SMiLes by Meg

Tag: stovetop

Peanut Brittle

Back to Christmas cookie boxes this week with one of the two non-cookie recipes I put in the boxes this year: peanut brittle. I think it’s fitting to still be sharing cookie box recipes because some of the cookie boxes I mailed out (3 day priority mail about 2 weeks before Christmas) just this week got to their destinations. USPS needs its funding restored. Anyways, peanut brittle went in the boxes this year as a compromise. I really wanted to try to recreate Williams-Sonoma peppermint bark, but then once I started looking at recipes realized it was a project in …

Fudge Stripe Cookies

This week’s recipe is courtesy of Marj, who sent me a very exciting housewarming gift – the BraveTart cookbook! This book is so fun. It’s full of homemade versions of classic desserts you definitely grew up eating, and it’s making me want to redo many recipes on my blog, where I had tried to do the same based on recipes on the internet. So don’t be surprised if you see a new version of Nutter Butters or Oreos or Rice Krispies in the coming weeks. But to start, I went with a cookie that I always considered a treat when …

Vanilla Pudding

Long distance is tough. With Erik in Alaska, and neither of us able to travel since COVID started, it’s been extra tough. Sometimes I’ll mail treats up his way (he got last week’s lavender shortbread cookies), but most of the time I’m making things that don’t exactly ship well (let me know if you have a good way to ship strawberry sorbet – he definitely wanted to try that one). So this week, when I off-handedly asked him what I should make, and he suggested pudding, it felt like a way to kind of have him around while I was …

Marshmallows

I bought the ingredients to make these 3 weeks ago. And then things kept coming up. I had to use up the egg whites and make chocolate chip meringues. Alexandra had a birthday so I made chocolate caramel tart. Liz asked for cookies for her clients so I made cowboy cookies. This weekend, finally, I got to make marshmallows! And, honestly, this recipe has been in the back of my head for much longer than 3 weeks. I think it was in college when Marj first introduced me to the idea that you can make homemade marshmallows. I remember her …

Pumpkin Apple Butter

So this recipe takes about 5 total minutes of active time, which made its a perfect recipe for “I need to bake something but I’m going to Alaska for the weekend and only have weeknights available to me.” It’s also become my breakfast spread every morning, and when I mentioned to Erik I didn’t bring him any, it was a strong reminder that Erik does actually like pumpkin, despite the fact that my memory made me think he hated it. Oh well! Start by combining all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture …

Apple Cider Donut Holes

This weekend, I was reunited with my favorite sous chef, the one and only Laura Bakst! Despite living on the same coast, I visited her for the first time since law school (which is slightly embarrassing – I blame her work schedule), and had just the perfect weekend. We walked all around, baked, ate good food, drank good wine, stumbled upon a pickle festival and generally got to just catch up on each other’s lives. I never realize how much I’m craving friend time until I get an uninterrupted weekend of it. When that friend time also includes frying donut …

Blueberry Rhubarb Compote

People will probably have a number of complaints about this post. For example, you may be thinking, “Meg, you just made a Blueberry Rhubarb Galette. You can’t repeat flavor combinations so quickly.” If you have that complaint, you obviously aren’t in Alaska right now. When I arrived in Alaska last week, Erik had acquired, no joke, an entire trash bag full of rhubarb, cut out of a friend’s yard: And then, while I was there, another friend, Nate, brought over a full Tupperware of blueberries he had picked himself along a trail somewhere. When you have access to rhubarb and …

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 …

Halvah

Here’s how deciding on this week’s recipe went: Last Wednesday, I start thinking about what I wanted to make. Laura is coming into town to visit, so I think maybe it would be fun to do something a little more hands on and bake together. I decide on macarons. Thursday, I realize Laura won’t actually be in town long enough to make macarons. But that’s OK, I’ll make them myself. They’d be a good Easter recipe, and I should probably practice once first. I start looking at Cloudy Kitchen’s posts. Saturday, Laura is supposed to arrive within an hour and …

Honeycomb and Chocolate Cookie Cake

So this weekend was a baking adventure x 100. I was out in Duxbury, hanging out with all of Team Muncey, and gave my mom the task of picking the dessert I should make for a dinner party we were hosting. She pulled out the Farmhouse Cookbook, which I like a lot, and picked the honeycomb and chocolate cookie cake, which I’ve had my eye on for awhile, so obviously I agreed immediately. My mom went out to buy ingredients, and when she came back, I started the process. And then I stopped, because she “didn’t even think we might …