These homemade Orange Blueberry Muffins are WAY better than anything you’re going to find at a bakery. If I do say so myself. (And I do). You may remember my Instagram post when I declared I had found the BEST muffin recipe ever. Ever since then, the urge to make an orange blueberry version has been overwhelming. This book-inspired recipe for Eleanor Oliphant is Complete Fine is admittedly a bit of a stretch to be truly “book-inspired."...
I’m officially kicking off the baking holiday season with Apple Butter Crumble Bars! We’ve now entered my favorite time of year: the season of cinnamon-scented air, platters of cookies piled high on tables, festive decorations everywhere you look... ...and yoga pants becoming acceptable attire at all holiday functions because, by god, they’ll stretch to fit EVERYTHING you consume between now and New Year’s Eve. That’s right, folks....
Nothing says “Hello, Summer” like Citrus Breeze Ice Cream. Confession: I've wanted to do an ice cream riff on the ever-popular Man Catcher Cake for awhile; its subtle hints of orange, lemon, and vanilla make everyone scrape their dessert plates and ask for seconds. One day, I decided that the cake flavors would be fantastic in frozen dessert form. (Spoiler: I was right). However, I didn’t have a book to pair with this culinary brain child,...
I seriously think these Blood Orange and Rose Water Fairy Cakes are plucked straight from my childhood tea party dreams. My latest read, Little Darlings, follows a woman whose babies are snatched away by fairies. As soon as I finished the book, I started scouring the Internet for fairy-related recipes. I quickly stumbled upon Fairy Cakes and immediately fell in love with these cupcake-like confections encased in icing and adorned with colorful...
Hello, Tartlets! We interrupt our regularly scheduled book review and book-inspired recipe posts to bring you this specially curated list of Pantry Staples Recipes, designed to help you figure out what the heck to cook each day while you're spending 24/7 with those you love...with, um, rather limited resources. My grandmother always kept a well-stocked pantry and freezer in her basement. Whenever I would visit her, we would go downstairs and...
This Apple Crumble Galette is about as close as to making a pie as I’m ever going to come. And, I’m TOTALLY okay with that. My husband asks me to make apple crumble every autumn. We love to go apple picking, and we usually end up with more apples than we know what to do with. But, I always know to set aside some apples to make my All Day Apple Butter and an apple crumble. This year, I think a new fall tradition has been born with this Apple...
Fair warning, Tartlets: once you taste a Pineapple Mint Agua Fresca, it will be your new summer drink obsession. #SorryNotSorry I know a lot of people prefer alcoholic summery drinks (Rosé all day, and all that), but we at the Cottage aren't really a booze-lovin’ bunch. That said, I still enjoy a good refreshing drink, especially when I’m reading under my pergola during the sweltering New Jersey summers.
What is the book-inspired...
One of the reasons I love Southern fiction is that it relies heavily on food to tell its story. A good meal acts as a bonding ritual between friends and family, and a delectable dessert is enough to make you forget the worries of the day, at least temporarily. This book-inspired recipe blogger was thrilled to find that Glory Road contained more than enough mouth-watering inspiration. The peach cobbler that main character Gus bakes up is known as...
I lied. I said I wasn’t going to post anything new until January. But it’s December 31, so I almost made it. I just had to post this cake recipe because it's the PERFECT dessert for New Year’s Day. Christmas week is drawing to an end, and, even if you’re not one who celebrates that particular holiday, I’m sure it’s been hard to escape the tons of cookies, cakes, and other sugary treats popping up at parties, friends' homes, and...
A little side note before I jump into this post: The photos you are about to see are the result of a freakin' miracle. I was dutifully trying to get ahead in my blog work, so I decided to block off a Sunday to cook and photograph all my December post recipes in one day. I've done this before and, while it's exhausting, it's extremely helpful in terms of freeing up time later on. I had three recipes scheduled for that Sunday, but I was only able...
