Christmas

White chocolate cranberry cookies created just for me. Well, not exactly. I say that, because none of my crew likes white chocolate or cranberries, at least in a cookie. Honestly, I find this shocking. But you know what, I’m okay with it because it means when I make them, they are all for me. And […]

A quintessential autumn dessert; an apple and olive oil semi-naked cake with creamy maple frosting. This is a new fall favorite I recently developed and I’ll be making this throughout the season. This lovely cake highlights seasonal flavors we’ve all come to adore: apples, cinnamon, and maple. The twist is Extra Virgin olive oil, which […]

You can’t avert your eyes and you know it. It’s a Biscoff mascarpone icebox cake and it is killer. This beauty is the easy, prep-ahead holiday dessert you’ve been looking for. Building an icebox cake is not difficult, the trick is chilling the cake untouched. Overnight, magic happens. The cream will soften the cookie layers […]

German Stollen, also called “Christstollen” has been around for nearly 700 years and is considered one of the most famous Christmas treats. Sweet bread and cakes flavored with candied fruits and nuts are perhaps the hallmarks of the Christmas baking season in many countries around the world.  Examples of this include; fruitcakes which are traditional […]

This lovely cocktail is my pomegranate-rum punch and it may be just what you need to celebrate New Years in-style. Punch was actually invented as a beer alternative in the 17th century by men working the ships for the British East India Company. These men were serious drinkers, drinking as many as 10 pints of […]

Chances are you’ve heard of a White Russian, a rich creamy cocktail made with vodka, coffee liqueur, and cream served over ice. This beloved cocktail was created in the late 1940s by Gustave Tops, a Belgian barman who also created the White Russian’s sister cocktail a Black Russian which is simply a White Russian without […]

Who does not love hot chocolate in the winter? There are a number of ways to make this old standby different, and this is one of them. This is my pumpkin-spiced white hot chocolate because I’m not over my pumpkin obsession just yet. In this simple recipe, white chocolate replaces the traditional milk or dark […]

Apparently, Christmas jam is a thing. As a chef and a food blogger, I had no clue. This is a fine example of the food world today, chances are, the idea (recipe) is out there long before you came up with the recipe, and the only hope is you make it better. Jam is something […]

Brie en croute is essentially a brie wheel wrapped in a pastry dough and baked until golden. “En croute” (pronounced “on KROOT“) is simply a food that has been wrapped in pastry dough and then baked in the oven. The dough can be an ordinary pie dough or more commonly, puff pastry. Brie en croute is a […]

A Tarte Aux Pommes, or apple tart as Americans call it, is the quintessential French dessert to me.  This is one of the first sweet pastries I learned to make in culinary school and I still remember how excited I was to learn it.  I also remember how hard it was to master at first. The […]