Key Lime Pie

I have gotten to know my dentist and endodontist very well over the past 15 months. After 8 fillings, 2 cleanings, multiple x-rays, endodontal surgery, a root canal, and a treatment for a crown (got the temporary one on my tooth right now and will get the actual crown on the 25th), I know that my dentist enjoys manchego cheese, that the dental assistant doesn’t eat pork, but will still cook with bacon fat (also, we recognize each other when we run into one another at Whole Foods) and, somewhat inexplicably, I also know that my endodontist has had a hysterectomy. Things just “pop” out sometimes, I guess? (And I’m the one under the anesthesia.) It’s like being at the hairdresser, except you have drills and brushes and picks in your mouth so you become the one doing the listening.

Key lime pie topped with fresh whipped cream.

What am I trying to say, though? Why do you need to know about my dental work? Oh, yes, I remember: Despite all these problems, all this dental work, I have yet to be told by these professionals: STOP EATING ALL THAT SUGAR. I’d like to say I’m trying to cut down, but I’d be lying. Some people smoke. Other people drink. I, like Lamar Odom, love sugar. I like it in candy. I like it in desserts. I like it in my drinks. We all have our vices. I just have to be careful. And so, for the most part, when I make all these desserts I share with family, friends, and mostly coworkers.

So I will occasionally make attempts to reduce my sugar intake, because it’s unhealthy and I don’t want to encourage this kind of behavior, it won’t stop me from baking all sorts of concoctions. Concoctions such as this lovely key lime pie:

Quick Coffee Cake

Yesterday I had a craving for something sweet. But I had no candy and I had no cake. But what I had, though were  raw ingredients, and so what did it matter if it was 11pm on a Monday night and I had to get up to work the next day? I was gonna make myself some coffee cake!

Dear coffee cake, I love you. Signed, me.

Fruit Kuchen

When I was growing up, my mom would make Fruit Kuchen for brunches and special Sundays. It is beautiful and tasty, and makes it look like you put way more effort into it than it actually required. This time, I didn’t have blueberries, so I used pears instead. It was still pretty yummy, but blueberries really make this shine.

Fruit Kuchen
¼ lb. butter
¼ tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar (or less if the fruit is sweet – I always use less)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
peach halves and blueberries (frozen works great!)Topping

Topping
1 cup sour cream + 3 tbsp sugar
2 egg yolks

Homemade Soft Pretzels

The time: Winter

The scene: The mall

The emotion: Hunger

The solution: A soft pretzel

A homemade twisted soft pretzel straight from the oven

Last March, while at the mall with my boyfriend, we stopped off and shared a soft pretzel at Wetzel’s pretzels after a movie. Especially in the cold, the pretzel was warm and delicious and divine. Immediately after we gobbled it down I wanted another. But one must at times, resist temptation…and then promptly return home and find a recipe to make them at home!

As usual, allrecipes.com provided me with an answer, and bless Christa Rose, whoever she is, because her recipe is genius and since I’ve found it, I’ve become possibly the most popular person in my office. Just kidding–I’ve just become resident pretzel-maker.

The recipe is simple–but it does take some prep time and some patience–but oh it is so, so worth it if you love yourself some salty carbohydrates.

I’ve got a lovely bunch of shredded coconut…

I made macademia nut encrusted mahi mahi a little while back and bought some coconut to make the tropical fruit sauce/chutney that was to compliment the fish. However, you only need so much coconut for it, so what’s a girl to do with the leftovers?

Oh yes. MACAROOONS.

Macaroons. Mmm!

Quick, easy, and tasty. My kind of recipe. It was mixed, baked and coated in grated chocolate (which was once milk chocolate chips, but melted together into a hot, gooey blob in my cupboard during the hot summer, reformed into a solid blob in my fridge) while I watched tonight’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention.