I made salmon patties last week. I've been eating the fish patties ever since I was a child. They were a Lenten special in our house and always a favorite of my dad's. He loved salmon patties best when they were served with mashed potatoes and creamed peas. I still serve them that way. If you like salmon patties, you might like to try my recipe. Click here to go right to the recipe.

I like to create shallow nests with the mashed potatoes, forming a perfect shallow well for a generous spoonful of creamy peas. A swipe of melted butter over their tops keeps them moist on the inside and, after a short trip into the oven for a quick broil, the butter develops speckles of golden brown.

I prepare six potato nests at a time. That always provides me with some leftovers to put in the refrigerator for another day. On Saturday morning, I heated a couple of the cold potato nests at 50% power in the microwave oven while my husband poached some eggs.

Poached eggs nestled into Potato Nests, sprinkled with sliced green onions was a satisfying weekend breakfast.

Potato Nests

• 5 medium red potatoes
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/3 cup hot milk
• 3 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 large egg

Wash and peel potatoes. Cut into large chunks. Place in pot with enough water to cover. Bring to boil. Cook until potatoes are tender. Drain and mash potatoes. Beat in salt, pepper, hot milk, 2 tablespoons butter and egg, continuing until mixture is smooth and creamy. Add more hot milk if mixture is too thick and stiff.

Spoon mixture into 6 equal-sized mounds on a buttered baking sheet. Use back of spoon to form shallow nests. at this point, potato nests can be covered and stored in refrigerator.

Preheat broiler. If potatoes have been refrigerated, take them out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before broiling, giving them time to come close to room temperature. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Use a pastry brush to coat the top of each potato nest with butter. Slide the pan of potatoes under the broiler. Oven rack should be about 8 inches away from broiler element. Remove Potato Nests from oven when tops are brown.

Leftover potato nests can be stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to three days. Heat in the microwave at 50% or 60% power.

A couple of weeks ago I stopped into a cozy coffee shop tucked into a rural community in West Central Minnesota. On the exterior, it was just an old brick building, but one step through the door and my nostrils were greeted with the aroma of rich brewed coffee. Cookies, sweet rolls and scones tempted me from the case of sweets. I decided this was a place I could nestle into for a while.

As I ordered my first cup of coffee of the day -- large dark roast, no cream -- I spied a cake in a 9-x13-inch pan situated on the counter. A couple of pieces had already been served from the cake, so I could see its insides. I thought for sure it looked like a rhubarb cake. If I could be that lucky, I would definitely splurge on a big chunk to eat with my coffee.

It was a very brief back and forth conversation with the server in the shop that dashed away any dreams of satisfying my taste buds that had begun to salivate for rhubarb cake.

Me: Excuse me. What kind of cake is that?

She: It's coffee cake.

Me: Oh, there's no rhubarb in it?

She: No, it's coffee cake.

Me: So, there's coffee in the cake? (I thought this a legitimate question, since this was a coffee shop, after all.)

She: It's coffee cake.

Me: Okay. I'll take a piece, please.

The cake was good, despite the fact it had no rhubarb. It was moist on the inside. The top carried a blanket of crunchy sugary topping. It went well with my coffee. I guess that's why it's called coffee cake.

After finishing my morning pick-me-up, I walked to an antique shop that was close-by. I found a rack of old church cookbooks. As I was paging through a cookbook from a church in the community, a recipe for COFFEE CAKE jumped right out at me. I decided to buy the book and make coffee cake when I returned home. By the time I was done shopping, my arms were loaded with at least half a dozen old cookbooks with their stained pages, torn covers and occasional notes jotted in by previous owners as they baked and cooked their favorite recipes.

When I set the stack of cookbooks on the counter to pay for them, I was shocked when the store owner told me they were $9.99 each. What? I'll bet they didn't cost that much brand new. Apparently, church cookbooks are harder to come by these days, thus their value has increased. Just when I thought I would clean out all the old church cookbooks from my shelves -- guess not. I walked out of the store with just two cookbooks and 4 of the prettiest little Italian espresso cups and saucers.

Finally, I've made a coffee cake. I used the recipe from the old church cookbook I brought home, but added my own topping and some sweet almond glaze. It's so old-fashioned looking -- it seems like something out of grandma's kitchen. And it tastes like it, too. Delicious!

When I took the pretty little cake out of the oven, it suddenly occured to me that I had forgotten to add the sugar to the cake batter.

Sugar is added to baked goods for a good reason. Irregular sugar crystals create thousands of tiny air pockets that produce a delicate and satisfying crumb structure and expanded volume. Sugar also slows down the baking time, giving the baking powder time to work. So, with sugar, this coffee cake would have a delicate crumb texture rather than here-and-there holes. And, it may even have more volume if the baking powder had a little more time to do its job.

