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I might have left you with the impression that I go all crazy for Valentines. I don’t, really. I mean, there is no one day that seems like it should hold all goodwill and affection for friends and family. But, because we’re friends, I thought I’d share a pretty little treat with you.

A week or so ago, I had the chance to go to Orchidaceae, an orchid grower/greenhouse right here at home. The greenhouse is beautiful – there is something magical about coming in from the grey and chill, only to find a room full of richest green. And flowers everywhere! Sadly, I can’t tell you the names of what all I saw, but it was all lovely. And better still, I brought a few home to brighten up the house. Special thanks to Joan for showing me all of the blooming lovelies.

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Happy Valentines, friends. I hope your day is lovely.

In the heart of winter, I just want to hunker down inside and get cozy. Sometimes that might be a warm cup of tea in the afternoon or a toasty pair of wool sock and slippers as I pad around the house. Whatever the case may be, I must be talking about this idea a fair bit as my son has taken up the cry. I know it is just a two-year-old’s stalling technique as he hollers from his bedroom that he needs another blanket to be cozy, but it’s just too cute not to oblige.

This week we had snow. I’ve been waiting for a bit of the white stuff for some time now. And that big winter storm that covered the Pacific Northwest a few days ago promised to deliver. What followed was a wee bit more messy – snow, freezing rain, ice and then slush. And in the end, it seemed a little bit more treacherous than your typical snow day should be. But I made the most of it with a little quality driveway snow shoveling and some baking to keep us all cozy and fed on a winter afternoon.

Sometimes a winter snack calls for something with a little most substance. Something that stands up to a quick dip into my hot chocolate. These biscotti fit the bill for me. There is even a little crunch of cornmeal that makes me feel all the more healthy for adding it in. And depending what I’m in the mood for, I can make them as healthy as I like. Almonds and cranberries make a nice festive cookie. As would pistachios and cranberries. Chopped dark chocolate plays to their cookie sensibilities. And dark chocolate and orange peel sounds enticing.

I like the dry, crunchy texture of this biscotti. Even the dry shower of crumbs that they always leave behind. And not that they ever end up sitting around for long, but they taste just as good on day one as they do several days later. So a little tin of these biscotti is always welcome around the espresso machine in these parts. Sometimes they will even stand in for a little breakfast tie-over while brunch is in the works. But whatever the occasion, these biscotti always seem to bring the right level of coziness to any snack.

Almond Biscotti

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Lenox Almond Biscotti in Baking

I’ve made this recipe dozens of times with many variations. It may not be authentic, but someone at my house loves chocolate! Dark chocolate chunks and almonds are a pretty addictive combination. The sky is the limit, but I’d try to keep my additions to about 1 cup in total. And since all that chocolate sweetens up the dough, I often reduce the sugar a little as well.

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

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1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup chocolate, chips or chopped your choice

Heat your oven to 350 F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the cornmeal and whisk to combine.

Working with a stand mixure, or hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar for about three minutes, until very smooth. Add the eggs and continue to beat for another two minutes, scrapping the bowl as needed, until the mixture is light, smooth and creamy. Beat in the almond extract. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only enough to combine. You’ll have a very soft dough. Scrape the bowl and beaters to clean and gently stir in the almonds and chocolate.

Scrape half of the dough onto one side of the prepared baking sheet. Using your fingers and perhaps a rubber spatula, work the dough into a log about 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Sometimes a little water on your finger tips works well too. The log does not have to be perfect. Form a second log on the other side of the pan.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the logs are lightly golden and still soft to the touch. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and cool the logs on the baking sheet for 30 minutes. If you turn off the oven, bring it back to 350 as you prepare the next step.

Using a wide spatula, transfer the logs to a cutting board and trim the ends of the logs. They make a perfect snack at this point! Cut the logs into 3/4-inch-thick slices and return to the baking sheet and the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden and firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Enjoy!

Sunday photo walks are a bit of a tradition around my parts. They aren’t fancy, and don’t lead to some mythical destination. They are just a chance to get out of the house and see the world around me. Meet my back alley!

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OK, so it’s winter and a little bleak. It looks grey outside and sadly, it looks like this might be the case for another month or so. And just about this time every year, I manage to find blood oranges at the grocery store! That little reminder that there is a season for everything just might be enough to get me mildly excited about the months between Christmas and spring!

