Here in Nashville, you’d swear it was spring. People are wearing short sleeves. Birds are singing. Buttercups are growing. It’s like Mother Nature is having a midwinter hot flash, and we’re too busy enjoying it to worry about how long it will last.

That’s why I made this French-Style Strawberry Yogurt Cake with whipped cream and sugared strawberries.

When you’ve got something good, cake can only make it better.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

I had no idea it was National Peanut Butter Day, but it is! And that’s mighty fine timing, because my sister, Jennifer, is back with her recipe for Peanut Butter Bars. Did I eat that entire plate of them for breakfast one morning? Why, yes. Yes, I did.

By Jennifer Rather.

I am not a nagging wife. If I started nagging my husband about his To-Do list, then he would have free reign to point out the state of my kitchen, closets and laundry room.

That ain’t happening.

There are certain Saturdays, however, when the “Man Bug” bites him, and he rises at 8 a.m. to spend the next 10 hours getting EVERYTHING done. He mows, hammers, glues, trims and chops. He replaces every battery and light bulb in the house. It’s like watching myself clean during a “Hoarders” marathon on A&E.

On these Saturdays, I make his favorite Peanut Butter Bars.

Continue reading: Peanut Butter Bars

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

There are recipes you share, and there are recipes you help unleash on the world.

This one falls into the second category.

The first time I read about Salted Chocolate Pretzel Toffee, it was about 4 a.m. I’d woken up coughing and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I propped myself up, grabbed my laptop and planned to just read until I got drowsy. But then I found Shannan Martin’s blog, Flower Patch Farmgirl, and got lost in her world for hours. And while I was there, I learned about this toffee, only she called it by another name, using the two words that would light my way back to the Land of the Living: Crack Bark.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

So, I was thinking that sometime this week, you might need a new dessert to try. Something to take to a party or win the love of a man who won’t eat cooked fruit. Something so luscious that, in nine months, a crop of  firstborns will be named after you.

You’ve got to make Michele Stuart’s Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Pie.

Michele is a bakery owner who’s won 26 National Pie Championship awards. Her new book, “Perfect Pies,” is full of delicious-sounding pies (case in point: Coffee-Heath Bar Crunch), but I chose the Chocolate Pecan Bourbon, because it’s her signature pie. Her “lucky” pie. Her first National Pie Championship award-winner.

And holy goodness, it is a religious experience.

Continue reading: Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Pie with Bourbon Sauce

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

When my niece, Laney, was a baby, one of the first things I bought for her was a little apron. I had this fantasy that someday in the near future, we’d spend an idyllic afternoon together, with her standing on the little red chair at the kitchen counter, keeping me company while “we” baked together. I’d give her a whisk and an empty mixing bowl. Maybe we’d sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” together.

Last week, my sister mentioned that Laney was big enough to wear her apron now. She’s two.

“Why don’t we make some cupcakes together the next time I come up?” I asked. “I’ve got this carrot cupcake recipe that’s really, really good.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It’ll be fun.”

“Laney will love it, but don’t forget what a 2-year old is, Bec.”

“What’s that?”

“A 2-year old is a dictator without an army.”

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

We can be honest, right?

I couldn’t find my pumpkin cookie cutter right now if my life depended on it, but that’s OK, because making something fun doesn’t have to be a major production.

This Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake is made with baking staples you probably have in the house right now. You mix them up like you would for any chocolate chip cookie recipe, and then you bake the batter in a 10-inch cake pan until you get a big, beautiful, golden-brown cookie cake with a soft, puffy center and crisp, caramel-colored edges.

Not to mention all of that chocolate.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

This morning, I didn’t want to do anything in the world but make Apple Fritters. Sweet, golden-fried pillows bursting with chunks of Granny Smith apple, with craggy edges that are just right for catching that sweet cider glaze.

The sort of thing you make purely for pleasure.

I didn’t even wait to get dressed, which was good, because it turns out that making fritters in your PJs while the rest of the world is mowing their lawns only improves the experience.

So does music.

There’s nothing like padding around in the kitchen, barefoot in your PJs, listening to Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings while you chop the apples, whisk the cider into the glaze and catch that first whiff of cinnamon and nutmeg breathing life into the batter.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

If you’re anything like me, sometimes you have to have chocolate. NOW. And I’m not talking about that “one small piece after dinner” that fitness gurus conjured up to make the rest of us feel bad. I’m talking about a wedge of something warm and gooey, with a few of those “small pieces” on top. And maybe a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream to cut the sweet.

Something I can make in less than a hour.

Like this Goo Goo Pie.

It’s basically your granny’s brownie pie taken to the next level. About 10 minutes before it’s done, you sprinkle the top with chopped Goo Goos (or any other candy bar) and slide it back in the oven, so those pieces melt into a rich, gooey top layer that’s been known to inspire others to take out the trash in a spontaneous act of gratitude.

One pie to rule them all!

So, what’s a Goo Goo?

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

You could hear the polka music a mile away.

We’d park in the grass and run up the gravel hill to the fairground pavilion, trying to make it in time for the Chicken Dance, which the big band played at least once an hour. Those first few notes would bring everyone in earshot to the dance floor. Red-faced soldiers. Old women fresh from the beauty shop. College kids. Laughing couples. Toddlers in dirndls or lederhosen.

People who barely felt comfortable bobbing their heads at a concert would get out there and shake a tailfeather.

Usually while they were still sober.

Continue reading: Black Forest Cake

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

Ever wondered how Rocky Road got its name?

William Dreyer, the founder of Dreyer’s Ice Cream, had created a new ice cream flavor – one with chocolate, nuts and marshmallows – just before the stock market crash of 1929. He named it “Rocky Road” in the hope that it would make people smile during the “rocky road” ahead.

Smart man.

These Triple-Threat Rocky Road Cookies look like your basic chocolate-chocolate chip, but they are so much more. So full of chocolate, pecans, walnuts and marshmallows that they barely hold together. Outside, they have a crisp, thin layer that fools you into thinking they might be dry. But then you take a bite, and – holy goodness – these cookies are melt-in-your-mouth moist inside. Ready to fall apart.

Crunchy, chewy, sticky, gooey – all four food groups are represented.

And when you get a bite full of chocolate chips? It will take you into the next dimension.

Continue reading: Triple-Threat Rocky Road Cookies

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.