My coffee cake -- no sugar -- gets plenty of sweetness from the almond and brown sugar topping. I mixed some almond paste into the butter and brown sugar. It adds marvelous flavor.

Well, now you know. It's coffee cake. No sugar. No cream. Coffee cake.

Coffee Cake with Sweet Almond Topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a 9-inch round baking pan or glass baking dish.

Make Sweet Almond Topping:

In a bowl, mix:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  
• 1/3 cup almond paste
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

Set topping aside.

Make cake:

Sift together into a mixing bowl:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk in:

• 1 cup sugar (I forgot to add the sugar. You can go with or without.)
  

In a 2-cup glass measure, beat:

• 1 large egg

Add:

• enough milk (I used buttermilk) to measure 1 cup.

Add:

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Pour liquid into bowl with dry ingredients. Mix just until none of the dry ingredients are visible. Spread batter in prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with topping. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Allow cake to cool in pan on wire rack. Make glaze and drizzle over the cake.

Glaze

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
• 4 tablespoons cream
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Mix all ingredients until smooth. Leftover glaze can be stored in the refrigerator.

Cake adapted from recipe in First Lutheran Church Cookbook, Morris, MN. 1986.

Ever since I was in grade school, St. Patrick's' Day has been a day when I wish I was at least a little bit Irish. The teachers at my school instructed their Irish students to wear something green on St. Patrick's Day. The rest of us -- orange. So, while many of my friends came to school wrapped in green sweaters, donning fuzzy green shamrocks on their shirt, or wearing green socks, I would come with an orange headband in my hair. I would have preferred green.

As a young baker, though, I made sure our family had shamrock-shaped sugar cookies frosted in green on St. Patrick's Day. I never told my teachers.

To this day, I don't wear a bit of green on St. Patrick's Day -- my teachers taught me well. But, I don't wear orange, either. I just sneak a little bit of Irish into the foods I eat on that special day.

This year, I developed a pie with a fudge brownie crust, filled with Irish Cream pudding and topped with Irish Cream-spiked whipped cream. I discovered the brownie crust batter can be dropped onto baking sheets to create chocolatey rich cookies.

One bite and you'll think you've discovered the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But, wait. There's more. Creamy frosting made with coffee, chcolate and Irish cream is swirled over the top of each cookie.

I topped each frosted cookie with one tiny Chocolate Crunchy Bit. I first experienced these cute candies a few months ago at Meritage, a restaurant located downtown St. Paul. After an exquisite meal, I studied their dessert menu. One of the desserts listed was described as being served with chocolate rice krispies. In my mind, I pictured chocolate-flavored crunchy rice cereal and I could not imagine why on earth a restaurant serving such wonderful food would include dessert with cereal sprinkled over the top. I ordered it out of curiousity.

It turned out the chocolate rice krispies were not cereal. They were crunchy little chocolate balls. On that same trip to the Twin Cities, I found a bag of the cute chocolate rounds at Cooks of Crocus Hill. They're the perfect adornment for Coffee and Irish Cream Fudge Bites.

The fudgy cookies are just a little bit Irish in a non-traditional kind of way. But they will be all I need to sneak a streak of Irish into my house on St. Patrick's Day.

Oh, if you feel like a pie with a fudge brownie crust and a filling that's a bit Irish along with a topping of cream, just click here.

Coffee and (Irish) Cream Fudge Bites

• 4 tablespoons butter
  
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
  
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  
• 2 large eggs, beaten
  
• 2 tablespoons brewed coffee or Irish whiskey
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
  
• ½ teaspoon salt
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter, unsweetened chocolate and semisweet chocolate into a 4-cup glass measure. Microwave at 50% to 60% power. Stir after each minute until mixture is melted and smooth. This will take just a couple of minutes. Stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, coffee or whiskey and vanilla extract and mix well. Add flour and salt and mix just until thoroughly blended. Refrigerate dough for at least 3 hours or overnight. At baking time, drop dough, about a heaping teaspoon per cookie, onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

When cookies are completely cool, frost with Irish Coffee Frosting.

• Irish Coffee Frosting
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons strong, hot coffee
• 1 tablespoon Bailey's Irish Cream
• 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• Chocolate Crunchy Bits, for garnish

In a medium bowl, combine cocoa with hot coffee and Irish Cream. Add butter, vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat with electric hand mixer until creamy and smooth. Use a rubber spatula to scoop frosting into a sandwich-size plastic bag. Twist the top of the bag, moving the frosting toward one corner of the bag. Use scissors to cut a small piece from one tip of the bag. Squeeze the bag to pipe frosting onto the top of each cookie. Garnish with chocolate crunchy bits, if desired.

Mmmmmmmmmmm. Chocolate. And more chocolate. Rich, not too sweet and not one bit of flour. That's Bette LeMae. It's a traditional dessert that's been served at northern Minnesota's Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge for years. And, I had a taste of it at the Twin Cities Food and Wine Experience a couple of weeks ago.

