SMiLes by Meg

Tag: sugar

Matcha Snickerdoodles

These cookies have been on my “I want to try that” list since I got Weeknight Baking for Christmas a couple of years ago. I just never was able to find matcha at Whole Foods, which is where I assumed I would be able to find it, and I didn’t want to order it from Amazon, even though there are actually a couple of specialty items I should just order at this point since I haven’t been able to find them anywhere. Then, last week, I found matcha at Whole Foods! I never go down the aisles full of random …

Small Batch Olive Oil Lemon Bars

Happy Valentine’s Day! Erik and I just finished a feast and I’m writing this as I’m about to slip into a food coma powered by Schitt’s Creek on the couch. We ordered cook at home hot pot and it was perfect – lots of delicious food, a fun thing to do. Highly recommend. If you’re in the DC area check it out – Fat Choi Hot Pot. Also in the Valentine’s Day trend, Erik has been talking about how much he loves lemon bars for weeks now, and I thought it was probably a good time to make him some. …

Peanut Brittle

Back to Christmas cookie boxes this week with one of the two non-cookie recipes I put in the boxes this year: peanut brittle. I think it’s fitting to still be sharing cookie box recipes because some of the cookie boxes I mailed out (3 day priority mail about 2 weeks before Christmas) just this week got to their destinations. USPS needs its funding restored. Anyways, peanut brittle went in the boxes this year as a compromise. I really wanted to try to recreate Williams-Sonoma peppermint bark, but then once I started looking at recipes realized it was a project in …

Nutmeg Teddy Bears

If you follow my Instagram (@smilesbymeg), you know that I made a LOT of cookies this weekend. If you don’t follow my Instagram, you really should start. I’ll post the recipes over the next couple of weeks, but first up (by vote of my Instagram followers): Nutmeg Teddy Bears! Every year in my cookie boxes, I like to make at least one with my cookie press. And every year when I do make a cookie press cookie, I remember that i have presses for every season of the year that isn’t Christmas, too, swear I’ll make more, and then don’t. …

Danish Puff

Last week, my mom suggested I try a recipe of Grammy’s that I hadn’t tried yet – Danish Puff. My aunt sent me the recipe, confirming that it was always a treat when Grammy would make it on Sundays. I’d never heard of it, but decided to give it a go this Sunday, since we all deserve a treat to keep celebrating yesterday. I love getting recipes of Grammy’s, because they often come to me like this: No nonsense, easy to find ingredients, minimal instructions assuming you know what you’re doing in the kitchen. And at this point in my …

Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

It’s a rainy day in DC today, and I’m very happy about. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the weeks on end of perfect Fall days, but sometimes you just need an excuse to curl up in cozy clothes all day, drink coffee out of your biggest mug and refuse to leave the apartment. This will be that day. Yesterday was not that day – it was mid-70s, and we had some friends over for pre-dinner roof drinks. After last week’s experiment in keeping the blog post’s baked good for ourselves all week, I was more than ready to …

Pumpkin Chai Bread

I have been having the most lovely vacation. Erik and I spent most of the week backpacking in Shenandoah National Park, and I don’t think better weather existed. We didn’t see a single cloud, it was crisp enough not to overheat but warm in the sun, and the leaves were just starting to change. Obviously, with such perfect Fall weather, I’ve been in a very Fall mood, and have wanted all things pumpkin all week. I picked up some mellowcreme pumpkins (the definitive best Halloween-specific candy), a pumpkin spice Yankee candle, made a pumpkin curry last night and impulse bought …

Nilla Wafers

Washington, DC Fall is really winning me over. Boston Fall is decidedly the prettiest thing in the world, but that unbelievably perfect day where the leaves are changing and the sky is blue and the air is crisp and the brownstones look particularly lovely happens like two times total in Boston Fall. DC Fall has been that perfect temperature for two weeks now, and it’s not getting old. This weekend, we biked all around and just enjoyed being outside. And tomorrow we’ll head out to Shenandoah National Park to do some hiking and backpacking. I don’t know that I could …

Apple Olive Oil Cake

Yesterday, Erik and I biked 30 miles around DC on a perfect Fall day (which we later learned was unseasonably cool for September). This got me in the mood to make something Fall-ish, and Alexandra must have read my mind. When we got home from the ride, I had a text from her with this recipe, and it solved all of my “what should I make this week” problems. As a bonus, this weekend is Rosh Hashanah, which means we had slices of this cake with a little bit of honey to celebrate. To start, oil a 9×5 loaf pan …

Black Tea Ice Cream

Erik and I ran out of buttermilk ice cream, and I’ve been craving ice cream all week. So, naturally, this week I made more ice cream! And to make it different, I decided to try an ice cream recipe out of BraveTart, which, in Erik’s words, was “the perfect consistency.” Granted, we had just about finished a bottle of wine at this point and all ice cream was bound to taste good, but I do think it was particularly light and creamy. This recipe uses a double vanilla base and steeps in some black tea for the additional flavor, and …