Sour Cherry Crisp

Hello!  It has been ages!  I hope that your kitchen has seen a lot of baking action over the past few months.  I’ve been thinking a lot about baking, but I haven’t been able to translate many of those thoughts into action until this weekend, when Aunt Katie and my new cherry pitter arrived.  They didn’t come together (the cherry pitter arrived first, if you must know), but it was serendipitous that they both arrived on the same day, because they are two very important parts of this recipe.  If you don’t have a Katie in your life, then you really should go out there and find one.  I’ll be frank, we are not willing to share our Katie because she really tops the charts.  Who else would look the other way when I ate my kid’s ice cream cone because he wasn’t licking it fast enough (yes, having a toddler is the perfect excuse for eating not one, but two ice cream cones on a hot afternoon!)?  Who else would arrive with a talking puppy that can learn my kid’s name?  Who else would patiently pit all of these cherries?
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Caramel Apple Sour Cream Crumble

A few weeks ago, we bought some beautiful apples on our way home from my parents' house.  At the time, I was certain the apples were destined for a perfectly cooked pie.  I had told a friend that we would bring a dessert over the following weekend for a get together, and I hoped that my apple pie, paired with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, would make everyone swoon.  All week long, I thought about making the pie.  Its crust would be flaky and golden brown, and the apples, mounded impossibly high, would retain their structure so the filling wouldn't collapse into apple-cinnamon mush. 
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Million Dollar Pie

When I think about Million Dollar Pie, it seems like I have been eating it my whole life.  In truth, we only started eating it a few years ago when my mom got the recipe from a co-worker. 

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Individual Peach Crumbles

Several weeks ago, I received a piece of very important kitchen equipment from my mom: a nut chopper.  Scott and I were visiting my parents, and for some reason my mom and I were chatting about a few things I was still looking to include in our kitchen.  In particular, I told her that I had been on the prowl for a nut chopper like hers.
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Lime Whip Pie

Several weeks ago, my friend Beth and I had a conversation about our love of key lime pie. At the time, I was freshly returned from a trip to Maine, and was still thinking about the blueberry cream pie I had made while there. I decided the blueberry pie was a prime candidate for a lime flavor intervention.
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Lime Curd

I first tried to make lime curd several weeks ago.  I had 3 egg yolks (from another cookie experiment) and was determined to make a small batch of curd with them.  It was a miserable experiment!  I learned that lime curd is just one of those things that you need to make a little more of to get it just right. 
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Blueberry Cream Pie

Remember how I mentioned that Scott and I went to Maine on a vacation with his family and went blueberry picking? I had plans for those blueberries before we started picking: jam, blueberry squares, eating, etc. While Scott was paying for the blueberries we had picked, I was browsing in the "shop" and picked up a blueberry cookbook, which of course, I had to purchase. On the way back to the beach house, I noticed a recipe for blueberry cream pie. Since we had just picked a LOT of blueberries and I was eager to use them, we took a short detour to the grocery store to pick up some items for the pie.
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Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

Have you eaten any crumble yet this summer? Crumbles seem to capture the flavor of summer, and they might be one of the simplest baked desserts to assemble.
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Beef and Broccoli Pie (with a Cheddar Cheese Crust)

It’s finally cold here, and that means I want to eat comfort food.  I love this pie and ate it quite a bit when I was little.  I’ve made it several different ways since I got the recipe from my mom.  At times I’ve added extra broccoli, substituted textured vegetable protein (TVP) for most of the beef, used low-fat cheese, sprinkled in wheat germ, and tried whole-wheat crusts.  I can tell you that if you are known for hiding TVP and wheat germ in food and using low-fat cheese, that people will pick up on you if you try all of your tricks at one time in this pie.  They may say things like, “did you use low-fat cheese in this? You know it doesn’t melt.”  Or maybe they will say, “you know, you kind of have to put beef in beef and broccoli pie.”  In the end, I’ve settled on the version that I’m sharing with you.  Although it is a humble dish, it is comfort food at its finest and is perfect for those days when the weather is cold and pie is the only thing you want to eat for dinner. 

P.S.  I know I said I would post a chocolate ginger cake recipe.  You know those times when you start experimenting in the kitchen and have a recipe that is close, but not perfect?  That is where my chocolate ginger cake recipe is right now.  As soon as it is perfect, I'll share it with you!
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Apple Squares

I've always loved squares.  In fact, when I brought these to a friend's house last week, I had the pleasure of eating one of these apple squares while drinking coffee out of a square mug.  Ok, I'm lying.  I drank the coffee out of the square coffee mug after I ate the apple square.  They were so good that I couldn't wait for the coffee to brew.  Did I mention that the square mug was pink?  I loved that mug, but I love these apple squares more. 

I found this recipe a few years ago when I was trolling through my grandmother's recipe box.  I really love these apple squares, not only because they taste good, but because when I got the recipe, my grandmother told me about how she pulls the handles off her rolling pin to roll out the dough in the pan.  If you were there to hear her story, you would like this recipe too, just for that reason.  Since you weren't there, you will just have to stick with the fact that they taste great and feed a lot more people than a standard apple pie. 
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