This week on From My Kitchen Friday (check my Instagram stories and highlights!), we went back to basics with my formula for chocolate chip cookies that’s pretty much my Forever Recipe for this particular cookie. If you’ve been around the blog for any number of years, you may recognize this gem—I’ve given it a refresh here and am reposting it, AND I love it so much that I’ve included it in my new book, Midwest Made. (Have you pre-ordered your copy yet?)
Read MoreLike so many wholly unrelated things in life, I tend to liken this utterly habit-forming snack mix to parenting. Hear me out.
So here's me at my desk in my little "office" in a corner of the attic, right? The space that has a door that I can use to close myself away from my children so I don't even care that it's just an alcove and not a real office. Now don't get me wrong, people. I love my children. They are delicious and precious and I love them even more since the third week of August when they were dispatched to their separate schools and are no longer finding themselves inexplicably and repeatedly drawn to my ONE, NICE, ONLY, NICE, sitting room sofa trying to kill each other for sport all summer long. Because I give my all to my children, really I do. I'm not the very best parent on the planet, but I can confidently say that I do the very best I can. I caress them, listen to their needs and their stories, tell them they are wonderful and look at their stick drawings with Monet-observing awe. I really try to not lose my shit on them every single day, tell them fascinating things about art and music and culture, feed them nutritious food so they can grow and thrive and leave their unique, never-to-be-replicated mark on this big, beautiful, uncertain world.
Read MoreHi! Just a quick pop-in today, and I've got an A+ reason. With just a handful of days left to legitimately spend a whole day baking, eating, and sharing cookies, I realized that I've never shared one of my very favorite recipes. Last night I had the pleasure of teaching a super fun baking class at Give Me Some Sugar here in Chicago. The focus was edible gifts, and as the world solidified into a frozen tundra outside, the ovens were roaring and laughs were coming easy in the cozy shop. So good.
Read MoreWe have now officially entered High Baking Season, and can balm ourselves in butter and sugar. We can surround ourselves with our favorite cookbooks, and tune out the crazy. That’s my new personal strategy, anyway. And just in time for its implementation, I received Sarah Kieffer’s new cookbook, The Vanilla Bean Baking Book. Which is perfect, because it’s packed with enough crave-worthy recipes to keep me avoiding American reality until February, at least. Excellent!
Read MoreDON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THAT CAKE IT'S FOR COMPANY I MEAN IT.
Does that remind anyone else of childhood?
Whether it was made from scratch, a boxed Entemann's, or something more stepped-up, like say a coffee cake from the local bakery, I think most of us knew to approach a cake on the countertop with caution. Because clearly it was something special, right? And like getting one of those flouride treatments as a kid and being told you couldn't eat for 30 minutes, nothing makes you want to eat something more than being told you can't. Counter cakes are magical that way. The pull of a counter cake on a kid is vortex-like.
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