All posts tagged: holiday

Christmas recipe fix: Raisin Mumbles cookie bars

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Last week, a dear friend of mine sent me a blurry photo and recipe with this hilarious comment: “This recipe is my Christmas recipe nightmare! A favorite of my husband and youngest son but a living mess to make EVERY SINGLE YEAR. My son and my sister-in-law made it this year and this is the debacle. Burned on the edges, underdone in the middle, left the oven a smoking mess, and the dog had a go at it as well. This recipe is very old—handed down from Grandma Betty. It certainly could stand some updating!” She added: “And it’s too many cookie bars! No one can eat an 11 x 15 pan of raisin mumbles!!” (To which I replied, genuinely, “Oh, it’s supposed to be bars?!”) I’ve often said that I love to cook but I don’t really love to bake—baking typically requires precision, not my forte. But cookie bars seemed doable … and  the challenge enticed me. Here’s what happened. Skip to the finished and delicious recipe below! I started by cutting the recipe roughly in half—and …

Wild Duck Pate

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It’s finally fall again. And my husband, Dave, is happy because fall ushers in hunting season. I could write a lot about lessons learned while being married to a conscientious, deeply ethical, nature- and animal-loving hunter (in fact, he’s the first hunter I ever met, way back in college). But I’ll save that for another post. Suffice it to say that over the past three decades, I’ve had to learn how to cook a lot of wild game meat — mostly dove, duck, goose, and pheasant. This Wild Duck Pate recipe is without a doubt our favorite game-meat creation to date. It’s a labor-intensive recipe, but trust me, it’s worth the effort. People go absolutely nuts for this when we serve it at parties. One guy recently asked me if I knew its street value. Unfortunately, this recipe does not work with domestic, store-bought duck, which is much fattier and milder than wild duck … so you’ll have to make friends with a duck hunter. Bosley’s Wild Duck Pate 3/4 pound (24 tablespoons, or 3 sticks) butter, …

Try this super tasty, gluten-free holiday appetizer

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If you’re gluten free, you know there is a huge difference in the quality and palatability of gluten-free crackers out there. Some are truly inedible; others are “fine, good enough” but nothing special. That’s why I am truly thrilled with Crunchmaster crackers. These crackers just might be my favorite crackers ever, gluten free or not!