Vanilla Bean Cheesecake
Last week my students and I took a break from our regular academic program to participate in what we call Intersessions: a weeklong immersion into a new skill or area of curiosity. A colleague and I have worked together for the last few years to host Kitchen Nightmares (apologies to Gordon Ramsay), an Intersession during which kids ask, “How do you find and make great recipes?”
Shortbread Toffee Bars
Dogggggs are the best. All they want is a sofa, a tennis ball, a squeaker (not an entire toy with a squeaker inside: they want to demolish that and get the actual squeaker itself, please.) Everyone should own a dog, and there are so many wonderful dogs waiting to be owned! So many, in fact, that shelters in the U.S. are forced to euthanize around 46,154 healthy, adoptable pets every week.
Every week.
Listen, I’m not here to make you sad. I’m not that Sarah McLachlan commercial from hell where dogs in cages will break your heart into a million pieces. Look at those toffee bars! I’m obviously all about happiness right now. So instead of focusing on that horrific number, I’m going to tell you how to fix it: ADOPT A RESCUE DOG (or kitty).
You may have purchased a puppy from a breeder — even from a “responsible breeder” if there can be such a thing considering the aforementioned fact — and I would never judge you or want you to feel bad about things in the past. But in case you’re one of the many people out there who still has room in their home for a friend, here are the reasons you should adopt your next pet from a shelter instead of buying from a breeder:
Boozy Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars
I wrote this post as part of the Plugrá Butter Brigade. Thanks, Plugrá, for sponsoring this post and for making my favorite butter!
Some people are so good at friending. They drop a thoughtful gift by your house out of nowhere. They buy those blank-inside cards to write you a letter instead of looking for the ones with a prewritten message. They’re superb at keeping in touch.
Then there’s me. I have about the same talent at friending that I have at crafting, which is to say: none. I try! I’m just missing some critical relationship-building link in my brain somewhere, I think.
Pumpkin Pie Shortbread Bars with Maple Cinnamon Whipped Cream
I love pumpkin so much that it’s basically my husband, but honestly? I don’t get pumpkin pie. What’s with that stuff? There’s always way too much custard to taste any crust. And the crust is usually just a soggy mess anyway. The whipped cream is always a tragically tiny dollop. And this is a Thanksgiving staple? It’s just sad.
So I fixed it for you.
Maple Brown Sugar Pastry Braid
Traveling alone always sparks tons of stories in my heart. I’ll be sharing some of them over the next couple of weeks. The following thoughts are from time in a suburb of Chicago.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop where the Wi-Fi password is “pumpkin spice” and the barista recommended a Nutella cappuccino to me when I walked in. There’s a dude baking muffins behind me. A few minutes ago, four adorable children wearing cat-patterned knit caps walked in with their Mary Poppinsesque Sunday school teacher. The littlest, who has not yet mastered the art of determining relevance, proclaimed to everyone that he is emphatically not afraid of the witch in The Wizard of Oz. Just when I thought things couldn’t get sweeter, a server brought the kids a huge tray of fondue: melted chocolate, strawberries, marshmallows, graham crackers.
What I’m saying is that I’m moving to Chicago. Actually, I’m going to move straight into this coffee shop. And these children can live here, too, and be super adorable all the time.