Just one of the two-bite-sized cube of Bette LeMae flew me right back in time to my first experience with flourless chocolate cake. I was at a cooking class with about five other people in Andrea Halgrimson's kitchen. She was teaching us how to make a cake she described as so decadent, so breathtaking she just had to name it, "Chocolate O." You know what that "O" stands for, right? The chocolate dessert lived up to its name.

Ruttger's Bette LeMae is just like that. They were so kind to share their recipe as they offered samples of the sublime cubes of chocolate dipped in chocolate.

As you read through the recipe, you'll notice that the mixture of boiling water, chocolate, eggs, sugar and butter must be strained before baking. This removes any little bits of cooked egg, creating a perfectly smooth flourless cake. Use a fine mesh strainer or a colander lined with a double thickness of cheesecloth.

The batter is poured into a round pan and baked in a hot water bath, or Bain Marie (bane mah-ree). This method cooks the cake gently, creating a smooth, custard-like texture. As it cools after baking, this cake becomes something like fudge -- only much better. Smothered in a rich blend of chocolate and heavy cream, this dessert becomes simply dreamy.

You can go directly to a printable version of Ruttger's Bette LeMae recipe by clicking right here. They've got a recipe archive that's worth checking out, too. Click here.

I just registered for my first bike ride of the season. This year, the Tour of Lakes starts at the high school in Crosby, Minnesota. Deerwood is right next door. And, that's where Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge is located. Tour of Lakes has a reputation for for the quality, variety and quantity of the food at the rest stops. Maybe I'll find Bette LeMae at one of the stops? A hungry (chocoholic) biker can only hope.

In the meantime, (I can't wait for June 5th) I'll make my own Bette LeMae. Mmmmmmmm. Chocolate. And more chocolate.

Thanks for sharing the recipe, Ruttgers!

Bette LeMae -- A Signature Recipe from Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge

• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 6 whole eggs

In saucepan, mix water and sugar and boil for 2 minutes. Add butter, bittersweet chocolate and chocolate chips. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 more minutes.

While mixture is boiling, beat 6 eggs in mixing bowl. Slowly add boiled mixture to eggs, beating at low speed. Let mixture beat for 2 - 3 minutes. Strain mixture into stainless steel bowl and pour into prepared wax paper-lined and floured 9-inch round pan. Place pan in hot water bath and bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees. When done, remove from water bath and place on towel. Scrape around side of pan and allow to set for 10 minutes.

Turn Bette LeMae over onto plate. Let cool for 1 hour before frosting.

Bette LeMae Frosting Glaze

• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Scald whipping cream and remove from heat. Add chocolate chips and stir until melted. Let stand until cooled. Frost Bette LeMae. Store in the refrigerator.

Orzo, the pasta, sounds a lot like ouzo, an anise-flavored liqueur that is often called the National drink of Greece. So, when I think orzo, I think Greek. Usually.

Orzo, a flat pasta that looks similar to very large grains of rice, is an Italian word that means "barley." And, oftentimes, it is used just like barley in soups, stews and side dishes.

It is commonly used in Greek and Mediterranean dishes, often tossed with feta, spinach, pine nuts and tomatoes.

I like orzo for its quick-cooking characteristic, and it's broad adaptability to many ingredients and dishes.

In the Orzo Pilaf I concocted to go along with Zippy Garlic Shrimp, the orzo pasta offered something a little more interesting and unique than a pasta bowl filled with long thin threads of angel hair.

I love packing Orzo Pilaf into custard cups and unmolding them onto plates. Or, as you see it in these photos, I placed a round cookie cutter onto the plate, packed the Orzo Pilaf snugly into the cookie cutter, then gently lifted the cookie cutter up from the pilaf. It holds its shape beautifully.

Try this recipe and you'll soon be developing your own special blend of ingredients to create Orzo Pilaf.

Orzo Pilaf

• 1 1/3 cups uncooked orzo
• 2 quarts water
• 1 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 chubby cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup minced sundried tomatoes in oil
• 5 ounces fresh baby spinach leaves, rinsed, drained
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Salt to taste
• 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted

Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Stir in orzo. Add 1 teaspoon salt, if desired. Cook orzo for 8 to 10 minutes, until pasta is tender and a bit chewy, or al dente. Drain. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add garlic and sundried tomato. Cook 1 minute. Add spinach and cooked orzo. Stir constantly until spinach is wilted and orzo is heated through. Stir in cheese, wine, pepper and salt. Cook until cheese is melted. Stir in pine nuts and serve.

Makes 4 servings.

My friend, Rose McGee, has a passion for life, a passion for people, and a passion for food, especially sweet potato pie.

I met Rose several years ago when I first joined Women Who Really Cook, a Twin-Cities-based networking organization for women who work in a food-related career. Rose is also a member, and at the time I first met her, she was getting her new business, Deep Roots Desserts, off the ground.

