First and foremost, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who entered my giveaway. It was so nice to see so many of you come out of woodwork to respond.  I had no idea so many of you had made and loved my recipes.  It made my heart overflow again with love. I greatly appreciate your suggestions on which desserts to scale down next.  There was an overwhelming majority for coconut cream pie, angel food cake, pecan pie, and tiramisu.  I will get right to work on all of your requests!  I have to confess that I’ve tried making angel food cake many times, and each time, my cupcakes shrink once they come out of the oven.  Not pretty.  In the meantime, I’ve been living on Jessica’s version.

I also want to say that many of you requested recipes that I already have on the site.  So, please please please, check out my recipe index and your wish will be granted!  Even for something you might not normally consider a dessert: corn muffins, biscuits, or banana bread, I already scaled those down for y’all.  Enjoy!

And now, without further ado, I would like to announce the winner!


#39 is Tara W. Congratulations, Tara!  I sent you an email.  Respond quickly so I can get this to you before Valentine’s Day!

Ok, if you didn’t win, I think I have something to make you feel better.  These chocolate pancakes complete with chocolate chips, strawberry sauce, and extra chocolate sauce will put a smile on anyone’s face.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: breakfast in bed for two, chocolate, Chocolate chips, pancakes, pancakes for two, small batch of pancakes, strawberries, Valentine's Day breakfast in bed, Valentine's Day dessert for two

First, don’t forget to enter my small bakeware giveaway.  You have until February 7^th at noon!

I really enjoy making granola.  I adore the whole process of gathering up all the mason jars that contain the oats, nuts and seeds.  I love the feel of the dry ingredients between my fingers and the aroma of the wet ingredients melting and mingling on the stove.

I challenge myself to spread the final product as evenly as possible on the baking sheet before sliding it into the oven.  I pace back and forth at the oven, anxiously awaiting a chance to stir.

But then, the enjoyment comes to an abrupt stop.  The process of moving the final product from a flat sheet pan to a round mason jar for storage makes me curse like a sailor.  I have to sweep the floor after every time I make granola.  I’ve tried using a Silpat, a funnel, a large plastic bag, you name it.  Ultimately, I can be found kneeling on the floor, scooping up bits of perfectly browned granola that I wish was going into my breakfast bowl, not the trash.  This granola especially upsets me when it spills because the pucker-y lemon flavor and crunch from the sunflower and poppy seeds should not escape your mouth!

I layered this granola with a lemon-flavored yogurt to amp up the citrus-y punch even more.  I wouldn’t mind if I received this on a tray each morning.

Other recipes in the 2012 Valentine’s Day Breakfast in Bed series so far:
Cherry Vanilla Baked Oatmeal
Cheddar Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches
Pina Colada Smoothie
Creme Brulee French Toast

To browse all of my small breakfast recipes, click here.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: lemon, parfaits, parfaits for two, poppy seed, sunflower seeds, yogurt

Well, hello there.  Aren’t you looking nice today?  Oh, stop, no need to flatter me back.  I’m just doing a little giveaway for y’all because the love in my heart is overflowing.  I never knew this website would bring such happiness into my life.  The process of creating recipes and photos each week is challenging but rewarding, and the people I have met along the way have enriched my life in ways I can not express with words.  I’m speechless and my joy bucket is full.

I put together a giveaway basket to help you bake desserts for two.  Too often I get emails about pan substitutions because you don’t have a 6″ pan or a small pie pan in your kitchen.  I wish I could reply to each email with a package of all the small pans you need.  Truth be told, if you put your address in an email to me, I would most likely send you whatever pan you were lacking.  It would make me so happy to do so.  But why not enter this here giveaway to win tiny pans and tiny tools perfect for dessert for two?!

The gift basket contains:  1 6″ cake pan (in the adorable shape of a heart), 1 6″ ceramic pie plate, one miniature loaf pan (perfect for my banana bread, cranberry bread, and gingerbread), 2 red ramekins, and a tiny microplane grater for grating small amounts of nutmeg or chocolate.

