The Easiest Pie Crust

So you're the lucky one tasked with making the famous Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  You could be lazy and pick one up at the grocery store.  Or you could be semi-ambitious and make the filling yourself and put it in a good old Pillsbury ready made crust.  Or you could just *gasp* make the pie and the crust yourself.  I swear on my life that this is the simplest pie crust ever - it's made with just 4 ingredients and is still super flaky.  The best part of all is that I consider it foolproof...in all the years I've made it, it's never once ripped on me while I was rolling it out.  Time to be the Turkey Day all-star in your family!

Butterscotch Blondie Bars

Even though the sun is going down a little earlier and we're starting to need lightweight jackets after sunset, the summer party season is still in full swing!  It seems like all of my friends and family are trying to make the most of the last few weeks of this oh-so-short summer, so Howie and I's social calendar has been chocked full of BBQ's housewarmings (including our own this weekend!) and birthday parties.  I absolutely hate showing up to these types of social gatherings empty-handed, so I usually try to whip up a quick dip or dessert to share with friends and alleviate the host's plate a little bit.  One of my favorite hand-held desserts in the summer months are Butterscotch Blondie Bars, a sweet treat that only takes about 10 minutes to make and a half hour to bake.  Sorry store-bought brownies, you are delicious but one-in-a-million at summer barbecues...make way for these awesome little Butterscotch Blondies!

Fruit Pizza

While there's no denying that I'm a chocolate person at heart, I must admit that fruity desserts taste just a little bit better in the scorching hot summer months.  Unless you're talking ice cream.  But this isn't a post about ice cream.  This is a post about fruit pizza - a delicious combination of crispy sugar cookie "crust," cream cheese fruit dip "sauce" and a variety of colorful and fresh fruit "pizza toppings."  Making the pizza is simple because I cheat by using refrigerated sugar cookie dough and store-bought fruit dip.  But shhhhh nobody has to know...the fruit is the star in this dessert after all!

Steph's Pick: Brown Butter

So if you've read my blog in the past, you might remember that I have an avid dislike of butter.  Yep, I'm one strange creature.  I promise it's not because it's unhealthy - I totally work out enough to compensate for a least a few tablespoons a week.  It's the taste!  So the even weirder part in this twisted story is that I'm going to introduce a new type of blog post about cooking tips that you can apply to any recipe involving the featured method or ingredient...and my first one is about BUTTER.

What?!

Chocolate Chip Macaroon Cookies

So I haven't really posted in like 10 days.  Oops.  It's so hard to sit at your computer when it's finally 70 degrees, you're sort of in the peak of your house hunting season, oh and you've been to Cincinnati, Iowa and Pittsburgh in the last 6 days while working your 40 hour work week on top of it.  True story, I'm practically superwoman, right?!  So obviously I took this day of rest to come up with the most amazingly delicious cookies I think I've ever made.  The recipe sort of happened on accident.  I whipped up some chocolate chip cookie dough for a little weekend treat and had already put a batch in the oven when I realized that I was craving coconut!  Instead of just stirring coconut and pecans into the dough like normally do, I made a creamy "macaroon" filling that I sandwiched between 2 pieces of cooking dough before baking!  How did I not think of these before?!

Strawberry Cake

You guys...this is one of my FAVORITE dessert recipes.  I love it oh so much that I've requested it for every single one of my birthdays for as long as I can remember.  It's called Strawberry Cake, and it's the the simplest and most fabulously delicious cake I can think of.  Infused with sweetened frozen strawberries and topped with a light and fluffy frosting I make out of vanilla pudding and cool whip, this cake DEFINITELY elevates a ho-hum boxed cake mix to new levels.  I'm sure you can muster up an excuse to make this 5 ingredient dessert!

Funfetti Flower Cookies

Happy Easter Weekend! I love getting into the spirit of any holiday, and my baked goods always have to reflect the occasion! A few weeks back, a friend sent me the cutest how-to video for making flowers out of jumbo jet-puff marshmallows, and I knew I had to incorporate it into one of my Easter treats! It didn't even take me 10 seconds of thinking before my mind jumped to Pillsbury Funfetti Cookies. Have you ever tried them? They're super soft, melt-in-your-mouth cookies that taste exactly like cake, but get even better after you top 'em topped with creamy, colorful frosting. Can you say "perfect background for marshmallow daisies?!" If you watch the video below, the baker uses aerosol food dye to make the flowers different colors - I don't know where the heck that baker found it because I scoured the grocery stores around my town with no luck! After a failed test attempt to dye the flowers with regular food dye (which Howie deemed "scary-looking"), white daisies became the goal. Ya know, minimalist? I still think they're really cute! Try making Funfetti Flower Cookies this weekend for Easter, or even for your next birthday, bridal or baby shower!

