Food Diary

The day after Halloween is a day that most of us realize that our kitchens are full of tiny candy bars. Whether we bought extra to give out to costumed kids or your kids brought home a few tubs full themselves, the candy bars are there. They keep for a long time in their snack size wrappers, so you can munch your way through them slowly over the course of a few weeks. Or, you could do something a little more creative with them and use them as a featured ingredient in a more interesting – and more delicious – dessert. Halloween Candy Lava Cakes are my favorite way to use up those mini candy bars. They’re a twist on a classic molten chocolate cake with a filling that you won’t find in the standard recipe . Any chocolate bar will work, but I prefer those with caramel and nougat centers (such as Snickers, Milky Way, etc.) that get perfectly melty in the oven as the cake bakes. Candy Bar Stuffed Baked Apples also have a melting chocolate center made from leftover Halloween candy. The

These healthy pumpkin recipes are total crowd pleasers: from dessert recipes like oatmeal cookies to main dishes like pumpkin gnocchi and stuffed shells! Are you a pumpkin fan? Even if your answer is no, you might enjoy some of these healthy pumpkin recipes! Because pumpkin puree is doesn’t have a distinct flavor, it can be used in many different ways without tasting overly pumpkin-y. It makes a fantastic substitute for egg in our vegan pumpkin oatmeal cookies, and a creamy, cheesy pasta sauce in our pumpkin penne. Of course, we’ve also got pumpkin dessert recipes: but not the traditional pumpkin pie! Try our healthy pumpkin parfaits with pecan granola or pumpkin mousse shooters. In all cases, healthy means made with real, whole food ingredients that are full of nutrients. Chewy  Pumpkin   Oatmeal  Cookies Let’s start with these chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies,  one of our most popular pumpkin dessert recipes! The flavor is reminiscent of oatmeal cream pies, but a healthier spin. Thou

Pumpkin breads are one of my regular bakes during the fall holiday season. They’re easy to make and always a crowd pleaser, whether you’re serving up slices at brunch with coffee or a treat after dinner with a scoop of ice cream. Like banana bread, I like to put different twists on basic pumpkin breads to keep things a little more interesting – and to make a good loaf even more delicious. These Pecan Upside Down Mini Pumpkin Breads are perfect for any fall occasion, with a topping of caramelized pecans that adds sweetness and crunch to every bite of the moist, tender loaves. This recipe makes small pumpkin breads and you’ll get four loaves with 5.5 x 3-inch mini loaf pans. There are some smaller mini loaf pans out there that can also be used, but you’ll need to scale down the amount of topping and reduce the baking time slightly to suit a not-quite-standard pan. Remember that you can check any loaf for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the bread to see that it come

Hello dear friends! This week I’ve been thinking a lot about time and attention and just how precious those things are.  I try to make the most of every day in work and tasks, sure… but the rest of my attention is so valuable and I’m always reevaluating where that resource goes.  This week my attention went into painting the back of my front door yellow.  Well… 45 minutes of my attention (and don’t worry – this photo is just a single coat and it looks much better now).  The door painting inspired me to make a wreath for the back of the door so my attention went into an hour long trip to the craft store and then down a rabbit hole of rearranging my office and bedroom.  It’s felt good (like a luxury, really) to put energy and attention into my space.  Really, I’m just prepping for a Christmas tree. Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 194! at Joy the Baker.

Halloween is a great time to dress up your desserts and turn them from tasty treats into tricky ones. These Mummy Baked Apples are baked apples wrapped in puff pastry “bandaging” to give them a delicious – and spooky – finished look! These Mummies are easy to make and only require a few ingredients: apples, puff pastry and a bit of sugar. Frozen puff pastry should be defrosted before use, then the pastry should be cut into 1-inch strips and wrapped around the prepared apples. The wrapping should overlap and look slightly haphazard – just like the wrapping on a long-dead mummy from a scary movie. It is crucial for the pastry to be pinched together on the bottom of each apple to prevent any apple juice from leaking out and turning the pastry soggy. The pastry should be finished with an egg wash to encourage browning and a sprinkle of sugar for added sweetness. When it comes to the apples, choose medium-sized fruit because the giant apples that are as big as your head (yes, I’ve seen t