To be honest, of all of the citrus available, we don’t have a whole lot of variety in our neck of the woods. I know there are many more varieties out there, depending on where you look. But I’m not going to be picky. I’ll scoop of a bag of whatever I find. And happily, the blood oranges are pretty easy to track down.

It seems that every season, I find a few recipes to try that call for this rosy fruit. Oddly enough, several of them are from Canal House, whose recipes I often adore! Aside from kicking up a salad or a cocktail, the blood oranges make pretty amazing orange juice. Just add a couple to your juicer for some brightly colored juice sure to brighten up your morning.

So you can imagine how happy I was to find a recipe for blood orange marmalade this weekend, just when I was looking for a project. First, I should tell you a few things about me and jam. It’s only fair…

On a whim a few years back, I took it upon myself to make a wide selection of jams and jellies. I started with the strawberries in June, didn’t miss the gooseberries, all the way through apricots, peaches and pears and stopped somewhere around the Concord grapes. And that is not an exhaustive list, I assure you. I know I went a little too wild with my preserving binge. Even my good efforts to share jam with friends and family didn’t run me out of any flavors. My sister even received a flavor pack of every jam made that season. What a good idea, right?!?

Since then, I’ve tried to hold myself back. Strawberry is a favorite flavor for my husband, so most years I’ll make a few jars of that. Then I’ll have my work cut out for me trying to remind him to make toast throughout the year! I’ve also dabbled into a few jellies, but to be honest, when we’re talking about specific temperatures to get things setting just so, it scares me a little. It shouldn’t, I know. But for that reason, I will tell you that the jelly we’re talking about today provided me with a few challenges.

I am sure everything that went wrong stemmed from a misstep on my part! But I made a couple of substitutions to make up for the fact that things did not go as planned. Basically, I did not get enough liquid out of my apples. So I made up for that by adding water for the remaining liquid and a little pectin. I am sure things will go much more smoothly for you!

As suggested on the site where I originally found the recipe, this project is best tackled on a weekend. You could do it over the course of two week nights if you were well prepared and motivated, but since that never seems to be the case for me, I’ll spell out the recipe for two days! Plus, it was a nice way to spend a grey afternoon, especially with this cheery reward at the end. Also, since this recipe will make use of both fruit and peel, consider buying organic fruit where ever possible.

Happy jam making to you!

Blood Orange Marmalade

Recipe found on Leites Culinaria

Originally from Christine Ferber’s Mes Confitures

1 3/4 pounds Granny Smith apples

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2 3/4 pounds blood oranges, or 17 ounces blood orange juice

5 2/3 cups sugar

2 navel oranges

Juice of 1 small lemon

Day One:

Wash apples well, cut into quarters, removing stem and core, but do not peel.

Place the apples in a large, wide pot and cover with 3 1/4 cups of water. Bring to a full boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer gently for 30 minutes. The apples should be soft.

Collect the juice by straining the apple mixture into a large bowl, light pressing the apples to get any remaining juice. Discard the solids.

Filter the juice a second time by pouring it through a cheesecloth. Collect the juice in a glass jar and refrigerate the juice overnight.

Day Two:

Measure 2 1/8 cups of apple juice, leaving the sediment that formed in the container. Discard any juice and sediment that remains.

Squeeze the blood oranges, saving any seeds, until you have 2 1/8 cup of juice. Save the seeds in a cheesecloth bag.

Scrub the navel oranges and slice into thin rounds. (Based on my experience, unless you want full rounds in your finished marmalade, you might consider cutting them down to halves or quarters, depending on your preference.)

Place the sliced oranges in a large, wide pot. Add 1 cup of sugar and the remaining 7/8 cup of water and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to medium and gently simmer until the slices are translucent.

Add the reserved apple juice, blood orange juice, the remaining 4 2/3 cups of sugar, the lemon juice and the reserved blood orange seeds in the cheesecloth. Bring to a boil, stirring gently. Skim any foam from the surface. Continue cooking on high heat, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes. Skim again if needed. Remove the cheese cloth with the seeds. Return to a boil, then remove from heat.

