Pastries – Rosemary and the Goat

Rose and Pistachio Crinkle Cake

Ruffles and pink rosebuds!

This is a pretty little dessert to have with your morning pot of tea or coffee. It’s not really a cake or a pie it’s just ruffles of phyllo and a few other ingredients.

My daughter use to say that she doesn’t like to wear pink because I had her wearing pink most of her childhood. Not really maybe when she was a baby and toddler she had a LOT of little onesies and outfits that had little pink rosebuds on them and pink ribbons etc. I do really like pink; so much that in our new house being build will have a pink bedroom. Not girly or baby girl pink but one wall is going to be a nice pink shiplap (maybe grayish pink, not mauve but just the right shade that it will remind me of her being a little girl who didn’t like her hair combed before school and I always had to turn it into a contest too see how fast I could get it fixed. And as far as the room goes, it’s only one wall and maybe a little pink in the bathroom wallpaper Why not, it’s only paint and I like color.

August 31, 2023 By Sherry

Breads/Biscuits/ Morning Foods/ Pastries

Blueberry Dutch Baby Pancakes

Who doesn’t like pancakes?

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hopefully we will not be wearing these mask too much longer because I would like to meet all the people I’ve been seeing I Lollitop Sweet Shop without mask. Who can remember a pair of eyes and put with a name anyway.

A couple of summers ago when we had a whole summer of celebrating our 50th anniversary which started with all our kids in Turks and Caicos and then in August, we went to Niagra on the Lake (just the two of us) then Montreal and the Quebec City and made our way back through part of Vermont and upper New York.

While in Montreal for a few nights we had dinner one night at LeBremner which we passed up a couple of times trying to locate it before realizing that it is below street level and also had an alley entrance. It was dark and cave like inside and I knew we were going to have a fantastic dinner because I had research where to eat (I always do that) in all the cities where we would be staying. Anyway, long story short, everyone that had eaten there and written a review said you HAVE to have their pancakes for dessert and, of course, I have the chef’s recipe for those pancakes. I may keep that to myself just incase Round Top Brewing might sometime decide to serve pancakes for dessert.

December 24, 2020 By Sherry

Bread/ Breads/Biscuits/ Pastries

Cinnamon Raisin Naan

Fry bread or naan, you decide.

(Note: by the time this recipe post we will have moved to Round Top, Texas. Luckily I planned a few post ahead not knowing where we were going to be living while building a house. Hope to continue my food journey in Round Top with old and new friends to have to dinner.)

There’s nothing better than some hot homemade bread and it seems like a lot of people started experimenting with bread baking during the pandemic. Whether it is a biscuit, a fruited quick bread, homemade French/Italian loaves, a pan of cornbread or hot naan right off the griddle, if it’s fresh out of the oven/griddle then you are in for a treat.

Indian fry bread is very similar to naan except it doesn’t have the yogurt in the ingredients. I decided to try and fry some of these just to see what I liked the best and the “fried” ones won. But, on the other hand, the griddle ones were brushed with melted butter on both sides and then shook in a bag of cinnamon sugar and were delicious too. Continue Reading…

July 25, 2020 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Dessert/ Desserts/ Food Stories/ Ice Cream/ Morning Foods/ Pastries

Going Viral Recipes

EASY RECIPES FOR YOU TO TRY WHILE YOU ARE HOME SAFE!

What’s a person to do these days? COOK? – YES

We can’t go to the movies, can’t go to the beach, can’t get together with friends, can’t play bunco, or go out to eat etc., etc., etc. I don’t like being told what I can’t do BUT it is helping us all to stay healthy and safe and will hopefully we’ll get through this sooner than later.

When I have spare time, and that’s all I have these days, I cook. I’d rather be in the kitchen cooking that just about anything else I do.

