Apple Pie Old Fashioned

5 Comments November 19, 2025 terrie gura

When all the chaos of shopping, prepping and cooking for Thanksgiving is done, there’s no happier feeling for me than hearing the doorbell, as guests begin to arrive for time spent together and stories and laughter around a carefully prepared meal. At our house, that ritual includes a cocktail, and this year, mine is a tipsy, on-ice adaptation of America’s favorite pie. Care to join in?

Why have a signature cocktail for holidays?

It might seem snooty to offer a signature cocktail for a holiday gathering, but hear me out on the reason that I started doing this. When guests arrive for dinner, we are almost always heading into the final stretch of prepping, which can be hectic or even intense at our house— depending on whose year it is for the turkey (this year, it’s mine). I love to play mixologist, and our bar is well-stocked to make just about any drink you could imagine, which is kind of the problem. Rather than overwhelm our guests with dozens of choices from our bar, I have found it beneficial to offer a thoughtful signature drink— something that captures the essence of the season with broad appeal for any number of tastes— and our guests seem to agree.

What goes into an apple pie old fashioned?

An apple pie old fashioned infuses the sweet and warm flavors of cooked apples with the smoothness of bourbon, and for an extra homey touch, I’ve “fat washed” the bourbon with an embellished browned butter— a nostalgic nod to an all-butter pie crust. The cooked apple flavor in this drink comes from an apple cider syrup, which replaces the sugar cube or simple syrup that would otherwise be muddled into the cocktail.

Does all of this sound complicated or intimidating? It isn’t! But it does take some advance planning so that you have your ingredients ready to wow your guests when they arrive. Watch me break it down.

Apple pie syrup

For best results, purchase a fresh apple cider from the produce cold case, rather than a bottled version off the shelf. If you can get one from a local supplier, that’s even better! Heat the cider with a spoonful of brown sugar, the peel of a lemon and a couple of cinnamon sticks. Reducing the cider is necessary so that you get enough apple flavor without adding too much cider and over-diluting the drink. Strain out the solids, and bottle it up! This will keep in the fridge for about three weeks.

This spiced apple cider syrup can be used in other cocktails, too.

The amplified browned butter wash

For the browned butter trick, I ventured into the science of food and tried the viral recipe trick for making the most delicious browned butter ever. You might recall mention of this last autumn, when I presented the caramel apple blondies that were also made with browned butter, but with a boost. An addition of dried milk powder enhanced the toasty, nutty flavor of browned butter, and the result was just beyond. I knew when I made the blondies that I’d have to try this trick again for a fat-washed bourbon, and here we are!

As if regular browned butter isn’t delicious enough? This is way over the top!

I waffled a bit on whether to use salted or unsalted butter for the cocktail, and when I tasted the outcome of my efforts using unsalted butter, I knew instantly that it was the wrong choice. Salt does the same thing for a cocktail as it does for a dish, so I remedied this with a pinch of salt in the finished butter— no harm, no foul. Pour the bourbon into the jar with the cooled browned butter and give the jar a few gentle shakes. Let the mixture settle and separate, and then refrigerate overnight or up to two days.

To clarify, there is no honey in this. I couldn’t get the label off the jar!

The extra milk fat from the powdered milk, plus that hint of salt, produced a deeply addictive flavor, which I infused into my bourbon overnight and then strained out through a coffee filter the next day. By the way, do not discard that butter! As the browned butter flavors the bourbon, so the bourbon flavors the butter solids. Repurpose the butter in your sweet potato casserole or green beans amandine or anything else that would enjoy a little kick of bourbon.

Scoop out the cold, hardened butter and strain the bourbon through a coffee filter.
Be patient, this takes time.

It’s cocktail time!

Having the apple cider syrup and browned butter-washed bourbon ready ahead of time makes it a snap to stir up these apple pie old fashioneds when your guests arrive for cocktail hour. The drink is easy to make, combining the browned-butter washed bourbon, a splash of the spiced cider syrup and a quick dash of spiced bitters in a mixing glass with plenty of ice, then strained over a fresh ice cube and garnished with an apple slice and cinnamon stick.

I love smoked cinnamon bitters here, but ginger or cardamom work great, too.

Wanna go for bonus garnish points? Balance a strip of cinnamon-dusted baked pastry dough on the edge of the glass, too. If you’re making a pie for the holiday, simply save a few strips of dough, giving them a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar before you bake to golden crispy goodness. These are best fresh; if you don’t have time, the apple and cinnamon stick will be impressive enough!

Apple Pie Old Fashioned Cocktail

Servings: 1
Prep Time: at least one day ahead
Difficulty: Average
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This cocktail requires some advance planning to prepare a cider syrup and browned butter-washed bourbon, but you can believe it's worth the trouble!

Ingredients

2 oz. browned butter-washed bourbon (description below)
3/4 oz. spiced cider syrup (instructions below)
a quick shake of cocktail bitters (cinnamon, cardamom or ginger work nicely)
big square ice cube
cinnamon sticks, fresh apple slices and sugared pie crust for garnish

Directions

Combine bourbon, syrup and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass or shaker. Add one cup of ice and stir for about 20 seconds. Strain over a large ice in a double rocks glass.
Garnish with an apple slice and cinnamon stick, plus a baked strip of sugared pie crust if desired.

Make the browned butter-washed bourbon ahead of time. Use salted butter for best results, and consider using whole fat dried milk powder if you can find it. The washed bourbon will keep for several weeks in the fridge, and you can repurpose the butter solids in a dessert or sweet potato casserole.

Directions

Melt one stick (8 Tbsp.) butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the butter begins to bubble and froth, quickly whisk in a tablespoon of dry milk powder and whisk constantly until the froth dies down and the milk solids take on a caramel color. Remove from heat immediately and pour the hot butter into a large glass jar to cool.
Pour two cups bourbon into the jar of cooled browned butter, cap it and give it a few gentle shakes. Allow it to settle and separate, and then put it in the refrigerator overnight.
Spoon out the butter solids and strain the bourbon through a coffee filter-lined strainer or pour-over device. Bottle the washed bourbon and keep refrigerated until ready to use. This is enough for eight cocktails.

Make the apple cider syrup ahead of time as well. For best results, use fresh-pressed apple cider from a farm stand or the produce department rather than bottled from the juice aisle.

Directions

Pour 2 cups apple cider into a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the thin peel of an organic lemon (none of the white pith, and wash it first!), and two or three pieces of cinnamon stick.
Bring the mixture to a slight boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half. Stir in a tablespoon of brown sugar until dissolved. Allow the syrup to cool before straining out the lemon peel and cinnamon sticks. Transfer to a bottle and refrigerate up to three weeks. This makes enough syrup for at least eight cocktails.

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

4 Comments November 13, 2025 terrie gura

Sometimes a recipe idea has an unexpected side benefit, and that was the case with this macaroni and cheese recipe I made for our Thanksgiving meal last year. Though I intended it a way to “sneak” a few more vegetables onto our plates— namely butternut squash and cauliflower— my husband surprised me with his assessment that this was “the best mac and cheese” I’d ever made! My memory tells me he may have said this about a few others as well, but still, it’s high praise!

Mac and cheese is a standout comfort food, and I love bending it into various flavor directions, which you already know if you’ve been following me for any length of time. It is the “comfort” in Comfort du Jour and was the first recipe I posted when I began this blog more than five years ago. Mac and cheese is in a category that I call “blank canvas foods,” open for suggestion and adaptation with endless possibilities or, should I say, “pastabilities?” 😉

I don’t usually include mac and cheese on the Thanksgiving table because it’s a dish that I make year-round and we have so many other seasonal dishes that demand space. Our guests would revolt if we didn’t have Les’s incredible garlic mashed potatoes or his cranberry sauce with Mandarin oranges. And Brussels sprouts of some variety are a must. But this mac and cheese feels unique with the butternut squash that brought a distinctively “autumn” flair. I can easily make a case for adding this to the list of Thanksgiving standards. Come along, and I’ll show you how easy it was to make!

Stand-ins for the squash

There are two substitutes that come to mind if butternut squash isn’t your thing or if it’s out of reach for any reason. Pumpkin and sweet potato each have similar texture and color, and either would work great here— just be sure they are cooked soft enough to puree smoothly. Canned pumpkin is a good option, and I made a savory pumpkin mac and cheese a few years ago that proves this point.

