baking

Tasty Tuesday–Star Wars Days

Time for a look at this year’s Star Wars celebration!

It began, of course, on May the Fourth, with two breakfast recipes from the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Cookbook. I made Keshian Spice Rolls….that color is all natural because there was a puréed beet in the dough! I also made an unusual coffee drink called “Sunrise Caf” which featured turmeric and five spice.

We had an afternoon treat of Cassius Tea Cookies from Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook…they’re kind of like sugar cookies, but with black sesame seeds!

Of course we had our favorite Ronto Wraps, with roast pork, sausage, Ronto Wrap slaw, and peppercorn sauce from Delicious Disney: Walt Disney World. The Ronto Wrapper flatbreads were based on the recipe from the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Cookbook, but I improvised a bit.

We also had a side of Yalbec Stingers from Star Wars: The Life Day Cookbook:

And every special dinner calls for a special drink…this time, we had the Aleen Firefly, which was a combination of pineapple juice, Sprite, and Jello cubes from Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook.

For dessert I made Kowakian Crumb Cake, a type of blueberry crisp from the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Cookbook.

I also had a special Her Universe outfit to celebrate the day!

You can’t celebrate May the Fourth without also celebrating The Revenge of the Fifth, so I picked a few more recipes from Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook. For dinner the main course was Nal Hutta Swamp Stew, which was a delicious pork stew with potatoes and roasted green chilies.

We also tried another new drink recipe, Seezelslak‘s Speciality, which was a light and refreshing smoothie made with coconut milk, frozen cantaloupe, and lime zest.

And for dessert, Ladybug made Cloud City Bread, which was like a cross between a meringue and a marshmallow, and so melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

I look forward to this fun little celebration every year!

Easter 2025

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

As always, our Easter celebration really begins with the start of the Holy Triduum on Maundry Thursday. As it turns out, that was the most beautiful day of the whole Easter weekend, and the last time we’d see blue skies!

On Friday, I did a bit of prep work for Sunday…I tried a new (very successful!) recipe for flatbreads, and also made hot cross buns:

We went back to church Friday evening, and the cloudy skies seemed appropriate for the day.

On Saturday, we did some more work…Ladybug frosted the cupcakes she made the day before, and I baked a baklava cheesecake.

We also made our 2025 Paschal candle while watching Rick Steves’ European Easter…both are important Holy Saturday traditions to us.

And then my favorite church service of the entire year…with a twist. The overnight rain made it impossible to begin the Great Vigil of Easter outside by the bonfire as usual, so we had a “bonfire” in the back of the sanctuary to start the service. All things considered, it was a good solution to a soggy problem!

We always get Wendy’s on the way home from church on Saturday evening:

And then back to church this morning for the most celebratory service of the year!

The family photo isn’t quite right without Bunny, but she couldn’t get away from school to join us…we’ll see her in a few weeks for graduation, though!

Our Easter breakfast was a bit simpler than I’ve made some years…scrambled eggs, sausage, a fruit salad, pomegranate juice, and like last year, 13 kinds of mini donuts!

We had fun watching the first two My Big Fat Greek Wedding movies, and I made lavender matchas for those who enjoy them:

And I set the table, featuring the new Paschal candle and a new bunny napkin fold that incorporated the Cadbury Creme Eggs I had picked up:

I found some time to check into Animal Crossing, and Roald was nice enough to take a picture with me!

I made a menu of Greek foods for dinner…souvlaki and gyros, with our favorite toppings and flatbread, fried feta, Greek salad, and spanakopita, plus the hot cross buns…kind of minus the crosses, which mostly melted to the plastic wrap!

And for dessert, the baklava cheesecake:

After how long Lent always seems, Holy Week, and especially the Holy Triduum and Easter Sunday itself go by so quickly, but we had a lovely celebration…Happy Easter!

An Early St. Patrick’s Day

Just like last year, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day a day early today. We started by trying to trick the leprechaun into falling for our trap, but of course it didn’t work…he did leave some “gold” behind, though!

We had soda bread with tea for an afternoon snack:

And more soda bread with our traditional dinner:

For dessert, I made not only Guinness cake, but Guinness mousse to go with it…I think this might be a permanent addition to our St. Patrick’s Day menu!

Tomorrow we’re celebrating Turkey’s birthday…also early!

Tasty Tuesday–Another Year+ of German Cooking

It’s been over a year since I took a look back at some of the German recipes I’ve been making, but I’ve continued to try something new (or a new variation on something old) most months, and mostly thanks to the monthly recipe share in my Rare Dirndl Facebook group.

