If I ever need to perk up my kids I bring out the sprinkles. There is literally nothing that seems to lift spirits like a healthy dose of sprinkles. I keep a jar in the pantry to add to waffles, hot cocoa, and - it turns out quite often - cookies. This snickerdoodle recipe is perfect on it’s own, but rolled in sprinkles seems to take it totally over the top. And that’s my favorite place to be.

SPRINKLE-DOODLES

makes 2 dozen large cookies

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

5 ½ cups flour

 STEP 1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together sugar and butter.  Blend in eggs, milk, and vanilla until completely incorporated. 

STEP 2

In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients.  Working in three batches, add the dry ingredients to the wet incorporating fully after each addition.

STEP 3

Roll two ounce balls of dough and press into sprinkles.  Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown on the edges.

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Spring is a weird time of year for the weather. One day it’s lovely and sunny and the next there’s torrential rain and hail. That weird weather makes it tricky to plan a dinner that’s “seasonal” but also “seasonal.” The joy of soup solves that problem.

Minestrone just means “big soup” and this is totally a big soup. Traditionally, it has what ever vegetables are around plus beans and a pasta of some sort. I always make mine with chicken stock, but there are some who make it only with bean broth. That would add some thickness, but it’s not something I keep in my pantry. If you do, knock yourself out!

This spring version is filled with things that are fresh right now. I think this is the perfect soup for a Friday because it can just use what ever vegetables are left from the week. Enjoy!

Spring Minestrone Soup

Serves 4

STEP 1

Chop all vegetables into basically bite sized pieces and cook in a stock pot with olive oil until a little brown on the edges.  Season with salt.  

STEP 2

Pour in garbanzo beans and stock and bring to a boil.  Season with oregano and basil.  

STEP 3

Add asparagus and pasta to the pot and cook 3 minutes until the pasta is done.  Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

STEP 4

Serve with fresh basil and parmesan cheese.

1 zucchini, about 1 cup chopped

1 fennel bulb, sliced

1 leek, whites sliced thin

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 bunch asparagus

2 cups green beans, chopped

2 tbs olive oil

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 can garbanzo beans

4 cups vegetable stock

1 cup orzo

2 tbs fresh basil

¼ cup parmesan cheese

Salt & pepper

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I do love carrot cake.  It's really the only cake that I like to eat.  It's possible that's largely because of the cream cheese frosting.  I love a good cream cheese frosting.  When I think of Easter, carrot cake naturally floats to the top.  But ugg, I don't want to eat cake.  

But I love love love cookies.  Cookies are the best.  I could eat cookies all the time.  So I had an idea - can I turn carrot cake into a cookie?  It makes the ultimate dessert mash-up/solution.  I don't have to eat cake, but I still get the carrot cake + cream cheese frosting.  Well, this one is really icing.  But you get the idea.

Oh, and for the love of pete, grate your own carrot.  It takes one minute and it's so much better than those weird carrot sticks you can buy "pre-grated."  

Carrot Cake Cookies

how to

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and all of the spices.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream together sugar and butter until smooth and fluffy.  Add apple sauce, egg, and vanilla.  Beat until incorporated.  Stir in carrot and raisins.  

Scoop batter on to a baking sheet and bake 8-10 minutes until browned on the edges, but still a little soft in the middle.  I smash down the tops when they come out of the oven so they don't 'bump up.'  Let cool on a cooling rack until completely cooled before icing. 

icing

4 oz cream cheese, melted

2 oz butter, melted

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk together cream cheese and butter.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Dip cookies in soft icing.  Let cool.

ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup apple sauce

1 egg

1/2 cup grated carrot

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup raisins (optional)

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I love corned beef. But I never love corned beef more than when you put it between two slices of rye bread smeared with thousand island dressing, oozing with cheese and piled high with sliced corned beef. A reuben sandwich is my favorite. Take me to a dive bar that serves a greasy reuben and I’m in heaven. It’s literally the best thing ever.

This time of year, a reuben sandwich is the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but also not feel stressed out by the cooking portion of eating. Deli sliced corned beef is perfect - unless you make a giant slab of corned beef and you have leftovers, then leftovers are dreamy here.

Reuben Sandwich

Serves 4

1 lb sliced pastrami 

8 slices rye bread

2 tbs butter

2 tbs Dijon mustard

1 cup Sauerkraut

8 slices Swiss cheese

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup ketchup

2 tbs lemon juice

STEP 1

Combine together mayonnaise, ketchup, and lemon juice.  Let rest.

