I’m going to make a bold statement:  dates are an under-appreciated food.  There.  I said it.  And I’m going to stand by that statement.

When I was a teen just starting to learn to cook, I bought one of those recipe compilations books that show up regionally at craft fairs and bake sales. The only thing I remember about the book is that it was spiral bound and had the word “pioneer” somewhere in the title.  I wish I still had the book, but alas, I lost it in the “moving void.”  You know…when you pack everything you own into boxes, move all the boxes to your new house, and unpack the boxes, only to discover that somehow, things are missing.  The missing things?  They vanished into the “moving void.”  It’s probably also where stray sock end up when they vanish between the washer and the dryer.

Out where I live in the country, it’s not uncommon for people to leave their houses unlocked.  And while I locked my car religiously when I lived in the city, I can’t remember the last time I locked my car while it was parked at my house.  Except for a certain time of the year.  During the heat of summer, when summer squashes are at their peak, leaving one’s car unlocked risks the neighbors smuggling a big bag of squash into it.  There’s just so much squash!  No one can manage it all, so some of us have been known to sneakily pawn it off on our neighbors.

I love biscuits.  No, I mean I LOVE biscuits.  I’m not above baking biscuits from a can, but I really like homemade biscuits, particularly homemade buttermilk biscuits.  What I don’t like about making biscuits from scratch is the hassle of cutting cold butter into flour.  I mean, I can do it and I have done it, but given a choice, I’d just as soon skip cutting in the butter.  Enter cream biscuits.  No butter to cut in!

My nephew (the favorite one, who just went off to college) loves all things lemon.  As a child, he was known to just eat a whole lemon, skin and all.  So now that my mother and I are trading off turns sending him care packages (because apparently, he’s “starving” in college), I thought it might be nice to send him a lemony treat.

BBB.  Basic Banana Bread, of course.  What did you think I meant?

I’m not sure why, but I always think of caramel corn as a holiday treat.  Maybe that’s because it was often something my mother would make around Christmas time. Or maybe because I vaguely remember her making “caramel corn balls” (a little bigger than a baseball) to hand out one Halloween.  But there’s no reason you can’t have caramel corn year around…

I like dessert every day.  365 days a year.  And I mostly make my own desserts, rather than buying them.  I have a lot of good recipes.  But in the summer, when the house is already hot, I don’t really feel like turning on the oven to bake anything.  So it’s handy to have a “no-bake” cookie recipe to hand.  Chocolate, peanut butter, and oatmeal…what could be better?

Ah, summer…so much variety available in terms of fresh fruit and berries.  And my favorite way to eat a fruity dessert is in the form of a crisp.  For the uneducated, a crisp is a baked dish where the bottom layer is fruit or berries, sweetened as desired, and the topping is a combination of butter, brown sugar, and oats or nuts.

I love strawberries.  Which is why I planted a bunch of them in my deck garden this year: Tristar day-neutral (ever-bearing) strawberries, among the sweetest and most flavorful I’ve ever tasted.  And of course it follows that I love the summer dessert, strawberry shortcake.

PI Day and St. Patrick’s Day come in quick succession, which is perhaps why I was thinking about pie.  And then green pie.  Which naturally led to Grasshopper Pie.  Thinking about pie led to googling about pie.

Once upon a time, when I was younger, I used to make fancy cakes for my nephews (and occasionally other family members), often accommodating specific requests. For example, one of the nephews requested a “Dig Dug themed cake with raspberry filling and a surprise inside.”

One of the ways we know the seasons are changing is that seasonal food becomes available. I’m not just talking about eating fruits and vegetables in season (although that’s an excellent strategy) but also what luxury foods are available. We know it’s fall because pumpkin spice everything is available everywhere. Lattes, milkshakes, ice cream, baked goods…it’s truly everywhere.

I can’t remember why my mother and I decided to try the combination, but for Thanksgiving some years ago, when we were making apple pies, we decided to try adding cranberries to them.  As a sort of experiment, we added fresh cranberries to the sliced apples in one pie, and some jam to the other.  I had wanted cranberry jam but couldn’t find any, so I had to settle for Lingonberry.  My mother did say at the time that she thought cranberry sauce would work, but as I recall, I scoffed at that notion and went ahead with my jam plan.

When I was a child, my mother regularly made two kinds of cookies from recipes handed down from the grandmothers. There was the classic Peanut Butter Cookie, of course, and then there were my maternal grandmother’s Molasses Crinkles. Both recipes were originally made with shortening and butter, but since shortening (and hydrogenated fats in general) are against my religion, I’ve tinkered with the recipes a little and now make them with butter only. They aren’t quite as fluffy as the original, but they are still delicious. And a lot less bad for you.

Regular visitors to the blog might remember that I am a fan of “quick and easy” when it comes to cooking and baking.

Approximately a century ago, when I was working a night-shift job, I naturally kept drastically different hours from my family and friends.  This meant I was awake late at night, looking for things to do.

I don’t dislike muffins, exactly…I just don’t love them.  They fall in between all the bread-y things I like.

I believe I’ve mentioned this in previous posts, but among the holiday baking traditions for my family are: Christmas Cherry Coffee Cake, Almond Butter Cookies, Ragamuffin Cookies, and Peanut Butter Balls.  In fact, as with the Ragamuffin cookies, my family did our best to persuade my mother to make her peanut butter balls on every “occasion.” (Happy Tuesday!  Have a peanut butter ball…)

Sausage rolls? Two ways? Yes, please!