Immediately ladle the jam into hot, sterilized jars and seal. This recipe filled about six pint jars for me.

For me, January and February can be a little dull. Christmas is over, as are visits with friends and family. It’s actually one of the best times to make plans with those near and dear to you. And if there’s a project or special recipe you’ve been sitting on, this is the time to pull it out.

Before Christmas, I started to stockpile things. The idea began to form after conversations with my friend Mindy who says she saves all of her January magazines to look through after Christmas. It’s amazing how many of those publications managed to show up before the holiday break, but I stashed them away without a single glance for a future grey day. Along with my magazines, I saved a new cookbook, a pair of cozy socks and a special tin of tea. I also planted a small selection of bulbs, both paper whites and an amaryllis. As it turns out, January is not nearly as grey as I thought it might be.

So, with no further ado, here are some of the things I’m looking forward to in the remaining grey days of winter:

• Cooking my way through this, this and that, amazing cookbooks all.
• Planning my garden – the dahlia and seed catalogues are arriving fast and furious! I am also toying with the idea of ordering a Meyer lemon tree. I probably should just make plans for a greenhouse while I am at it.
• Developing my film from Paris. I have 12 rolls of medium format film, just waiting to be developed!
• A little more food focus for my creative energy. We’re working on a new food project this winter and I’m looking forward to sharing how it all comes together.
• There is no better time to curl up with a good book and I can’t wait to dig into the pile of good reads accumulating by my bed. I just have to get through my current book. I’m looking forward to reading this and this, just to name a few.
• Persimmons and citrus – for everything there is a season, right? I have a few last hoarded persimmons, but I’m making way for some great citrus and related cooking tangents!
• On new year’s eve, I shredded 14 pounds of cabbage and now I have four jars of beautiful cabbage fermenting in my pantry. And if the sauerkraut is not something to look forward to, then I don’t know what to tell you!

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Happy January, friends.

Who would have thought I’d be tracking down a salad at this time of year? Here it is, the holiday season with all of the merry and bright business, and I’m seeking out a salad! I suppose it makes some sense, with all of the fancy meals and sweets that seem to take over at this time of year. A crisp salad might just be the ticket.

But I should note that I’m not talking about just any lettuce and tomato salad. Those are best saved for the appropriate seasons, which usually does not pair the two together in my little summer time. Lettuce is at its prime in the spring when small, delicate leaves are a chore to pick, but so worth it! I know that the baby lettuce salad mixes are available at any grocery store, in any season, but more on that later. And tomatoes, let’s just save those for late July or August. They are better that way. In the meantime, I’ll tell you about the salad.

One chilly evening, I sat down with a friend to share dinner. We’ll often share a few tapas to start and just happened upon a Turkish Salad on the menu. A few ingredients were listed – endive, pomegranate, parsley and hazelnut toffee. Could I really have been hooked after that brief description? Seems so…

The salad was so perfect, a balance of everything I could want in a salad. The greens are seasonally appropriate, for me anyway. Somehow the bitterness of endive and frisée speaks of cold weather. The pale greenish yellow is a color that somehow brightens up a winter day, but at the same time, reminds me that sunlight is not the most plentiful! And crunch, so much crunch! The tart pomegranate, the rich green flavor of the parsley, salty olives and my favorite part, toffee! Yes, I may have wanted to get away from the sweet, but a little sprinkle of toffee in my salad was amazing.

I left the restaurant wanting more. Knowing that I’d be tracking down ingredients and recreating that flavor in the weeks to come. But let’s be honest here, I live in a small town. Finding ingredients for something called Turkish Salad certainly wasn’t going to be so easy.

Belgian endive, sure, I can find that. Frisée? Who shops for frisée on a regular basis? I knew I’d seen it before but what were the chances that anyone would be stocking it when I was looking for it? Well, let’s put it this way, I went to every grocery store in town. Some of them multiple times. I talked to anyone working in the produce section, sometimes having to explain just what it was I was looking for. One guy suggested I buy a couple of bags of salad greens and pick the frisée out! It amused me, but it turns out he couldn’t find any bagged greens that included it! At another store, I had a lengthy discussion about the difference between curly endive and escarole. I am not an expert, but it turns out the produce guy might not have been either! In the end, frisée was substituted for the pale inside leaves of curly endive. I wish you more luck!