  • Reformationsbrötchen (Luther’s Rose Reformation Rolls)
  • Kinderpunsch (Non-Alcoholic Glühwein)
  • Linsensuppe (German Lentil Soup)
  • Dampnudeln (Steamed Buns with Warm Vanilla Sauce)
  • Neujahrsbrezel (Sweet New Year’s Pretzel)
  • Zitronen-Berliner (Lemon Custard-Filled Donuts)
  • Pflaumen-Berliner (Plum-Filled Donuts)
  • Custard-Berliner (Custard-Filled Donuts)
  • Hungarian Beef Goulash
  • Buchteln mit Marmeladefüllung (Baked Yeast Dumpling)
  • Flammkuchen (“Flame Cake”)
  • Tomatensalat (Tomato Salad)
  • Kaiserschmarrn with Cherry Compote (Torn Pancakes)
  • Engelsaugen (Thumbprint Cookies)
  • Schupfnudeln (Potato Noodles with Sauerkraut and Bacon)

Besides these new recipes, I continue to make old favorites on a regular basis…German cooking has become quite a staple in our household! I can’t wait to find even more German recipes to try!

Tasty Tuesday–Festive Feasts and Holiday Baking

Now that Epiphany has come and gone, I guess the holiday season is officially over (I’m still not taking my Christmas tree down yet, though!). Let’s take a look back at the festive feasts and holiday baking we enjoyed during the holidays!

As I did last year, I kicked off Thanksgiving week by making pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies:

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we enjoyed our traditional feast:

And TEN pies (the bonus cookie butter pie was still in the freezer)!

We had chicken döner and gingerbread whoopie pies for our postponed St. Nicholas Day dinner:

And for Santa Lucia Day, we had lussekattes, potato pancakes and kielbasa (a day late), and white-chocolate cranberry cupcakes:

We didn’t have a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve, but we did have a carrot cake filled with gingerbread mousse:

For Christmas Day breakfast we had our favorite coffee cake:

And the best meal of the year, the pick-out dinner!

I think our M*A*S*H Day dinner counts as a festive feast, because Tony Packo’s was a Christmas gift.

On New Year’s Eve, we had fondue:

And the hot chocolate bar:

New Year’s Day was a full German feast of schnitzel and spaetzle and red cabbage:

With a Black Forest cake for dessert:

We had one more turkey dinner while we waited for the first snowstorm of the year:

And our traditional snow day dinner of French toast the next day:

Our festive feasts always end with Ryan’s birthday dinner…this year, we had chili and fry bread:

And a Frango Mint cake for dessert!

Of course there was plenty of cookie baking, starting with the French Christmas cookies we made in school:

And all of our favorite Christmas cookies!

It made for a beautiful Bunter Teller!

We also enjoyed Christmas Tree Cake treats all season long, including both standard and big cakes, donuts, and ice cream:

And a few festive drinks along the way…wassail and eggnog:

This has been a great season of feasting…now it’s time to give the kitchen a break! (Who am I kidding…I’m already planning the next cake I’m going to bake!)

Guten Rutsch!

How is it 2025 already?!? It hardly seems possible that we’re at the quarter mark for this century. We’ve had a rather German celebration for the last two days, starting with fondue for dinner yesterday.

And of course we had our traditional hot chocolate bar for dessert…I was very excited about the addition of hot cocoa and marshmallow Hostess Donettes this year!

We watched Apollo 13 and Ocean’s 11, and I made it to midnight (but just barely) to ring in the new year in Animal Crossing.

This morning we were at the Lego store before they opened so we could look for a few new sets…the line was incredible, but we still managed to find everything we were looking for!

We did some shopping at Target and the Asian store and stopped for boba at what I think was a place we hadn’t tried before:

And we had another German meal for dinner:

Plus Black Forest cake for dessert:

Not a bad way to say “goodbye” to one year and “hello” to another…Guten Rutsch!

Nikolaustag 2024

We’re a day late, but today we celebrated Nikolaustag! We wanted to wait until Bunny was home from college, which just happened to be today. We did all of our favorite Nikolaustag things, starting with stockings and decorating the tree. In addition to the children’s yearly ornaments, I also added two new ornaments…a Christmas Tree Cake that Ryan surprised me with this morning, and Hallmark’s rendition of “It’s a Small World.”

We always have wassail while we decorate:

And for dinner, we had our traditional meal of döner kebab:

I like to make a gingerbread dessert for Nikolaustag…this year, it was gingerbread whoopie pies:

This is one of my favorite days of the year, and between Bunny being home and the traditions, it feels like Christmastime is really here!

Thanksgiving 2024

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone far too quickly!

Our annual celebration started with Pie Day(s). Like I did last year, I split the work of the pie baking up over two days…we made 10 pies plus the cranberries and stuffing.

