From the category archives:

Desserts

Gingersnap Cherry Cheesecake and Dinner Parties vs. Restaurants

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This Gingersnap Cherry Cheesecake was our contribution to the party. Dinner parties, in my opinion, are so much better than restaurants. Cost, sure. But parking, pressure to eat and turn the table, not being able to talk with the whole group, the din of music and room noise. And I know how restaurants cook my [...]

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Kahlua Sweet Potato Pie with Kahlua Whipped Cream ~ Food Bloggers Gather to Cook and Share for Thanksgiving

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The recipe to make this autumn leaf-laced Kahlua Sweet Potato Pie with Kahlua Whipped Cream is at the bottom of this post. Seven bloggers arrived at our home for an early Thanksgiving Feast in the spirit of blogging recipes for our readers’ holiday cooking. As Project Manager, or more realistically “Micro Manager,” I instructed each [...]

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Chocolate Kahlua Zucchini Bread

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Instead of cooking up a healthy minestrone with zucchini my friend Cathi grew in her garden, I baked a boozy Chocolate Kahlua Zucchini Bread. It’s already wrapped up (minus two slices) for my upcoming weekend at Camp GetAway… definitely a grownup snack, but of course, this is a grownup getaway.

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Pineapple-Coconut Cake ~ a Southern Cake for a California Bride

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This bride-inspired Pineapple-Coconut Cake is from Nancie McDermott’s dreamy Southern Cakes – Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations (will post the groom’s little cake, behind, soon). My sister remarried on 9-10-11-12. September 10, 2011 at noon. No, no, this isn’t the “wedding cake.” Janie and Mike tied the knot at the house (Mike’s). But [...]

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Kahlua-Glazed Peaches & Vanilla-Kahlua Yogurt For Two

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  Tell me if I’m wrong, but more words aren’t necessary. Fresh summer peach. Kahlua. Dunk, roast. Stir a little more into plain yogurt. Fresh vanilla bean. Drizzle. Sweet. Savoring. Kahlua-Glazed Peaches & Vanilla-Kahlua Yogurt for Two. Only Larry and me here, today that’s all that counts.

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Happy Birthday Lemon Bars for my Dad

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The weekend of my dad’s 87th birthday is also the weekend of Camp Blogaway with 90 passionate foodies in the local mountains. The conflict, of course, is how to not be a jerk of a kid. WHEW, Cousin Wendy hosted Easter at her house, which gave me a visit with my pop. ACK a gift!!  [...]

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Cast Iron Apple Cobbler

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Larry was enjoying an Ozzie & Harriet Sunday.  First, a basketball afternoon game with buddy, Bruce. Returned home to a piping hot Cast Iron Apple Cobbler. “Wow, it smells great in here.” I appreciated the Ozzie reaction, thank you.  Too early for dinner, they then watched another game on TV. Are they living the life, [...]

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Little Lucy’s Excellent Cake Pops

Lovely Lucy belongs to Yoga Jen, our way-cool yoga instructor at Camp GetAway for Mothers & Others.  They were excited to show me their Cake Pops project. These gals are big fans of “Bakerella” and decided for Lucy’s classmates, they would make some of her Snowman Cake Pops – here is Bakerella’s recipe for these guys! 

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Iced Cranberry Pecan Drop Cookies

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Forgive me, Nestle. You often get my money for chocolate chips to make Toll House cookies, but this time I strayed. There was a packet of dried sweet cranberries in my pantry from a food conference goodie bag.  The cranberry package said “made for salads” — a dumb use, in my opinion. Go for the [...]

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My Four TOP Recipes Of All Times

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When you write a cooking blog like Worth The Whisk, the mechanics of it can result in earlier recipes being tucked waaaay away in places quite difficult to find without digging.  You might find it interesting to read that these are my four top recipes of all times (on this blog). Not surprising, all desserts.

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Guest Recipe ~ Plum Frangipane Tart by Gisele of Pain Perdu

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My readers here know by now that I had a big event last Saturday when I produced the Day Camp of Camp Blogaway. One of our sponsors, Viking Range surprised us with door prizes, which lead me to think… hmmmm, bloggers LOVE to cook and they love to compete. Thus, a “Bonus Competition” was born.  [...]