Also, I promise to have it delivered to you before Valentine’s Day so you can bake miniature desserts for your Valentine.

To enter:  Leave a comment with your favorite dessert that you would like me to scale down to serve two.  (psst! Check my recipe index, I might have already covered it.) You must include an email address in the field provided so I can contact you if you win.  Don’t worry, your email address will be kept private.

For additional entries to win, leave a separate comment for each of these actions:

1. Like my fan page on Facebook.  And thanks so much for doing so.

2. Follow me on Twitter @DessertForTwo and tweet about this giveaway.  Also, please leave me a comment with your twitter name so I can follow you back. I love new friends!

3. If you’re on StumbleUpon or Pinterest, go ahead and stumble or pin.

—
Good luck, y’all! The giveaway closes Tuesday, February 7th at noon.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 494 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Apparently, when I want to feel fancy, I reach for a vanilla bean and a kitchen torch.  Again and again.  I hope my friends and loved ones don’t mind the repetition.  A kitchen torch never fails to impress, and a vanilla bean never fails to deliver its intoxicating aroma.  Add cute little ramekins to the mix and I believe world peace could be attained right here in this country kitchen.

I fought my instinct to add some kirsch or amaretto to this baked oatmeal.  If it’s a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning, I think you should add the booze.  I pulled this recipe together one Friday morning when we decided it was too foggy to drive into work.  The school buses racing by on the county road outside prevented me from glugging it in with reckless abandon.  Even when I take a day off, I rarely fail to relax.  I treat it as a day to accomplish as much as possible:  laundry, mopping, baking, photographing, grocery shopping, weeding, making stock with the vegetable odds and ends I throw in the freezer while I cook each night (thanks, Nat!), and the list goes on and on.  I’m hoping these decadent breakfasts we’ve been enjoying lately will make me pause and savor the moments before the sun peaks through the fog.

Other recipes in the 2012 Valentine’s Day Breakfast in Bed series so far:
Cheddar Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches
Pina Colada Smoothie
Creme Brulee French Toast

To browse all of my small breakfast recipes, click here.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 36 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: baked oatmeal, bruleed oatmeal, cherries, creme brulee oatmeal, oats, pecans, small batch of baked oatmeal, small batch of oatmeal for two, small breakfast recipes, vanilla, vanilla bean

Let me interupt the Valentine’s Day Breakfast in Bed for Two series to bring y’all a little something chocolate-y.  I made this rich cake for my Nutella-holic friends over at Bella Nutella.  It’s a gussied up version of Eclair Cake: vanilla bean Frangelico pastry cream layered between graham crackers smeared with Nutella.

To get the recipe for this dessert (which I think you should eat on the couch with your Valentine straight out of the pan with one fork), click here.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: desserts made with nutella, Eclair cake, Frangelico, graham cracker cake, Nutella, small dessert for Nutella, vanilla, vanilla bean

For all of you that I sent running in the other direction with my neon green smoothie with spinach, this recipe is for you.  I modified my standard half-dozen buttermilk biscuits to make cheddar garlic biscuits.  Consider it an apology for freaking you out with a vegetable on a dessert website.  This is one mouth-watering and savory apology from me to you.

The recipe makes 7 biscuits instead of the usual 6 because the addition of cheddar.  These biscuits are so tender and melt-in-your-mouth (just like the ones at that restaurant chain that sells large crustaceans of a certain color…ya hear me?).  I don’t think you’ll have any trouble finding space for the spare biscuit.  If odd numbers bother you as much as they do me, just eat one straight out of the oven before anyone else sees.

Other recipes in the 2012 Valentine’s Day Breakfast in Bed series so far:
Pina Colada Smoothie
Creme Brulee French Toast

To browse all of my small breakfast recipes, click here. 