I love that our table looks a little bit different every year!

I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have later, so I checked in with Franklin to see how his dinner preparations were coming along:

Bunny wasn’t able to join us until Thanksgiving Day, and had to leave again this morning already, so we did things a little different. We ended up watching the Macy’s Parade twice on Thanksgiving Day (only one game of Parade Bingo, though), along with the dog show and a few of our favorite Thanksgiving shows (Mad About You‘s “Giblets for Murray,” Gilmore Girls‘ “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving,” The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s “Talking Turkey,” Scrubs’ “My Day Off,” A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and M*A*S*H‘s “The Yalu Brick Road.”).

We had our traditional dinner…turkey and gravy, stuffing and mashed potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, and green beans with almonds, cranberries, and rolls:

It’s always a pretty plate!

And so many pies to choose from!

I went with pecan, Nutella, and pumpkin:

I had enough time to pop back into Animal Crossing to help Franklin procure the final ingredients for dinner on the island:

This morning started with pie for breakfast…this time, Nutella and Biscoff cookie butter:

Chickadee and I went to the town Santa parade:

I love a turkey sandwich on rye the day after Thanksgiving!

For lunch dessert, I tried the caramel apple pie:

The Lego Winter Village set was built over the course of two days…I have mixed feelings about this year’s model (I really wish it was just a post office, not Santa’s post office), but I do think the mail sorting system is really cool, and I love the hot air ballon. We got a bonus set of a delivery truck, and it’s really cool, too!

Dinner was turkey soup (of course):

And then Moose, Chickadee, and I went to the town tree lighting:

We also enjoyed checking out the gingerbread house contest…here are some of my favorites:

And one more piece of pie for dessert!

We get to have another leftovers dinner tomorrow (and more pie of course!), but that pretty much wraps up this year’s Markel Family Thanksgiving…on to Advent and Christmas!

Pie Day 2024

It’s that most delicious of days, when our house smells like a bakery…Pie Day(s)!

This year, I made nine pies (ok, technically ten, because one was a double recipe, and if you want to be really technical, 11, because I was so unhappy with one I remade it), according to our family tradition where everyone at the Thanksgiving table gets to request a pie. Between yesterday and today, I made pumpkin, s’mores (two ways), Biscoff cookie butter, butterscotch, Nutella, caramel apple, vanilla, and pecan (and also the stuffing and cranberries).

I had a lot of help…Chickadee made the pumpkin pie mostly by herself, and Ladybug made the butterscotch and helped me with the caramel apple and the vanilla. Bunny will be here tomorrow, but we did miss the extra help in the kitchen today!

I really love that the pie lineup is slightly different every year…it’s nice that we can count on having some regulars and some new additions, too!

Tasty Tuesday–A Year of Cheesecakes

This has kind of been “The Year of the Cheesecake” around here. I didn’t set out to make 12 cheesecakes (averaging one a month), but I reached a point in the late summer where I realized that I had already made so many, I might as well go for a year’s worth. I didn’t make exactly 12 of them…there was a repeat because Turkey liked one so much he asked me to make it again for his birthday. And there was one failure (a cranberry cheesecake with a gingersnap crust) that we won’t talk about. I also didn’t literally make one a month…some months I made more (and once I made two in one week!), and I didn’t make a single cheesecake the entire summer. But in the end, I had 12 unique successes, starting with a delightful eggnog variety early in the year:

The Black Forest was one of the most popular…this is the flavor I made again for Turkey’s birthday.

S’mores is a natural cheesecake flavor because so many already have a graham cracker crust, and chocolate cheesecakes are also very popular…just add marshmallows and you’re done!

I won’t even tell you how many Oreos went into this cookies ‘n’ cream cheesecake!

I made a traditional Chicago style cheesecake, which was plain except for a simple topping of fresh raspberries…I think it had the best texture of all the cheesecakes I made!

I was in my matcha-lavender era during the spring:

My first autumn cheesecake was inspired by cinnamon rolls:

The Biscoff cookie butter cheesecake was one of my all-time favorites!

I’ve made a pumpkin cheesecake in the past, but never pumpkin chocolate chip (until this fall):

Butterscotch is another great flavor for fall!

I’m currently in my Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cake era, and luckily for me, they had a recipe utilizing my favorite holiday snack cakes on their website!

And finally, another favorite that I made once last year…a gingerbread cheesecake with a gingersnap crust and topped with a gingerbread mousse that’s so delicious, it could stand on its own as a dessert!

I know 12 cheesecakes stretched out over the course of a year doesn’t sound like much, but they are a big commitment of both time and money, and I’ve never put so much effort into baking them regularly before! It was a fun little baking project for 2024!