i'd rather be baking

Hi again! I’m still here, baking, covered in flour, and stretching out tight leg muscles. Business as usual. Today’s post is a gift for your more vanilla friends. You know, the ones you’re afraid to go too crazy on gifts for, because it might freak them out. I don’t know anything that’s a safer bet than pumpkin bread.

And yes, okay, I put walnuts in it. You can leave them out if you want, but gosh, they’re tasty. I don’t know. I eat weird things like quiche for dinner, so maybe you shouldn’t listen to me after all. But Joy definitely knows what she’s talking about, and this is her recipe. That’s good enough for me.

Read more »

My favorite part of Thanksgiving has always been my grandma’s cranberry relish. The past few times she’s served it (Thanksgiving or otherwise), she’s wisely placed the serving dish next to my plate. The lip-smacking sweet-tartness is one of my favorite foods on earth and one that I now make in my own home. I love the tartness of simple, fresh cranberries – that which turns most people away and to the sweetened, dried variety.

It’s kind of rare to find a recipe that happily channels the cranberry without suffocating it with sugar, but I’m pleased to report that this is one of them. Next time I think I’ll add a bit of orange zest to truly capture cranberry relish in bread form, but this bread is pretty darned delicious just the way it is. And in a burst of serendipity, it’s ridiculously easy to make.

Read more »

I don’t know when I’ve baked so many savory muffins and quiches and things as I have this fall, but I suppose it’s my own feeble effort to keep from going into pumpkin/apple overload. Don’t worry, we’ll return to our regularly scheduled sugar overload very shortly.

In the meantime, this is a wonderful cornbread addition to many things you’re probably eating these days, namely soups, stews, chilis, and the like. It’s that time of year, right? The days are shorter and crisper and although I’m usually decidedly anti-soup (a bowl of liquid for dinner, really?), I find myself making exceptions. Admittedly, I’m a lot more interested when things like this are involved. Plus it gives me an excuse to play with chile peppers and an open burner.

Read more »

I’ve seen various recipes for pumpkin cinnamon rolls floating around the food blog world the past few weeks and they all just look so good! But my main gripe with homemade rolls still stands: long rise time for something I want to eat first thing in the morning. And I never seem to plan ahead quite enough to make them the night before.

So one day last week, when my mom was here and Ryan took the morning off, I decided to try a pumpkin variation on these cinnamon rolls. They turned out so well the first time around that I figured it was worth a try. And oh my, were they delicious.

Read more »

I’m a Southern-raised girl who, until recently, had never made biscuits. I’ve certainly eaten my fair share, but I’d never made them and upon realizing this felt sort of ashamed, like I might need to turn in my flannel shirt or something. And I really love flannel.

And following this apparent need to channel my inner Southerner, I’ve learned that I kind of love making jam. Kind of a lot. I have a lot of jam on hand these days. Would you like some?

Read more »