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 36 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: bacon, biscuit sandwiches, biscuits, biscuits like red lobster, cheddar garlic biscuit recipe, eggs, half dozen biscuits, recipe for small batch of biscuits

Next up in the Breakfast in Bed For Two series is a delicious, rich and indulgent smoothie.  By delicious, I mean rum.  By rich, I mean rum.  And by indulgent, I mean rum.  All before noon.

I always try to take care of you health nuts out there.  Last year, I made y’all mulled wine poached pears.  This year, I’m bringing you a luscious smoothie that won’t make you feel guilty, because it contains spinach.  If a green smoothie coming towards your sweetheart on a tray would make him jump out of bed and run in the other direction, just leave out the spinach.  But, really, y’all, you can’t taste the spinach at all.  So, why not fill your loved one with 1 cup of spinach before lunchtime and smile the rest of the day at your good deed?

If you’re admiring my barbed wire basket tray up there, I bought it from sweet Milisa over at Miss in the Kitchen.  Her sons made them with spare barbed wire from their ranch, and I snatched it up while she still had them on Etsy.  If we all ask her nicely, maybe they will make some more?  Please, Miss? Love ya.

Stay tuned for a little something sweet to stuff in that tray next to these smoothies.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: coconut, coconut milk, green juice, green monster, healthy pina colada, pina colada, pina colada smoothie, pineapple, rum, smoothie, smoothies for two, spinach, virgin pina colada

Ok, y’all, one month til Valentine’s Day.  Are you ready?

Valentine’s Day is a big deal here around Dessert For Two.  This is the time of year when couples bake teeny tiny desserts to share.  Personally, every day is Valentine’s Day for us, but that’s not as romantic as it sounds:  every day as Valentine’s means petite dishes with chocolate smears and egg white traces constantly piled high in the kitchen.  It also means 3 batches of the same dessert with post-it notes on each with a harsh rating card.  All responses will be over-analyzed and held against you.  (Do you hear that Mr. Dessert For Two??)

So, like I was saying, I love Valentine’s Day.  I always have.  Even when I was single in college, it was the one time of year that I would send cards to all my family members.  For some reason, I can’t be bothered with Christmas cards, but pink cards with hearts make me giddy.  Last year, I compiled a Valentine’s Day Desserts For Two list.  If you don’t see anything that strikes your fancy, browse my entire recipe index; everything is scaled down to serve two!  If your sweetheart’s favorite dessert is an out-of-season pumpkin dessert, I’ve got you covered.

This year, I thought I would start a Breakfast In Bed For Two series.  Starting now, I will be bringing you romantic breakfasts that serve two while you snuggle under the covers with your loved one.  Be careful with the maple syrup.  It stains white comforters something fierce.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 39 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: creme brulee french toast, french toast, french toast for two, vanilla, vanilla bean

Three cookie recipes in a row?! I know, I know. But the heart wants what it wants, doesn’t it?

Whenever I go home, I bring food gifts because even though Texas has plenty of good food, there are some gifts from California that even a Texan enjoys. There’s a local oil mill near my house (La Tourangelle), and I love to bring home almond, walnut and pistachio oils for salad dressings. (Side note: Texans only eat salad when a Californian is present in the room. It’s true, trust me.) I also like to stuff my bag with Meyer lemons, dried kiwis, and estate wines. I tasted this chocolate bar one day at a winery and knew I had to bring it home: creamy dark chocolate with crystallized ginger bits sprinkled throughout. There was something about that smooth chocolate with the crunch of the sugar crystals from the ginger that made me swoon. Plus, I already told you, Texans love spice with their sweet. The chocolate bar was such a hit that I decided to create a cookie with the same flavors.

You want tiny cubes of ginger for these cookies.  I buy the slices, then chop them into sticks, then finally cubes.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: 1 dozen chocolate cookies, chocolate, dessert for two, ginger, small batch of cookies, Valentine's desserts

I’m feeling generous today.  I’d like to give you cookies and a good laugh at the same time.  For those of you who asked in my last post, I posted some old ‘emo’ photos of myself on the Dessert For Two Facebook fan page.  Laugh it up and enjoy while you can, because I will probably take them down in a week.  Fortunately, that 20-year old girl who dyed her hair black and made some very questionable wardrobe choices is all grown up now and working hard in the research field.  I can’t risk having someone from my profession seeing these photos, so I’m posting them now under the assumption that folks who work in agriculture don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook.  But, the day that iPads are installed in tractor cabs probably isn’t too far away.

