Eggplant Caponata

It's so hard to come back from vacation. I hereby propose that we work for 4 weeks every year and vacation the rest of it! Wouldn't that be nice? I am excited for this summer though. The sun is finally shining, the grass is green and our garden is coming up. The last two years, our summers have been full of renovations and other projects but this year I am doing nothing! I'll do the garden and keep the yard nice but I have sworn off any major projects. I'm just going to enjoy the weekends and the trips we're planning over the next few months.

Gardening with OXO

This is my favorite time of year here in Minnesota. We can get outdoors again and that means it's time to plant our garden!

We worked on our backyard last year and built new garden boxes. We've had tons of questions about them so I wanted to share some more here. We're just getting started on our planting this year and can't wait to see everything start coming up!

German Pancakes

This is one of the first recipes that I ever made consistently as a kid. I remember I had the recipe written on a small note card and I would even take it with me when I stayed over at a friends house so that I could make it there. I'd be the star of the show even at 8 or 9 years old.

The ingredients are so simple but combine them and bake and an amazing transformation takes place. The batter rises up out of the pan at each corner creating gigantic crusty crests and then tender dense bread in the center of the pan. It's impressive as you pull it out of the oven but you've got to act fast, it quickly deflates in just a few minutes.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Can anyone tell me how Pumpkin Pie sits at the dessert table while sweet potato casserole sits with the rest of the food at the table as a side dish? It's like someone thought it would be funny one year to slip a dessert onto the table among all the other dishes and the whole world caught on. I'm certainly not complaining, I just laugh every time I serve it with dinner.

OXO Giveaway

OXO has partnered with the Virtual Potluck team to provide you with an array of tools you need to pull off some amazing meals this holiday season!

With the right tools in hand, any cooking job becomes so much easier. If you haven't already checked out my post on how to Spatchcock a Turkey, do it now! I use a whole array of OXO tools and it's a fun new technique you can use this year.

How to Spatchcock a Turkey

I honestly feel like I was just writing my posts for last Thanksgiving a few weeks ago. And now it's already come around again. It's my favorite time of year though so I'm happy to have it around again so soon. As a family we're busier than ever but it's a good busy and I appreciate having this time of year to focus on the things that are most important to us.

We're doing another big Thanksgiving this year, inviting all the families we know around us that are in a similar situation of not having any relatives nearby and we'll all celebrate together. It makes for a chaotic day with our house filled to the brim but it's a great way to enjoy the day. Then I leave that weekend to go to China for a week, finalizing plans for a new business we're launching soon.

Dark Chocolate Cherries

Cherries are still in season people! If my pie and sorbetto haven't tempted you, these dark chocolate cherries are guaranteed to. They are incredibly easy to make and the hardest part is just waiting for them to be ready. I came across this recipe when Kate In The Kitchen posted about her adventures with cherries and I knew that I couldn't pass them up. Simple syrup is created by heating water and sugar together. Dark Chocolate is then melted into the syrup before being poured over cherries packed into a quart jar. They're then sealed for up to two weeks to create a beautiful dark chocolate treat!

Cherry-Lime Sorbetto

You remember those 8lbs of cherries from last week? Well that cherry pie was just one of the recipes created. Today I've got a refreshing dish that's perfect for summer. It's only got a few ingredients so it lets the sweet flavor of these beautiful cherries shine through.

Classic Lattice Top Cherry Pie

I picked up 8 lbs of sweet cherries from Costco on Friday night. And they're all gone. Not that I've eaten them all, but they've all been made into three amazing desserts that I can't wait to share with you.