I am on a major lavender kick, so of course I had to buy the lavender-lemonade whipped cream at Target the first time I saw it…but then I had to figure out what I was going to do with it! Since we love lavender-lemonade to begin with, I thought why not make lavender-lemonade milkshakes, and use the whipped cream to top them? It was just as delicious as I hoped…perfect for spring! I’m sure they would be good with regular whipped cream, too, since the special variety is a seasonal item.
4 cups vanilla ice cream
12 oz. frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/2-1 tsp. dried lavender
Add all ingredients to blender and blend until combined. Top with whipped cream and additional dried lavender, if desired.
I always figured that if I was going to have a full-on Starbucks addiction, it was going to be because of some kind of new coffee creation. Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that the best drink I’ve ever had there is actually tea based!
The Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha is my new favorite. I’ve always been kind of obsessed with lavender as a flavor (I’ve made lavender lemonade and lavender shortbread, and I’ve been considering adding it to a rub for meat), and I love matcha, so I’m kind of ashamed I never though of pairing them before. As soon as I saw this item on the menu, I knew I had to try it, and I’m embarrassed to think of how many of them I’ve had since. It’s a bright, floral, (and yes, possibly even grassy) beverage that’s absolutely perfect for spring! I love it so much, I don’t even mind the oatmilk (although I have gotten it with plain old whole milk, too), and I was inspired to recreate the flavor at home with matcha milk boba tea topped with lavender lemonade whipped cream from Target:
I know Starbucks seasonal flavors don’t stay around forever, and I’m already dreading the day this one leaves the menu, but maybe it will come back next spring!
I’ve shared my love of boba tea before, but like all good things, you just can’t afford to go to a shop and buy it all the time. So I started trying out the different J Way boba kits you can buy at the store. While they’re still more expensive than making it from scratch, they’re way cheaper than going out for tea, and we’ve gotten to try a lot of different flavors. So far, my favorites are the matcha (no surprise there, because I love matcha!), and the taro, which was kind of a surprise to me, because I didn’t really even know what taro was before we tried it! They also happen to be the two prettiest, in my opinion, in lovely, bright shades of green and purple. We’ve also tried some other milk tea flavors, and a fruity one, too, and they’ve all been delicious!
I would like to get to the point where I make my own boba pearls, but that still scares me a little, but I did get a bag of taro boba at the international market, and tried a recipe I found online for iced hot chocolate boba tea, which was really, really tasty! Next up, I’d like to try some pre-packaged popping boba, because I have some ideas how I’d like to use them, too.
I’ve been on something of a burrito kick recently, and one of the types of burritos I wanted to tackle was breakfast burritos, because Turkey loves the kind they sell at McDonald’s. I think I included all of their standard ingredients in my first attempt other than pork sausage, and Turkey said that I didn’t even need to include that in the future…but he wouldn’t mind if I tried them with chorizo!
Tortillas–I used the “Extra Grande Burrito” size
1/4 cup shredded cheese of your choice per burrito
Scrambled eggs–(About three per burrito–I made a total of 18 for six burritos)
Diced tomato (I used one large tomato for six burritos)
Diced green chilies, drained (I used two small cans for six burritos)
Browned pork sausage or chorizo (optional)
Burritos toppings (sour cream, hot sauce, melted cheese, avocado, etc.)
Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Spread 1/4 cup shredded cheese in the middle of a tortilla. Mix scrambled eggs with tomatoes and chilies, and place a portion on top of cheese. Top with meat, if desired. Fold the tortilla in the traditional burrito style, and place seam-side down on baking sheet.
Bake at 375 for 12 minutes. Serve with your favorite toppings.
Making donuts during the Karneval season is no longer a surprise around here (I started by trying my hand at Pączki in 2021, and then moved on to Berliner, which I’ve been making ever since), but I’ve never made three varieties at once before! This year, I decided to make a double batch of Zitronen Berliner (lemon donuts), and since I had 24 of them to work with, I thought we should try some different fillings. I started with homemade lemon pudding, and dusted the donuts with powdered sugar:
Next I made a homemade vanilla custard filing, and also a chocolate glaze for the top:
And finally, an old classic, filled with plum jam and sprinkled with granulated sugar:
They were all delicious, and honestly, I’m not even sure which ones I liked best, but I’m always thinking of even more tasty fillings!
