Do you remember the Mark Peel cherry ice cream sauce that I told you made me cry at the Silver Spoons event?  That sauce was so incredible that I found myself daydreaming about it a week later.  A dish that sticks in your mind like that must be recreated.  Now, I’m no Mark Peel, but I figured I should be able to jimmy up a home-style version that would appease my craving.  Oh people, I wish I could send each of you a little jar of this divine sauce so you believe me when I say that it may be the best thing I’ve ever made.

At the event, I actually had the nerve (ahem, cajones) to ask Mark what was in his cherry sauce.  Wine.  Vanilla.  Star anise.  Cherries.  Working from that rough outline, I came up with a respectable tribute to his other-worldly original.  A good red wine reduction sauce paired with juicy, fresh Bing cherries, freshly scraped vanilla beans and spooned over vanilla ice cream.  Say hello to your new Grown Up Ice Cream Sundae.

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People, I have a confession to make.  Being a responsible grown-up is way harder than it looks!  I know this is old news to you amazing folks that have been pulling it off flawlessly for years, but for a newbie to the Grown Up World, I’m still a bit in shock.  Between working a full-time, crazy stressful job, grocery shopping, planning and making relatively nutritious meals, exercising, laundry, ironing and keeping an apartment in semi-presentable shape, how do you find time to do anything else (ahem, keeping up with a blog)?  This specific blog post has been interrupted by at least three of the above mentioned items on five separate occasions.

And I don’t even have kids!  I don’t know how all you Mommies out there do it.  Consider me amazed.  Now, don’t misunderstand me, I’m not complaining … merely explaining my too-long-to-mention absence from your email inbox and feed readers.  Let me make it up to you, please?  Will these adorable summery cupcakes do?  These lemon bottomed cupcakes topped with creamy raspberry cheesecake are the summer version of the popular Black Bottom Cupcakes.  Tangy, light and with a perfectly moist crumb these pink and yellow lovelies are a party in your mouth.

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At the first sight of ripe, red strawberries at the grocery store each spring, I go absolutely bonkers.  Bonkers, people. Three pints for $5? Great, I’ll take six … that kind of bonkers.  After a long, cold winter of nothing but apples, pears and imported oranges, strawberries are a sign of all things summery to come.  Visions of warm days filled with cookouts, burgers and fruit salad dance through my mind.  Of course, this all leads to thought of lounging poolside in a bathing suit, which immediately puts a damper on my desire to swirl those beautiful strawberries into a batter of sugar, flour, butter and all kinds of badness.

What is better than a bowl brimming with fresh, ripe strawberries topped with a lush, creamy vanilla yogurt?  Not much.  The beautiful thing about this dessert is the utter simplicity of it.  When it’s too darn hot for thinking of turning on the oven, this cool bowl of deliciousness is a perfect way to satisfy your sweet tooth without sabotaging your bathing suit body!  Rather than topping these beautiful berries with gobs of whipped cream, the topping is a mixture of Greek yogurt, agave nectar (or honey) and vanilla.  Super simple, low-calorie deliciousness to keep you in bathing suit shape!

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I know that my calendar says that it’s going to be March tomorrow, but that can’t be right … can it?  What happened to February?  I distinctly remember having a conversation with a co-worker near the end of January commenting on how I predicted that my February was shaping up to be nothing but a giant blur.  Looking back on the past four weeks, I remember (1) work, (2) snow, (3) eating things that can be made in 30 minutes and (4) more work.  Everything else is a blurry haze.

Blurry haze aside, I do remember making this Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake in my favorite mini-springform pan and, given it’s low-guilt factor, wishing that I had made two more!  A crust made from low-glycemic whole wheat crackers is filled with a luscious (sugar-free!) cheesecake filling swirled with raspberry preserves.  Even in the midst of a month that was a complete blur, this cheesecake is utterly memorable.

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Consider these clementine cakes my apology for throwing that heaping pile of indulgent deliciousness in your direction last week.  When I tell you that these mini cakes are guilt-free, I mean they are completely guilt free.  They also happen to be gluten-free, refined sugar-free and flour-free (ok, flourless but I was on a roll there!). Did I forget to mention that they are also packed with protein and fiber?  I know, it’s too good to be true.

These mini beauties are adapted from a recipe made famous by the Domestic Goddess herself, Nigella.  As strange as it sounds, you puree whole clementines (after boiling the heck out of them!), mix that with ground almonds, a couple other baking staples and you have the most incredibly moist, flavorful mini cakes around.  Dip them in dark chocolate (packed with antioxidants!) and you have all the indulgence without the waistline impact.  Like I said: Guilt. Free.

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Am I the only person who finds the thought of making batches and batches of Christmas cookies intimidating?  There is so much rolling of dough, cutting of intricate shapes, hoping those shapes don’t spread into unrecognizable blobs while in the oven, whipping up batches of different colored icing that will likely be the wrong consistency and run all over the place like a bad finger painting experiment.  Plus, everyone has a “sure fire” “perfect” sugar cookie recipe, which inevitably ends up being less-than-perfect and far from sure-fire when tested in your own kitchen.

Let me introduce you to your new best friend in a sea of holiday craziness.  They are delicious, they sport the traditional red and green holiday colors and they look terribly fancy.  The brown sugar base blends with orange zest, tangy cranberries and salty pistachios for a flavor explosion that just gets better with time.  The best news, they are beyond simple to make.  The whole batch will be finished in less than an hour, which should leave you plenty of time for the requisite shopping/present wrapping/partying/celebrating.

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I wish that I could take credit for these ridiculously cute, ingenious bites of pumpkin pie goodness.  I can’t, but I can give credit to the brilliant Bakerella who is the creator of these too-cute-for-words mini-bites of deliciousness. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? If you don’t know Bakerella yet, consider this your official introduction.  Did I mention that Bakerella was the creator of the now-omnipresent cake pops?  Oh yeah, she’s that good.

Starting a new job (and tackling a 90 degree learning curve) has left me exhausted and totally out of time for cooking, baking, blogging and all things fun.  Luckily, this crazy-simple recipe takes almost zero brain power.  I’m fairly certain I wasn’t even paying attention when I made these little guys and they still came out perfectly!  I added some allspice, cloves and ginger to give the filling some extra zest.  I suspect that these will become a quick standby at holiday parties and potlucks.  Next time I’m going to serve these beauties with a little dollop of whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon. Come on, how can you resist that level of cuteness!

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