Coconut Chicken Curry Soup

We should already be well into soup season, but you wouldn’t know it by the weather we’ve had around here lately.  We had one early snowfall that dumped six inches on every flat surface in the neighborhood, including the two lounge chairs on either side of a big umbrella still sitting on our back deck.  I wish I had taken a photo of that.  Since then, we’ve had warm and sunny afternoons with only somewhat chilly evenings.  However, that’s about to change because we’re experiencing the “warm before the storm.”

Still, in my brain it is soup season.  Several days a week I pop open a can of soup to heat up for lunch and that’s just great with me.  There are a lot of tasty canned soups out there.  Have you tried Campbell’s Gouda Bisque with Chicken or Progresso Chicken Tortilla   No?  Click  here for a coupon.  So good for lunch.

Bacon Cheddar Biscones

 I think I’ve found my favorite basic biscuit recipe.

I just can’t decide which flavor combination I like to bake into them. I’ve made this recipe several times as a sweet breakfast treat with cinnamon chips and drizzled with cinnamon glaze.  But this version with aged white cheddar cheese, crispy chopped bacon, and green  onions is just fabulous.  I used the best aged cheddar I could find and it paired so well with the tangy buttermilk and freshly ground pepper.  Don’t expect gobs of melted cheese inside though.  It bakes right into the dough, and that is just fine by me.

I don’t know which I like better, but there is no need to decide.  They’re both delicious.

Cocoa Shortbread Cut-out Cookies

Can you believe that it’s time for Halloween already?  Soon the neighborhood will be full of trick-or-treating witches, superheroes, and princesses.  But then we’ll blink, and it will be covered in snow, Christmas lights, and the occasional inflatable Santa.
These cocoa shortbread cut-outs are so easy to whip up for any holiday, and they’re tasty, too.  In Martha Stewart’s Cookies, they’re cut as simple diamond shapes and drizzled with melted white chocolate.  But you can cut them into as many shapes as you have cutters.  The dough mixes up in a food processor, and is ready to be rolled out right away.  No chilling required – bonus.
While we’re on the subject of Halloween, did you watch Modern Family last week?  That show always cracks me up, but especially the Halloween episodes.  Only Claire could dress as Little Bo Peep and still frighten the kids away. 

This and That

Mmm…chocolate cupcakes

Dulce de leche frosting

Owl cookies, before.

And after.

Pumpkin English Muffin Bread

Picture this.  It’s a lovely fall morning, perfect for staying indoors and baking.  Even better, for baking pumpkin bread that fills the house with the aromas of cinnamon and warm spices.  Everything was in place until there was a knock at the door.  Who was it?  It was that familiar girl Carmen karma, coming to pay another visit.
I opened my laptop to find Jessica’s recipe that looked like heaven, only to be stuck in hell with a crashed computer, for the second time in a month.  In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t a serious problem.  However, I would like to be able to settle on a laptop and move on.

Confetti Cookies

Are you looking for a party in a cookie?  This is it.  Every party starts with sprinkles, and this cookie is full of them.

The recipe comes from Momofuku Milk Bar, which is one big party in itself.  It’s loaded with cookies, cakes, and ice cream that not only make me want to bake them myself, but also visit the bakery in person one day.

This cookie starts out with a birthday cake crumb that tastes like bits of shortbread mixed with sprinkles. Since the cookie recipe only uses half the crumb mixture, you may be tempted to only make half the recipe.  I would advise against that because you’ll want extra for sprinkling over ice cream or just popping into your mouth.

Enjoy the party!

This and That

Remember the caramel corn with vanilla drizzle that i made for the Fourth of July?

I finally pulled the remaining M&M’s out of the freezer.  They’ve been sitting there since we picked out all the red and blue candies.

My awesome helper and I made some yummy doughnut muffins.  Some needed chocolate chips, just to keep it interesting.

And then to make it even more interesting, it was decided that a muffin person must be made with a gigantic muffin head.

Maple Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Everywhere I look, I see another recipe I want to try that is all about pumpkin.  Seriously, they are everywhere.  I know that I just made pumpkin snickerdoodles, and they were great. But what about pumpkin English muffin bread, pound cake, or even ice cream?  Even the new book from the boys at Baked has a section dedicated to this favorite ingredient of fall.  I don’t even know where to start.

 

I’m sure there is some kind of rule about posting two, three, or five recipes in a row that are all about pumpkin.  So I’ll wait.  But speaking of the boys from Baked, they have a maple cupcake in Baked Explorations that is perfect for this time of year.  They are really good, though they are crazy sweet.  Not that it’s a bad thing. 

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

I know, just yesterday two weeks ago I was in denial that summer was over.  And now summer is long gone.  The days are much shorter, and the mornings are downright chilly.
When I look up to the mountains, I see leaves that are changing to autumn colors of golden and scarlet.  When I look online, I see recipes full of fall ingredients like apples and pumpkins.  That must be the reason these cookies from Annie’s Eats just about jumped off the page when I saw them.

Snickerdoodles are one of my favorite cookies anyway, but with pumpkin?  Say no more.  They looked like the perfect cookie for fall, and if the box I took to work was any indication, my co-workers agreed.  These cookies disappeared faster than the summer temperatures.

Cinnamon Chip Biscones with Cinnamon Glaze

What, you may be asking, are biscones?  Oh, they’re just possibly my favorite thing to stick in the oven on a Sunday morning, ever.  The word may look like a typo, but this baked treat is a tasty combination of a biscuit and a scone, and easier than either of them to prepare.  They come from Back in the Day Bakery, the same book that I found this savory Sunday morning turnover.

 

I’ve made these biscones several times now, and each time after I finished mixing the dough, I didn’t expect them to turn out well.  The process is so different than making scones or even the easiest biscuits.  There’s no rolling, patting, or cutting out scraps of dough.  Instead, everything is dumped into a bowl and combined with an electric mixer, scooped out with a cookie scoop, and baked into soft and tender pastries.