cauliflower (not) pizza

I really like putting vegetables, fruit and other healthy stuff into foods that might otherwise be a little less nutritious. Zucchini bread, carrot muffins, black bean brownies, chickpea muffins, any sort of fruit or vegetable purée into unexpected places. I love how sneaky and tricky it makes me feel. 

apple cinnamon baked oatmeal

My life is significantly better if I have prepared enough breakfast for a few days. I'm not so great at the morning portion of life and I tend to be running perpetually late. It is a great comfort during these moments to know that there is a tasty, healthy, portable breakfast waiting for me. It doesn't stop me from my usual morning flailing search for my keys and the other shoe to go with the one on my foot.

But it does slightly balm my nerves to have something to eat once I find everything.

a cake for fall: brown butter and toasted pecan

Always watch the sugar. 

That voice that tells you, when you put sugar in a dry pan on high heat, "Just go into the other room for just a moment, just turn away for a minute, you won't forget about the sugar, just leave it for a second, it'll be fine." That voice is a liar. Maybe you don't hear that voice, maybe you are better at recognizing that the voice is wrong, maybe you stay with your sugar. I listened. And of course I didn't come right back, of course I forgot there was sugar in a pan over an open flame cranked up to eleven. I started grabbing recipes, assembling supplies, puttering. By the time I remembered the sugar, my apartment was full of smoke. Can't-see-across-the-room kind of smoke. And the sugar wasn't just burnt, it was on fire. Flame actually leaping out of the pan: a blackened, charred, disgusting sugar inferno.  

And then all the fire alarms went off. In the whole building. On a Saturday morning. No one in the building could turn the fire alarms off, so the firepeople had to come, in a great big firetruck just to turn off the alarm. I'm pretty sure everyone who lives in my building hates me now.

So watch the sugar. 

toffee with pecans and smoked salt

I'm working on few recipes for food gifts that I can make and package for Christmas presents. This pecan toffee is definitely on the list. They are pretty quick and easy to make and very tasty. They store well, so you can make them a little in advance if you wish. Store them in the fridge or somewhere cool.