Peanut Butter Banana "Ice Cream"

Now that the weather is finally starting to warm up, my cravings for ice cream are getting totally out of control!  Don't judge me, but I might have accidentally eaten it not 1, not 2, but 3 times last week!  I can't help it if it's my favorite dessert and my self control magically vanishes at the mere thought of it!  Yeah, I definitely need to cap this indulgence off at a once-per-week limit, which means I have to be creative and come up with healthier substitutes.  This little gem of a recipe popped into my head yesterday on my drive to the gym and I tested it a few hours later.  It TOTALLY worked.  Hellllloooo Peanut Butter Banana "Ice Cream!"  Where have you been all my life?!

Magic Peanut Butter Cake

You will never believe what I'm about to tell you.  This lovely little cake I have pictured is made of 3 ingredients.  3 super healthy ingredients.  Did I mention it only takes 1 minute to "bake" in the microwave?  I'm naming this my Magic Peanut Butter Cake because, with 9 grams of protein and less than 130 calories, it really is magical.  Finally a healthy dessert that can actually satisfy my sweet tooth!  And it legitimately tastes good.  Trust me: when it comes to sweets, I'm a very judgmental critic!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Happy Sunday!  I peaked out my window and it's still looking a little gloomy today, so I thought I would share a recipe that reminds me of the warm spring days we're all longing for right about now: Lemon Meringue Pie.  I baked this dessert on Valentine's day for Howie because he isn't a huge fan of chocolate (apparently these type of creatures exist??), and he absolutely loved it.  How couldn't you?  There's nothing else quite like a tangy lemon custard filling over a crunchy, buttery graham cracker crust, topped with fluffy, sweet meringue that gets lightly toasted in the oven.  Try baking Lemon Meringue Pie this afternoon to bring a little fresh springtime flavor into your kitchen!

Layers of Love Trifle

Valentine's Day is only 4 short days away!  That means you guys have to get cracking on coming up with a Valentine's Day gift for your sweetie.  Howie and I don't usually buy each other gifts, but rather food or wine-related gifts that we can enjoy together.  Last year he took me out to a fancy dinner at Chinato on East 4th Street and bought me a wine and chocolate pairing from Lilly Handmade Chocolates in Tremont.  If you haven't been to Lilly, you must try it!  The chocolates are handpainted and absolutely gorgeous!  I got Howie some Malley's chocolate, and made him a phenomenal after-dinner dessert: Layers of Love Trifle.  What is it, exactly?  Layers of Bailey's infused chocolate cake, chocolate mocha mousse and crunchy Heath bar bits.  I add the Bailey's and espresso after the cake cooks, so you get the benefit of a dessert, coffee and after dinner cocktail rolled into one.  I could've named it Heaven on Earth instead of Layers of Love Trifle, but had to do the latter because there's nothing NOT to love about this recipe!

Peanut Butter Kisses

One of my all-time favorite recipes to bring to parties, especially around the holidays, are peanut butter kiss cookies.  It's a recipe that many people already have and bake, but they're a guaranteed crowd pleaser every single time!  I mean, who doesn't love the peanut butter and chocolate combo?!  This past weekend, I brought them to Howie, Chris and Zach's Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, and was happy to take home a completely empty tin!  That's a success in my book!

Apple Pie

Let me start off this blog post by saying that this apple pie recipe is very near and dear to my heart.  It was actually the recipe that first inspired me to start a cookbook back when I was 19 years old.  I was in between my freshman and sophomore year of college, and made an apple pie on a warm summer afternoon.  I decided to photograph my beautiful pie after it came out of the oven, and realized that it looked just as good as some of the pictures I would see in cooking magazines.  Before I knew it, I was furiously baking and cooking as many recipes as I could to photograph them before I went back to a cramped dorm room sans oven or stove at Miami University.  I used an online publishing software to design the layouts for my cookbook, and finally finished it in Fall 2012...all because of this simple pie recipe! 