And don’t let me forget about the pomegranate molasses. It doesn’t really sound like an exotic ingredient, does it? I think anything with the word molasses in it just sounds warm, dark and cozy. But pomegranate molasses is not something in ready supply around here. Lucky for me, I shared my delicious tale of the salad with a friend traveling to Portland for the weekend. And happily, she was willing to go on a mission and came back with supplies for me.

Olives, pomegranates, flat-leaf parsley, homemade toffee, those were the easy ones. Although if I had a little bigger selection of olives, I’ve likely be a little happier. But I had gathered enough ingredients to take a shot at the salad. But before I did that, I wanted one more taste.

So off I went, out for lunch by myself. OK, I took my camera along because I really wanted to take a picture of how lovely it all looked, stacked up on a little plate. The restaurant was empty and I got a table by the window all to myself. Since it was early, the waiter was happy to help with my interest in the salad, answering questions about what type of olives they used, the vinegar and such.

And good thing I went, because I had forgotten a few little details, like the finely diced shallots that spiked the dressing or the fresh green flavor the liberal dashes of parsley left. And I wouldn’t have gotten to taste the golden beets with house made yogurt, citrus and the finest dusting of coriander. But we can talk about that some other time.

This salad might take a little shopping around to compile all of the ingredients depending on your location, but I think it could be just the thing to cure the winter grey. Fresh, crisp and bright, it might even find its way into a holiday meal and be perfectly at home. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I have.

Happy holidays!

Turkish Salad

Adapted from Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen with special thanks to Island and Chris
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Serves two

1 shallot, finely diced

4 Belgian endive, washed, trimmed and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces

Small bunch frisée or curly endive leaves, washed and chopped

2 tablespoons flat parsley, roughly chopped

1/3 cup chopped green olives, use a mix of moroccan olives, if you can find them

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds

Dressing of olive oil, champagne vinegar and pomegranate molasses, to taste

2 tablespoons toffee, I used homemade almond toffee

Peel and finely dice shallot. Let sit for 15 minutes in cold water. Maybe a little red wine vinegar, if you are feeling generous. Drain and pat dry.

Combine the greens, parsley, olives and pomegranate seeds in a bowl. Toss to combine.

Whisk olive oil, champagne vinegar and pomegranate molasses together in a small bowl. Add shallots to the mixture. Adjust seasonings to taste. This will likely depend on your olives and how salty they are. Dress salad and combine well. Arrange salad onto serving plates.

Sprinkle with about 1 tablespoon of toffee per plate. Serve immediately.

We had a frosty weekend, which is different than a snowy weekend. But it turns out, no less beautiful. Everything was coated in glorious ice crystals. The trees looked white and every surface took on new dimensions with the frost. While I would happily take snow on any winter day, I have to say that the frost gave the perfect winter look without the snow. Some people seem to appreciate that!

There is just a little bit of me that wants to be insistent about my son getting out in the cold. It bothers me just a little that his daycare doesn’t send the kids out in chilly weather. Months of my childhood were spent out in the cold and snow, playing until my pants were soaked through from hours of sledding and my fingers were nub. I’ll admit I wasn’t always happy to be sent outdoors to play, but likely, it did me good! The more temperate weather here won’t make for months of snowy weather, but I want to make sure he gets out to enjoy the crisp chill of winter and the thrill of seeing things in a new way. As it turns out, he is a pretty happy adventurer.

And while I just can’t stay inside all day during the cold frosty weather, there is little that makes me happier than coming back in after a trek. A brisk walk leaves me tingly cold and warm, all at once. Stepping back inside hits me with a wave of cozy warmth and a waft of whatever it is that might be cooking. And what better time of year to settle into a little bit of slow cooking in the kitchen.

One of my favorite things to cook these days has been a pot of beans. Sounds glamourous, doesn’t it! Sometimes the whole process of cooking beans takes a little pre-planning. Don’t get me wrong, they take very little of my time, but there is that bit about thinking about cooking them a day or so in advance. The weekend seems like the best time to do that. So, it pretty common that Saturday afternoon will find me rummaging through my pantry, trying to decide what beans I will cook on Sunday.

