My eldest baby turned three on Monday. He went back and forth for a few days on wether he wanted a cake with salami or brownies. Ultimately he decided on brownies, so I did at least three test runs to come up with these double chocolate fudgy brownies. You know, for science. Also I wanted him to see the wisdom in not selecting a salami cake.

I made this chocolate crème fraîche cake to celebrate Remy’s birthday. It was his first taste of chocolate. He seemed ambivalent about it which is fine by me. More chocolate for me kid.

I have been on an ice cream kick lately which is great for soul, bad for my bottom. I try to make it only when we’re having company so I don’t sit around and eat it all. Problem for my bottom is that we’ve had a lot of company over the past few weeks. OH WELL. There are worse things in the world than eating delicious chocolate bourbon caramel ice cream.

Strawberry season is in full swing in Florida and California. In Georgia the U-pick strawberry fields open sometime mid-April. Strawberries are a wonderful fruit. Aside from being incredibly healthy, there is so much you can do with them. Salads, gazpacho, dips, salsa, fish, meat, chicken, sauce, ice cream, more ice cream, the possibilities are endless. Today I’m sharing a family recipe—Fresh Strawberry Pie from Grandma Ellen Bunting.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! How are you celebrating today? One of the things I love about the United States is how we’ll use any excuse to throw a party. The Mexicans beat the French? We’ll drink to that! You got a Saint over in Ireland? Let’s dye our river green! We need more celebrations in this world and I love that the U.S. likes to celebrate. So in honor of that (and also, to be clear, my brother-in-law is AN ACTUAL IRISHMAN. This recipe might as well be certified.) I developed a homemade irish cream ice cream for St. Patty’s day.

I’ve been on a journey to develop a recipe where my chocolate chip cookie didn’t turn into a cookie puddle in the oven, for years. My grandma always taught me to do half butter and half crisco. But I’ll be honest, when you do that, you get half flavor.

I had an old roommate from my mid-twenties who used to make the most amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe with a really complicated method that required like twelve bowls. But seriously, who has time to wash twelve bowls?

This is my chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve come up with. I share my notes on why I’ve done the things I’ve done.

A few weeks ago, I made this blood orange curd and tried to find a way to add it to a cookie, because I was craving cookies (mostly that’s how these recipes come about). Ever the lover of the chocolate and orange combination, I paired it with a chocolate ganache and a salted short bread cookie for a bar that tastes almost more like a candy bar than it does a cookie.

Are you sick of the blood orange posts yet? Love it or hate it, this Blood Orange Curd recipe is the last post for the season. Okay actually tomorrow will be the last post because that’s when I am sharing a recipe for Blood Orange Chocolate Short Bread Bars. But then we’re done!

Have you seen those orange chocolate ball things at the store during the holidays? They are my favorite holiday candy and every year as they appear on the shelves I dream about eating them. And then I have a nightmare about my pants no longer fitting which keeps them on the shelves and not in my grocery cart.

I have the same experience with dark chocolate hazelnut Ritter bars. So when I started dreaming of holiday goodies, a mash up of these two into an orange dark chocolate hazelnut bark seemed like a good idea. And it was a good idea, but not for my pants. Although who are we kidding, my pants didn’t fit after Halloween.

I’m always on the lookout for chocolatey christmas cookies. I made these spiced chocolate shortbread cookies a few weeks ago and loved them. I hope you do too. Especially if you’re like me and thought that Christmas cookies were sorely lacking in the chocolate arena.