So, make some nostalgic peanut butter and jelly cookies and consider sharing with me your worst awkward phase photos.  Please?  If you do, I might share with you something even more hilarious:  we found old video clips of me dancing to indie rock songs (hello, Goldfrapp and Metric. P.S. I still love you, Emily Haines.)  I used to send these video clips to my honey when he was in Iraq, and he absolutely loves them.  His opinion is unbelievably biased because even a monkey would laugh at these clips: my skinny knees moving wildly in opposite directions thus defying the physiological limitations of such joints and some serious hip shaking that makes an onlooker cringe in fear that a muscle pull is imminent.  The best part?  These videos were filmed completely sober.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 36 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: jam, jelly, peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly cookies, peanut butter and jelly thumbprints, recipe for 1 dozen cookies, small batch of cookies, small batch of thumbprint cookies, small batch peanut butter cookies

First and foremost, Happy New Year, y’all!

The arrival of the New Year just makes me feel older.  Even though I’m only 27, I’m finding myself in complete shock at how quickly time passes.  I can’t believe my 10-year high school reunion invitations are being addressed as we speak.  Don’t get me wrong though:  I am not longing for the old days.  No thank you to the acne that hit me in my early 20s instead of high school when it hit everyone else. Nor am I pining to relive my no-leg shaving phase or my weird, indie rock/emo clothing and horn rimmed glasses days.

On Christmas, my lovely Godparents (hi Glori & Carl!) found some photos from my awful emo phase.  I distinctly remember the day when I wore cut-off army green pants and black converse to chemistry lab. My skinny ankles stuck out just enough to give a peak at my unshaven legs. (Do I even need to mention that a bra-less phase coincided with the hippie no-shaving phase?) Anyway, this blonde-haired beauty queen sat next to me that day. Her intense glares made it clear that she not only disapproved whole-heartedly of my ‘look’, but she was puzzled why a woman would want to portray herself this way. I want to thank that girl because she made me shave my legs and thus ended the razor-free streak in my life (and probably prevented futures ones as well). Her name was Summer, and I’m almost certain her last name was a season, too. (I bet Summer the beauty queen has 4 kids, bad roots and barely enough time to shave her own legs these days, just sayin’).

In the spirit of forgetting the awkward days of our youth, I want to share my grandma’s recipe for forgotten cookies.  Forgotten cookies consist of a beaten egg white with lots of goodies folded in (nuts, chocolate and coconut) that are scooped onto a foil-lined baking sheet (do not forget the foil!) and placed in a hot oven that you turn off promptly.  They just so happen to be gluten-free if that’s your thing.  I made the recipe as-written, but I think you could have a lot of fun here with different mix-ins: coconut, macadamia nuts and butterscotch chips?  Dried cherries, orange zest and white chocolate?  Lemon zest, hazelnuts and a splash of Frangelico?  Have at it!

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2012. | Permalink | 43 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: chocolate, coconut, forgotten cookies, gluten free, gluten free cookies, oven off cookies, small batch cookies, small batch gluten free cookies, walnuts

Hey there, y’all!  I know it’s been a while since I’ve checked in, but I like to take a little break for the holidays.  I hope y’all understand.

The only thing that could get me back in the kitchen this early was sweet Jenna from Eat, Live, Run asking me to do a guest post for her.  Jenna and I joke that we have the same lives:  we’re both Southern girls who live in northern California wine country and we both spent the holidays in Texas.

So click on over to her site and get my recipe for these champagne cupcakes with champagne buttercream!

Oh, and happy new year!