Prepping the vegetables

Both the squash and cauliflower will be pureed, so I needed to cook them to full tenderness ahead of making the dish. My steamer insert doesn’t get much action, but it earned its keep this time, as I boiled the squash cubes and simultaneously steamed the cauli in the insert. Three cheers for only needing one burner! This took about 25 minutes. I pressed the squash through a mesh strainer and then blotted away excess moisture with paper towels. The cauli only needed to cool.

The cheese sauce

All my mac and cheese recipes begin the same way— with a roux. This simple mixture of butter (or oil) and flour creates a thickening base for whatever liquid you plan to use (in this case, milk). It’s one of the first important lessons I learned in my grandmother’s kitchen when I was barely even tall enough to reach the stove. While my butter melted and browned slightly, I tossed in some finely diced onion for flavor before adding the flour and, eventually, the milk.

A barely cooked roux has more thickening power, and a dark one has more flavor.
Aim for the sweet spot, with the butter a warm, golden color.

The cheese came next, beginning with a few ounces of American processed cheese. I know, I know, some say that this isn’t “real” cheese. But as Kenji López-Alt, one of my culinary idols, has said, it’s like saying that meatloaf isn’t meat. American cheese is just cheese that has been chemically adjusted with certain salts and stabilizers that prevent fat separation when you melt it. Using a little bit in my cheese sauce sets the stage for the other cheeses to remain more stable. In other words, it keeps my cheese sauce more creamy than gloppy! The other cheeses I used were gruyere, which I love for its nutty flavor, and sharp white cheddar.

All this flavor layering made my mac and cheese irresistible.

Do you see my secret weapon there? Roasted garlic adds incredible depth of flavor to a cheese sauce, and I squeezed out the entire thing into this one, plus the squash puree and (though I missed getting a picture of it) the tender steamed cauliflower. After whisking it all together, you can see that my sauce looks a little broken, but my immersion blender takes care of that!

Blending only takes about 30 seconds, but it makes a big difference!

I started using this trick a few years ago and I’ve been very pleased with the smooth consistency of my cheese sauces. I highly recommend, though it isn’t a dealbreaker if you don’t have one. Try pureeing the squash, garlic and cauliflower in a bullet or regular blender with a bit of warm milk or cream before whisking it into the sauce. Be sure the components are cool first!

Putting it all together

Despite my efforts, sometimes I mess up and forget to take pictures at certain stages of making a dish, and that’s exactly what happened here. For a full rundown on how I finished this mac and cheese, check out the click-to-print recipe card at the end of the post. Here’s the Cliffs Notes version:

Cook the large elbow until al denté and stir in the cheese sauce while the pasta is hot.
Make some buttery toasted panko crumbs.
Sprinkle the crumbs on top and bake until the cheese is ooey-gooey and bubbly and the crumbs are crispy crunchy toasty. Because in my kitchen, it’s all about texture!

What’s happening in your kitchen this Thanksgiving? Let’s find out in the comments whether you’re sticking with the standards or adding something new to the repertoire! And what would cause a revolt in your family if you omitted it from the table?

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

Servings: About 8
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: About one hour
Difficulty: Average
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This was meant to be a way to sneak extra vegetables into my dish, but the squash and cauliflower actually gave this a terrific flavor. Use an immersion blender if you have one, to make the sauce extra smooth and creamy.

Ingredients

4 Tbsp. salted butter
1 cup diced sweet onion
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups whole milk
Several grates fresh nutmeg
About 1/4 tsp. white pepper
About 4 oz. American cheese, shredded or cubed
8 oz. gruyere cheese, shredded (reserve some for the top)
6 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup butternut squash puree, pressed dry with paper towels
1 whole bulb roasted garlic
Most of a box large elbow macaroni, cooked to slightly firmer than al dente
1 1/2 cups cauliflower mini florets, steamed until tender and smashed with a fork
1/2 cup unseasoned panko crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parm-Romano blend cheese (freshly grated)
2 Tbsp. butter

Note: If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can take a different route to achieve a smoother sauce. After the butternut squash and cauliflower have cooled to near-room temperature, add them to a blender with the roasted garlic and about 1/4 cup cream or milk. Blend until puréed and smooth, and then whisk this into the cheese sauce. Do not use a blender while these ingredients are hot, unless you remove the top vent cover. If you have a bullet-style blender, the mixture must be no more than lukewarm.

Want to work ahead? The vegetables can be prepped and cooked the day before, and you can make the mac and cheese ahead of time and refrigerate. Bake it cold, but give it a few extra minutes to heat through and become bubbly.

Directions

Melt butter over medium heat in a small stockpot. Add diced onion and salt and cook until the onions are tender and translucent, but not brown. Sprinkle in flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the roux is bubbly and golden in color. Pour in half of the milk and whisk until smooth and thickened; repeat with the rest of the milk.
Add the American processed cheese to the sauce, whisking until fully melted. This cheese will aid in achieving a sauce that is smooth and creamy rather than grainy. Add the gruyere and cheddar in handfuls, mixing and melting after each.
Whisk in the butternut squash puree, roasted garlic and tender cauliflower. The mixture will be slightly textured.
Use an immersion blender to puree the sauce directly in the pot. When it’s smooth and creamy to your liking, pour it over the cooked elbow macaroni and fold several times to coat the pasta. Be intentional about this step, so that the sauce has a chance to seep inside the hollow macaroni shapes.
In a separate small skillet, melt the two tablespoons of butter and toss the panko crumbs until they are toasted and golden. Season with salt and pepper, plus garlic or onion powder if you wish. Remove from heat and stir in the Parmesan.
Transfer the mac and cheese to a large baking dish. Top with the buttered crumbs and preheat the oven to 350° F, with the oven rack in center position. Bake the mac and cheese for about 30 minutes, or until bubbles appear all the way around th edge of the dish. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Sweet Potato-Harissa Hummus

8 Comments October 23, 2025 terrie gura

It’s sweet potato season, and I’m committed to finding ways to enjoy this vegetable that grows prolifically in my state of North Carolina. Sweet potatoes are incredibly versatile and highly nutritious, yet they frequently get turned into something that looks like dessert, especially around Thanksgiving. I’m picturing that marshmallow crusted calorie bomb that everyone calls a casserole. Or my own classic sweet potato dish with loads of butter, brown sugar and pecans. Come to think of it, that one is quite delicious. It’s probably why I turned it into a signature cocktail a couple of years ago. But I digress.

Anyway, today I’m honoring the savory nature of sweet potatoes with an easy-to-make hummus, embellished with roasted sweet potato and harissa. It’s a fun little twist that celebrates the health benefits of sweet potato— antioxidants, potassium and lots of fiber— with just enough Moroccan spice to make it interesting and unique.

A little swirl of olive oil at serving time is the perfect finish.

I happened to mention this hummus recently when we were out to dinner with friends, and they were so intrigued that I’ve decided to make it again when they come over for cocktails and appetizers in a couple of weeks. I’m determined to heed my own advice about carving out time to get together with friends more frequently, even if it’s only for a casual bite (or maybe especially so). It’s the company that matters most, and who doesn’t love appetizers? Come along and I’ll show you how easy this one is!

Ingredients for hummus

Gather up a few key ingredients, including: garbanzo beans, which I like to call “chickpeas;” tahini, which is a thin sesame seed paste; olive oil and some seasonings. You’ll need a food processor or a good strong blender to make it, though I would not recommend using a bullet-style blender. The mixture will be somewhat hot, so you need to vent the container you use to blend it. If you only have a bullet blender, let it cool before you get to that step (for safety sake).

I generally take the shortcut of using canned chickpeas, but freshly cooked is probably even better— just be sure you cook them tender enough to blend well, and hold back some of the cooking liquid, too. Here’s a bit of good news for readers with certain legume allergies, including my high school bestie, who cannot eat chickpeas, soybeans or lentils. You can absolutely make hummus with other canned beans, including cannellini, which I think are divine! They are softer than chickpeas so a few adjustments are needed, and I’ll spell those out in the click-to-print recipe card you’ll find at the end of this post.