I don’t really spend much effort figuring out what I am going to do with the beans. There is always a pot of soup simmering on the weekend, a perfect foil for a few cups of whatever beans I find. But for something a little more substantial, I found the perfect recipe a summer or two ago in Falling Cloudberries, a brilliant cookbook by Tessa Kiros. I was making a meal from various recipes in her book and stumbled upon this recipe for baked lima beans.

I must admit that I have not always looked at beans with much admiration. It might have been one too many pots of pinto beans from my younger years, cooked by the pound in a giant pressure cooker my mother used for industrial cooking projects. She excelled at making the most of any effort she put out in the kitchen. Giant pots of soups and beans filled the pressure cooker any time we were in need of something to plan on for dinner during the week ahead. Pressure cookers still are a bit frightening to me! And while nothing dramatic ever happened with the cooking, the hissing, steaming and sputtering of that pot signaled many a hearty meal to come.

Since then, I’ve learned a thing or two about beans. How they can be meltingly tender without falling apart in the pot. How a little seasoning can go a really long way with beans. And how easy it is to cook something that will serve up for a few warm and delicious meals. I’ve been lucky enough to discover the huge variety of unique and heirloom varieties of dried beans, including some from my local farmers market. I’m also pretty happy to have found these beans locally as well. And as the chill of the winter weather sets in, I’ve been baking up this recipe with a variety of beans and seasonings, all of them delicious.

I’ve diverged a little from the recipe, making it a little simpler and adapted to the ingrediants I have on hand. And the recipe seems pretty forgiving to a little adaptation. I switch out the beans depending on what I have on hand or want to try cooking. And I always play with the seasonings. Parsley, mint and thyme are all delicious, but so is a teaspoon or so of herbes de provence. I suspect you could also take this dish in a new direction with some black beans, jalapenos and cilantro. So many possibilities…
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Baked Lima Beans with Onions, Tomatoes and Parsley

Adapted from Falling Cloudberries, by Tessa Kiros

3 cups dried lima beans or other variety, soaked overnight

1/2 cup olive oil

1 large red onion, finely chopped

2 celery stalks, with leaves, chopped

1 1/2 14 oz. cans peeled and coursly chopped tomatoes

4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or other herbs, use less of dried varieties

Set out the beans to soak overnight. Drain the beans and put them in the saucepan, covering generously with cold water. Bring to a boil. Skim off any scum that rises and turn down to a medium heat. Cook until beans are very tender. Actual cooking time will vary depending on the beans used, so check them as you progress. Add salt to the beans toward the end of cooking time.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Drain the beans, reserving about 1 1/2 cups of the cooking water. Put the beans in a large baking dish or dutch oven. The deeper the dish, the saucier the beans.

Heat about 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet. Gently cook the onions and celery until they are softened, stirring so that they don’t stick. Remove from heat and mix in the tomatoes and herbs. Season with salt and pepper. Add this mixture into the beans, stirring in the remaining olive oil and enough of the reserved cooking liquid to keep the beans quite moist. Cover with lid or foil and bake for 45 minutes, then remove the covering and stir the beans. If they are drying out, add a little more water. Return to the oven for another 30 minutes.

The beans should be deliciously tender at this point, golden on top and with a little sauce. Serve them warm, with a little drizzle of olive oil or sprinkle of herbs.

Last time we talked, I was pretty enthusiastic about these meringues. First off, they look amazing on the cover of bon appetit. Magical, really. Light, crisp and pink, they seemed like a dreamy addition to any holiday cookie assortment. I must diverge just a tad and admit that the whole cookie spread was amazing and I want to bake most everything featured. Adam, thank you for making my world more beautiful! But first things first, those meringues…

 When my copy first arrived, I knew it was time to start with the holiday baking. The meringues looked too cute to be passed up. Never mind the fact that I’d never made meringues, didn’t even have all of the needed equipment, and hello, this is the cover photo of a magazine. Note to self, when something appears on the cover of a magazine, beware! Knowing that a recipe made it onto the cover means several things, just one of those being that your expectations going into the project are likely much, much higher than they should be.