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2011. | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: champagne, champagne buttercream, champagne cupcakes, champagne desserts, cupcakes for two people, desserts with champagne

If these aren’t the cutest cut-out sugar cookies you’ve ever seen, you either play with puppies and kittens all day and are on cuteness overload, or you’re not from Texas.  Only one of those excuses is forgivable, by the way.

I scaled down sweet Bridget’s recipe, and not only is her recipe easy (yes, roll out cookies are easy!), they are delicious.  Every baker I know uses her recipes when they want perfect cookies every time.  I quartered her full size recipe in order to make 1 dozen cookies.

Feel free to use this dough for festive holiday cookie cutters; I won’t mind a bit.  But, since I’m going home to Texas for Christmas, these feel festive to me.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2011. | Permalink | 38 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: 1 dozen sugar cookies, small batch baking, small batch christmas cookies, small batch of cut out cookies, small batch of sugar cookies, sugar cookies, Texas

If we weren’t church-goin’ people, we would surely be idol worshippers. And our idol of choice? Velveeta. I don’t care what y’all say, the stuff is delicious. We would be such astute believers that we would refer to our idol as ‘Velveeta’ only in a hushed whisper. The more revered way to speak its name would be ‘pasturized cheese product.’ We would study the creation of pasteurized cheese product and understand that it is made by reincorporating the whey with the curd after the initial cheese-making process, a step with which other cheeses have not been annointed. Stabilizers are sprinkled in, not unlike frankincense and myrrh.

If you think fudge with cheese in it sounds gross, stop sipping your salted mocha frapp, get your fingers out of the salted caramel jar, and quit munching pretzel M&Ms just long enough to realize that this can be another way to get your salty-sweet fix. I promise y’all, it does not taste like cheese. It has the rich creaminess you know and love of Velveeta plus chocolate. If you can’t bear the thought of it, I created a scaled down version of classic fudge last year that you might be interested in here.

I wish to dedicate this recipe to my lovely best friend Emma who took one bite of this and loved it, but then when she heard it contained Velveeta, refused to eat another bite. Did you hear that? She loved it.

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2011. | Permalink | 38 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: easy fudge recipe, fudge recipe with velveeta, no bake fudge recipe, small batch of fudge recipe

I’ve been thinking a lot about weeds.  Well, I’ve been pulling a lot of weeds and therefore I’ve been pondering their existence.

Let me back up.  I told y’all that I have a Master’s degree in horticulture and agronomy, yes?  My specialty is weed management.  Did you even know you can specialize in that?  Did you know lots of people are weed scientists?  Oh, the career options they don’t tell you about in high school never cease to amaze me!  Before you even ask, I’ll tell you that studying and eliminating weeds is important because they are a major contributor to crop loss.  You like to eat food, right?  Then you should care about weeds.  Farmers yielding food is important.  Tell me you get this.

As I’ve been pulling copious amounts of amaranth and morning glory weeds out of my garden to make room for the onions and baby broccoli plants to survive, I’ve been asking God why the weed has the easier life.  Why do weeds freely grow without much care, while the plants that we depend on for food need to be meticulously coddled?  Doesn’t it seem like one of God’s mistakes?

Well, I think I discovered the reason behind it all.  Manual labor clears my mind.  I totally dig it.  (Get it?)  I decided that the tomato plant that struggles for existence is worth it because it yields delicious fruit, while a weed bears things of little importance.  Doesn’t it seem like another way of saying the best things in life are worth the struggle and the fight?  Doesn’t it always feel better to earn something you worked hard for, rather than accept something that dropped into your lap?  Say yes.

I’m telling myself the struggle and mess required of baking homemade Christmas gifts are worth it because they mean so much more than a store-bought something or other.  Someone please verify that this is true, and while you’re at it, please send someone to deal with all of these dishes.

Don’t you love this time of year?

© Christina for Dessert For Two, 2011. | Permalink | 34 comments | Add to del.icio.us
See more: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, gingerbread, mini gingerbread loafs, mini gingerbread loaves, small batch of gingerbread