The process for making hummus

One burning question my friend, Charlotte, asked when I shared the exciting news of this sweet potato hummus was, “did you peel the chickpeas?” And this is a fair question, given that some traditionalists say it’s necessary. The answer is no, though I have done it once and I found it to be a complete waste of 90 minutes, only to end up with a pile of chick peas roughly half the size of when I started and a huge pile of skins that went straight to the trash. The theory behind this frustrating and tedious step is that the thick skins hinder achieving the smooth, silky texture that is so wonderful about hummus. And it’s true that the skins can be a little chunky, but I have an easier way around that.

My first tip is to look for chickpeas that don’t have “calcium chloride” listed as an ingredient. This additive helps beans hold their shape during the high-temperature canning process, and it may be fine if you intend to put the beans on a salad or crisp them up as a topping for something. But for hummus, you want them to blend smooth, so avoiding calcium chloride will help you get there. The easiest route to avoiding it is to pick up a can labeled “organic.”

My second tip is simple— heat the garbanzo beans in their liquid before blending, and add a pinch of baking soda to soften up the skins. Dump the entire can (liquid and all) into a small saucepan over medium low heat and let them go until you see small bubbles and steam coming off the pan. Strain the chickpeas through a mesh strainer, but keep the liquid because you’ll need some of it for blending.

Let’s make sweet potato hummus!

Save the other half of the sweet potato for another recipe, or share it with a very good dog if you have one.

Use the large bowl of a food processor (or a good blender with the vent cover off) to combine the warm chickpeas plus a little bit of the liquid, half a roasted sweet potato, some tahini and salt. Pulse several times until you have a somewhat smooth mixture of hummus. This was my first shot at using harissa in hummus, so I gave it a quick sample test and found it to be a great pairing with the sweet potato! If you are not familiar with harissa, it’s a spicy chile pepper paste common to Morocco and other mideast cultures. It usually includes some variety of chiles, plus garlic and seed spices, such as caraway, coriander and cumin.

This brand of harissa is labeled “spicy,” but don’t you believe it. I barely tasted any heat at all and my husband said the same. If you are sensitive to capsaicin heat, be sure you evaluate the level in your harissa and use your judgment on how much can be added without it sending you to the ER. If your body can’t take capsaicin at all, simply omit it. The sweet potato hummus is delicious without further embellishment.

Once you have the consistency right, stream in olive oil with the processor running.

For this final step, scrape down the sides of your processor bowl and then run it continuously until the hummus is a silky consistency. If you find the mixture to be too stiff, stream in a little more of the chickpea liquid and process again. Keep in mind that the hummus will be thicker once it’s chilled. Drizzle in olive oil while the machine is running. When it is smooth to your liking, give it one more taste test and adjust seasoning as needed. For mine, I decided to add a few shakes of onion powder to emphasize the savory flavor of the harissa, but I’ll leave that up to you.

Would you try this sweet potato and harissa hummus? What are your favorite appetizers for sharing with friends at home?

Sweet Potato-Harissa Hummus

Servings: Makes about 2 cups
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Average
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This is a fun, savory twist on classic hummus, using harissa paste from Morocco and seasonal sweet potatoes. Other beans may be substituted for chickpeas as noted.

Ingredients

1/2 cup roasted sweet potato
15 oz. can organic garbanzo beans (chickpeas)*
1/8 tsp. baking soda
3 Tbsp. tahini paste
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
3 Tbsp. harissa paste (see notes)
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp. onion powder
Crackers, crostini or pita chips for serving

Note: Hummus may also be made with other canned beans, such as navy, Great Northern or cannellini. These alternative beans will be softer than chickpeas, so plan to adjust your liquid amounts accordingly. I still recommend warming them before blending for the smoothest consistency.

Harissa paste varies significantly by brand in both heat and thickness. Take note of the heat intensity before you add it to your hummus, so you may adjust the amount to suit your taste. My brand was Mina, labeled “spicy,” but had almost no heat at all. I’ve purchased other brands of harissa that were extremely hot, so it bears checking.

Directions

Pour entire can of garbanzo beans (including the liquid) into a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add baking soda and bring to simmer until you notice light boiling around the edges and steam rising from the pan. Remove from heat and strain the beans, reserving the liquid.
Add beans, plus about 1/4 cup of the liquid, to the large bowl of a food processor or blender (with vent cover removed). Add sweet potato, tahini and salt to the processor and pulse several times until the mixture is blended but still slightly coarse. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl.
Add harissa to the processor and pulse a few times. If the hummus seems too thick, add another tablespoon or two of the chickpea liquid to attain desired consistency.
Run the processor consistently while you drizzle the olive oil into the chute. Give it a final taste test, adjusting as needed with onion powder, garlic powder, salt and/or pepper. This hummus is best after refrigerating for a few hours, and it will firm up a bit in the fridge.

Caramel Apple Kugel

10 Comments October 2, 2025 terrie gura

When I set out last week to make a somewhat traditional Rosh Hashanah meal to enjoy with my semi-observant husband, I felt a bit of a knot in my belly. What if I get it wrong and ruin Rosh Hashanah? Dramatic, I know, but this is me. I have no Jewish heritage myself— at least not that I’m aware of— and I always worry that my effort might be disrespectful to someone else’s tradition. Les says this is silly, and has at times even suggested that in all my diligence, I might even be more Jewish than he is.

Still, I gave much thought to our meal for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and I settled on roasted chicken with a bevy of root vegetables, including carrots, red potatoes and parsnips with a simple pan dripping gravy. Delicious! And for dessert, kugel, made with noodles, sugar, eggs and various forms of dairy. I want to emphasize that in a kosher household, this dessert would not be served with chicken because Jewish dietary law prohibits meat and dairy together on the table. This rule is born from the commandments in Exodus and Deuteronomy that you should not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk— which over time expanded to “no kind of meat with any kind of dairy, even if said meat doesn’t make milk.” Don’t blame me, I don’t make these rules.

Our meal was delicious and fully representative of autumn, especially with this kugel, with all the flavors of a sweet caramel apple from the county fair.

Apples are traditional at Rosh Hashanah, usually paired with honey and symbolic for sweet wishes in the new year. I had been thinking about apples and caramel together in a dessert after spotting a caramel apple display at the supermarket. Kugel is a dish perfected by the Ashkenazi (ASH-kuh-NAH-zee) Jews of Eastern Europe, and it is a blank canvas of sorts for any combination of sweet ingredients. It may seem strange the first time you make one; I mean, noodles in a dessert? But trust me, it’s delicious!

Here’s how my dish came together. Enjoy!

The caramel

Now, I may not be Jewish, but I come from a long line of improvisers, and my instinct told me that dulce de leche, a thick, rich caramel sauce, would be a reasonable stand-in for most of the sugar in the basic kugel recipe I had found, and for some portion of the milk as well. I blended the thick dulce de leche with cream cheese, cottage cheese, milk, eggs, sour cream and vanilla, and folded in the buttered egg noodles, hoping that some measure of Ashkenazi wisdom would emanate from the wooden spoon that we had rescued from Les’s mother’s condo after she passed. Surely the spoon had done this before.

Think of it as bread pudding, but with noodles instead of bread!

The apples

My doubts set in again about the apples because kugel is usually dotted with dried fruits such as raisins, prunes or apricots. Should I cook the apples first? Or dice them up and stir them into the custardy noodles, or would the moisture cause the whole thing to become a big mess? In the end, I decided to par-bake the noodle custard, top it with thin slices of apple and a sprinkling of brown sugar and cinnamon and then bake it again. It turned out to be just the right amount of apple, and the brown sugar-cinnamon topping emphasized the caramel flavors inside.

This kugel was very well-received by my hubby, who had made his own version of kugel a few years back when we were clearing out the pantry for our kitchen remodel. We enjoyed this caramel apple version at Rosh Hashanah and again straight from the fridge later in the week, and I think we may even have a couple of slices left for our “break the fast” meal when Yom Kippur ends tonight.

Shana Tova!

Caramel Apple Kugel

Servings: 12
Prep Time: 15 minutes, plus chilling
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Difficulty: Average
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Jewish New Year calls for a celebratory dessert, and I chose apples and caramel to bring in some comforting fall flavors.