Autumn Favorites

Howie's parents came to visit over the weekend, and we had the best time taking them apple picking out in the country!  We went to Burnham Orchards, an apple farm in Berlin Heights, OH, a little southwest of Vermilion.  You pay $16.00 for 1/2 bushel, and literally can squeeze 50 apples inside of it!  Obviously I've been eating them for snacks, but I LOVE trying to cook with fresh produce.  I made the epitome of a fall meal: butternut squash soup, garlic rosemary focaccia bread and apple crisp.  Surprisingly, both the apple crisp AND the butternut squash soup use apples!  But the thing I like most?  How easy it is to make them!

Care Package Cookies

My younger brother, Robert, was having a tough week at Miami.  He's double majoring in Finance and Accounting, and the Farmer School of Business was totally kicking his butt between exams, assignments and the career fair this week.  It basically meant a whole lot less partying, and way more studying.  I remember how much the care packages my mom sent me filled with baked goods or Starbucks gift cards cheered me up during undergrad, so I wanted to do the same for him.  I baked him one of his favorites, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and filled the rest of the package up with enough candy to put him in a sugar coma! 

Wedding Shower Munchies

I don't know about you, but my Labor Day weekend was a blast!  I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Buffalo for  Howie's sister Brenna's wedding shower and bachelorette party.  We had the best time catching up with friends and family over great food and games during the day, and partying with the girls til the wee hours of the night.  Since I couldn't bring much besides my dancing shoes to the bachelorette party, I volunteered to bring a few items to the shower earlier in the day, and they were a total hit!  Well, my broccoli slaw salad and cookies are always a hit...but the 5 types of cookies totally sent it over the top! Unfortunately, I didn't take step-by-step photos like I usually do - just a beautiful chocolate walnut coconut cookie fresh out of the oven (now how bad is that??)- but everyone was asking for the recipes, so here they are!

Father's Day Weekend

For some reason, it seems like dads are the hardest people to pick out gifts for!  I solved this issue early by figuring out what I was going to do for Father's Day a couple of months ago when my dad was raving about a chimichurri sauce served with dinner at an Argentinian client's home.  I wanted to make a big batch of it myself to give him!  In case you don't know, chimichurri is a very salty green sauce made with fresh oregano, parsley, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, red pepper flakes.  It's not used as a marinade, but as a dipping sauce for grilled meat, especially steak and pork; it went perfectly with the grilled pork tenderloin we made for dinner that night.  For dessert, I made a chocolate raspberry trifle filled with moist brownies, chocolate mousse and fresh raspberries.  Summer cooking can't get much better!

Island Cookies

For my final studio project, I'm designing a food television production studio on the Case Western Reserve University campus.  My 3-week programming phase of the project involved so much research on food, that I kind of felt obligated to bring a little portion of the discipline to my studio.  I decided to bake one of my favorite sweets, island cookies.  The smooth white chocolate, warm pecan flavor and hints of coconut make for a perfect summertime treat!

Memorial Day Weekend!

Sunshine, barbecues, bonfires, picnics, food, friends, family and more sunshine...Memorial Day Weekend 2014 has possibly been the best yet!  Well, any weekend that gives me a chance to spend almost 30 hours outside in 80 degree sunny weather (in Ohio nonetheless) is fine by me.  All of these fun social activities meant lots and lots of cooking, which made the weekend even better!  I think the two biggest hits were the berry cobbler I made for my family cookout in Westlake on Sunday, and the homemade guacamole I made for the picnic at Edgewater Park Monday afternoon!  I'm definitely not waiting until next Memorial Day to try these out again!

"Dazzling" Cookie Brownies

Dazzle the District is finally here!  I'm so excited to see all the of the lights, signs and, of course, the chandelier, the lit up!  Disclaimer: I may actually be even more excited to see an end to the traffic delays, blocked roads and 24-construction that I've heard from my apartment since early March?  After the Hot Chelle Rae concert and illuminating ceremony, we're of course going to throw an after party!  I couldn't decide if I wanted to bring cookies or brownies, so naturally I decided to combine both into a sinfully sweet dessert that I'm calling "dazzling" cookie brownies.  It's a little tacky with the stars, but so is a 25' diameter outdoor chandelier dangling over an intersection.