STEP 2

Butter one side of each piece of bread.  Spread the other side with Dijon mustard.  

STEP 3

Layer a slice of cheese on top of four slices of bread (on top of the Dijon).  Add pastrami equally divided amongst sandwiches.

STEP 4

Top pastrami with sauerkraut and another slice of cheese.  

STEP 5

Top cheese with remaining slices of bread and toast the sandwiches over medium heat in a skillet.  

STEP 6

Slice and serve with homemade Thousand Island dipping sauce.

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Rainbows and St. Patrick’s Day go hand in hand. Usually this time of year I make sugar cookie cut outs of shamrocks (don’t worry, I still will) but I thought it would be fun to mix it up. I don’t think anything is better than those fluffy soft cookies that stay soft and fluffy even when they’ve been out of the oven for more than an hour. These stay fluffy for a whole week. It’s like they’re fresh out of the oven even when they aren’t.

I’m addicted to these. And there’s nothing stopping you from having rainbow cookies all the time.

SOFT RAINBOW COOKIES

makes 3 dozen cookies

1 cup butter (at room temperature)

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla

2 egg

2 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sprinkles

STEP 1

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.

STEP 2

Add egg and vanilla to the sugars and beat until combined.

STEP 3

Add flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. Mix to combine. Then add sprinkles and just combine. Don’t over mix!

STEP 4

Scoop out cookie dough and bake 12 minutes until just set. Let rest 5 more minutes on the baking sheet once the cookies are out of the oven. Store up to one week in an airtight container.

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Gnocchi are the best! Do you agree? I’m such a fan of those little potato pillows and you can buy them - made - at almost any grocery store. I like to buy the ones in the fresh case, but they do sell them on the shelves as well - they just aren’t as tender and fresh.

This time of year when things are finally going to be ripe again, I get so excited about fresh vegetables like those tiny little spring zucchini and fresh peas! I just realized today I forgot to plant peas over the weekend so I need to pop out today and get those planted. My grandfather always planted peas on President’s weekend and it’s literally the only reason I remember when to plant them.

As soon as those little guys are ripe, this is one of the first things I make. Until then, you can always use frozen. Those frozen peas are actually pretty good. As long as you don’t over cook them! They just need a hot second.

Spring Gnocchi

Serves 4

16 oz Gnocchi

2 tbs olive oil

1 cup peas

1 zucchini, chopped

½ cup white wine

2 tbs fresh mint, chopped

2 tbs fresh basil, chopped

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

2 tbs olive oil

2 cloves garlic

½ cup bread crumbs

STEP 1

Cook gnocchi in 2 tbs olive oil and sauté until browned.

STEP 2

Add zucchini, peas, 2 tbs butter and white wine.  Stir to incorporate then cover and cook until gnocchi is tender.  

STEP 3

In a separate pan, heat olive oil and grate in garlic.  Add breadcrumbs and stir until lightly toasted.

STEP 4

Remove gnocchi from heat and toss in basil, mint, and parm.

STEP 5

Serve with breadcrumbs on top and additional parmesan cheese.

It seems like every St. Patrick’s Day the interwebs are full of green food. While I’m here for pesto and vegetables, I don’t know that we need to dye EVERYTHING green just to be festive. Which is what got me thinking about adding Guinness to a stew! It’s festive and fun - but also not green. So it’s a perfect dinner for St. Patrick’s Day!

GUINNESS STEW

Serves 4

1lb sirloin steak, cubed

2 tbs olive oil

2 carrots, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

2 tbs flour

1 20-oz can Guinness beer

2 cups beef stock

4 cups red potatoes, chopped

1 package puff pastry, defrosted

¼ cup grated white cheddar cheese

1 egg yolk

Salt

Pepper

STEP 1

In a stock pot, cook steak and garlic in olive oil until browned on all sides.

STEP 2

Add carrots, celery, and onion and cook until the onions have softened and the fond stuck to the bottom of the pan has come up. Season with salt and pepper. (5 mins)

STEP 3

Sprinkle the flour over the top of the vegetables and stir well until completely coated.  

STEP 4

Pour the Guinness into the pan and stir to completely incorporate all of the pot.  Bring to a boil, then add beef stock.  Add potatoes and cook until the potatoes are fork tender.  Season with salt and pepper as needed.