Ingredients

8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
1/2 cup (or more) dulce de leche
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 cup sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt)
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
12 oz. package extra wide egg noodles
6 Tbsp. butter, room temperature (I used salted)
1 large Honeycrisp apple, cored and cut into thin slices
1 Tbsp. brown sugar, mixed with 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Notes: Dulce de leche is usually found in a can, in the same supermarket section as sweetened condensed milk, or possibly in the Hispanic section. If you cannot find this product, a thick, milk-based caramel ice cream topping would work fine.

Directions

Add cream cheese, cottage cheese and dulce de leche to the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Blend together on speed 2 or 3 for about two minutes, or until the mixture is evenly combined.
Add brown sugar and sour cream, whisking on low speed until blended. Gradually pour the milk into the bowl while the mixer is running, to avoid splashing. Add the eggs, one at a time and then stir in vanilla.
Meanwhile, cook the egg noodles until just tender, according to package instructions. Drain the noodles and toss with butter until fully melted.
Pour the caramel mixture into the warm noodles and toss to combine. It will seem very liquid-y. Transfer this mixture to a buttered 9 x 13 glass baking dish and spread it out until even. Cover the dish and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350° F, with rack in center position.
Uncover kugel and use the back of a spoon to press down any noodles that have emerged from the caramel custard mixture. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, arrange sliced apples evenly over the top and sprinkle the surface with the brown sugar-cinnamon mixture. Return to oven for 15 more minutes.
Cool to room temperature before enjoying, and refrigerate leftovers. When chilled, the kugel can be cut easily into squares and served almost like brownies.

Just for grins

As desserts go, this one packs a substantial amount of protein with cream cheese, cottage cheese, eggs, sour cream and milk. It also doesn’t have as much sugar as you might expect, with only three tablespoons, plus the sugar in the dulce de leche. Les and I got into a lukewarm debate about the protein content of this dish, with him asserting that the ingredients are spread out across 12 portions, making each portion skimpy on protein. I disagreed, so I did the math to bolster my case and here’s the result:

INGREDIENT	PROTEIN GRAMS
cream cheese, full-fat	16
cottage cheese, 2%	28
whole milk	12
dulce de leche	6
eggs	18
sour cream, full-fat	4
noodles	(this number surprised me!) 40
butter	2
Total grams protein	126
divided by 12 servings	10.5

Each square contains 10 1/2 grams of protein, significantly more than you can say for most desserts. A serving of vanilla ice cream, for example, typically contains 2 to 3 grams and a slice of chocolate cake is around 4 grams. I’m not claiming this to be a health food by any stretch of imagination. The fat and sugar content are high, and there are irrefutable downsides to that. I’m only suggesting that this could be considered something of a power dessert, if there is such a thing. 😉

Fried Green Tomatoes (with Mexican Street Corn)

8 Comments September 5, 2025 terrie gura

Some decisions come back to bite you. I know this because I have really missed having fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes and zucchini this year, and I’ve felt twinges of regret over having ripped out my deer-ravaged garden a couple of summers ago. I just didn’t have it in me anymore, but at least we have the farmers’ market. I recently invited a neighbor to join me at our fabulous Saturday market, and I brought home a few fresh tomatoes as well as some green ones.

Most people assume that fried green tomatoes are a delicacy of the American South, but this is only because of the now-classic 1991 film based on the Fannie Flagg book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which was set in 1920s Alabama. But food historians credit midwestern newspapers and Jewish cookbooks with the first published recipes for this dish.

Wherever the heck they came from, I’m grateful. And today, I’ve put a fun flavor twist on this classic, in the form of— you know it— Mexican street corn.

Didn’t I tell you there’d be more elote to come?

How do you make fried green tomatoes?

Confession time: I had never made these before, and so I was relying mostly on a recipe from Southern Living magazine as well as my own memories of having eaten fried green tomatoes at some of our local hot spots. The trick, apparently, is to use tomatoes that are truly green, freshly picked off the vine or farm stand while still firm and solid. This is necessary because frying won’t work on softer, juicier tomatoes. I bought my tomatoes on a Saturday, and by the time I got my proverbial ducks in a row on Tuesday, two of my maters were already headed toward varying shades of pink, but they worked out fine.

You’ll need a dredging station— that is seasoned flour, buttermilk with beaten egg and a seasoned cornmeal-flour mixture— and a hot skillet with a half-inch or so of neutral frying oil. I used peanut oil, but grapeseed, soybean, canola or safflower would be good options. Olive oil has a low smoke point and is not good for frying at this temperature. Save that for sautéing and salads.

The fun part: frying the green tomatoes!

Because I wanted to marry these fried green tomatoes with Mexican street corn, I took the liberty of seasoning every layer of my dredging station. This meant a couple of dashes of local hot sauce into the buttermilk mixture and a few shakes of Trader Joe’s “Chile Lime” seasoning into both the flour and cornmeal mixtures.

One of my kitchen mottos: “Never miss a chance to add flavor!”

The tomatoes are sliced to approximately 1/3-inch thick, and then dredged and laid carefully into the hot oil until browned and crispy. This only takes a few minutes on each side. As with anything fried, give it a quick salt when they emerge from the pan, and keep them warm while you finish the remaining slices.

About these Mexican street corn flavors

I’ve been all about elote lately, and this dish was simple to adapt, beginning with those flavor embellishments to the dredging ingredients. To seal the deal, I squeezed a few drizzles of spicy mayonnaise over the hot fried green tomatoes, and then scattered them with leftover grilled corn, some crumbled Tajin-flavored feta (my new favorite ingredient) and fresh chopped cilantro.

These flavors were made for fried green tomatoes!

The marriage with street corn felt like it was meant to be, and the grilled corn played so well with the cornmeal crust on the tender green tomatoes, which were delightfully tangy underneath that spicy mayo and salty feta. My intention was for this to be a side dish, but they were so filling, we found them to be perfect on their own and called it a meal.

Fried Green Tomatoes (with Mexican Street Corn)

Servings: About 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Average
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These tasty treats are bringing a south-of-the-border flavor to what has become a staple appetizer in the American South. A great way to use any green tomatoes that linger on the vines this fall.

Ingredients

3 good size very green fresh tomatoes
1 cup all-purpose flour, divided (see directions)
1 cup fine cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Several shakes chili powder or Trader Joe’s “Chile Lime” seasoning
1/2 cup real buttermilk (thick is best)
1 large egg
Bottled hot sauce to taste
Neutral cooking oil for frying
1/4 cup spicy mayonnaise
Kernels of one grilled corn on the cob
1/2 cup Tajin-flavored feta (or make your own, or use traditional cotija)
Fresh cilantro leaves, chopped (for garnish)

Notes: It’s crucial that you select very firm green tomatoes. Juicy tomatoes will not yield a good result. Arrange your ingredients before you begin, as the cooking moves quickly.

Directions

Slice tomatoes cross-wise into roughly 1/3-inch slices and pat dry with paper towels. Heat enough oil in a cast iron or electric skillet between 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch deep. The oil should be 375° F; use a thermometer if you have one, or consider cooking a test tomato and adjust the temperature as needed.
Combine buttermilk and egg in a shallow bowl, and beat in a few shakes of bottled hot sauce. Place 1/2 cup of the flour on a deep paper plate. Combine the rest with the cornmeal on a second plate, and season both plates with a few shakes of chile lime seasoning, plus the salt and pepper.
Moving quickly, dredge the tomato slices in the flour, then dip into the buttermilk mixture and finally into the seasoned cornmeal mixture. Shake off excess breading and carefully lay the slices into the hot oil. Cook for about three minutes, until you can see the edges turning deep golden color. Use a spatula together with a fork to turn the slices over (this will help you avoid splashing the hot oil). Cook the second side two to three minutes, then carefully transfer to the wire rack placed over a baking sheet. Season tomatoes with salt promptly, and repeat with remaining tomatoes.
To dress them up Mexican street corn-style, stack three tomatoes onto a plate and drizzle spicy mayonnaise over the top, then follow that with the grilled corn, feta and cilantro.

Black Forest Cupcakes

7 Comments September 2, 2025 terrie gura

There’s a reason my dessert page is overrun with the chocolate-cherry flavor combo. The “reason” is my husband, Les, who loves this combination and regularly yearns for it on special occasions. This past weekend was his birthday, and I couldn’t resist adapting my decadent “Black Forest Cake” into individual cupcake treats. Needless to say, Les approved this decision.