But, I’m willing to give it a go. So, I go and I buy the equipment. I was thinking about buying a pastry bag last Christmas when I was wrapped up in the idea of making french macaroons, but I didn’t do it. (As luck would have it, there is also a macaroon recipe in the same article as the meringues, so maybe I’ll be able to put this pastry bag to good use.) Now, with two ideas on how such a tool could be used, I put aside my concerns about adding to my overall kitchen clutter and purchased a pastry bag, along with a couple of simple tips. It is foldable, after all! I check the cupboards for peppermint extract and red food coloring, which is not really a staple at my house. Really, it’s a simple recipe, most everything else is bound to be available in your pantry.

Fast forward to my first attempt, the egg whites are standing up in perfect peaks, my son is delighted with the whirring of the mixer. Then, I add the peppermint extract. Minty, fresh and devastating! I watch my meringue disappear into puddles, a glossy, soupy froth in the bottom of the mixer. My heart is sinking, I know that this, what ever “this” is, is just not right. But I am not baking alone and I’ve come this far and don’t intend to turn back. And despite the utter failure of the meringue, we manage to put something in the oven, knowing full well that nothing magical is going to happen while they bake. The peppermint puddles dry well, but are nothing to speak of.

Looking at them sitting there are on the tray brings me back to that beautiful cover. What did I do wrong? Apparently I shouldn’t be dabbling in meringues. I’m annoyed to have wasted my time and ingrediants on the puddles. Turns out I can be pretty good at beating myself up for things. There is really little need to suggest introspection to me after a mistake.

Coming into round two, I am a little suspicious of that peppermint extract. I think that was a culprit in my first attempt. After a week, I’m willing to give it another chance. I’m at that crucial moment, perfect peaks, spinning round in the mixer. Now it’s time to add the peppermint extract. And I add it, one drop at a time. One, two…siiiinkk…three. We’re done. At three drops, there is no way I am adding another, not matter how short I am of the 1/8th of a teaspoon that’s called for. The mixer keeps on, whirring the meringue around and around. And it’s holding! At this moment, I know that the outcome is going to be much better, even if it’s not cover-worthy.

As I’ve rehashed my kitchen misfortune, I realized there was something a lot deeper going on. Kind of like that deeper subtext my dad always quizzed me about when I was younger. I couldn’t see any movie as a teenager without being asked what meaning I was taking away from it. Just like with those meringues, I realized I’m going to make mistakes. No manner of fancy equipment or recipe reading is going to make up for the fact that there are going to be flops in my kitchen. (Same in real life, outside the kitchen.) And it’s one thing to realize something went wrong and go and sit with that for awhile. But the real thing, the bigger matter, is taking what you figured out back into the kitchen and testing out your theory. Were you right? Or is it just a good idea with no substance? Maybe you’re just plain off track. You are never going to know unless you test it out. That courage to try, especially to try again, might be the biggest part.

So, I warn you, go gentle with the peppermint. It’s hard on the meringue. And while you’re at it, tone down the red a drop or two.

Cook the Cover AKA Peppermint Meringues

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Made about 25 meringues

3 large egg whites, room temperature

1/8 tsp. salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

3 drops peppermint extract

5 drops red food coloring

Preheat your oven to 200.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper, you don’t want to scent your Silpat! Beat egg whites and salt until white and foamy, about 1 minute. Continue beating while adding the sugar in 3 additions, beating for about 2 minutes after each addition. Peaks should be forming, beat another 2 minutes for firm peaks. Add powdered sugar and peppermint extract, all 3 drops of it!

Remove beaters and dot the red food coloring on the meringue. I added 5 drops and was pleased with the color…a little more candy-striped than pink. Spoon meringue into a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch tip. Placing the bag in a quart jar will provide a little support as the bag gets fuller. Pipe 1-inch rounds onto a prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart.

Bake meringues until dry, about 2 1/2 hours, then cool completely. Store in an airtight container to retain crisp texture.

I am all for change, or at least I try to be. While there is no denying I am a creature of some habits, I also relish a change of pace. It’s kind of funny how the seasons sneak up on you like that. One moment you are living off of tomato sandwiches and just-peeled peaches and the next, you are dreaming of a pot of soup. But before I get to that pot of soup, here are a few looks back at summer, a quick goodbye before I move on…

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It was a beautiful season and I’m looking forward to seeing summer once again. But for now, I’ll cozy up in the kitchen and savor the warmth!