The Yum Diaries

I love to cook, especially for other people.  So, I suppose it’s only natural that it occurred to me to make tasty treats to give out.  Last night, my kitchen (and I) turned into a cookie making factory.  It was a lot of fun to make them, all the while thinking of how much the folks who received them would enjoy them.  (Yes, there is a little selfish element to this…)

Armed with recipes (and ideas for a little modification), I made (dozens of) three of my favorite kinds of cookies.  They’re represented in the picture above.  From left to right:  Peanut Butter Blossoms, Fruit and Nut Oatmeal Cookies, and Jam Thumbprints.  Click through for the recipes.  And Happy Whatever Holiday(s) You’re Celebrating.

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Here is a peek at my Thanksgiving menu this year. I have linked to the recipes that we are trying for the first time this year (and anything that has dairy will be substituted accordingly). I also included links to some of my favorite vegetarian food essentials as well.  I will post pictures and some of the recipes that are missing from this after Thanksgiving.  Read the rest of this entry →

Cool Apple Pie
My mother cooked nearly every dinner I ate as a child. Until about the time I hit high school I had probably eaten out with my whole family less than 10 times in my life. The normal dinner in our house consisted of a lot of wild game, because we lived in Alaska and it was plentiful. Other than that, our dinners were meat and potatoes fare, country cooking. Nothing fancy, but lots of hearty foods that I hope to share with you. Many of them call for wild game like moose or deer and salmon, but you can substitute beef or a cheaper fish in most. The thing I looked forward to most, however, was my mother’s baking. I will share all of my favorite baked goods from childhood because that is what my mother did best. I will start with an apple pie, and hope to give you step by step directions so that you can do this from scratch. Please keep in mind that even I, who do this fairly regularly, have trouble rolling out a pie crust, but with patience and a few tricks, you can learn to do a great job. And remember, nothing makes perfect like practice, so make them often, but give them away, cause this is not the health food category. To give credit where credit is due, my Grandma Festa, Mom’s Mom, is credited with this apple pie recipe.

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This week brings one of my favorite holidays of the year.  This year, I’m cooking up Thanksgiving dinner for my mom, my stepdad, and myself.  I’ll be sharing recipes today and tomorrow for some of the dishes I’ll be making for the big feast.  I’ve recruited my mom, photographer extraordinaire, to photo-document my cookery.  I’ll wind up the week with a nice big food-porny post with all the pictures.

Let’s start with dessert:  Pumpkin Cheesecake in a Gingersnap Crust.

Like Melissa, I adore pumpkin, especially in pies.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with good, old-fashioned pumpkin pie.  Nothing at all.  However, when I do up the Thanksgiving edibles, I love to do traditional dishes, but with a few twists here and there.  So, instead of pumpkin pie, I’m making pumpkin cheesecake.  I’ll be making this tonight so it’ll be ready to take with me when I head to my family’s house tomorrow night.

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Pumpkin Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies fresh out of the oven (Photo by Melissa Wax)

Around mid-August every year I start to get overly excited for Fall and more importantly for my favorite squash:  the pumpkin.

“Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkins!”,  This seems to have become my Fall mantra I find myself chanting each year around September when I can start to see the orange hues peeking out of the landscape of our local pumpkin farm.

I love pumpkins.

I love to cook, bake, and of course carve the hell out of them around Halloween. I guess it’s only natural that I find myself brainstorming all the different recipes I can sneak it into during the Fall and Winter months. Last weekend I was on a sweet bread kick and made this amazing Cranberry Nut Pumpkin bread recipe I found (which is an interesting story in and of itself, so I will save it for a later post), but the point is I had about a cup and a half of leftover pumpkin sitting in my fridge.  Read the rest of this entry →