Last year at this time I was making cookies, candies, cakes, and yule logs for stressed-out holiday shoppers. I was 8 months pregnant and finding it hard to button even the large chef’s coat. Scheduled to work both Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas, I had made no plans and my developing distaste for the holiday was growing out [...]

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had wonderful and festive weekends. I spent the weekend continuing my search for the perfect Christmas cookie. I also stayed the night at a beautiful lodge in the Columbia River Gorge with my mom and sisters, enjoying spa treatments and my first night away from Eden. But what’s that compared to a Christmas [...]

By now my freezer is starting to get pretty full of crinkle cookies, truffles, brittle, pound cake, and more. Oh Sweet Christmas, it really is a delicious time of year. But a freezer full of cookies would be nothing without at least one batch of these Hazelnut Sandies. I grew up with these cookies every year. My mom would make [...]

Thanksgiving week is upon us! This holiday season is very exciting for me. In previous years, holidays have always been a time of long, busy hours at work and grouchy, stressed out people looking for pie. But for the first time in my adult life, I get to enjoy this time with my family and I will be savoring the [...]

  What’s Thanksgiving Dinner without sweet and savory bread stuffing? An incomplete meal. This year for Thanksgiving, I have an extra challenge because of my oddly-timed decision to go gluten-free this month. When thinking over the different aspects of Thanksgiving dinner, I had a twinge of regret realizing I would not be savoring bread stuffing.  Of course I could have [...]