I asked Rose if she'd help us celebrate Black History Month by sharing a recipe for Sweet Potato Pie that she developed along with some of her thoughts. You'll feel Rose's warmth and passion as you read what she has to say in response to some questions I asked.

On Saturday, February 27th, at 1:00, you can meet Rose during a celebration of Black History Month at Macy's downtown Minneapolis store. You'll get the sweet-and-lowdown from Rose, owner of Deep Roots Desserts, on baking sweet potato pie. Rose will show you why her famous pie received the prestigious honor to be chosen for a 2009 Presidential Inauguration party in Washington, D.C. Writer, producer and director of “Kumbayah…The Juneteenth Story,” the multi-talented Rose is currently completing her next book, Can’t Nobody Make a Sweet Potato Pie Like My Mama, a book that joyfully captures the history of the sacred dessert of African Americans -- the sweet potato pie, of course.

I hope you'll make Rose's pie. It may not taste exactly like Rose's own homemade pie, or her Mama's, or her grandmother's, but for sure it will be delicious!

Thanks for sharing, Rose!

1. What is the history of sweet potato pie -- yours especially?

A form of this dessert traces back to the Renaissance Era in terms of mixing spices with sweet potatoes. However, what we know as a "sweet potato pie" today goes back to slavery in this country. Later Dr. George Washington Carver did a great deal of research not only with the peanut, but with the sweet potato as well. His is one of the first recorded recipes. BUT not the first. You'll have to read my book for that little tidbit.

Over time the dessert became what I consider to be the "sacred dessert" of black culture. However, the inspiration for my making the pies began over 30 years ago by accident. I was young, wanted to impress some guests and decided to try making one,. Total flop. Called my grandmother for some guidance. Over time, I began adding a bit of this and a bit of that and came up with my interpretation of her pie and my aunt's pie and my friend's grandmother's pie...you get the picture. One thing about the whole process of trying to get everyone's recipe whose pie I respected - NO ONE had their recipe written down. It was all recorded in their heads and moreso their hearts. Thus the reason it's so important to publish this book, "Can't Nobody Make A Sweet Potato Pie Like My Mama," a book that joyfully captures the history of the sacred dessert of African Americans – the sweet potato pie of course.

Sweet Potato Pie

A Recipe Created by Rose McGee, Owner Deep Roots Gourmet Desserts

Ingredients (makes two 9” Pies):

• 4 sweet potatoes, cooked
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1-stick of butter, melted
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 tablespoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk (whole, evaporated or condensed)
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 2 unbaked pie shells

Directions: (use a hand-mixer or KitchenAid™ type mixer)

In a large mixing bowl, mash cooked sweet potatoes.

Blend in sugar. Blend in eggs. Blend in melted butter.

One at a time, add next 6 ingredients; mix well.

Pour into pie shells.

Preheat oven at 400 degrees; then reduce heat to 350 degrees.

Bake 60 minutes or until well set. Remove from oven.

Allow to set for at least 30 minutes. Eat warm or allow

to cool longer before eating. Sweet potato pie can be left at room

temperature up to two days without refrigeration. Can be refrigerated

up to one week and remain fresh. Can also be frozen.

More about Rose:

Rose McGee was born in Jackson, Tennessee and grew up around women who cooked. Her grandmother, great-grandmothers, great aunts and home economics teacher all stressed the importance of knowing how to manage a home and especially the kitchen. Today, she is one of 400 Minnesota ladies who make up the organization, Women Who Really Cook. Her business, Deep Roots Gourmet Desserts™ features her own delicious and exotic creations - Sweet Potato Pie and Mango Cobbler. Over the past four years, these products have gained tremendous popularity at the Midtown Global Market, the Minneapolis Farmers Market, Twin Cities Food and Wine Show and received accolades from Sue Zellickson in Minnesota Monthly Magazine and WCCO Radio. Appreciative customers always say, “It’s the best!”

Rose McGee has been featured in Food Network News, Edible Twin Cities Magazine, KARE 11 and Fox Channel 9. She recently demonstrated how to make organic Sweet Potato Pie at the Minnesota State Fair while her original Chocolate Sweet Potato Pie has been a delight at the Twin Cities Chocolate Extravaganza. The Calhoun Coffee Festival honored Deep Roots Gourmet Desserts with “The Best Taste Award”.

