Chocolate Chip Cup-Cookies

Valentine's Day. The perfect day to give someone you love something sweet. And even better if it's something homemade.

I usually make gifts for my neices and nephews, and I knew just what I could make for my oldest niece, Nadya, as a Valentine's Day treat.

This past fall, during a vacation to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, we picked up some cupcakes from Sweet Carolina Cupcakes, which was right across the street from where we stayed, and Nadya chose a "Cup-Cookie" - basically a cookie baked into cupcake form and filled with the most delicious chocolate frosting ever. Nadya has been talking about that Cup-Cookie ever since, so I knew I had to try and replicate it for her.

Vegan Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

It's fallllllllll. With a million "L's" - my favorite time of year!

It goes without saying that this is the time of year for pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread.... well, pumpkin anything. But just to set the record straight, I am not a big fan of the ubiquitous "pumpkin spice" lattes and coffees that some people anxiously wait all year for - they don't taste like pumpkin (but then, why should they, they don't actually have pumpkin in them) and they leave a fake, odd aftertaste in my mouth.

Call me a purist, but I like my pumpkin goodies to actually taste like... pumpkin.

So yesterday afternoon, when I was enjoying an unusually warm 70 degree October day and was wishing for something (anything, really) pumpkin-y and delicious, I decided I would make pumpkin ice cream.

Perfect Cold Brewed Iced Coffee

Have you seen that list going around with all the problems only coffee addicts could understand? Well, I understand all of them.

I am a coffee nerd. I enjoy using an electric food scale, coffee grinder, and timer just to make a single cup of pour over coffee (the ritual of it is half the experience!), and regularly ogle all of the beautiful French press pots you can buy online.

And now, with the warm weather approaching (finally!), I am ready for iced coffee. All the time. But, I am not down with watery, weak iced coffee made by just pouring hot brewed coffee over ice, or shelling out $2-4 at my nearest Dunkin/Starbucks/etc everyday.

Triple Chocolate Mocha Scones with Espresso Glaze

Spring has finally arrived here in New England, and with the change of seasons comes cool (but not COLD), rainy mornings that are just meant for a hot cup of coffee and something just a little bit sweet to nibble on.

This morning, I was rummaging around through my cupboards, looking through half empty bags of pantry staples purchased from the bulk at my local co-op and found a chunk of callebut white chocolate and a generous handful of fair-trade semi-sweet chocolate chips. With coffee on my mind, I decided to make mocha scones.

Maple Vanilla Popcorn with Pecans

Once a year, I prepare for pure, unadulterated gluttony. I'm talking butter sculptures, baked potatoes the size of your head, candy apples covered in chocolate (then covered in more candy), enormous cream puffs, the ubiquitous burger topped with bacon on a buttered Krispy Kream donut instead of a bun, maple cotton candy, and all manner of fried delicacies - oreos, vegetables, whoopie pies, snickers bars, BUTTER, you name it. Ok, maybe I don't eat those things. Not most of them, anyway. Definitely not the burger.

If you live in Connecticut, or Massachusetts, or maybe even Rhode Island, you know what I'm talking about. The Big E, the biggest fair in the northeast, and the 6th largest fair in the nation. I think every New Englander has to have been to the fair at least once.

One of the highlights of the fair is checking out all of the "statehouses," where you can find interesting food, products, and other goodies from each state. I made a beeline for the massive area in the Vermont statehouse devoted entirely to maple products, and promptly scooped up a bottle of organic maple syrup while I was there this past weekend. After staring at that gorgeous bottle of syrup for two days, it finally came to me: Maple Vanilla Popcorn.

No wait. Maple Vanilla Popcorn WITH PECANS.