Chocolate Raspberry Torte

This recipe came from one of the first books I ever worked on as a project editor. The final product looks harder to make than it actually is — that can be your little secret. It’s super rich, so cut it into small pieces.
Ingredients

2 ounces (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
dash of [...]

Esther Bolick’s Orange Marmalade Layer Cake

Fans of Jan Karon’s Mitford series will appreciate this recipe. (And yes, I am a huge fan of the series. Loved those books and read them voraciously. Didn’t want to even open the first one, but that’s another topic for another day.) After reading about Esther’s famous Orange-Marmalade cake for so long, my mom got [...]

DPP 2008: December 14

We’ve been enjoying hot chocolate this very cold day. Earlier I asked Jason if he’d like me to find a good recipe for hot chocolate (he likes it with milk and on the sweet side). I was envisioning something like Decadent Chocolate Milk. But he claimed he already had a recipe: warm up milk in [...]

DPP 2008: December 11

We have a guest photographer today! Lindsey graciously provided pictures of the Best. Chocolate. Chip. Cookie. Ever. (And I haven’t tested, but since the pictures are making me drool, I think it’s totally plausible. Lindsey assures me that the recipe meets our strict butter standards.) Don’t miss the two-part adventure here and here and the [...]

Giving Thanks

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Jason’s family today, and I was reminded how thankful I am for his Christian heritage. We sang grace:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Thanksgiving wishlist

If I planned Thanksgiving dinner, we’d have
Grilled Turkey
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows on Top
Green Bean Casserole
Corn Pudding
Cranberry Sauce
Stove Top Stuffing
My Grandma’s Swedish Rye Bread
Brook’s Pumpkin Pecan Pie
What would your menu look like if you had no time or effort constraints?

Swedish Rye Bread

I spent the last couple of days with my grandma, and as she cooked for my sister and me, I asked if she would give me the recipes. I soon remembered, however, that Grandma doesn’t really use recipes — more like “that much milk” “dump some flour,” etc. Delightful, and yet hard to translate. A [...]

Poring over recipes

I think it’s about time that Simon start contributing to meal planning. We’re setting him up for success in choosing recipes–the Zion Cookbook is full of winners.

Election Day 2008

Rebecca and I share a love for election day, and we agreed that we should make a holiday of it. So after we each voted, we loaded up the young ones and headed first to Runza, where Liv added an “I ate at Runza today” sticker to her “I voted today” sticker (what would [...]

Inspiration: Halloween edition

I have quite a few links to share this week, but I think I might hold most of them until early next week (I’m planning to participate in NaBloPoMo on The Grand, and I’m thinking about doing so here as well–if I do, I’ll need to stretch it out). In the meantime, it’s not too [...]