With chocolate, cherries *and* bourbon, these cupcakes were a winner for my husband!

The adaptation was not quite as simple as switching pans and adjusting the bake time. My Black Forest cake is powered by sourdough and doesn’t have quite the structure needed for handheld cupcakes. The cake, after all, is syrup-soaked layers held together by mascarpone filling, and that wasn’t going to work for cupcakes. For this switch-up, I looked instead to the recipe I used for the Irish Coffee cupcakes I made for St. Patrick’s Day, with a few flavor swaps, of course. Irish cream had no place in these, so I exchanged it for bourbon (which Les never refuses) and I also replaced the cold coffee with milk.

Getting my ducks in a row makes things go smoother.

Let’s get baking!

My trusted technique for cupcake batter involves first creaming the butter and sugar, mixing in one egg at a time, and then alternating the dry ingredients with the liquids to achieve an even, smooth batter. Easy enough, and these were ready for the oven.

The cherry filling was also easy, with frozen dark sweet cherries cooked with sugar, corn syrup and a splash of juice from our cocktail cherries. I reduced the filling longer than usual because I didn’t want it to make the cupcakes soggy from the inside. The jury was still out on this, but I had purchased a can of cherry pie filling as a backup, hoping that I wouldn’t have to use it.

Don’t miss an opportunity to add flavor. I saved the liquid from our cocktail cherries for just such an occasion.

Even the icing was easy; just a half-recipe of my usual salted butter-powdered sugar-splash of booze buttercream. And given that I planned to only pipe it around the outer edges of my cupcakes, it turned out to be exactly the right amount.

Next time I need a half-batch of buttercream, I’ll use my hand mixer.

Trouble with ganache

Why is it always the easiest part of a recipe that trips me up? Never mind, I know the answer to my own question. I’m far more likely to get lazy or take a shortcut on the part that seems like a no-brainer. And I pay for it every single time. By the way, did I mention that I was trying to make these glorious birthday cupcakes on the sly while Les worked a half-day? He wasn’t supposed to see these or even know that I was making them, and I was feeling the pressure with only 45 minutes remaining before he was due home.

The ganache, which contains only two ingredients— in equal parts, I might add— became the problem. I think it was the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland who lamented,“the hurrier I go, the behinder I get,” and that certainly was the case for me, as I decided in a rush that I would not take five stupid seconds to cross the room and grab my digital scale for proper measurements. Nope, I eyeballed the ratio of dark chocolate wafers and hot heavy cream, and I missed the mark. And then, in my rush to finish, I didn’t give the cream enough time to melt the wafers before I started stirring it. So now I was in a fix of my own making, which happens more than I care to admit.

Three minutes and five seconds would have saved me a bunch of trouble here.

About this time, I panic-texted my high school bestie for a quick sanity check on how to best save the ganache. As expected, both options Christine suggested would take more time than I had, so I finished what I could— filling each cupcake with two or three boozy cherries and piping the buttercream onto the edges. The rest would have to wait, as I crammed the cupcakes and the half-assed ganache into the garage refrigerator, speed-washed the dishes and tried my best to “act normal” when Les walked in the door.

I could at least get the cupcakes ready for the ganache!

A decision bigger than ganache

Though I had made some special plans for us that afternoon, which included a couples’ manicure and a cool visit to the Van Gogh Immersive Experience, half of my mind stayed behind in the kitchen, deciding how to pull this off without spoiling the surprise. This was not a milestone birthday for Les, but I really wanted to make the day extra special because A: I love him to pieces, and B: he had pulled off a stunning party for me one month earlier when I hit a zero-ender birthday. When you love someone, you want to do your best for them, right?

But here’s the thing about my husband— he’s about as easygoing as they come, the kind of guy who appreciates the heartfelt gesture far more than the outcome. In the end, I simply piped the ganache (which resembled milk chocolate pudding) into the well created by the buttercream, topped it with a cocktail cherry and a birthday candle while he changed into comfortable clothes. Does he look bothered?

Naturally, I told him about my ganache faux pas, and assured that the rest of the cupcakes would get the right ganache. Letting this go allowed me to dismiss my disappointment in myself and get back into the special moment of sharing these yummy cupcakes, which Les absolutely loved. Especially the second time!

What a difference careful attention makes!

Just for grins, here’s a side-by-side of the correct ganache with the first batch, and let my lesson be one for you, too. Grab the scale, wait the 10 minutes, take whatever time is needed to avoid unnecessary stress. And if the worst thing that happens is that you end up with an extra bowl of too-creamy, not-so-dark chocolate ganache, well, how is that ever a bad thing?

Black Forest Cupcakes

Servings: A baker's dozen
Prep Time: About 90 minutes total
Cook Time: 22 minutes
Difficulty: Average
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This was a fun challenge, creating a cherry-filled chocolate cupcake with all the wow factor of my Black Forest cake, but in a single serving birthday treat for my husband.

Ingredients

1 stick (8 Tbsp.) salted or unsalted butter, softened to near-room temperature
3/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature
2 Tbsp. bourbon
1 Tbsp. Cherry Heering liqueur (optional, or another of bourbon)
1 1/2 cups unbleached cake flour (see tips)
1/2 cup Double Dark Dutch cocoa (see tips)
1/4 tsp. salt (increase to 1/2 if using unsalted butter)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
2 heaping tablespoons dark chocolate, finely chopped (I used dark chips)
Cherry filling, buttercream and ganache, as noted below
12 stemmed cocktail cherries (optional, for pretty presentation at serving)

Tips: Cake flour is very fine and lower protein than regular baking flour. Find it in specialty stores or online at King Arthur Baking. If you cannot find it, all-purpose flour is an acceptable substitute. Be sure to measure using the “fluff, sprinkle, level” method so that you don’t end up with too much flour and dense cupcakes.

The cocoa I used is very dark and intensely flavored. I purchase it online from King Arthur Baking. Hershey’s also makes a dark cocoa, which would be a good substitute.

Directions

Heat oven to 350° F, with rack in center position of oven. Line a 12-cup cupcake tin with doubled liner papers.
Beat in eggs, one at a time. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add flour mixture to the batter, one-third at a time, alternating with the milk and ending with the dry mixture. Slowly stir in bourbon (and cherry liqueur, if using).
Use a large cookie scoop to fill cupcake papers. They will be about 3/4 full. If necessary, line custard cups with papers for any excess batter.
Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 22 minutes, turning pan halfway through for even baking. Remove from oven to cool several minutes, and then transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Use an apple corer or paring knife to carve out a small plug of cake from each cupcake (reserve them). Carefully spoon two or three cherries into each cupcake cavity, and then replace the reserved cake plugs.
Load buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe buttercream only around the outer edge of each cupcake, leaving the center of each cupcake top naked (this is where the ganache will go). Refrigerate cupcakes for an hour or two to firm up buttercream.
Spoon ganache into open top of cupcakes. Place a cocktail cherry on the cupcakes when you are ready to serve them.

Boozy Cherry Filling: If you want to save time, consider using a quality canned cherry pie filling in place of this scratch-made mixture.

Ingredients

12 oz. frozen dark sweet cherries
1/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. bourbon (or liquid from cocktail cherries)
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup (prevents crystallization of sugar; sub maple syrup if you wish)

Directions

Place cherries, sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved and cherries are completely softened. Simmer for several minutes to reduce the overall liquid in the pan. Remove from heat and stir in bourbon or cocktail cherry liquid.
Cool completely and refrigerate until you’re ready to assemble the completed cupcakes.

Buttercream icing: This half batch was a little tricky in the stand mixer; alternatively, make the icing in a separate bowl with an electric hand mixer.

Ingredients

1/2 stick (4 Tbsp.) salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 Tbsp. heavy cream (if needed, to thin and smooth out icing)

Directions

Add softened butter to the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip butter on speed 3 or 4, until light and fluffy.
Add confectioner’s sugar, one-half cup at a time, until fully blended. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl as needed.
Whip in heavy cream if buttercream seems grainy or heavy. If desired, blend in a splash of bourbon.