I was a lucky little girl. My neighborhood friends were envious when my mom invited me to be in the kitchen with her. It was during our kitchen sessions together that she taught me the tricks of the home-cook's trade.
By the time I was 12 years old, I knew how to make macaroni and cheese from scratch. I realized later in life that not only was I creating one of my favorite meals, I was practicing the art of French cooking.
The base of the creamy cheese sauce loaded with cooked elbow macaroni was béchamel sauce. Béchamel (bay-shah-mell), one of the mother sauces of French cooking and probably the easiest to make, starts with melted butter and flour and ends with milk and cheese.
The other day I made croque monsieur, French-style ham and cheese sandwiches topped with thick, cheesy bechamel. I made more of the gruyere and parmesan-spiked sauce than I would need for the sandwiches just so I could make baked penne.
When I make béchamel sauce, I like to add a bit of flavor with an onion, a bay leaf, a few whole cloves. A bit of flour is added to the butter all at once and then stirred and cooked for a couple of minutes before adding milk. I don’t add cold milk, though. I heat the milk in another saucepan. Onion, bay leaf, cloves and a pinch of thyme infuse mild savory flavor to the milk. Once the milk has heated, I pour it into the butter/flour mixture and stir as it thickens.
Any of your favorite cheeses can be added to the sauce, as long as it is a cheese that melts relatively easily.

I use the same flavor infusion technique when I make tomato sauce for pasta. By putting a whole onion into the sauce as it simmers, it permeates the red sauce with wonderful flavor. When the sauce is done cooking and the onion is removed, onion-squeamish friends and family members who eat your sauce will wonder how you created such delcious pasta sauce. They will never know much of the wonderful flavor has been added from the juices of a whole onion.

Whenever I have more bechamel than I need, I scrape it into a container that seals tightly and I store it in the refrigerator for a day or two, just until I decide on how I want to use it up. When I'm ready to put it to good use, I put the chilled sauce into a saucepan and whisk in some milk as it heats.
Bechamel creates a wonderful pasta sauce. Layered into a baking dish with penne and homemade tomato sauce or your favorite sauce from a jar, along with some mozzarella, the pasta dish becomes a jazzed up version of the macaroni and cheese I used to make as a young girl.

Béchamel can also be tossed with pasta along with some cooked chicken, maybe some pine nuts and whatever else you like to throw into a pasta dish. The results will not disappoint.

Baked Penne with Two Sauces

* 8 ounces penne, cooked to al dente
* 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce for pasta
* 1 cup bechamel sauce
* 4 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Brush 4 individual shallow baking dishes or one 9-inch square baking dish with olive oil.

If the bechamel sauce is coming out of the refrigerator for this recipe, add some milk to the sauce to thin it enough so that it can easily be ladled over the pasta. I do this as I heat it slightly in a saucepan on the stove.

Use half of cooked penne to make a layer of pasta in each dish. Top with half of the tomato sauce, then half of the bechamel sauce. Repeat layers one more time, ending with bechamel on the top. If using individual baking dishes, place them on a foil-lined baking sheet before sliding into oven. This will prevent bubbling tomato sauce from landing in the bottom of your oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over the top of the baked penne. Bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, until cheese is melted. Makes 4 servings.

Bechamel Sauce

* ¼ cup butter
* ¼ cup all-purpose flour
* 2 cups milk
* 1 small onion, peeled, studded with 3 whole cloves
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 sprig fresh thyme or a pinch of dried thyme leaves
* ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* ¼ teaspoon salt
* ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a heavy saucepan, melt butter over low heat. When butter begins to foam, add flour all at once, mixing well with a wire whisk. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

In another saucepan, heat milk with clove-studded onion, bay leaf and thyme. Just before milk comes to boiling point, slowly pour the milk into the butter-flour mixture, whisking constantly. The onion and thyme can be removed at this time. Place the pot back on a burner turned to low heat. Continue to cook and whisk the mixture until it thickens. Remove from heat and add grated Parmesan.

February is zipping right by. The days are getting longer, the sun is shining, the temps have been mild. I'm enjoying a mid-winter high. In just a couple of weeks, though, March will arrive with gray days, dirty snow, more snow, ice -- all things that make the month of March in Minnesota my least favorite time of the year.

I've decided to celebrate the sunshine of today with a batch of Cherry Almond Puff. I began the process with an old recipe for Almond Puff that I got years ago from a friend of mine who lives in Bird Island, Minnesota. I haven't made it in years, but was reminded of it when I was having coffee with someone the other day who told me about this great dessert she had made for a neighborhood get-together. I recognized it as Almond Puff.

Since February is National Cherry Month, I made a filling with dried cherries and almond paste. Yes, I'm still finding ways to use almond paste.

Cherry Almond Paste has a crunchy crust that is slathered with cherry almond filling. An unusual topping made of butter, flour and water, similar to cream puff dough, is spread over the filling before baking.

The results were just what I had hoped for -- an almond flavored melt-in-the-mouth sweet treat.

Sue claims this recipe makes 30 servings. I guess that depends on how you slice the Puffs. And on how many each person decides to eat as a serving. It's hard to eat just one.

Celebrate sunshine and longer days. Or, make Cherry Almond Puff today and stash some away in the freezer to take out one of those gray March days that are just ahead.

