Duet: Butternut Squash Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting / Patsy Cline “The Legendary Patsy Cline”

App/Side/Bread, Country, Dessert, Duet

The food: Starting a food blog has its perks. For example, I recently attended a culinary class sponsored by Mann’s. There were about a dozen bloggers there, drawn by the promise of learning some cutting skills and a few recipes (oh, and receiving a copy of The...

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Truffles / Simon and Garfunkel “Bridge Over Troubled Water”

Dessert, Duet, Folk/Indie, Gluten Free

The food: A lot of the food I make for this blog is the product of me wanting to learn something new. I’ve never made truffles, but I love chocolate. I mean, I really love chocolate. After some reading, I realized truffles are pretty damn simple to make. Melt...

Duet: Coconut Macaroon Pie / Edith Piaf

Crooners, Dessert, Duet

The food: Macaroons started as Italian almond meringue cookies and, when they came to France in the 1500s, evolved into colorful stuffed sandwiches. While I like that classic cookie, I much prefer the chewy goodness of a coconut macaroon. Jewish chefs adapted the...

On Tour: Schnucks Cooking School

Dessert, Tour

I make no secret that I’m a novice in the kitchen. After two decades of making little more than tacos and spaghetti, I really focused on learning to cook about 2 years ago. My skills have greatly improved, but I have a long way to go before I’d ever feel...

Duet: Classic Cheesecake / Ella Fitzgerald “Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie!”

Blues/Jazz, Dessert, Duet, Uncategorized

The food: Cheesecake—especially the classic baked New York style—is a true crowd pleaser. Its rich, creamy flavors appeal to most tastebuds, and both the taste and the appearance fool people into thinking it is difficult to make. In fact, it’s a relatively...

Duet: Chocolate Chip Brownies / Ray LaMontagne “Gossip in the Grain”

Dessert, Duet, Folk/Indie

The food: Brownies are either great or awful, and most of that depends on personal taste. People who like their brownies cakey rather than gooey are probably good people, but I just don’t understand them. For my money, a brownie shouldn’t bother calling...