Hello dear friends!  It would be entirely reasonable for you to be thinking about Halloween, costumes, candy… the whole deal… but I’ve got my eyes on the prize (prize = homemade holiday gifts).  I’m also not ashamed (ok, just lightly embarrassed) to admit that I’ve already got my Christmas decorations down from the attic (the miracle being that I’m a grown single woman with both an attic AND Christmas decorations).   I love gift giving during the holidays mostly because I like to make elaborate homemade gifts for people and stare at them intently while they open their present in front of me.  If you’re keeping track, my love language is ‘words of affirmation’ so… that’s why I stare so intently, to prepare my heart and mind.   The problem with homemade gift giving is that it takes time and planning and it’s not something that you can decide on Black Friday.  Nope.  Now is the time… and technically, we’re already a little late… so let’s jump on this.   Here are a few crafty gift ide

Every since I was a kid, I have been a fan of Rice Krispy Treats and still treat myself to them on a fairly regular basis at home. These days, I usually get a little more creative with the cereals and mix ins that I use, giving my cereal bars a twist that is a little more grown up or a little more fun. I particularly enjoy making cereal bars around the holidays – like Halloween – when there are a lot of seasonal cereals out to make my treats even more exciting . These Reese’s Spiced Peanut Butter Bats Cereal Bars are made with the seasonal Reese’s Puffs Peanut Butter Bats Cereal (that’s a mouthful!) and have an extra dose of peanut butter and a hint of spice in them, so they have a perfect-for-Halloween look and loads of flavor. Reese’s Puffs are pretty candy-like as cereals go – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because they make an amazing snack, even if they’re not necessarily my first pick in the morning for breakfast. The holiday version has chocolate and peanut butter

These 13 tahini recipes are healthy and delicious ways to enjoy the popular sesame paste, from Buddha bowls to sweet potato fries to cookies! Do you use tahini? You might have bought a jar of tahini if you’ve ever made homemade hummus . But tahini is not just for hummus! Common in Middle Easter or Mediterranean dishes, this sesame paste is becoming very popular: it’s used for dressings, dipping sauces, and even desserts! Tahini is one of Alex and my favorite ingredients to use in recipes, and we realized we have a long list of tahini recipes. Keep reading for 13 tahini recipes that make healthy eating undeniably delicious. First, what is tahini sauce? What is tahini sauce (tahini)? Tahini is a paste made of sesame seeds, typically used in Middle Eastern or Mediterranean dishes. Tahini is vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, Paleo, keto, and Whole 30 friendly, so it works for many diets. It’s purely sesame seeds and salt! Tahini is perfect for making creamy sauces for salads and Buddha b

I can feel bath season coming on.  I can expect for my shower curtain to be untucked from my bathtub, I can expect to make a new batch of mustard bath soak every week, I can expect to likely drop my phone into the water before bath season is done.   Bath season is also vegetable season though every season is technically vegetable season.  It’s my desire for everything roasted and toasted that led me to this place, with both mustard bath ingredients and zucchini cake ingredients on my kitchen counter.  All of this to say that… I put vegetables on our cake (not mustard – not yet). Continue reading Zucchini Upside-Down Cake at Joy the Baker.

Frozen pie crusts can be hit-or-miss when it comes to flavor and quality. Some are bland, while others have a ncie buttery flavor. Some are too thick to bake in the time needed for the filling to bake, while others are just right. Trader Joe’s stocks frozen pie crust dough that you can roll out and fit to any pie dish you might have, but this year they added a new pie crust option to their freezer case: Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Pie Crust. It is an all butter crust made with a blend of rice flour, tapioca flour and cornstarch as the base. The frozen crust is unbaked and comes already shaped to a 9-inch aluminum pie plate. It has instructions for use in a single and double crust pie (if you want to combine two of them), as well as for parbaking the crust on its own. The crust needs to be defrosted for about 10 minutes before going into the oven – which I did while my oven was preheating. I filled my test crust with a homemade pumpkin pie filling and popped it into the oven. The froz

Pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices are the defining flavors of fall and they are incorporated into a wide variety of desserts all season long. These Pumpkin Waffles are crisp, tender waffles that offer a delicious way to bring some pumpkin to the breakfast table on a cool fall morning. They’re full of warm spices and smell amazing when they’re baking on a waffle iron. The best part is that the waffles – while they are impressive enough for a crowd – are easy enough to make that you can whip them up on short notice to treat yourself! Pumpkin brings a lot of moisture into a waffle recipe and that can result in a soggy waffle. These waffles are crisp because they use just the right amount of pumpkin to bring in a good pumpkin flavor, but not so much that your waffles will become soggy the moment you take them off of the waffle iron. The pumpkin puree is balanced out with buttermilk, which gives the batter a nice consistency and keeps it from getting too heavy. Plenty of pumpkin pie spice an

