Coconut cream pie falls in the “retro dessert” category. By retro, I mean an old-fashioned/vintage dessert that evokes a feeling of nostalgia whenever I have it. This old-school dessert may have fallen in and out of popularity over the years, but it should not be forgotten. From custards and puddings to jiggly mid-century confections, many […]

Ice cream is a universal favorite on a hot summer day and nobody can deny it. Nothing cools you down and brings comfort on a sweltering day, quite like ice cream does. What’s remarkable, is the history of ice cream spans worldwide and over many centuries. This is my latest creation; matcha and dark chocolate […]

Close friends introduced my family to a special place in Hawaii we have come to adore. It was during our first visit there, years ago, that their signature kid “drink” won my children’s hearts, as we were told it would. The specialty frozen drink was simply called, “Ovaltine froth“. Ovaltine, for those unfamiliar (or too young…), […]

Old-fashioned brown sugar peach cobbler is the perfect, simple dessert you should be making for the July 4th holiday. A Cobbler is a dessert consisting of a fruit (every so often, they can be savory) filling poured into a large baking dish and covered with a batter, biscuit, or at times, dumpling, before being baked. Let’s […]

Strawberry cheesecake is the ultimate indulgence and something I find cathartic to make. Cheesecake travels the globe and can be traced back 4,000 years to the fifth century BC, to ancient Greece and the island of Samos. At this time, the cheesecake was made with patties of fresh cheese, flour, and honey. These cakes were […]

Crab Louie salad, (pronounced LOO-ey), known also as, “the king of salads“, is a well-known dish, most food historians agree, first began appearing on menus of finer West Coast restaurants, sometime between the turn of the 20th century and World War I. Dig a little deeper and you find the first printed recipe for the […]

Baba ganoush is a levantine dip of mashed broiled eggplants, blended with tahini, olive oil, and seasoning, and it’s a dip I love making in warmer months. There’s lots of speculation about the origin of baba ganoush, but this iconic dip (or a similar version) has likely been around, for over 1,000 years. In Arabic, […]

This matcha smoothie bowl is the recipe you should be making all summer long on repeat. The tropical flavors of pineapple and banana blended with almond milk and matcha ignite feelings of relaxation and good health. What is Matcha? In Japanese, the word “Matcha” is the combination of “ma“, meaning rubbed or ground,  and “cha“, […]

Let’s face it, pie baking is not for everyone. And that is fine. I fell into that category at one point, so I do get it. Pies are complicated endeavors. You’ve got to be invested in the process to make a great pie.  And that’s not so easy, as all elements of a pie matter; […]

I will always be a Badger. UW-Madison was an amazing place to go to school. It was beyond cold, but that aside, it is an incredible school. The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin. Founded when Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848, UW–Madison is the official state university of Wisconsin […]

The days were long in lockdown. As a result, people drank substantially more than usual and I’m guilty of that. We were all trying to get by. In many ways, we still are. But the reality is not everyone drinks alcoholic drinks. Pre-Covid, the trend was showing that younger people (millennials) were consuming less alcohol […]

Moms are amazing. And I think it’s fair to say, being a mom is one of the hardest jobs there is. But the truth is, no one tells you that before you have kids, only once you’ve had them. But being a mom, I get it. It’s a learn-as-you-go, hope you don’t mess up too […]

Cookies are a wonderful thing.  I have mentioned this before, but at 49, I can tell you, I still enjoy a great cookie every so often.  And while I’ll never turn down an amazing chocolate chip cookie, I also enjoy interesting other flavors, when I can find them. These are my chocolate malted milk cookies, […]

Beef with broccoli reminds me of my childhood. My mom never made it from scratch, but we ordered it often when we ordered Chinese food and it remains, to this day, a favorite. And while this beloved Chinese-American dish graces the menu of almost every Chinese restaurant I’ve been to over the years, I never […]

The first thing my boys said to me when I made Easter bread for the first time, was; why the heck are you baking Easter eggs into the challah? Those, are Jewish kids for you. I had a good laugh, but in fairness to them, I get it. When you break it down, Easter bread […]