Cooking, Recipe

The Brioche Formula

The First Reader and I were sitting and chatting the other day, planning for a Sunday morning breakfast with friends, which we would host. He wanted to serve pork chops and French toast. Oh, I said, I’ll make up brioche for the French toast, it’s so nice for it. Which led to to us talking… Read More The Brioche Formula

Cooking, Recipe

Carrot Cake

This recipe is a variant, loosely, on the Splendid Spice Cake recipe. With… changes.  For one thing, I reduced the overall sugar just a touch. And I took the liqud back a bit, to allow for the addition of carrots. I customized the spice blend to favor carrot’s innate flavors, which included the addition of… Read More Carrot Cake

Cooking, Recipe

Coconut Cream Pie

The First Reader loves coconut cream pies, and over the years I’ve blogged the recipe I usually make for him, which calls for fortifying a boxed cook-and-serve pudding. It’s an easy way to do it, but a few years ago it started to be hard to find the pudding mixes. I would buy half a… Read More Coconut Cream Pie

Cooking, Recipe

Spice Coffee Cake

One of the many things I like to do is pamper my First Reader. When we had an unexpected morning, just the two of us, and time to do things, I asked him what he’d like for breakfast. Waffles, pancakes, biscuits? I offered. Coffee cake?  Oh, yes! His eyes lit up. What about the coffee… Read More Spice Coffee Cake

Cooking, Recipe

Baked Beans

I smoked a brisket for the group dinner, something I don’t do often, and as I like to do when I do manage this sort of thing, I made a pan of baked beans to soak up the yummy drippings. You could, certainly, make up these beans without the smoker involved. Most of the cooking… Read More Baked Beans

Cooking, Recipe

Composing a Stew

Playing with flavors in the kitchen is a happy place for me. I’d come home after the Blanket Fort livestream yesterday, and was standing in the kitchen happily pulling odd containers out of the fridge, and possibly humming to myself, when the First Reader walked in. I looked up at him, giggling. “I’m composing!” He… Read More Composing a Stew