Recently, we had dinner over at the house of some friends of ours.  As an appetizer, they served tortilla chips and Mississippi Caviar, a concoction made with black eyed peas and a few other things, including . . . are you ready for it? . . . Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix.  Yup, you read […]

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This week, Claudia of Fool for Food chose Chocolate Chunkers, and you can find the recipe for them on her blog, or in Dorie’s book. I blogged about these cookies earlier this year, and to date, they are my favorite Dorie cookie.  Cookies are not high on my list of things to eat or bake […]

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I love having things in my pantry that I can throw together to make a tasty meal or side dish.  Or pastry, or cookie – you get my drift.  This is such a dish: something that can be made almost completely with items you have in your cupboards and freezer. A few years ago, I […]

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For this week, Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart chose Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops.  You can find the recipe on her blog, or on page 85 of Dorie’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.  My husband took these to work and his coworkers devoured them – one very slim young lady ate five.  […]

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I was thrilled when Meeta and Tony picked Pierre Herme’s chocolate eclairs for the lastest Daring Baker’s challenge (you can find the recipe on their blogs, or in his book Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme.)  I have been out of town, and have just found the time to get this post up today – please pardon the photos, […]

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Well, Madam Chow has dragged her tired derriere to the computer to get this post up now that she’s back in town. Master Chow is delighted that TWD once again produced . . . cookies! I stayed pretty true to the recipe: just added some pecans I had in the freezer, added chocolate chips, and […]

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I’m out of town for the next few days, and won’t have access to my photos, but I’ll be back soon and will post my TWD cookies and my Daring Bakers challenge by Friday. Thanks for sticking around – I’ve been swamped the past few weeks, but things are getting back to “normal,” whatever that […]

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A couple weeks ago, I posted my experiences making Pane di Altamura.  I took some of the dough and made it into focaccia and pizza (the recipe for it is the same for the pane di altamura).  I just coated the dough with a lot of olive oil, herbs, pizza sauce (I used Trader Joe’s), salami, […]

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Operation Baking GALS is at it again this week! I’m having some trouble uploading the link, so it’s http://operationbakinggals.blogspot.com/.  I joined team Meet Me in the Kitchen (http://maresfoodandfun.blogspot.com/), and I sent off Granola Grabbers and some candy for the guys and gals overseas. No TWD this week – I’m getting ready to go out of town, […]

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What you don’t know CAN hurt you: Federal inspectors at U.S. border crossings repeatedly turned back filthy, disease-ridden shipments of peppers from Mexico in the months before a salmonella outbreak that sickened 1,400 people was finally traced to Mexican chilies. Yet no larger action was taken. Food and Drug Administration officials insisted as recently as […]

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