Most of my recipes aren’t easy; not hard either. Or, at least I don’t think they’re hard. I’ve never met a recipe that I didn’t want to try. Well, maybe, I’ve never made a real petit four with the marzipan and the cute toppings. Maybe I will put that on my list of things to make while held up in my house. But, then whose going to eat those cute little things; I sure don’t want to be the one tempted. Those may have to wait until we are all back doing our normal things.

April 8, 2020 By Sherry

Breads/Biscuits/ Morning Foods/ Pastries

Blueberry French Toast Muffins

Great little breakfast treat.

In my search for a cake to bake in my German pan (Gugelhupf – bundt) I came across a girl from Germany that posted a delicious looking cake. After translating some of her things so I could read the recipe I came across her blogroll and some of the blogs she follows which is where I happened upon Moey’s Kitchen blog.

I’m not sure if my translator worked word for work but I THINK she lives in Cologne, Germany with her husband and a cat in a city on the Rhine. Now doesn’t that sound wonderful and when I read about her trips to weekly markets, vegetable stalls and Turkish green groceries, French cheese vendors, regional butchers it makes me want to hop on a plane and knock on her day and say “What’s for lunch Moey?”

I’ve found my newest obsession now is to translate a few German blogs I’ve fallen for and then what’s next? I can move on to French, Swedish or just about anyplace my little nibble fingers will take me.

Now on to this French toast recipe. Moey gave me the idea of doing French toast in a muffin pan. Now why didn’t I think of that since my French toast making days goes back “decades”. These were absolutely beautiful and cutting the bread into cubes gives all those little crunchy edges to nibble on after it comes out of the oven. I added blueberries to her recipe and also some maple syrup with the milk/egg mixture. I also drizzled on some melted butter before baking.

February 12, 2018 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Bread/ Morning Foods/ Pastries

Granny Hester’s Sweet Potato Biscuits

Wish I knew this Granny.

I don’t often get foods from companies to try out for the blog so I was excited to get a note from Darlene, PPR Communications, Granny Hester’s Sweet Potato Biscuit asking me if I would like to try their sweet potato biscuits. The company is doing some testing in our area in Sam’s Club and she came across my blog. Their sweet potato biscuits are already being sold there and at our Trader Joes.

I love their story of how the biscuit recipe came about. Granny Hester came up with this recipe while experimenting for the perfect biscuit for her husband before he left for the Navy in WWII. The recipe was eventually handed down (like all good grandmothers do) to a granddaughter who started making these biscuits for family and friends and now works out of a 50,000 sq. ft. building (former sock mill) in Ft. Payne, Alabama.

I’ve done sweet potato biscuits before for an appetizer so I couldn’t wait to try out their biscuits with a couple of other recipes. For my first try I used the frozen biscuit, split it and then grilled it on a panini grill and topped with some pulled pork, slaw and pepper rings for a fancy slider for New Year’s Eve. It was really good that way because the biscuit got kind of crisp, almost like a chip.

My second try was using the biscuits with ham and orange marmalade; I made these many times when I catered. Cooked biscuits, split, top with ham and orange marmalade then back in the oven to warm up.

On Granny Hester’s site they have a Sweet Potato Cinnamon Roll made from their biscuits so that was definitely going to be breakfast one Saturday morning and those are in the opening picture.

January 5, 2016 By Sherry

Dessert/ Desserts/ Pastries

Christmas Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

And I thought I didn’t like bread pudding!

Are you a connoisseur of bread pudding? Do you have your favorite kind of bread, or ingredients? What kind of sauce do you like, Cognac sauce, whiskey, or bourbon or rum sauce?

Honestly, I have always said I don’t like bread pudding; guess I thought it was like just eating more bread with your meal, and who needs that. Then one year I made a Pumpkin Bread Pudding for a catering job and was told by someone who it was one of the best she had eaten. I still didn’t try that recipe until recently and I have to say I enjoyed it very much.