Ganache: Take time to measure and/or weight the ganache ingredients, so that you get the optimal consistency and flavor. This will make more ganache than you need for the cupcakes, but I trust you’ll think of a way to use the extra. 😉

Ingredients

4 oz. dark chocolate melting wafers
1/2 cup (4 oz.) heavy cream, heated to steaming point but not boiling

Directions

Place chocolate wafers in a deep measuring glass. Pour hot cream slowly over the wafers and set a timer for 10 minutes.
Using a small whisk or spoon, gently stir ganache mixture from the center of the cup, gradually swirling more of the mixture as it melts together. It should stir up nice and smooth. If it doesn’t, place the measuring cup into a bowl of shallow hot water for a few minutes and whisk again.

Southwest Wedge Salad

8 Comments August 25, 2025 terrie gura

Sometimes a food captures me in such a way that I can’t think about much of anything else. I just want more of it, and I call up all the possibilities for enjoying that food. It’s like falling in love, I suppose, and I’ll be the first to admit I have become somewhat obsessed with the flavors of Mexican street corn. I’ve been daydreaming about new ways to incorporate the sweet kernels of corn, creamy spicy mayo, Tajin, tangy lime and fresh cilantro into our menu plan, as I did when I made the Mexican street corn potato salad a couple of months ago. Today’s salad is not specifically a Mexican street corn dish, but it was definitely inspired by its flavors. Expect a few more “street corn” creations in the weeks ahead, as I am undeniably head over heels.

All my cravings are covered here, from crunchy to creamy and cool to spicy!

Keeping meals cool in the hot summer

It’s been a brutal summer in North Carolina, with temperatures far exceeding the typical, plus too much humidity. This week has been more tolerable, but all of July and the better part of August were sweltering. When it’s too hot, we try to make the most of our outdoor cooking by grilling up extra proteins (and sometimes vegetables) to use later in the week. Chicken is the simplest, and I love the ease and flexibility of tenders, which can be seasoned any number of ways for sandwiches, wraps and salads. This time, we had grilled our tenders with Tajin, and that was quite on purpose because my muse was already busy developing this salad. Here’s how the rest of it came to be, starting with the lettuce.

During most months of the year, I am a lettuce snob, opting for romaine over less-expensive varieties. Plus, I generally prefer the substantial texture of romaine for a Caesar or garden salad. But in the summertime, there’s something irresistible about iceberg— that crispy, hydrating crunch and refreshing, slightly bitter flavor— and it is obviously the star of any wedge salad.

The simplest way to clean iceberg lettuce is from the inside out, and that requires removing the core. You could carve it out with a knife, I suppose, but I rely on a simpler trick of smacking the head on the counter to break the core from the leaves, then the core just pulls right out. This makes it easy to rinse the lettuce head, and then shake out the excess water and let it drain in the fridge for a few hours.

A shortcut to flavor

I made the dressing early in the day so that the flavors had a chance to meld before dinner. I knew that I wanted a creamy, ranch-style dressing, and I considered making it from scratch before I found a packet mix with simple, clean ingredients. For southwestern flair, I subbed in a spicy mayo along with the buttermilk. It was perfect for this salad, and saved a bunch of time.

Changing the mayonnaise turned this into a completely different dressing.

The street corn inspiration is evident here, but I wanted more pop and color, so I also prepped a handful of baby tomatoes, some diced red onion and cubed avocado. The only thing left to do was build this salad!

I love when the simplest of ingredients become something special.

A south-of-the-border twist on a classic wedge

A wedge salad is exactly that— a wedge of the lettuce head— and so I cut this crunchy iceberg in half, then halved one side again for our two portions. The dressing is spooned over the cut edge so that it runs down the sides, and then it was simply a matter of piling the other ingredients on and around it, finishing the salad with all those lovely Mexican street corn flavors. We used the Tajin-flavored feta that Les had found for the potato salad, and it was a perfect stand-in for the bleu cheese you’d normally find on a wedge.

Delicious as this was, I doubt that it has satisfied my fervor for Mexican street corn, and I’ll be dreaming up other ways to incorporate the flavors again very soon. I’m open to ideas, of course! And I’m curious whether you have a similar experience with being obsessed about particular foods. What can’t you get enough of that you want to present in new and interesting ways? Let’s chat about it in the comments!

Southwest Wedge Salad

Servings: 2
Prep Time: 10 minutes, plus chilling
Cook Time: None!
Difficulty: Easy
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The wedge salad, classic though it is, can also be a blank canvas for interesting flavor twists, such as this one with vibrant southwestern flavors and a hint of Mexican street corn.

Ingredients

1/2 large head iceberg lettuce (rinsed and chilled)
Southwest ranch dressing (choose bottled or make your own from a packet, using spicy mayo in place of regular)
4 large grilled chicken tenders, pre-seasoned with Tajin spice blend (see notes)
1/2 ripe avocado, cubed and dressed with a squeeze of fresh lime to preserve color
1/3 cup leftover grilled corn (we seasoned ours with Trader Joe’s “Everything But the Elote” seasoning)
1/4 cup minced red onion
Handful of cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered and seasoned with salt and pepper
Handful of fresh cilantro leaves, rough-chopped
1/4 cup Tajin-seasoned feta crumbles (see notes for substitution ideas)

Notes: For a tasty seafood option, consider spice-grilled shrimp or cubes of grilled firm fish, such as halibut or tuna.

If your specialty cheese section doesn’t have the Tajin-seasoned feta, make your own by crumbling a handful of feta into a small bowl with a spoonful of Tajin. Shake gently to coat, and perhaps do this a few hours ahead so that the seasoning melds into the feta. Alternatively, if you want less spice, use plain feta or cotija, which is the traditional Mexican hard cheese used in street corn.

Directions

Using a large knife, cut the iceberg into equal wedges and place them, curved side-down, onto a chilled plate. Spoon about two tablespoons of the dressing over the top, allowing it to run down both sides.
Scatter sliced pieces of chicken around the wedge, and top the wedge with the corn, tomatoes, red onions and avocado cubes. Sprinkle with cilantro and feta.
Enjoy!

Clambake pizza — a delight for Leos!

8 Comments August 22, 2025 terrie gura

My interest in astrology has always been one of curiosity. I’ve never been fully invested in the idea that my personality was pre-determined by the stars or whatever phase the moon was in when I took my first breath at the exact latitude and longitude where I was born. I mean, for starters, if I were to ask all-knowing AI for a general description of Leo, this is what I get. Honestly, does this sound like me?

I want to say that it’s all a bunch of hooey, but the Leo description is very much on point. Ahead of my milestone birthday recently, I looked up Leo traits and another related prompt came up in my search: “the best foods for Leos.” This oughta be good, I thought, given that I can count on one hand the foods that I don’t like. The first site that popped up was Harry & David— you know, the mail order fruit basket company— and here’s what it suggested:

Leo (July 23–August 22)

Corn, clams, spinach, and mozzarella are some of the foods to which this fire sign is drawn. This is due in part to some — such as tomatoes — being in season during the sunny summer months when Leos are born.

The moment I read that, I knew exactly what to do.

The clambake connection

Clambakes are not exactly “native” to North Carolina, but we did have a fun one associated with the Crosby pro-am golf tournaments that used to be held around here. This was a charity tournament that Bing Crosby started at Pebble Beach many moons ago, and his widow, Kathryn, moved it in the mid-1980s to Bermuda Run just outside Winston-Salem, where it stayed for 15 years.

The golf tournament was unsanctioned, so we didn’t always see big-name pros, but there were plenty of stars from the stage and screen and it was always an exciting week in our small city. Anyone could go to the tournament, but tickets to the clambake were highly coveted— I was only able to get in because I dated a guy who worked for Cadillac, one of the sponsors. It’s where I first fell in love with the music of a barely known country artist named Vince Gill, and everyone who saw him at Groves Stadium knew in an instant that he would become a huge star. Let’s enjoy his breakout song while we talk about this pizza, shall we?

Press play for an enjoyable musical accompaniment!

Ingredients for a clambake pizza

A typical clambake is outdoor cooking at its finest yet most humble. Simple ingredients, cooked over a smoldering fire until the natural flavors of ocean and earth reach their peak. Clams, corn, potatoes, onions, fresh herbs and lemon are the basic ingredients, and my list of “Leo-approved” foods was already overlapped quite a bit. Spinach would be great on this pizza, and baby tomatoes would add a nice pop of color and acidity to balance the richness of the clams. Potatoes may seem like an odd topping for pizza, but it worked really well on my steak and potato pizza a few years ago, so why not? I parboiled cubed Yukon golds and then fried them up in butter with the shallots.