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Citrusy Olive Oil Cake with Limoncello Drizzle

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  This cake was such a surprise! It’s not a fluffy commercial texture, nor is it a brick – which was my first thought when I heard we’d be making an Olive Oil Cake with Limoncello Drizzle at our “Date Night Romantic Mediterranean” cooking class with Chef Diane Brown. If you haven’t noticed, we’re a [...]

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Triple Citrus Cupcakes with Lime Glaze

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  Culinary throw-down: prepare a dessert elegant enough to complement friends’ upscale picnic contributions, portable, and cannot compete in flavor with the other two desserts: Larry’s Famous Brownies As Seen In Bon Appétit, plus a batch of caramel corn. The venue? A cemetery, but not to visit dearly departed. We were there to picnic and [...]

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Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake

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Gourmet Club dinner: GREEK. Four couples, each once yearly hosts a “theme” meal at their home. Marlene and John will be cruising the Greek Isles next month and, happily, this theme choice produced one of our absolute best group collaborations. Laura snagged the coveted DESSERT course. Laura makes perfect flan, and so a “water bath” [...]

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Strawberry Sour Cream Pie

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This pie was scrumdiddlyumptious. So much, in fact, that after Larry and I had our slices, I pawned the rest off on two neighbors’ households. It was TOO good and my fear was we’d eat it all. Larry wasn’t thrilled with this, scored one more slice, tucked it into the fridge and I bolted up [...]

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Easy Meyer Lemon Curd

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This is a sneaky trick. In my recipe binder there is a stunning magazine lemon custard recipe, which is baked in a water bath. I hadn’t made it yet, but had every intention. That is, until my friend Sandy told me her mother (native Californian, Meyer lemon tree owner) would make the lemon meringue recipe [...]

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Australian Impossible Pie

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The internet is a magic carpet ride for me when I go recipe surfing. And I’m drawn to Australian food blogs, like Gourmet Jack. His slogan: Foodie Nirvana, Australian Style. There he presented Impossible Pie — is it really impossible? Coconut, crustless, custardy… crikey – sounds great!

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Crockpot Caramel Sauce Cooked in a Can

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My goal was to make dulce de leche, a South American sweet spread. Traditional recipes boil milk, sugar, vanilla bean for some time, then strain, lots of sticky work. People also boil or bake sealed cans of sweetened condensed milk immersed in water, bringing to mind the thought of potential explosions. Then I discovered blogger [...]

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Tangerine Tart with Cookie Crust

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For more than a decade, I’ve held onto this Sunset Magazine page. You see, the prolific tangerine tree that came with this house disappeared the day our yard was demo’d for landscaping. Waaaaa. Not sure why I never just bought fruit to make the tart; maybe I was insecure.

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Chocolate Almond Biscotti

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Biscotti. Good dunking cookie, but not so fond of anise flavor. By consulting several basic recipes in my “collection” (read: stuffed binder), I devised a Chocolate Almond Biscotti. No anise, yes almond extract. And a chocolate coating because, uh let’s think here… CHOCOLATE. Larry gave the basic cookie a thumbs-up even before the second baking, [...]

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Marcella’s Fudge

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This is a big plus to attending Thanksgiving on my side of the family: Marcella’s Fudge may be eaten before dinner. It is right there with the appetizers. Most of us thought Marcella was a relative from the Old Country (Wisconsin). My sister, Janie and I only just asked this year… turns out Marcella was [...]

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Double-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies from More Magazine

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More Magazine is me me me. Besides being written for Women Of A Certain Age, the magazine publishes decent recipes. Such as “Cookies for Grown-ups.” I’m a grown-up and so is Larry. We like grown-up flavors and this particular recipe in the November 2009 More Magazine was definitely US: Double Ginger. AND Chocolate. AND Chunk. [...]

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Pumpkin Pie Rice Pudding

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Making fresh pumpkin puree the other day yielded 9 cups of potential. Larry and I like pumpkin pie, but we also like rice pudding, so I googled around for recipes and ended up combining a few to produce this one. I suppose I could have tried to crockpot it. But even with constant stirring, this [...]

