SMiLes by Meg

Tag: fruit

Strawberry Fool

What a difference a week makes! Today, I came home from 3 days on Nantucket with my mom, where we shopped, biked, and ate/drank particularly well. Then, when we got back to Duxbury, I got to see my cousin, Jim, get married! And now I’m sitting on my couch, watching Stranger Things (don’t worry, Erik, I’m rewatching the first couple with my mom, not watching new ones), and tomorrow I still have another day to enjoy the sun! Now, everything hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies (though there were definitely a lot of both). If you were in the Boston …

Blueberry Rhubarb Galette

When I tried to explain to my brother what a galette was, I told him it was kind of like a deconstructed pie. You use pie dough, it’s filled with fruit, but instead of a pie plate you just kind of fold the edges over themselves and leave it a little open in the middle. He responded, “so hipster pie?” That’s kind of right. But I’d never made one before, so I decided to go for it. And i’m glad I did! Because I then had my friends over for dinner (hi, Josh and Sungho!), and served it for dessert, …

Ginger Lime Pie

Happy Father’s Day to the best Daddy-o around! This week, because I was going out to Duxbury, I obviously had to make something for my dad. Unfortunately, I’ve already made a lot of things he likes: whoopie pies, icebox cake, half moons, lemon meringue pie… So I was in a bit of a bind trying to find something good. Then I remembered he LOVES key lime pie. I did a quick search for “lime” on my blog (because this is a recipe I feel like I should have made before), but, fortunately, hadn’t made this particular pie. I was also …

Mint Chocolate Pistachio Fridge Cake

The best-tasting treats are not necessarily the prettiest things I make, even if that rainbow cake was pretty delicious. No, they’re the dump-everything-into-a-bowl-and-hold-it-together-with-chocolate recipes. They’re quick to make, clean out your pantry, and give you just the right amount a sweet and crunchy. Take this Mint Chocolate Pistachio Fridge Cake. Maybe you have chili chocolate, or salted chocolate in your kitchen. That’s fine – use that instead! Or maybe pistachios aren’t your thing, but you’ve got pecans and walnuts. Perfect! And maybe you’re someone that just doesn’t like rum-soaked raisins (I can’t imagine why). Try whiskey-soaked dried cherries. This recipe …

Raspberry Apple Muffins

Another of my awesome baking-related Christmas presents this year was silicon cupcake cups. This may not seem revolutionary, but they’re in some very happy colors, and I have a really bad habit of deciding to make cupcakes or muffins only to realize, once the batter is made, that I don’t have any paper cupcake cups on hand. Enter silicon baking cups – never again will I have to run to CVS only to find out that CVS doesn’t carry cupcake liners! When trying to decide what to make in my new silicon liners, I wanted to make something that I …

Cranberry Lemon Scones

Last week, I told you’d I’d give you a recipe to use with your leftover fresh cranberries. This week, I’m delivering! These scones are quick, foolproof, and wonderfully crumbly. Eat these fresh from the oven, with coffee, or for dessert with a scoop of ice cream. You really can’t go wrong.

Chocolate Banana Pecan Cookies

Do you work with me? If so, these cookies will be in the kitchen tomorrow morning, and you should definitely try to get there before they’re gone. Plus, with banana as the first ingredient, they’re basically breakfast cookies. I’ve been at work for about a week and a half now, and still haven’t brought in any baked goods. It’s very unlike me, really. So hopefully this recipe makes up for it. They’re gooey, chocolatey, crunchy, and just a little banana-y, which is a combination I’ve never really thought of putting in cookie form. Fortunately, Ottolenghi did think of it, and …

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

There really isn’t a whole lot better than baking a pie with fresh ingredients from a farmer’s market. You’re supporting local businesses. Everything is super ripe and perfect. You get to buy the ingredients outdoors. Even someone who doesn’t like pies or fruit-based desserts (that would be me) can appreciate how good it feels to do this. So when we were walking through the farmer’s market at Harvard and a vendor had both strawberries and rhubarb, I couldn’t just not buy them. And, as luck would have it, strawberry rhubarb is Erik’s favorite pie!

Blackberry Brown Sugar Bars

When I’m baking in my mom’s kitchen, I usually take a break from my normal cookbooks and use one of hers that I like: The Farmhouse Cookbook.  What I found out this week is that as cute as the cookbook is, it doesn’t actually have that many dessert recipes. I was flipping through it, trying to decide on something, and thought lemon blueberry bread pudding sounded like a great dessert for the meal my mom was cooking. Almost 5 years into this blog, I decided it would be a good idea to check before starting it. Turned out I had …

Strawberry Shortcake

Happy Easter! After a wonderful day with family out in Duxbury, I’m still not quite ready to go back to school work, so blogging it is! This year’s Easter recipe evolved quite a bit from its original idea, and strangely went from more adventurous to more traditional, rather than vice versa. Every year, my mom and I think it will be a good idea to make some big and beautiful Easter dessert, and every year we all get too full on brunch to actually eat dessert, leaving full cakes untouched. This year, I wanted to be cognizant of that.