This Christmas Bread Pudding is a recipe from Boudro’s Restaurant in San Antonio and I’ve been told by a friend’s husband (who is a connoisseur of bread puddings) that it is one of the best he has tasted. I decided to change the raisins in Boudro’s recipe to golden raisins and to keep with the season I will add dried cranberries in place of the raisins when I make this Christmas Day.

The name was changed to “Christmas Bread Pudding” because this seems like the perfect dessert for your Christmas dinner and you have to make it before everyone starts counting those nasty calories in January.

December 21, 2015 By Sherry

Morning Foods/ Pastries

Baked Oatmeal with Some Twist

Oatmeal or Boatmeal? Depends on who’s eating it.

Maybe you don’t remember the scene out of Oliver Twist where the little boy is eating gruel (see pics below) but I do and for some reason I think that’s why I never cared for the bowl of mushy stuff. I just never saw the appeal to a bowl of lumpy cereal. Seems like steel cut oats are all the rage these days but when I did the comparison, there doesn’t seem to be that much difference so don’t feel guilty not making that bowl of oatmeal that takes about 45 minutes to cook.

While visiting in Chicago back in September on a cold wintery day (ok, it wasn’t that cold but 40’s is cold coming from Texas) my daughter-in-law, Missy, made some oatmeal for the boys one morning. This wasn’t just plain old oatmeal but it was BOATMEAL with little sails in each boat. She make one chocolate/chocolate and one with cooked cinnamon apples that we had left over from dinner the night before. She uses a basic recipe she found on Pinterest then adds in what she thinks the boys would like. The chocolate/chocolate one she sweetens with banana, syrup and chocolate chips. I’m using a chocolate ganache to sweeten mine because I had some left over ganache from making chocolate martinis one night (I rimmed the glass with it).

November 10, 2015 By Sherry

Bread/ Morning Foods/ Pastries

My High School Cinnamon Roll

Do you have fond memories of high school?

One of my high school memories that I can close my eyes and am transported back to the 60’s is from my home economics class. I loved home ec class, is that hard to believe? Not really. I liked the sewing somewhat but the cooking was more fun. I don’t remember what we cooked any of the four years that I took Home Ec except for our cinnamon rolls. The class would make these cinnamon rolls and sell them to students during lunch. Could you EVER smell the yeasty, cinnamony aroma up and down the halls of our two-story building. And, the kids couldn’t wait to get a break to go buy one. If I remember correctly, we charged 10 cents each, what a bargain!

Years ago in culinary school one of my instructors told us he had a friend who was a franchise owner of a TJ Cinnamons and that one of their secret ingredients for their cinnamon rolls were crushed “red hot” candies. So, over the years I have made these rolls with and without the cinnamon candies; you can decide whether to add them or not.

Our class also made pecan rolls, which I will also make one day for you to try. They were the gooiest, pecan rolls ever and sticky but in a very good way.

August 27, 2015 By Sherry

Dessert/ Desserts/ Pastries/ Pies/Tarts

Peach Tart with Raspberry Sauce

So what are you doing with those fresh peaches from the farmer’s market this summer?

(I’m off in Seattle/Vancouver/Victoria right now and hope to have lots of new ideas to cook up when I get back.)

I missed getting my Fredricksburg peaches last year and this year so I was in search for the best peach I could find. On my way back from Austin one weekend I stopped at Buckee’s Truck Stop (or gas station, or mega everything store). At the checkout, there was a bushel of home grown peaches and they were the most beautiful peaches I have seen in years. The touch was great, the smell was like just picked freshness off some farmer’s tree so I bought a few for this recipe.

You never know what you are going to get in a peach. I have picked up beautiful peaches at the grocery, liked the feel of it in my hand when I gently pressed on it, loved the smell of the peach when I took a big sniff but then when I got home with it, chilled it, got out a big bowl to cut my peach in, only to find when I cut it open it is a mealy, tastless peach. Short of asking for a sample before buying a peach, and I’m likely to do that at a farm stand, I know no other way of finding a perfect peach.

