From the category archives:

Snacks

Larry’s Best Caramel Corn

Larry is a good cook, and an enthusiastic one. Sometimes we practically arm wrestle “who gets to make what” when we feed other people. But he usually wants to be the dessert guy, so he selected caramel corn for our picnic in the Hollywood Forever cemetery with Cathi and Barry. He was all over this [...]

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Chocolate Dipped Peeps

I am definitely no food snob, witness this post. Believe it or not, Larry and I saw Chocolate Covered Peeps at a high-end cheese shop on LA‘s 3rd Street about a month ago. Packaged, and expensive. So, of course, now that I know how to dip and cover things in chocolate, I couldn’t pass up [...]

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Darn Good Guacamole

The Perfect Guacamole recipe title prompted me to quietly tear it from the dentist office magazine. Yes, I do that sometimes, but only an emergency like this one.

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Fresh Basil Soft Pretzels

Jen, our way-cool yoga instructor at Camp GetAway for Mothers & Others had an explosion of gorgeous basil growing in her victory garden. She was asking me about making pesto — just as I was thinking of making pretzels. The ideas collided. The March 2004 issue of Gourmet had a Kitchen Notebook story on how [...]

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Mocha Marshmallow Krispie Treats

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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Mocha Marshmallows

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

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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Mini Basil and Goat Cheese Turnovers

Dinner party for four here. Casual menu: Larry made his Excellent Pizza. I was excited for dessert, Butterscotch Pudding. But while shopping for ingredients, it struck me… I hadn’t planned an appetizer. Wracking my brain (well, not wracking, but thinking harder than normal while shopping), my sis-in-law’s recent pool party snacks struck me as do-able. [...]

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Danielle’s Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

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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Killer Deviled Eggs

“This recipe dates back to my mom’s grandmother,” Laura emailed. In 2004, I wanted a “killer Deviled Egg” recipe because they are a favorite of mine and friend, Laura claimed her mother’s method was the best. She was right, and her signature dish morphed into mine. This simple recipe wasn’t easy to get, she had [...]

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