In our house, we’ve come to look forward to “French Toast Events,” days that are inspired by the “French Toast Map” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Weatherbird used to create in the run-up to bad winter weather. You knew a winter storm was going to pack a punch if Weatherbird said you needed milk, bread, and eggs (bonus points when he added beer to the map, too). Well, Weatherbird’s latest illustrator retired last year, and while he said that he would continue drawing the character on a freelance basis, as far as I can tell, he no longer uses the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and so I had no French Toast Map to help me decide how to plan for yesterday’s winter weather advisory. As it turned out, I think they rather underestimated this storm, because the first half of yesterday was an icy nightmare, which included cancellations all over the Bi-State, the closure of Lambert Airport for a time, and multiple accidents, including some with Metro buses and even firetrucks. Anyway, I hadn’t prepared for a full French Toast Event, but I was in a good place for a Waffle Warning, starring French Toast’s cousin, the Mickey Waffle, so we were still able to observe one of our favorite winter weather traditions, just in a new way!
It’s finally time for a look back at all of the Festive Feasts we enjoyed over the holiday season, and all the baking we did!
Let’s start with Thanksgiving, which was our traditional turkey dinner with the addition of some delicious roasted fennel this year:
And a record-tying nine pies!
Our next big holiday was Nikolaustag, and it’s become a tradition for us to enjoy Döner kebab on that day (or, as was the case this time, several days later, once Bunny got home from college). We also had a gingerbread-based dessert as has become our custom…this time, I made gingerbread bars with a cream cheese frosting that were amazing!
On Santa Lucia Day, we enjoyed lussekattes for breakfast, and potato pancakes with smoked salmon and Kielbasa for dinner (a day early), plus an cranberry-orange layer cake with rosemary for dessert:
On Christmas Eve, we had a peppermint chip cake after church:
And coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas morning:
On Christmas Day, we had the best dinner of the year, the “pick out dinner.”
And then things got kind of messed up because I hurt my back. We postponed the fancy Christmas dinner we were supposed to have on the 27th, but we did manage to have our annual hot chocolate bar on New Year’s Eve:
And I also postponed the (different) fancy dinner we were supposed to have on New Year’s Day, but I did manage to make a gingerbread layer cake with molasses mousse filling and cinnamon whipped cream frosting, garnished with sugared cranberries:
On Ryan’s birthday (which was also Epiphany), I finally made the tenderloin that was supposed to be the star of our fancy Christmas dinner, plus s’mores pie for dessert:
Yesterday, I finally got around to the turkey dinner we were supposed to have on New Year’s Day. We also tried a new recipe for replica Starbucks’ cranberry bliss bars for dessert. I haven’t had the original, but Bunny tells me these are even better, because they don’t have that mass-produced flavor!
Before my back injury, we spent a few days baking our favorite Christmas cookies (and I put together a Bunter Teller!):
And we did eventually get around to the sugar cookies (not the gingerbread, though…we just ran out of time, but at least we had lots of other gingerbread desserts!):
I made kinderpunsch, wassail several times (not pictured), and eggnog over the course of the holiday weeks:
And then there were lots of other festive treats spread through the holiday season, from the weekend before Thanksgiving when we made soft pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to the Valentine’s Day Funfetti Bunny made for us before she went back to school (and also my first attempt at Dampfnudeln, which were amazing!):
By my count, we ended up short one fancy meal, because normally the tenderloin wouldn’t have been available for Ryan’s birthday dinner. We were also short the gingerbread cookies and the cannoli that I had hoped to make for New Year’s Day, since I simply didn’t have the strength or energy to do much the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s. It certainly wasn’t my best effort at holiday food, but at least I hit all the highlights, right?
Time for a look at my favorite food photos from 2023! Most of them are dessert photos (hey, it’s not my fault desserts are so photogenic!), but let’s start with a spread I made featuring white borscht last winter:
I decided I wanted to try something really different for Thanksgiving, so I made a pineapple pie! It’s a super easy recipe, and is really fresh and unique. I absolutely loved it, and I’ll definitely be making it again!
40 oz. crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup white sugar
6 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 pie crusts
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. white sugar
Preheat oven to 425.
Combine crushed pineapple with juice, 1 cup sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened, then boil for 1 minute. Cool slightly.
Line a 10-inch pie plate with crust. Beat egg and brush crust with it to prevent sogginess. Pour filling into the prepared pie dish. Cover with remaining crust; press and flute the edges to seal. Cut a few steam vents on top (or do a lattice crust as pictured), brush crust with milk and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. sugar.
Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Serve with whipped cream and flaked coconut if desired.
As soon as I saw German Girl in America’s recipe for Reformationsbrötchen, I knew I had to make them! Who doesn’t want to make rolls that look like Luther’s Rose? They’re really delicious…light and fluffy, with the perfect flavors for fall, featuring lemon and cranberry…and so cute. I left out the almonds, and we didn’t miss them, but I’m sure they make a great addition!
