous to more traditional, rather than vice versa. Every year, my mom and I think it will be a good idea to make some big and beautiful Easter dessert, and every year we all get too full on brunch to actually eat dessert, leaving full cakes untouched. This year, I wanted to be cognizant of that.

Lemon Berry Stripe Cake

This weekend I decided to bake something exciting. I had the time. I had a book club (which meant it would disappear quickly). I hadn’t made a cake in far too long. Also, Cate made it a couple weeks ago and I got jealous. So I pulled out Ottolenghi’s Sweet cookbook and found the most colorful, interesting looking cake I could: Lemon Berry Stripe Cake.