A pinch of baking soda in the potato water roughs up the texture for crispy frying.

My littleneck clams came from my favorite local seafood shop— fresh from the Atlantic, already cleaned, shucked and chopped. For obvious reasons, they couldn’t go onto the pizza in their shells. After the potatoes were crisped up, I poured the flavorful clam “liquor” into the pan, and swirled in some butter with fresh parsley to dollop on the pizza before baking. I stripped an ear of grilled corn and chopped up the baby spinach, and we were ready to rock and roll.

Cooking pizza on the grill

My pizzas are usually done in my home oven, outfitted with a 3/8”-thick slab of steel, preheated to 550° F for at least an hour. In other words, hot! For this one, though, my husband and I did the baking outdoors (clambake style!) on our Napoleon gas grill, which gets even hotter than the oven. We purchased a Weber pizza stone that works great for summer baking when we don’t care to heat up the house. Les handled all of that while I prepped inside, beginning with shaping my dough into a 14-inch round and laying it on a flour- and cornmeal-dusted bamboo peel.

Cheese on the bottom, always! Wetter ingredients on top, finishing with the clam liquor-infused herb butter.

The toppings are straightforward, and I’ve put the wettest ingredients— the corn, tomatoes and clams— on top of the drier ingredients. I want them to get the benefit of the heat without creating too much steam underneath, which would wreck my crust. The clam liquor-butter mixture was laid on last in dollops and this was ready for the bake!

OF COURSE, my toppings flew off the peel onto the grill. Such a Leo thing to do!

One minor shortcoming of our grill for pizza is that the top of the pizza doesn’t have a chance to brown as it would in the oven. Solution? Easy— we just slide the finished pie under the high broiler in the oven for 30 to 60 seconds. Voila! Blistered crust and perfectly browned toppings, but without heating up the whole house for hours in the dead heat of summer.

So how was this lovely creation, made of Leo-favored ingredients and served up on this last day of my zodiac sign? Delicious! My husband and I have both come to love clams on pizza, ever since our trip to New Haven and our own adventures with white clam pie, which I’m now Jonesing to do again soon. This fun interpretation brought plenty of other tasty ingredients into play, and we could taste each of them. The tomatoes were a good addition, and the trick of reducing the clam liquor with the buttered onions really added a great finishing note of ocean flavor. Would I make it again? Definitely! And I probably won’t wait until Leo season rolls back around.

Tomorrow is the first day of Virgo. Now, I wonder what they like to eat? 😉

Clambake Pizza

Servings: 6 slices
Prep Time: About 20 minutes
Cook Time: 7 minutes on the grill
Difficulty: Average
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Apparently, my zodiac sign (Leo) loves clams, corn, spinach and mozzarella. What else could I do with this information but make a clambake pizza?

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. salted butter (half for cooking onions, half for clam-herb butter)
1 small shallot, minced
1 medium Yukon gold potato, cubed and boiled to al denté tenderness
A pinch of baking soda in the potato cooking water
11 oz. pizza dough ball, at room temperature
1/3 cup favorite pizza sauce
3/4 cup freshly grated firm mozzarella
1 ear of grilled corn, stripped from cob
A handful of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved and salted
A fat handful (about 2 cups) fresh baby spinach, rough chopped
A few shakes of crushed red pepper, if you like heat
About 1 cup fresh chopped littleneck clam meats (reserve some of the liquor for the herb butter)

Notes: My pizzas are baked on an oven steel, preheated to 550° F for one hour. Alternatively, bake on a pizza stone designed for a gas grill, following temperature instructions for your stone and adjusting time as needed. Either setup will help you achieve a brick oven-style pizza at home.

Directions

Heat a small sauté pan over medium heat with a tablespoon of butter. Sauté the shallots for a few minutes until slightly softened. Drain the potatoes and add to the pan, tossing to crisp up the sides.
Transfer the cooked potatoes to a small bowl. Pour some of the clam liquor into the sauté pan with the shallots and butter and simmer to reduce the liquid. Remove from heat and swirl in the other tablespoon of butter, along with the fresh parsley. Set this aside as a final topper to the pizza.
Shape pizza dough into a 14-inch round and place it on a flour- and cornmeal-dusted peel. Swirl sauce over the pizza and scatter the mozzarella all over it.
Layer toppings on, beginning with the spinach, pepper flakes and corn, then the tomatoes, potatoes and clams. Finally, arrange dollops of the clam liquor-infused herb butter all over the pizza, emphasizing the clams as much as possible.
Transfer to the pizza to the preheated steel (or stone) and bake for 6 to 7 minutes, using peel to turn pizza at the 4-minute mark. If baking on the grill, transfer finished pizza to a heatproof pan and slide it under the high broiler of your oven for up to 60 seconds, to get the roasted appearance of an oven-baked pie.
Wrap any leftover slices individually in aluminum foil. Reheat on a preheated griddle or skillet, loosely tented with foil. This preserves the crispy texture of the crust while allowing the cheesy topping to melt.

Just for fun…

A few famous Leos: 😎 Looks like I’m in excellent company!

Jennifer Lopez
Barack Obama
Mick Jagger
Helen Mirren
Antonio Banderas
Sandra Bullock

Charlize Theron

Steve Carell
Meghan Markle
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Halle Berry

Madonna
Steve Martin
Tony Bennett
Martha Stewart

PB&J S’mores

8 Comments August 10, 2025 terrie gura

From my first year of blogging on Comfort du Jour, I’ve celebrated National S’mores Day by putting a s’mores twist onto everything from cocktails to pizza to ice cream and then some. As the calendar inched toward Aug. 10th this year, it occurred to me that I’d never experimented the other way— putting a fun twist onto the s’mores themselves. Now I have!

By replacing the graham crackers with a classic homemade cookie, and subbing out chocolate for another sweet and gooey filling, I’ve reimagined this childhood favorite with fun, familiar flavors. Now, this idea didn’t just fall together, as there were several things to consider for a successful outcome and I had to do a bit of testing to bring my vision to life. First, the cookie!

What kind of cookie works for s’mores?

Obviously, I needed a cookie that would be sturdy enough to squish the toasted marshmallow, and that meant that soft, crumbly cookies were out. It needed to be thin enough that you could stack two together with a marshmallow in between, for easy eating. Graham crackers are perfectly suited to the task but not especially flavorful.

Peanut butter cookies really appealed to me, but most recipes produce a soft, pillowy cookie and I’d need to adjust a few things for a thinner, more crisp cookie. After consulting with experts— OK, it was an internet search 🤭— one tip stood out as important, and that is to use a lesser amount of peanut butter in the dough. I could add peanut butter chips to make up the lost flavor. White sugar makes a crispier cookie, so I’d go halvsies with the brown sugar, and I could sub in a portion of whole wheat graham flour for more texture and structure that would be similar to a graham cracker. The cookie part was easy.

What could stand in for the gooey melted chocolate?

My initial intention was to melt a chocolate square onto my s’mores, but the kid in me couldn’t shake the idea of pb & j, the flavor combination that was the backbone of my childhood. I still get nostalgic for a simple, satisfying pb&j sandwich— my favorite being griddled into a melty, wonderful mess. I thought about the Ghirardelli chocolate squares with raspberry filling, but that didn’t bring enough“jelly” and the more I thought about it, the less I wanted chocolate at all. Why couldn’t I make a “thumbprint-style” peanut butter cookie with a jelly filling, one that would get a little bit melty again when the warm marshmallow hit it? And just like that, I was on my way to these s’mores!

I had a time deciding what flavor jelly would be right, and it hinged on the texture of the spread. See? Y’all had no idea how much pressure I put on myself to create these fun things! A true jelly would be too wet and ooze all over the oven, so I started looking at preserves with bits of actual fruit. This blend of four fruits was perfect, bringing berries and cherries into the mix. I set up an experiment with three cookies to see whether it was best to bake them with the preserves already in, or to create thumbprints halfway through baking, and whether it made sense to add a ring of extra peanut butter chips on top for a little more melting impact with the marshmallow.