Cherry-Almond Puff

Base layer of dough:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cold water

Cherry-Almond Filling:

• 1/2 cup (heaping) dried cherries or 3 ounces
• 1 (8-ounce) can almond paste
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

Puff layer:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs

Frosting:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
• 4 tablespoons cream
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place butter and flour in a mixing bowl. Mix with a fork. Add 2 tablespoons water and mix. Form dough into a ball. Cut half. Pat each piece of dough on the parchment-lined baking sheet, forming two 12-inch x 3-inch strips. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.

Make filling by placing dried cherries in a small bowl, adding just enough water to cover the cherries. Place in the microwave and heat to boiling. Remove from microwave and let stand for 3 to 5 minutes. Drain cherries and set aside. Process almond paste and butter in food processor until blended and smooth. Add drained cherries and pulse. Cherries should remain in small pieces. Spread filling over baked and cooled strips.

Make puff topping by placing 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup water in a saucepot. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add almond extract and 1 cup flour. Stir vigorously until the dough forms a ball. Use an electric hand mixer to beat in eggs, one at a time. Mixture should be smooth and the consistency of frosting. Spread puff topping over the Cherry-Almond filling. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, until puff topping is golden brown.

Allow to cool on baking sheet.

Mix frosting ingredients until smooth. Frost the Cherry Almond Puffs. Sprinkle with sliced almonds. Slice into fingers and serve.

I made Choucroute Garnie last week. Pork, kielbasa, sauerkraut, potatoes cooked together in one pot. You really can't find anything better for warming you up on a cold winter day.

But. it's hard to make just a little bit of Choucroute Garnie. And, when only two people are feasting on the one-pot meal, you can bet there will be plenty remaining in the pot after the tummies have been filled with all they can handle.

In my kitchen, any food waiting for its second time around can be tossed into a soup pot. That includes Choucroute Garnie. And how easy it was to transform it into a steaming, satisfying and flavorful soup.

A can of crushed tomatoes, a little broth and, of course, a hit of paprika. That's it. You've got soup.

How easy is that? Chow down on Choucroute Garnie the second time around.

Oh, you'll need to make the Choucroute Garnie before you can make the soup. You'll find my recipe for Choucroute Garnie prepared in a slow-cooker, when you click to my column right here.

Please don't have the soup without the Caraway Rye Croutons. They are so good, you'll want to eat them without the soup.

Choucroute Soup

• 4 cups leftover Choucroute Garnie
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika

Mix all the ingredients together in a soup pot. Heat to steaming. Serve with Caraway Rye Croutons.

Caraway Rye Croutons:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons caraway
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 6 ounces dark rye bread, cut into 1 inch chunks
• Salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small skillet, toast the caraway seeds over moderate heat for about 1 minute, shaking the pan frequently. Add the butter and garlic and stir until the butter melts. In a large bowl, toss the bread cubes with the caraway butter until evenly coated. Spread the bread cubes on a large rimmed baking sheet and toast, turning once, until lightly browned and crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. Season with salt. Transfer the croutons to a basket.

My husband isn't much for breakfast. At least, not if he has to sit down to eat it in the morning before heading out the door. But, if I make breakfast bars, wrap them up individually and have them right up front on an eye-level shelf in the refrigerator ready to grab, he'll take one to eat in the car on his way into town and sometimes a second one goes into his briefcase for a mid-afternoon snack. I try to keep him supplied with Oatmeal-Peanut Bars. They're quite nutritious and a good source of energy.

This weekend his morning energy bars will take on a new look.

I used heart-shaped cookie cutters to create chocolate-coated Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Pop Hearts for my special guy. I recommend chilling the hearts before coating them with melted chocolate. The chocolate will quickly set and the hearts will hold their shape.

I covered a couple of the Pop Hearts in dark chocolate. I will eat those. My partner hasn't developed a liking for the rich, dark stuff. His Pop Hearts were dipped in milk chocolate. Melted Hershey bars.

While the Hershey bars were out on the counter, I made a dangerous discovery. Oatmeal-Peanut Butter mixture sandwiched between two halves of a chocolate bar turn into a devilishly good sweet treat.

You've still got time to make some no-bake Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Pop Hearts for Valentine Sunday to surprise all the special people in your life.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Pop Hearts

• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned or quick oats, divided
• 3 tablespoons flax seeds, ground
• 1 cup cornflakes or Special K, crushed
• 1 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup agave syrup or honey

Dump 1 1/2 cups oats into a blender. Whirl until oats become the texture of flour. Transfer oat flour to a large mixing bowl. Add remaining cup of oats, ground flax seeds, crushed cereal flakes, peanut butter and agave or honey. Blend will with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be heavy and thick.

