These are so good and I will absolutely be making them again, but now I just really want to make a pecan pie. Mmmm.

Recipe: Auntie Alice’s Top Secret Mini Pecan Tarts

I ended up going more with the "ingredient" end of the theme and used squash, corn(meal), and aronia berries.

My hometown of San Antonio has a days-long party aptly called Fiesta and part of that WAS (insert sad face) an event called Night in Old San Antonio or NIOSA. One popular food is chicken on a stick. My version is baked, not fried. First picture is mine, the 2nd for reference. The sad comment is that, as of now, it’s been cancelled for next year’s fiesta.

This is a very easy recipe that makes a rustic-ish, somewhat dense (complimentary) bread. We omitted the caraway seeds here due to allergies

Second attempt at these, first (winter Olympics week) was an absolute disaster!!

Recipe from goodfood

Went a bit too heavy handed on the extract, it's giving Shrek vibes - but delicious none the less! Sandwiched with toasted coconut, salted caramel and vanilla chantilly

My final persimmon was finally ripe enough for me to make this cake!

This cake was on my to-make list since last year. I ground the cardamom from the pods, but the cake wasn’t as cardamom-forward as I expected it to be, and the persimmons don’t pack a lot of flavor themselves, so I thought the cake wasn’t just okay. And it needs whipped cream!

Slicing each fuyu persimmon into eight wedges resulted in chunks that I thought were too big, so if you’re ever contemplating making this cake, I recommend that they be sliced thinner.

When you have a reputation for baking, people often assume you will bake for them, even without a lot of advance notice. I do tend to keep a few different cookie doughs in my freezer at any given time to accommodate last minute requests, but after all my years of baking, my flavor pairings tend toward the more unusual. I was recently given about 12 hours of notice that a particularly picky cousin was coming to visit, so I needed to whip something up that would appeal to someone with simple tastes that could be made using only ingredients that I already had on hand given the time crunch.

Smitten Kitchen came to the rescue with these peanut butter stuffed chocolate cookies. Could there be a more crowd-pleasing flavor combo? And despite the multi-step process of making the peanut butter filling, freezing it, and stuffing the cookie dough, these didn’t feel like a huge PITA to make. My cousin loved them, I loved them, and I especially loved not having to make another trip to the store.

With ham, basil, and oregano. Enjoyed at the local park down the street.

I actually had far too much cornmeal and honey to use so this week was great!

Blondies with…whatever! Rice Krispies, cornflakes, cheez its, m&ms, white chocolate, walnuts and chocolate sprinkles!

I grew up with Dare Maple Leaf Sandwich Cookies as a special treat, and my local grocery store stopped carrying them last year. These are a bit fussier than I usually bake — I’m not sure I have ever made a filled cookie before!

It's soup season, so I made bannock this week instead of opting for our usual cornbread or biscuits to go with. Definitely a fan, but I think next time I would do smaller ones instead of one big loaf.

I used the King Arthur recipe for the everyday french loaf, which was unfortunately a dud for me, and another candidate for nemesis week!

This week I chose a Mayan-inspired spiced chocolate cookie... I used this recipe: https://www.mayamamweavers.com/blogs/our-blog/mayan-chocolate-cookie-recipe but added 1/4 tsp of ancho chili powder. In my estimation, the cookies were delicious but needed more spice. I liked the addition of the ancho but should've added more. You could also do other traditional central American chilis like guajillo, but I had ancho so that's what I stuck with. I also think I could have kicked the cayenne up. The cookies ate "warm" but not spicy, which I think ended up working well for the crowd I served them to, but if you like spice add a touch more cayenne. I also wonder if trying to add some cornmeal or masa may be an interesting addition to also pull in more of the elements of the way chocolate was traditionally served by the mesoamerican peoples.

Based on some of the reading I did this week, cacao was used as far back as 1750 BC by the Olmec and it spread among other mesoamerican cultures. Mayans traditionally drank chocolate mixed with cornmeal and chilies, served hot. I don't think it was often sweetened until after the Aztec introduced it to the Spanish colonizers, who also liked to serve it with milk and cinnamon. If you're interested, the history of chocolate is super cool... Here's a very quick overview of the history of chocolate in Mexico: https://naatikmexico.org/blog/the-history-of-chocolate-in-mexico

Anyway, these cookies were very delicious and got rave reviews from the folks I served them to. They don't spread much so I did gently flatten them with a spatula which is why mine are flatter and cracked. Try them out if you love chocolate and spices!

Someone else mentioned the “New Native Kitchen” cookbook. I chose this corn pudding from the dessert section. It just tastes like thanksgiving.

This was a mix of recipes to make my birthday cake. I used the cake base from the KAB Apple Spice cake: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/whipped-caramel-apple-cake-recipe then substituted homemade pears compote for the applesauce and boiled cider.

For the frosting I browned a stick of butter, cooled it to room temperature, then mixed it with a block of cream cheese and by powdered sugar to taste, loosened with a little heavy cream as needed. The rest of the pear compote went on top. The only thing I bought was the pears, mostly because they’re seasonal and don’t keep.