It’s That Time of Year, and I have been in deep, deep denial. Sure, I’ve heard a few Christmas carols, but we didn’t send any cards. There’s no wreath on the door. The decorations are still nestled in the garage with care. And, ohmagah, my in-laws soon will be here.

So, I made a batch of Christmas-Morning Muffins to fortify me as I haul out the holly. No mixer required. Just combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, the liquid (including fresh clementine or orange juice) in another, and stir them together into a lovely, lumpy batter. Then, fold in a few handfuls of dried cranberries or a mix of cranberries and chocolate chips. The topping is just a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar over each muffin. Light, cakey, and they smell like Christmas.

I’m going to enjoy every bite of one of these muffins (maybe two), do a few one-armed push-ups, and get to work transforming the Continental Crump House into a Winter Wonderland. Because it’s time. Because we need a little Christmas. And because one of our neighbors asked if we were celebrating this year. Must. Deck. Halls. Let’s go!

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I knew she was holding out on me.

Mom makes the best Monkey Bread, but she only does it once a year, when they release a new “Twilight” movie.

Kidding!

She’s made us monkey bread and hot chocolate (with marshmallows!) for breakfast every Thanksgiving morning since my bedroom was plastered with posters of The Muppets, Bo Duke and B.J. and The Bear. Biscuits quartered, dipped in butter, rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked in a bundt pan, forming a wreath of sweet and sticky goodness worth waiting a year for. Read More…

The first time I tried Shrimp and Grits, well nigh many years ago, I was at a party at a Mardi Gras warehouse in New Orleans. Just an hour or so from getting my drink on, donning an electric blue boa and barging into a roped-off Green Room, where I would stand face-to-face with Academy Award-Winning Director Oliver Stone and call him a “damn Hollywood type” who needed to come out and “party with the people.”

Since alcohol just puts me to sleep, I blame the Shrimp and Grits. Shrimp cooked in a “gravy” flavored with bacon, onion, bell pepper and scallions and then spooned onto a mound of peppery cheese grits. It’s like a party on a plate. And, even though it’s a traditional Southern dish, it was exotic to a landlocked Tennessean like me. To find Southerners with enough shrimp to eat them for breakfast, you have to move along the coast, especially to South Carolina, where fishermen first started bringing surplus shrimp home to eat with their grits.

When Mom asked me about the trip, I neglected to mention the cocktails, the boa or bullying Oliver Stone. But I spread the gospel of those Shrimp and Grits. Now, we don’t have a family holiday meal without them. I wish I could say the same about the boas.  Read More…

OK, I have two incredibly important questions for you tonight:

1. How do you pronounce granola? Do you say gruh-NO-luh or GRAY-NO-luh?

2. And, what would you add to this Peanut Butter Granola recipe? It has oats, wheat germ, coconut, honey, vanilla, crunchy peanut butter and raisins. It’s loaded with good stuff. But it seems like something’s missing. Brown sugar? Chocolate? Krispy Kremes? Help a woman out.

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After delivering the last two wedding cakes, I started flirting with the idea of an all-raw diet. Or meat-only. Anything that didn’t involve butter, flour, eggs or sugar. But then I remembered that my friend Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table was hosting this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking challenge.  So, I decided to crank up the oven just long enough to bake a half-batch of her pick, Dorie’s Allspice Crumb Muffins.

Oh, I should have made the full dozen.

These muffins smell like Christmas morning. They’re light and cakey, with a crunchy topping that’s all sugar and spice. They are … scrumptious. In fact, you’ve probably got the ingredients right now, so bookmark the recipe here on Kayte’s site. Or pick up a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours.”

So, when I married Jeff, I vowed to make his favorite cinnamon rolls on a semi-regular basis, but that isn’t always practical. There are times when, strangely enough, he doesn’t want to wait several hours for the dough to rise … and the rolls to rise … and the baking. Like when we’re having a lazy Sunday breakfast or a late-night craving strikes during a marathon of “The Wire.”(Oh. In. Deed.) That’s when I break out The Great Compromise: these Quick Cinnamon Biscuits.

Sweet goodness. There’s no bringing ingredients to room temperature or even melting a little butter. You mix the dough by hand in one bowl, pat it into a rectangle, and roll the filling inside. Then slice the dough into rounds, place them in a baking dish, and bake them. Since the biscuits are packed in tight, they stay soft and gooey inside, just like a cinnamon roll. Ice, eat, repeat.