STEP 5

Roll out puff pastry and cut into four shamrock shapes.  Brush the tops of each shamrock with the egg yolk then top with cheese.  Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown.  Serve on top of soup!

Since you only use one beer in the stew, that leaves you three left for dinner! Cheers! Have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day.

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When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, That’s Amore!

Is pesto gorgonzola a thing in your house? If not, it should be! Pesto Gorgonzola is A T.H.I.N.G. in our house. My mom used to make it all the time for parties. It’s the ultimate simple appetizer and if you don’t know about it - here’s a link where I made it for an appetizer. You need to have this in your tool kit.

Is make-your-own pizza the best thing ever? It’s definitely my children’s favorite dinner which is probably why we end up making it for Valentine’s Day almost every year. We shape the dough into hearts if we’re feeling cheeky. The kids like theirs with pepperoni and black olives - but I only like when it’s delivery. If I’m making my own, I want something more interesting. That’s when I thought… Pesto Gorgonzola pizza! It’s amazing. I added bacon (because, bacon) and green onions to spice things up.

I can’t tell you how good this pizza is. It’s a super indulgent dinner - or a delish appetizer.

You can absolutely make your own dough - the one here is a 30 minute dough - or just buy it done already. It’s super simple either way. You do you.

PESTO GORGONZOLA PIZZA

makes four small pizzas

For the pizza dough

1 package active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup very warm water

2 ½ cups flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup pesto

1 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese

4 strips cooked bacon

4 sliced green onions

STEP 1

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar, and water.  Let sit 10 minutes until foamy.  Stir flour and salt together and add yeast mixture and olive oil to dry ingredients.  Combine until smooth dough has formed.  Let rest for five minutes.

1 package active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup very warm water

2 ½ cups flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

STEP 2

Divide the dough into four equal portions. Shape, gently, into flat circles. Top with pesto, cheese, bacon and green onions. Pop into the oven and bake 10-12 minutes until the crust is brown and the pesto is bubbly.

Bon Appetit!

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SUPERBOWL! In our house it’s literally waiting for the Super Bowl. We are a big football family. It started with college ball. That’s my personal favorite. I started watching Husky football games as a child because my cousin played for them. I had a purple and yellow stripe outfit that I wore to cheer on the team every week. It was hot. It was a sleeveless turtleneck number with matching stretch pants. Welcome to 1988.

Then when my youngest was born, he became obsessed with football. Like as a one year old he watched games and cried when football season was over. He’d watch ‘talk about football’ in the off season (that’s Sportscenter). Nine years later, he’s more obsessed than anyone I’ve ever met. He knows every player and where they’ve gone to college and their stats. He’s ridiculous.

So we spend every weekend watching football games, playing fantasy football, and talking about who’s been traded. SuperBowl is literally the biggest thing in our house.

We’ve been talking about what we are going to eat for Super Bowl for at least a month now. Planning the food has been a paramount decision. Two weeks ago for playoff games we tested out WingStop to make sure they would be up to the task. I usually make my own wings but Jud had seen ads for WingStop and it became mandatory to see if they lived up to the hype. We’re planning a bucket of those to go along with the healthier options like this popcorn. And queso because it’s queso and there is no Super Bowl without queso.

RANCH POPCORN

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs butter

2 tbs parmesan cheese

1 package powdered ranch dressing

1 tsp dried chives

1 tsp paprkia

STEP 1

In a pan or a stovetop popcorn popper, pour in olive oil and popcorn kernels. Shake the pan while cooking over high heat for 5-8 minutes until the popcorn stops popping. Let rest for one minute.

STEP 2

In a small bowl, combine all of the topping ingredients except the cheese.

STEP 3

Stir the butter into the hot popcorn to coat evenly. Then pour the seasoning on top and mix well. Add the cheese after all of the kernels are coated with ranch seasoning. Serve warm.

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If I ate a sugar cookie while drinking a Manhattan I would literally go into a sugar coma. I haven’t had that much sugar in a really long time - but I cannot deny it is a dream of mine to eat sugar cookies and drink cocktails. If I had a restaurant, it would serve sugar cookies and boozy drinks - preferably vintage cocktails and champagne. Can you even? Wouldn’t that be the best? What would we name our restaurant? Should we serve charcuterie boards as well? Would that be the most bougie/basic thing ever? Probably.