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Orange Ribbon Cheesecake

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Larry gets full credit for this beauty.  I’ve been out of town for several days conducting our fun women’s weekend, Camp GetAway.  One activity at our event is the traditional Magazine Swap (bring ‘em, take ‘em), which results in a gigantic pile of happiness at camp. Sunday AM, before my 75 gals awoke, I was [...]

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Zinfandel Soaked Cherry Clafoutis

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There was Larry, the winning bidder of a Food Lover’s Basket at a recent fundraising event for Project Angel Food.  I was eyeing something a little more WOW, like the beauty basket which included botox services; I was outbid. The experience turned out OK, the basket had a pile of autographed cookbooks, biscotti, and a [...]

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Light Pumpkin Custard

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Is it really, truly, finally Autumn? Gimme Pumpkin! Here is what’s so great about Light Pumpkin Custard… you can eat piles of it with little concern. The calorie intake is fairly low, your Vitamin A intake is sky high and you are enjoying one of the best holiday flavors ever (which then contributes to one’s [...]

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‘09 LA County Fair Blue Ribbon Cheesecake Winner

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  Last evening, I “covered” the Cheesecake Competition at the LA County Fair (another post upcoming on that fun blogging adventure) and witnessed first-hand as the very capable home cook and happy contestant, Ann Turley scored the First Place Blue Ribbon for her Apricot Cheesecake recipe.  Haven’t had a chance to make this myself, but [...]

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Truvy’s Cuppa Cuppa Cuppa from Steel Magnolias

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Movie food pretty much grabs my attention. One favorite flick of mine is Steel Magnolias.  I watch practically any time it airs — food has such an active role.  The Easter eggs getting smashed in Truvy’s car trunk starts it off.  Truvy (Dolly Parton) and Annelle (Darryl Hannah) scooping corn and potatoes at the fair [...]

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How to Make Pots de Crème The Lazy Way

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This is positively YUMM-O.  I say yumm-o because Rachael Ray made this on Oprah.  I used to watch Oprah religiously (now, she may have jumped the shark… we’ll discuss that another time).  Rachael was talking my language:  Chocolate.  Easy.  Decadent.  Mom’s Recipe (any TV cook who features a recipe of their mom’s means that dish [...]

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Mocha Marshmallow Krispie Treats

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Having produced a spectacular batch of Homemade Mocha Marshmallows, it dawned on me that Larry and I would never just sit and eat marshmallows. I get enough s’mores on Camp GetAway weekends. I asked Larry, “Krispie Treats?”  He almost said “duh,” but wisely caught himself. Not so duh, try finding the right rice crispy cereal [...]

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Wisconsin Schaum Tortes

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Happy birthday to my mom, Gloria.  She used to make us Schaum Tortes. Googling around, I had a laugh reading, “Unless you’re from Wisconsin, you won’t know what a Schaum Torte is.”  I’m a native Californian who ate a lot of ‘em but that makes sense… both my folks are from Wisconsin.  Mom, a Kewaunee [...]

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Mocha Marshmallows

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Why make homemade marshmallows?  Because they really are SO much better than store-bought.   Fresh, fresh, yummy fresh.  Another reason is, because you are a grownup now, so you can do stuff to them, like make a batch with Amaretto.  I did that, and then decided it didn’t really do anything for them, but dredging them [...]

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Pomegranate Popsicles

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The weather here today in LA is perfect.  Our Augusts are usually nicer than September as the beginning of school often coincides with a furnace-blast heat wave.  As kids, we had the double whammy of wool Catholic school uniforms and classrooms with no AC.  Brutal. To cool her kids, Mom froze cubes of cranberry juice [...]

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Blueberry Stuffed Apples in Pastry

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Naming this recipe was tricky; besides being stuffed with fresh blueberries and baked in flaky pastry, the apples are sweetened with Red Hot candies and pure maple syrup.  TMI for a recipe name, but Larry thought the Red Hots were a pretty good idea.  I like using up the second pie crust in the box, [...]

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Extreme Kahlua Chocolate Mousse

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It doesn’t get much better’n this. Besides being remarkably easy to make (thanks to the crockpot), once chilled, this food from the Gods becomes super dense, like the center of an incredible chocolate bon bon. Take a bite and you will go, “mmmmmmmm.” But heed this warning: do not dish up a portion the size [...]

