Splurges
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Chocolate Graham Cracker Eclair Cake
Happy almost new year! I’m spending today working on a book edit before heading down to church to ring in the new year with our church family. The organizers this year have established a Hawaiian theme for our party. Wonder if I still have time to make a grass skirt … (as if!) Today’s recipe has nothing to do with tonight (I’m using tonight as an excuse to rid my house of all the leftover cookies and candies we don’t need), but it did make an appearance at my sister’s house Christmas night. This is a favorite of our family, and it is one of those desserts that is so…
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Spiced Caramel Apple Pie … and a Story
Funny story. So I go out into our “orchard” the other day (Play along. Those seven trees are spectacular.) to harvest apples from our biggest tree. We planted it about twenty years ago, and it has been faithfully churning out apples ever since. Five varieties of apples are grafted onto that tree, and although I long ago forgot which limb produces which apples, it doesn’t matter to me. They’re all delicious. I’m picking away when I notice this one piece of fruit hanging all by itself on this one lone branch. And it looks … well … it looks like a pear. But this is an apple tree. How could…
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Those Licorice Caramels
I’m about to divulge my secret recipe … the one that has men fighting over the gallon-sized baggie holding these little treasures, and women hinting that they could eat another, and children sneaking their hands up over the counter and grabbing another gooey handful. Yes. It’s my licorice caramel recipe. I’ve had it forever. I started making it about three minutes after I found it. For the life of me, I can’t remember where I got it, and I’m sorry for that. I would love to give credit where credit is due, but I just don’t know where I got the recipe. Now, people have asked me for this recipe,…
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Prophetic Nutty Bars
That was the craziest day I’ve had in a long time. No, that’s not extreme enough. That was the craziest day I’ve EVER HAD. It all started innocently enough. I planned to spend the morning enjoying Gage, bake a pan of Nutty bars to send to North Dakota with Britt, and then see the two of them off on the train later in the day. Riiiight. (Insert ominous soundtrack here) Here’s how the day actually went: 4:30 a.m. Get up with Gage while Dave takes Britt to work 8:00 Start making nutty bars. Realize I’ve forgotten to buy nuts 9:00 Load Gage in the car and drive to Safeway to…
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Oh-So-Lemony Bundt Cake
I have never met a lemon I didn't like. When I was in my early teens, I came up with my first food-related invention: lemony V8 juice. It was a pretty simple recipe: one part lemon juice to three parts V8, topped with a big sprinkling of pepper. That's a lot of lemon juice, when you think about it. But it was only the beginning ...
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Wynken, Blynken and Nod … and a Poke Cake
And so it begins. Last night, my three sisters, one brother-in-law, and two nephews braved the elements and joined us in an impromptu going-away party for Zac. Two of my sisters left their car at the top of our hill and walked the quarter-mile downhill, across the trail, and back up hill, slogging through the remnants of all that snowfall last week. But no one wanted to miss the gathering. I really can’t believe my oldest child is somehow old enough to sail away on a fishing boat headed for the Bering Sea. I still remember playing “watch out for the shark” when he was just a tiny, curly-haired boy.…
