Happy Holidays: Ginger Cookies

Do you ever think to yourself, “Man, I’m so sick of cookies?”

Me neither.

This time of year, food-based web sites are overrun with tempting cookie recipes, each pledging the perfect addition to a holiday get-together.  Homemade cookies also make a great gift for tireless host or hostesses, friendly co-workers, and anyone you want to show your appreciation.  This year, in true city-girl-turns-surburbia-queen, our list of cookie recipients expand to include the mailman

From Scratch: No-Knead Bread

Bread gets a bad rap.  Unfairly so.

Fad diets proclaim the dangers of carbohydrates, banishing the bread basket to the corner to sulk.  But the truth is, carbohydrates provide the body with the fuel it needs for normal organ function and physical activity.  Of course, quantity and quality deserve consideration; some kinds of carbohydrates are far better than others.  Grains intact from foods such as whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole oats, and lesser known gems such as quinoa and bulgur, contain B vitamins, Vitamin E, magnesium, iron and fiber to help reduce the risk of heart disease by decreasing cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

‘Tis the Season: Pumpkin Cranberry Biscotti

Hi.  It’s been awhile.  It’s as if the receding daylight hours and chilled air catapult the days ahead so that sometimes the most pleasurable activities get lost in time’s unforgiving hands.  Time really does fly.

The holidays seemed to kick into high gear shortly after Halloween this year.  Perhaps one of the several costumed witches that rang our doorbell that night in search of candy unknowingly casted a spell that stripped me of my multi-tasking, busy-bee behaviors that led me to this blog in the first place.  As families expand, the holiday season just seems to follow suit (waistlines notwithstanding).

A Year Goes By: Simple Pumpkin Muffins

This past weekend, J and I celebrated our one year anniversary.  Boy, how time flies.

We made it a point to go back to the place where we married, an old golf resort in the Pocono Mountains — a Dirty Dancing meets The Shining ambiance, perfect for a weekend getaway with 130 of our closest friends and family.  We also made it a point (okay, maybe my insatiable sweet tooth made it a point) to go back to the bakery that created our delicious red velvet and chocolate-chip layered wedding cake; we left the morning after our wedding without the customary top to freeze.  Our valiant effort to salvage good luck bestowed 6 vanilla cupcakes.  Sweet nostalgia.

The Sunday we returned home was a day spent cheering for our fantasy football players and toying in the kitchen.  While it was a relatively warm day in Philadelphia, I couldn’t help but turn on the oven to bake something wholesome for the upcoming work week.  To be fair, the “Pumpkin” in the title of this recipe is somewhat deceptive; I used the sweet kabocha squash, also known as the Japanese pumpkin, to create this simple and healthy muffin.  When I uncovered the squash from my Landisdale Farm CSA share, I refrained myself from carving a frightening face into its flesh and sitting it out on our front door step.  Doesn’t it look like the perfect pumpkin?