Line a 9-inch square baking dish with waxed paper, allowing enough to come up over the sides of the dish. Press the oatmeal-peanut butter mixture evenly into the lined dish. Cover with foil and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Remove from refrigerator. Use the waxed paper to pull the chilled mixture from the dish. At this point, the bars can be cut into bars, or use a cookie cutter to create shapes.

To make pops, push a bamboo skewer or a lollipop stick into each shape. Set Pops on a waxed paper-llined baking sheet. Place in freezer for 30 minutes. Spoon melted chocolate over each. Chill until the chocolate is set. Transfer to a container and seal. Keep refrigerated.

• Dried fruit and finely chopped nuts can be added to the mixture.
• I've been using earth balance natural crunchy peanut butter with flaxseed. Sweetened just slightly with agave syrup, the flaxseeds lend Omega 3's and slight flavor without being overpowering and the natural peanut butter doesn't have to be stirred. I like it a lot.
• I have a coffee grinder that I use only for grinding spices and flax seeds.

My collection of heart-shaped cookie cutters is spread throughout my kitchen. From very tiny one-bite size to large ruffled nibble-with-a-cup-of-coffee sized cutter, they're at the ready to cut whatever suits my fancy into a shape that says "Love You."

Brownies, chewy peanut butter oatmeal bars, lemon bars, pancakes -- all can be stamped with a cookie cutter.

My phone visit with Sarah Piepenburg last week was the inspiration for the Nutella and Jelly "Love You" Sandwich. Sarah and her husband, Richard, own Vinaigrette, a Minneapolis store specializing in imported olive oil and vinegar. She told me she has drizzled the 18 year aged balsamic they carry in the store over grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. If it's a good dessert made with peanut butter, why not Nutella?

It's amazing how decadent a simple grilled sandwich becomes when it's made with an ample slather of Nutella and your favorite premium jam or preserves. A dusting of powdered sugar and a drizzle of aged balsamic, as thick as syrup with a bright, fruity flavor, puts this delightful bread and spread concoction way over the top.

Lucky for me, my local food co-op gets a weekly delivery of whole grain breads from Postively 3rd Street Bakery in Duluth. I used their Oatmeal Sesame bread for these sandwiches. Use your favorite whole grain bread.

To create a panini-like sandwich without a panini-press, I put a heavy pot on top of the sandwich as it cooks in a hot skillet. It doesn't get those fancy grill marks, but it does get thin and gooey. Each bite melts in the mouth.

Nutella and Jelly "Love You' Sandwich is a great way to let the special people in your life know how much you care about them -- anyday.

Nutella & Jelly "Love You" Sandwich

For each sandwich:

• 2 slices whole grain bread
• Nutella
• Premium Fruit Jam or Preserves
• Butter
• Powdered sugar
• Fruit syrup or Balsamic Syrup

Lay bread slices on work surface. Spread one slice with a generous layer of Nutella. Spread jam on the other slice. Bring slices together to form a sandwich.

Spread soft butter on top of sandwich. Place, butter side down, in a non-stick skillet. Cook over medium heat until bread is golden. Spread butter on top side of sandwich. Flip over and brown. Place a heavy pot or pan on top of the sandwich to weigh it down, creating a panini-like sandwich. Transfer grilled sandwich to work surface. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut a heart shape from the sandwich. Remaining parts of sandwich become the cook's treat.

Place on plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Drizzle with syrup. Serve warm.

If you're Swedish, look away. Really, just close this window, because I've done something of which I'm sure you won't approve. But, if you come with an open mind and a sense of adventure, then, please, read on. I love having you stop by for a visit. And, you'll be leaving with a recipe for the most wonderful Swedish pancakes in the world.

If you've been reading my weekly newspaper column and my blog for a while, you know I've got lots of Hungarian blood running through my veins. And, since my mom was 100% Hungarian, I grew up eating and learning to prepare lots of delicious Hungarian dishes. When my friend, Cathy, invited us over to her house many years ago for some of her Swedish pancakes, she was confident we would love them at least as much as Hungarian palacsinta. I was not so sure of that.

On the day I was introduced to Swedish pancakes, Cathy's kitchen smelled sweet, as if vanilla cupcakes were baking in the oven. But, there was an underlying aroma of eggs frying in a pan. The fragrance reminded me of the thin pancakes my German father-in-law would always make when we stopped by for breakfast.

Cathy rolled each thin, fluffy Swedish pancake right in the pan and lined a large plate with the soft, golden breakfast cakes. When we make the pancakes, we cook both sides, then fold each pancake into quarters, creating triangles.

As any Swede will tell you, these thin pancakes, rich with eggs and butter, are best served with lingonberry preserves. I'm pretty sure that's what Cathy had on the table, along with some syrup, if I remember right.

My friend's Swedish breakfast treat had won my heart. I left Cathy's house that day with her recipe for Swedish pancakes tucked safely in my purse.