Until I open my bougie/basic cookie bar (do we name it The Cookie Bar?!?!) I will have to settle for making my own. It’s not that big of a stretch. I make cookies for every holiday and send them around to friends. And there’s no denying I like a good cocktail.

For Valentines’s Day I paired up this natural (?) duo with a Manhattan and sugar cookies. My sugar cookies have become famous in the neighborhood. When everyone else “boo-s” with candy at Halloween, my kids “boo” with sugar cookies. The truth of my sugar cookies is that they are really a quick knock off of Jenny Cookies recipe. Her recipe has things like “refrigerate the dough” and “add the flour a little at a time.” I don’t have the patience for either of those things. Because her recipe is so easy to remember, it’s become mine too.

SUGAR COOKIES

makes 2 dozen

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter (room temperature or slightly warmer)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

STEP 1

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the flour and the baking powder. Set aside.

STEP 2

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until soft and totally incorporated. It’s important you don’t see ‘chunks’ of butter.

STEP 3

Add the eggs and vanilla and combine totally.

STEP 4

Add the flour mixture and combine on low speed until it looks ‘crumbly.’ Then turn up the mixer speed and beat until the dough forms a ball. It legitimately will form a ball and you’ll panic for a minute that you’ve ruined everything and why is it so crumbly, and then it just works.

STEP 5

Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch depth. I use rolling pin with guides on it so I know I’m at the same depth all the way around. If the cookies end up being different depths, you will end up with some cooked and some still raw.

STEP 6

Bake 6-8 minutes until just set. Let cool on the cookie sheet 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting.

The perfect Manhattan is not super hard. But there are lots of opinions on how to make the perfect Manhattan - even saying that is a problem because there’s a variation of Manhattan called “Perfect Manhattan.” {eyeroll}

I turned to my own personal cocktail expert - my friend Eric - who has strong opinions on the subject of cocktails for his opinion on what we would call the perfect Manhattan - the history of the drink seemed like a good place to start.

There’s no exact place the cocktail was invented - the only thing the stories all agree with is that it was developed in the 1880’s in NYC. One story is that it was created for the mother of Winston Churchill before he was born (the timeline doesn’t work) but I’m here for that story. It’s great.

The original drink was made with “American whiskey”, French vermouth and 3-4 dashes of bitters. The “American whiskey” is the critical part. That’s what we would call rye today. It’s not bourbon. You can make this with bourbon, but it’s a different drink. Eric says it sweeter, I say “it’s not as delicious.” Some early versions have a few dashes of gum syrup as well. Gum syrup (or gimme syrup) is basically a simple syrup but with gum arabic dissolved in it as well as sugar. Since that’s just a thickener/stabilizer, we can assume it had nothing to do with adding flavor so really, just a few dashes of simple syrup.

The recipe gets slightly more complicated during prohibition when American whiskey becomes a challenge to get in NYC but Canadian whiskey isn’t the same challenge (geography). Some recipes still use Canadian whiskey because of this hiccup in history.

Before I give you the recipe for a perfect (not Perfect) Manhattan, let me first say that Eric is dying right now that I made my Manhattans on the rocks. He would make them up. Only. And he’s going to call me for sure when he sees these pictures and tell me how wrong it is. So let me say - the correct way is served up like a Martini. But if you’re like me and you drink a neat drink WWAAAYYY too fast, then on the rocks is a liver saver.

Don’t worry, I didn’t shake it - I still stirred it which is the proper way to serve a Manhattan. It’s another controversy, but it’s not to be debated here. Stir it. Don’t shake it.

A PERFECT MANHATTAN

2 ounces Pikesville Rye

1 ounce Carpano Antica sweet vermouth

2-3 dashes Angostura bitters

luxardo cherries

In a cocktail pitcher filled with ice, combine the ingredients. Stir gently with a swizzle or bougie glass stir stick. Strain into glasses immediately (so it doesn’t dilute) and serve with a cherry for garnish.

While I wait to open my bougie/basic Cookie Bar, I made these for girlfriends this holiday since we can’t see each other. It’s a “happy hour” I can deliver and I’m wrapping the whole thing in the “That’s Amore” dishtowel. Aren’t they fun? I made them. If you want one, let me know. I’ll send you one too.

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