So the sad end to those fresh Buckee’s Truck stop peaches is that I kept putting off making this dessert because I did need someone to eat it. I looked at the peaches each day and the first few days they were smiling back and me saying “we’re ready”. Then I waited, and waited, and waited and when I decided it was time to make it the peaches were in no mood to be made into this nice dessert. They had puckered skin and way beyond looking pretty in their pink skins. So I ate them.

July 29, 2014 By Sherry

Breads/Biscuits/ Morning Foods/ Pastries

Bacon Belgian Waffles

What’s better than the smell of bacon wafting in air?

Someone told me once that sometimes in the bakery section of supermarkets they will fry bacon just so it will get people’s taste buds going. Makes sense to me. It works every time my husband gets up before me which is ALWAYS and if he fries bacon you better believe I will get out of bed and make my way to the kitchen to find that big pile of crispy bacon; sometimes it is pork belly which is even better than bacon.

So, on to the waffle story. If I have told this story before, please forgive me; maybe all that anesthesia went to my head. Just blame it on the knees and my inability to get them back in working order. Anyway, my mother would often do waffles for Sunday night supper since we usually had a big Sunday lunch. Sometimes she would make just plain waffles and we would cut a big slab of ice cream and put between two hot off the waffle iron waffles and eat it with a fork as the ice cream ran all over the plate faster than you could sop it up with a waffle piece.

The other thing my mother would do was to put raw bacon across the waffle batter before shutting the lid of the waffle iron. There would only be one piece of bacon across every two waffles so that isn’t really all that much bacon; and certainly not as much as you would gobble up as it cooled and got crispy out of the frying pan. Back when I was doing technique classes at Williams Sonoma and we were demoing the All-Clad waffle iron. I told the group about the waffle story. A year later one of the the attendees (a UPS lady) came in and said ” you know since you told me about putting the bacon on the waffles” my family won’t eat them any other way. So if you can’t trust a UPS lady, who can you trust. Try them you will like them.

I finally broke an old waffle iron I had had since we were married. I loved that waffle iron because you could reverse the plates and have a griddle on one side and waffles on the other. I broke down and bought an All-Clad Belgian maker (4 squares) and have made waffles several times with the bacon. If you like bacon, fry some extra to go on the side.

December 31, 2012 By Sherry

Morning Foods/ Pastries

Blackberry French Toast

It’s blackberry pickin’ time again.

Last year was my first time to pick blackberries and I couldn’t wait to go again this year. So, armed with some bug spray, sun screen, and some bottles of water, we set out for the farm to pick-pick-pick until we had enough to last for months in my freezer.

Was it ever hot the day we picked the berries. I picked about 12 lbs. before I finally said “uncle” and gave up. It was hot as blue blazes, but did I get some beauties! A couple were the size of a golf ball and I had those laid out on a plate alongside a golf ball to take a picture for you and before I could, someone in my house and I won’t say who (but there are only two of us here) ate the golfball size blackberries.

I don’t know about you, but when I go picking, whether it is strawberries, blackberries, blueberries or any other kind of fruit I seem to get really picky. I look for the plumpest berries I can find, stopping occasionally to pop one or two into my mouth. I don’t think I have ever seen a sign that says “no tasting”. If there were such a sign I would just hold my breath on the way out and hope they don’t ask to see my tongue. If they did, they would find a tongue stained purple from the berries I have been sampling. You have heard of “taste test” haven’t you?

Why is it when we pick things ourselves the foods we prepare with our bounty seems so much better. I made my own peach preserves last year and can’t wait to do it again this year. Even though I don’t eat preserves that often, someone will benefit from my making it though I’m sure. I don’t ever use acronyms when texting or typing but for this recipe, all I can say is OMG this is a delicious recipe.

So on father’s day my husband had something more special than his bowl of Cheerios.

June 21, 2011 By Sherry

Older Posts