Just Baking

Moist banana-flavored cake with a crunchy sugar-and-cinnamon topping. Need I say more?
Moist Banana Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Pecan Topping
Makes 15 servings
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened
1-1/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Topping
1 c. chopped […]

Breakfast has a precious place in my life. I can’t imagine a single day without it. I just can’t, both for the good sake of my body and my mood. I can’t leave my house without my breakfast, even when the purpose of my outing is to have breakfast. (Got it?) Until now nothing to […]

Baking cookies is the best way to placate yourself and your kids, and for me, it’s also a favorite pastime! What I love about cookies is that they can be simple and festive at the same time. I had thumbprint cookies on my mind for a long time. The name “thumbprint” comes from the fact […]

We lost a friend to cancer yesterday afternoon. Crissy was the wife of one of my husband’s high school best friends. She had a daughter, Gracie, six years ago and then found out just shortly after that she had cancer. Cancer has been a part of her life since then. Crissy fought a very valiant […]

As we herald spring in most parts of the country, seasonal fruits and vegetables can be seen in all their glory, and a trip to the farmer’s market can turn out to be a visually delectable experience! Oranges, pears, and strawberries are flooding the markets in California, and what better way to binge on the […]

This would probably have been a better recipe to share before Easter, since now you can’t possibly make these for breakfast on Easter morning, as we did. However, since it’s an awfully nice recipe, I would say you shouldn’t wait for next Easter to make it. Tomorrow would be fine. 
Every year for about fifteen years now, I’ve […]

If I ever have my own bakery, this recipe is going on the menu. Delicious doesn’t even begin to describe it. Moist and spicy with the pleasant tang of whipped cream cheese frosting. This recipe is from 1910 and from the amazing cookbook, Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters.
Cold Tea Gingerbread with Whipped Cream Cheese […]

I don’t remember which one came first: cooking, or the words that came with the recipes.
My mother had a small collection of pocket size French Cookbooks that I loved reading. The cookbooks had no pictures and no stories, just recipes, words and may be some drawing here and there. Yet, these books played a major […]

One of the most popular recipes on my personal blog, Dine and Dish, is a recipe I posted “way back when”. Back when I was a newbie blogger, I posted a recipe for Oooey Gooey Monkey Bread. In that post, I encouraged people to get messy with their kids. Allow them to use their hands […]

Chocolate in our household is a staple, not a luxury.  It seems like my husband needs hourly fixes of bite-sized dark chocolate, or simply a handful of chocolate chips.  In the past I have purchased him an assortment of chocolate for special occasions, but it really isn’t met with much enthusiasm, to him, chocolate is […]