Beyond the Box: Baking from Scratch

This is perfection. It is refreshingly cool on a hot afternoon, bright and cheerful on a rainy day, and you already know how much I love cream cheese. Introducing the Key Lime Cheesecake!  Guaranteed to make your day a little bit better. (I can't actually back that guarantee with anything except maybe a befuddled apology, but I'm pretty confident that this can't make your day worse.) 

Summer is here! And that means camping! And campfires! And campfires mean s'mores!   I'm so excited about honest-to-goodness s'mores!  I know that for just about everything I share here, I gush how much I love it, but it's true.  Why would I share recipes with you that I don't love?  I can't trick you like that, it's just too mean!  And I know you don't need a recipe for s'mores, but my love of s'mores has led me to develop and sample several s'mores spinoffs that can be made sans campfire.  Of course, the original is the best, with the marshmallow toasted over glowing coals of an outdoor fire slowly burning out in the night.  But I crave gooey marshmallow and chocolatey goodness far more often than I have time to find a fire pit, gather wood, start a fire, and let it burn down to prime 'mallow roasting temps.   This is a fancy alternative nearly as delicious as the real thing, and you can serve it to guests without them feeling like they...

Ah, Banana Bread...  It's one of those recipes that everyone seems to have, and yet they're all just a little different.  One thing they seem to have in common is, thankfully, bananas.  (If your banana bread recipe has no bananas, throw it out.  But first show it to me, because I don't believe you.)  This recipe has bananas and is lovely.  Try it!