As vows go, promising to stick around in sickness and in health is one thing. But promising to stick around in sickness and in health with a lifetime of cinnamon rolls (and cinnamon roll-type treats) is way more fun. In fact, you probably have the ingredients for these right now …

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Every time I bake a batch of Peppery Bacon and Cheddar Scones – these magical clusters of  heat, tang and smoke – Jeff and I have the same conversation: what makes them scones instead of biscuits?

Typically, I’d think of a scone as being slightly sweet and made with cream. A European scone might be served with a little clotted cream and jam. A big, fat American scone would probably be loaded with fruit and maybe nuts. Or peanut butter and M&Ms. But bacon, cheddar, green onions and a smack of pepper? So not the choice of the pinkies-up crowd. However, after a little research, I discovered scones and biscuits are more similar than I’d thought. Both can be sweet or savory, triangular or round. Both can contain cream or buttermilk or the same fats, including lard. Both are crusty with soft interiors. Even the mixing methods are the same.

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Peaches are the Lolitas of the fruit world. They look ripe-and-ready long before they actually are. You can check an apple for bruises, tap a watermelon or pinch a grape to make sure it’s firm, but when it comes to peaches, it pays to ignore everything but the smell. I don’t mean the smell it has when you hold it to your nose and take a deep breath. I mean, keep walking until the air around them intoxicates you with the smell of sweet, summery peaches and thoughts of cobbler, pies and crips. Saucers of peaches and cream. Sticky grilled peaches topped with mascarpone and drizzles of orange blossom honey.

The scent of a truly ripe peach is so full of possibilities.

Possibilities like a heaping platter of Sweet Peach Muffins with Brown Sugar-Walnut Streusel Topping. Bright, juicy peach bits surrounded by a cake dark with cinnamon, allspice and rum. The streusel on top adds just the right amount of crunch, with the earthiness of the walnuts balancing the sweetness of the brown sugar. This is not some heavy, gummy, cloying, drive-thru muffin. It’s light and cakey, full of peaches at their peak. If it turns out we really are what we eat, I want to be a peak peach.

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A soft cake flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon zest and vanilla. A crumb topping loaded with brown sugar and chopped walnuts. Why was I ever on the fence about making this Blueberry Crumb Cake?

Oh, yes. Because I can’t eat blueberries. I know, they’re juicy and sweet and delicious. You’re preaching to the converted. But they put the fear of God into my intestines. I was going to substitute another fruit, but then I learned something new about Jeff: he loves blueberries. He was all about this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie pick being a Blueberry Crumb Cake. So, we negotiated: I baked with blueberries; he’ll be trying goat cheese later this week.

Regardless of my blueberry affliction, I completely recommend this cake. It smells fantastic as it bakes, it stays moist, and the crumb topping strikes just the right balance of sweet, buttery and crunchy. It’s so tasty, I might be able to talk Jeff into trying goat cheese and a radish. I’m just saying.

For the recipe, visit Sihan at Befuddlement, or pick up a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours.”

When you’re craving sticky buns, and you have the time to let your yeast dough rise overnight in the refrigerator, you make Dorie Greenspan’s Pecan Honey Sticky Buns. Golden brioche dough that’s been baptized in honey. Christened with pecans. They are so worthy of a two-syllable damn.

But when you’re craving sticky buns RIGHT NOW, and you’re not looking for a religious experience, Ina Garten’s Easy Sticky Buns will do. Her recipe skips the whole dough-making process and uses defrosted puff pastry. You grab a muffin tin, and put a tablespoon of her butter-brown sugar mixture in each cup. Then you fill the puff pastry with brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins, roll it up, slice it, and place each piece in a muffin cup, spiral side up. They will look weird. You’ll think you’re doing it wrong. But you’re not. Resist the urge to smash the dough down into the muffin cup.

If you follow the courage of your convictions, after 30 minutes in the oven, your pastry will have puffed, the butter-brown sugar mixture will have liquefied, and when you invert the pan – BOOM! – quickie sticky buns. Keep a box of puff pastry in your freezer, and you’ll be ready to make these babies at the first sign of a Snow Day, Sick Day or Saturday. Just like Ina does for Jeffrey.

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