Irish Coffee Blondies

At the request of an anonymous reader, I am going to try to include more food posts, with recipes. And I'm going to start with this beauty (cue trumpets and confetti cannons, or perhaps, bagpipes and a jig): Irish Coffee Blondies.
Irish as in whiskey. Coffee as in...well, coffee. Blondies as in brownies, but blonde.
I saw this recipe in MS Living in March in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, and I knew I had to try it out. And people! Oh it did NOT disappoint! Very rarely do recipes exceed my wildest expectations, but this one...well, you might just have to see for yourself. Click me to experience melt-in-your-mouth wonders I do have to warn you, you will never want to make another bar again. So if you feel any particular loyalty to m&m's, or coconut, or peanut butter, I would advise you to stop reading now. Don't say I didn't warn you.

 (Very nearly ate the unbuttered parchment paper stuck to the bottom. Yes, they are that good.) As I ate my [unnamed amount] piece, I wondered why I don't make these more often. As in, everyday. Unfortunately, the recipe starts, "2 sticks of unsalted butter." I suspect that is why. But really, every once in a while, or even once a day, they should probably be enjoyed. And do try to enjoy them, rather than inhale them as you will most certainly be tempted to do.

*Tip: If you don't happen to have any Bailey's on hand, I have a suspicion that cold brewed coffee would work just as well in the glaze (if you do try that, let me know how it turns out). And I've always had to bake it 10 minutes longer than the recipe says. Also, don't forget to butter the parchment paper...

Now, get thee out of thy chair and betake thyself to thy kitchen to experience these! You will not be sorry.

The Gloaming

gloam·ing

noun \ˈglō-miŋ\

: twilight; dusk

 

I pulled over to the side of the road, climbed a fence, and waded through waist-deep weeds to get these shots. But it was worth it.

I'd hate to miss any moment of this season that I love so dearly.

Maple Cheesecake with Glazed Pears

Though autumn doesn't officially arrive until September 22, it's been autumn for days in the littered landscape that is my mind. And that means I suddenly start hankering after PEARS! and PUMPKIN! and MAPLE! and APPLES! and SWEET POTATOES!

After the looong hot summer of eating simple, fresh fare with as little time spent over a steaming stove as possible, I start baking things again: for example, this past week I've made 1) this cheesecake 2) 2 pumpkin pies & 3) pumpkin latte coffee cake. It's like a disorder. Not that my family would complain.

(Just look at the beautiful transparency of those glazed pears!) In my humble opinion (which I share so rarely, so listen up), they were a little on the overly sweet side, being brushed with pure maple syrup & broiled to bring out the natural sugars in the pears. But oh, did they satisfy the eyes!

Late Summer's Bounty

Zucchini Bread Pancakes (via SmittenKitchen) with maple-sweetened greek yogurt

Eggs with kale, tomatoes, and feta

 

As September is upon us (hallelujah!), gardens are madly producing their last crops.

Zucchini's kind of a joke in the Midwest: leaving a grocery bag of it on your neighbor's porch is akin to leaving a bag of...something else not so nice. It doesn't take a green thumb at all to raise. And they seem to multiply overnight. If you don't harvest them daily, you'll discover you've got a leafy patch of green baseball bats where there used to be zucchini.

But they do make great pancakes. Really. See those flecks of green? They make a plain pancake moister. Add some nutmeg and cinnamon, and you've got a pancake that tastes unmistakably like crisp autumn days.

And blistered tomatoes with wilted kale, sprinkled with feta, baked with eggs? I don't think I need to say anything else.