Dessert Recipes

My neighbor, a retired pastry chef named Mrs. Gable, watched me struggle with a wobbly buttercream on my back porch last December. I was trying … Read more

It was 11:37 PM on a random Wednesday in December, and I had this ridiculous, unstoppable craving for something sweet, cold, and crunchy. You know … Read more

The office holiday potluck was in six hours and I’d completely forgotten. I mean, completely. I was standing in my kitchen at 7 AM, still … Read more

Meredith wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I’d stopped by to borrow a cookie sheet—mine had warped in a tragic dishwasher accident—and the smell hit me … Read more

I was standing in the checkout line at the grocery store last Tuesday when the person ahead of me dropped a bag of Rolos. They … Read more

This was supposed to be a simple batch of marmalade. I had a bag of organic oranges sitting on the counter, a Sunday afternoon with … Read more

I was standing in line at the post office—the one downtown with the sticky floor and the fan that sounds like a lawnmower—when the lady … Read more

It was 11:47 PM on a random Thursday in December, and I had a gingerbread house that was basically falling apart. I mean, the walls … Read more

My neighbor, a woman named Clara who I only ever saw in her garden, watched me wrestling with a sticky, butter-laden dough one December afternoon. … Read more

I was standing in the checkout line at the hardware store last Tuesday—don’t ask, it was one of those days—when the woman ahead of me … Read more

There used to be a little café called The Salty Spoon tucked between a vintage bookstore and a dry cleaner on Main Street that made … Read more

My neighbor Carol wasn’t making a big deal of it. I’d stopped by to drop off a package that got delivered to my house by … Read more

I was elbow-deep in a pile of vintage linens at a dusty estate sale last October when the woman running it—a tiny, no-nonsense woman named … Read more

I swore I hated sufganiyot. For years. The jelly-filled donuts that show up every Hanukkah seemed like nothing but trouble—greasy fingers, oil splatters all over … Read more

I was standing in the dairy aisle at the grocery store last December, completely frozen, when the smell hit me. It wasn’t eggnog — not … Read more

My aunt Joan wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I’d stopped by to drop off a library book she’d lent me — something about gardening, I … Read more

The lady at the community garden didn’t introduce herself before she spoke. I was wrestling with a bag of soil that had split open, and … Read more

Jenna wasn’t trying to impress me. I’d stopped by her place on a Tuesday afternoon to pick up a book I’d lent her, and the … Read more

My neighbor Jen wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I’d stopped by to grab a book she was lending me, and the smell hit me before … Read more

The power went out halfway through my banana ripening experiment. There I was, standing in my tiny apartment kitchen at 9 PM on a rainy … Read more