In the end, the best cookies had sugar on the bottom for more crispness and the preserves baked into the cookie for the full baking time, which was 14 minutes. On their own, these cookies are delightful, and I couldn’t wait to turn them into s’mores!

If you don’t feel like doing the marshmallows, you’d probably enjoy these cookies as they are.

In case you’re wondering, yes, we are the crazy ones in the neighborhood, building a backyard fire in the Solo stove when evening temperatures are in the 80s. We are always up for adventure, especially when food is involved!

The best thing about this adventure is the man who shares it with me. 💕

We toasted large marshmallows to personal taste— I like mine set ablaze and charred on the outside and Les likes them lightly golden— and then we squished them between two of these peanut butter-and-jelly cookies, with the jelly side in, of course. And the verdict?

Well, for starters, the peanut butter cookies did not remain crispy. By the time we did our s’mores, they were soft and bendy, which worked out great for the photos of us tearing them apart. The “jelly” aspect was all but lost, as I didn’t really detect it in my sample bites. It was, for me, way too much sugar, and— darn it!— after all that overthinking, I missed the oozy element of melted chocolate. Not a total miss, but not what my imagination wanted it to be. The cookies themselves are great.

If you have kids or grandkids and love a fun, sugary experiment, I’d say give it a go, perhaps with a twist of your own. Would I make them again? Probably not, but mainly because I only think about s’mores a couple times a year and by the time National S’mores Day rolls around again, I will have concocted another wild idea. I’ll probably pick up some grahams and chocolate before the weekend is over to make real s’mores. Some things are classic for a reason. ✌🏻

PB&J S'mores

Servings: About 12
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes, plus marshmallow toasting time
Difficulty: Average
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A fun experiment for any s'mores enthusiast! I replaced two of the classic components of this campfire treat with a pb&j. It was sweet enough to melt your teeth, and isn't that kind of the point?

Ingredients

1 stick butter (8 Tbsp.), softened slightly
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda, dissolved in a small amount of hot water
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat graham flour
1/2 tsp. kosher salt crystals
1/3 cup peanut butter chips (optional)
About 2 Tablespoons cane sugar (for sugaring the bottom of cookies)
About 1/4 cup thick fruit preserves
Large marshmallows, roasted for s’mores
Plenty of napkins

Directions

Combine butter and peanut butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until evenly combined and smooth. Slowly add sugars while mixer runs, and beat until mixture is somewhat fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add egg and vanilla and beat again until fluffy. Drizzle in the dissolved soda and beat just until combined.
Whisk flours and salt together in a small bowl and add to the cookie batter, about half at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Scatter peanut chips (if using) over the dough and use a spatula or wooden spoon to press them into the dough. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and cover the bowl. Refrigerate for at least one hour before proceeding to shape and bake the cookies.
Preheat oven to 350° F, with oven racks in upper and lower positions. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and spoon preserves into a zip-top bag for easy piping into the cookies. Measure a few tablespoons of cane sugar into a small bowl for the bottoms of the cookies.
Use a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to measure out the dough. Flatten the dough in the scoop and dip the flat side into the cane sugar before turning the dough out onto the parchment. Do not flatten the cookies. Use a cork or your thumb to create dimples approximately half the depth of the cookie balls and two-thirds across the cookie. Pipe 1/2 tsp. fruit preserves into each cookie. Place a ring of additional peanut butter chips around the preserve filling if you want to be fancy about it.
Bake cookies for 14 minutes, rotating pans top to bottom if using both at once. Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for a few minutes, and then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.
For s’mores, toast marshmallows and squeeze two cookies together around the marshmallow, with the preserves on the inside. The melted marshmallow will soften and melt the preserves for an oozy-gooey treat.

Banana Pudding Ice Cream

3 Comments July 29, 2025 terrie gura

My muse has been after me for at least four years to turn banana pudding, a classic North Carolina dessert, into an ice cream. Imagine the creamy, comforting texture of pudding, wrapped around bits of fresh banana and complemented with delicate, vanilla-scented cookies. But frozen! And just in time for the ridiculous heat wave that has gripped our state. This turned out to be a very good thing.

Even a non-pudding fan would like this ice cream.

So what took me so long? My husband, Les, doesn’t care for banana pudding, and I didn’t want to make a big dessert that I’d have to eat by myself. I will admit that I’ve also considered banana pudding to be generally overrated since I moved to the American South some 38 years ago. The pudding part isn’t even banana flavored, but vanilla (did you know this?), and everyone knows how visually unappealing bananas get when they’ve been exposed to air. Don’t even get me started on vanilla wafers because they are just so boring. 🥱

But if I elevated the ingredients, and if it was frozen— well, let’s just say that I haven’t met many ice creams that I didn’t love. Fortunately, we had company for dinner on a recent weekend, giving me the perfect excuse to finally put this one in the “done” column of my culinary bucket list. And guess what? Even Les liked it!

Delicious from the first scoop to the last!

Ingredients for banana pudding ice cream

All of our guests enjoyed this creamy treat, and one asked, “what makes this banana pudding ice cream rather than just banana ice cream?” The answer is exactly what you might expect—there is actual pudding mix in the ice cream, and I’m shocked by how good it is.

Condensed milk lends additional sweetness, so I only used half the can.

Perhaps one day, I will have all the time in the world to make my own pudding from scratch, but I’ve been giving myself permission lately to take shortcuts, and here I used a boxed instant pudding mix. French vanilla has a richer color than regular vanilla, so that’s what I chose. A fresh, perfectly ripe banana was chilled, cubed and folded into the mix, and I passed over bland vanilla wafers in favor of buttery Chessman cookies.

Stop the mixer to scrape down the sides a couple of times.

First into the mixer was the sweetened condensed milk and the regular whole milk. These two ingredients are very different in consistency, so getting them blended first felt important. Next came the pudding mix, which I whisked and whipped until it was a soft, airy consistency. I stirred in the heavy cream, and I was trying to act quickly before the pudding thickeners took over, and then this base mixture went into the fridge for a few hours to chill through before churning in my electric ice cream maker.

A good whisking brought this “pudding” mixture back to a pourable consistency.

You can see how thick and rich the mixture is after that chill-down time, but a good whisking made it pourable, and then it just needed time to freeze into soft-serve texture. This usually takes about 25 minutes In my Cuisinart, long enough to cut up my banana and break a few of the Chessman cookies to be mixed in with the finished ice cream. Assembling the final product was so easy because the bananas were already mixed in. It was just a matter of layering and swirling in the cookie bits, and then it was off to the freezer for the “ripening” stage.

This ice cream is delicious in soft-serve texture, too!

National Ice Cream month is winding down, but there’s still plenty of hot summer weather, especially in North Carolina, which has experienced some brutal upper 90s temperatures this past week. Don’t be surprised if I toss one more ice cream your way before we get to Labor Day!

Banana Pudding Ice Cream

Servings: About 8
Prep Time: 30 minutes, plus chilling
Cook Time: none!
Difficulty: Average
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What if we took all the ingredients for banana pudding and turned them into an ice cream? This is a really fun surprise for National Ice Cream Month!

Ingredients

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups cold whole milk
1 package French vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup cold heavy cream
1 Tbsp. vodka (optional, added in final minute of freezing for improved texture)
1 large ripe banana, chilled and cut up into cubes (this measured approximately one cup)
6 Pepperidge Farm Chessman butter cookies, broken into bits (this measured approximately 2/3 cup)

Note: Classic Southern banana pudding is made with vanilla wafers rather than Chessman cookies. Feel free to substitute as you wish.

Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk, blend condensed milk and whole milk until evenly combined. Add instant pudding mix and blend with the whisk on medium speed, stopping twice to scrape down the sides.
Using low speed, gently blend in the heavy cream. Cover and refrigerate the ice cream base for several hours until fully chilled.
Whisk chilled ice cream base vigorously until it’s smooth again, and then pour it into the ice cream machine. Churn until mixture is nearly finished, and then add the cut-up banana bits, churning again for a few minutes to incorporate. During the final minute of freezing, pour in vodka (if using) and allow it to disperse throughout the ice cream.
Transfer finished ice cream to an insulated freezer container, a third at a time, layering and mixing in Chessman cookie bits as you go. Sprinkle fine cookie crumbs over the top of the ice cream and freeze overnight for best results.