Hello dear friends!   Welcome to another fine day. Can we talk about astrology for a two to five sentences?  Do the words ‘Venus in retrograde” mean anything to you?  Are you trying to steady yourself?  Here’s what this years Venus in retorgrade means for your sign .  Just blaze on through – we’ve got this.  This week I tasked my heart out, recipe tested a lot of apple and pumpkin things, woke up early, walked the dog, only ate one bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos… it’s been solid.   I taught my first real yoga class this week and of course, brought the class these doughnuts as a treat.  Balance?  All of my classes should be about balance, ending with meditation and a sweet treat.   I hope this week finds you happy and well.  Truckin’ along.   Here is the offering this week.  Take only what you need:   •   Must read and I’m ready to have a book club meeting about this:  Powerful Women Talk About Power . Continue reading Let It Be Sunday, 193! at Joy the Baker.

When you hear the name “chess pie,” you might think that it has something to do with a classic chess board. A chess pie is a classic – but it doesn’t have anything to do with the board game. Chess pie is a Southern custard pie made with sugar, eggs, milk and cornmeal. The cornmeal is a relatively unique addition to the pie and helps to create a slightly crispy top over a sweet, tender custard. Chess pies can be made in a wide variety of flavors and this Pumpkin Spice Chess Pie is a great choice for fall baking. It is a twist on the basic recipe, but with a generous amount of pumpkin spice added. To bring in the spice element, I used a blend of the spices that normally make up a pumpkin pie spice mix : cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. I added all of these spices individually, but you can substitute 2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice for all of the other spices if you happen to have some on hand. Make sure that your spices are fresh for best results, as your pie won’t have as much flavor

Looking for a cooking podcast or food podcast? Our Small Bites podcast gives you bite sized food for thought in just 15 minutes!  After a brief hiatus while we launched our cookbook Pretty Simple Cooking , the A Couple Cooks Podcast is back! And this time, it’s reformulated to fit into your busy lifestyle. All our episodes in Season 2 are just 15 minutes, featuring short form interviews and small bites of real food. We know you’re busy, so we cut out the small talk and get right to our bite sized food for thought! Who do we feature on the podcast? Authors, entrepreneurs, personalities, and leaders in the wide world of food. We want to inspire you with the big ideas, stories, and people behind what we eat: as well provide ideas for everyday recipes! Our first episode of Season 2 is called Team Leftovers: it features cookbook author Julia Turshen, who shares with us how to reinvent leftovers and how to cultivate community through food. Want to join us? Here’s how to listen:  Best w

When I first started making mug cakes, you could make them from boxes of cake mix by measuring out just a few tablespoons at a time. These days, cake mix producers have wised up and now offer individually sized packets to make single-serving snacks a piece of cake. Betty Crocker Cinnamon Roll Mug Treats are one of the flavors offered by the classic cake mix brand, offering a quick way to get a cinnamon roll-inspired snack in less than two minutes. The package contains four pouches of cake mix and four pouches of icing, which is not always included with other microwave cake mixes. Mixing up the batter is easy: pour the mix into a mug, add water or milk, and stir! The cake is studded with cinnamon chips and baked up quickly and easily into  a fluffy white cake that really smelled like cinnamon when it came out of the microwave. The icing is drizzled onto the cake while it is still warm, so it can melt a bit into the cake, creating a gooey cinnamon roll-like effect. The cake is actuall

Soups are one of the best ways to eat healthy and delicious! Here are our best easy soup recipes that the whole family will love.   When people ask Alex and me where to start for eating healthy, we typically reply, “ soup !” Why? There are multiple benefits to cooking up a big pot of soup. Here’s a collection of our best soup recipes, but first: what’s so great about soups? Soups make it easy to eat lots of vegetables at once.  You can eat a vegetarian meal without eating any real nutritious vegetables: for example: grilled cheese! And we admit, sometimes when we look at a refrigerator of raw veggies, we feel uninspired. Soups make eating a variety of vegetables at once easy and delicious. Soup recipes make meal planning a breeze . In the winter months, our meal plans start to look something like this: Soup and bread. Soup and salad. Soup and corn muffins. Soups work for a weeknight, a special dinner with company, or made ahead for lunches. Soups are cozy and comforting.  No exp