I hope there’s only one cowboy in your life because this recipe only makes 1 dozen.  I did not create this recipe from scratch.  I simply took former first lady Laura Bush’s recipe and halved it.  If these cookies are good enough for the President, they’re good enough for me.  I had the privilege of [Click to Continue Reading...]

Aren’t y’all glad it’s blackberry season?  These chocolate cupcakes are made with oil instead of butter, and they use low fat buttermilk to keep them extra moist.  But this isn’t a health advertisement–the buttercream frosting more than makes up for the lack of butter in the cupcakes.  I only point it out because some of you have asked [Click to Continue Reading...]

I’m very particular about my peanut butter pie.  True peanut butter pie does not have cream cheese in it—that would make it a cheesecake.  Peanut butter cheesecake is delicious, but that’s a whole other recipe we’ll get to on another day.  You may be tempted to drizzle this pie with chocolate or make it with [Click to Continue Reading...]

This cherries and cream dish is one of my favorite summer desserts.  The vanilla flavors in a good quality whiskey will be accented by the vanilla in the cream. Panna Cotta with Whiskeyed Cherries   Print Makes 2 small cups of panna cotta. Ingredients For the panna cotta: ½ cup milk (I use 1%) ¾ cup heavy [Click to Continue Reading...]

These pudding cakes are great with any type of citrus—lemon, lime, orange, anything really.  Three distinct layers form in these cakes.  Once they are inverted, a citrus curd layer is on the top, followed by a tender soft cake layer, then a more well-done cake with a sugary crisp crust on the bottom.  These cakes [Click to Continue Reading...]

This was one of the first recipes I scaled down to size.  I’ve always been mesmerized by the versions of Texas chocolate sheet (or sheath) cake.  My Mom’s version is made with shortening and contains cinnamon.  I kept the cinnamon but replaced the shortening with butter.  This little chocolate cake really cures the homesick blues. [Click to Continue Reading...]

This dessert requires a lot of steps but stay with me–I promise the reward of a slightly sweet biscuit topped with cream and juicy strawberries is more than worth it.  The biscuits can be made ahead of time, and the strawberries can be left to macerate for several hours.  Strawberry Shortcakes   Print Makes 2 strawberry [Click to Continue Reading...]

Lemon desserts were my grandmother’s favorite and now they have become mine.  I make these cupcakes with Meyer lemons when they are in season.  I read somewhere that a good substitution for Meyer lemon is half orange zest and half regular lemon zest.  I’ve never tried that, but if you have, let me know if it’s tasty. [Click to Continue Reading...]