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Easy Fresh Apple Tart ~ Homage to Julia Child

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Fellow IACP members, who recognizes this plate?  Julia Child was a founding member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals; over the years, the group’s cookbook awards gala grew to a rather big splash.  The year 1997 was so splashy, attendees received this commemorative platter and Julia took the time to autograph plates for anyone [...]

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Butterscotch Pudding

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I cannot stop thinking about this Butterscotch Pudding. Friends Barbara, David and Annie were coming for dinner and I wanted a simple killer dessert you might see at a cool restaurant and say, “oh boy!” Oh boy oh boy oh boy Butterscotch Pudding. Thank you, Gourmet’s Ruth Cousineau for this. A few of the reviews [...]

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Mini Kahlua Carrot Cakes with Maple Icing

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Mini cake, giant cupcake or big muffin, you decide.  It’s the same pan – the large one-cup muffin tins.  I obviously like to bake with Kahlua.  If you’ve read previous posts, you know that Kahlua was a longtime PR client of mine.  Few days went by without a learning experience, and now-friend, Madeline was responsible [...]

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Glazed Lemon Pound Cake

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Do you have a go-to recipe that works for most occasions? Add Glazed Lemon Poundcake to your list. Hostess gift? Check. Dessert for potluck? Check. Neighbor thanks for taking in your mail? Check. Oops, I forgot a birthday? Check, check, check.

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Sour Cherry Rice Pudding

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A few years back, our friends Vicki and Rich made a yummy discovery: a store in New York City called Rice to Riches sold rice pudding.  Really excellent rice pudding.  Rich then noticed he could order it for delivery to Los Angeles.  One dinner party, they brought us a mouthwatering bucket of the good stuff.  [...]

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How to Make a Flower Pot Ice Cream Sundae

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This tiny treat is just plain cute and got me thinking about the slice of leftover chocolate cake in the freezer. Honestly, you cannot screw this up. For example, chunks of frozen frosting on my cake became corks for plugging the flower pot drain holes.  I smashed up the rest of the cake for the “dirt.”  [...]

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Peppered Strawberries in Balsamic Vinegar

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The year was maybe 1965.  My dad’s job involved transforming a Southern California strawberry farm into a housing development.  Families were invited to “pick all you want berries” on a festive day prior to plowing the field under. Our family of seven had a Country Squire Station Wagon.   With all the seats down and five [...]

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Mmmm Kahlua Chocolate Cupcakes with Kahlua Buttercream Frosting

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The beginning of my friendship with Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan, the powerhouse behind wildly successful culinary blog The Kitchn, was steeped in Kahlua.  She was probably in the fifth grade.  It’s a fun story. My boutique PR firm had Kahlua as a client for many years.  Pretty yummy work; our best PR efforts were culinary-focused.  Over [...]

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Larry’s Famous Brownies As Seen in Bon Appétit

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Bon Appétit, June 2000 issue, page 169: “Chocolate Chip Brownies” by Larry Steven Londre. As I re-read the article after all these years, I’m still amazed. Not that his recipes were published, but rather the side of “cheese” that accompanied them. Yes, his brownies are fabulous, extremely dense and chocolaty with a Kahlua kick. The [...]

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Orange-Flavored Shortcakes with Strawberries and Cream

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The article in the LA Times Food Section was long-winded, but I was committed to discovering if it was a good shortcake recipe: Orange-Flavored Shortcakes with Strawberries and Cream.  As a kid, I tasted two versions of shortcake.  One was made from Biscuick, which I don’t buy.  The other was technically the outside of a [...]

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Graham Cracker Chewy Bars

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Last week’s Neighborhood Watch meeting, Hostess Jane served what I thought were Blondies. Gimme one, and one for Larry. When Jane told us she clipped the recipe from the LA Times, I thought: are you serious? I haven’t seen a recipe worth tearing out of our local paper for ages, how did I miss a [...]

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Danielle’s Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

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 The idea is simple, but who actually takes time to make them??  YUM.  My niece, Danielle, is an excellent dessert maker.  Isn’t she a cutie?  At last weekend’s family reunion, she dazzled us with her desserts, and Larry would vote the Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches as his top choice.  I was scarfing the Lemon Angel [...]

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