Every once in a while, when we feel like splurging on breakfast, we make these pancakes. And this time, we really got extravagant. I had some Honey-Roasted Pears in the refrigerator. The recipe for those pears is in my column this week. They are quite delicious with a knob of goat cheese and walnuts. But, wow, they are so right when they are nestled up to warm Swedish pancakes. Drizzled with a ribbon of sweet and tart 18 year aged balsamic vinegar.

Almost as thick as syrup, the balsamic vinegar that I used comes from a relatively new specialty shop in Minneapolis. Vinaigrette, at 50th & Xerxes, is one of those trendy new stores selling imported balsamic vinegars and olive oils, all held in stainless steel containers, ready to be tasted. I used the fig balsamic vinegar from Vinaigrette when I made the Honey-Roasted Pears. I bought some of the orange infused olive oil (oranges crushed with olives to make this olive oil) to mix with the fig balsamic vinegar for drizzling over a salad of fresh greens. And, the 18 year aged balsamic was drizzled over my Swedish pancakes for breakfast.

I know some Swedes would say honey-roasted pears and balsamic vinegar on Swedish pancakes is downright sacrilegious. But, once they tried it, they'd discover their lovely pancakes become divine with these unlikely partners.

Oh, what an enchanting Valentine's Day breakfast this would be.

Cathy's Swedish Pancakes

• 4 eggs
• Dash of salt
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup melted butter

Mix ingredients in order given. Heat 10- to 12-inch shallow non-stick pan over medium heat. Pour just enough batter into the pan to create a thin pancake. Swirl pan to spread the batter evenly. When there is no trace of liquid, begin at one side and roll the pancake. Transfer to plate. Mix the pancake batter between each pouring, as the butter tends to separate.

P.S. When we make Cathy's Swedish Pancakes, we cook both sides of each pancake before transferring to a plate. We like the golden specks of color on both sides of the pancake.

I'll confess, I tune into the game mostly for the commercials. This year we'll be gathering at the home of some friends with a group of football-loving, food-relishing, alcohol-drinking (in moderation, of course) friends. We'll all contribute food and beverages and as we nibble and nosh, we'll catch some of the game and all of the commercials.

I prepared this hardy sausage on my Lakeland Public Television food segment that runs every Wednesday on the 10:00 news. Before I could snap a picture, Tom, the cameraman whisked the dish out to his car to take back to the station to share with his co-workers.

I'll give you the recipe. You still have time to run to the store to get some Kielbasa (Polish sausage, fully cooked, smoked, traditionally pork, but today in the stores you'll find turky kielbasa and a mix of beef and pork) before the pre-game show on Sunday. You can watch me make the Super Bowl Sausage at the Lakeland PTV website. Click here to go right to the video.

Just slice, simmer, stir and savor. This is a winner.

May your favorite team win!

Super Bowl Sausage

• 1 pound kielbasa sausage
• 3/4 cup white wine, apple cider or pear juice/nectar
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Cut kielbasa into 1/2-inch thick slices. Place the kielbasa slices in a large skillet. Add wine. Bring to a boil over high heat. Allow to boil vigorously until liquid is almost evaporated. Remove skillet from heat. Add sugar and stir until you no longer see any of the sugar. Stir in mustard. Sausage slices will appear glazed. Serve immediately with toothpicks.

• The sausage can be served with cocktail rye bread.
• If you're taking Super Bowl Sausage to a party, keep them warm in a slow-cooker.
• Or, just bring the ingredients with you and pepare the whole snack when you get to the party. It takes just minutes from start to finish. Slice the sausage before you leave home.

Usually, pound cake is a Spring thing for me. I make it each year around Easter and maybe again a little later when fresh, locally-grown strawberries are ready to pick. The sweet berries with their bright juice are a perfect companion for pound cake. But in the midst of my almond paste frenzy, my apricot brandy pound cake seemed like a logical place to try to add almond paste. So, I did. And I was right. Brandied Apricot-Almond Pound Cake is the result of a match made in heaven.

Remember the brandied apricot topping on those almond bars I posted last week? Well, here it is again, swirled like birthday ribbons through apricot brandy-spiked pound cake laced with almond paste. I made some adjustments to my original pound cake recipe. The resulting texture is not exactly that of my original pound cake, but it comes pretty close.

It's best to make the cake a day or two before serving. Seal it up tight and store it in a cool place. The flavors develop with such depth and the fragrance that wafts up through your nostrils when you open the cake is intoxicating.

On serving day, make the glaze and spoon it over the cake. It not only looks lovely, it tastes divine.

I actually divided the cake batter between 6 mini-heart-shaped cakes in a Wilton cake pan that I have. The remaining batter was baked in a small Bundt pan with an 8 or 9-cup capacity.

Did you notice the little apricot hearts? I used a rolling pin to make dried apricots a little thinner and used a tiny heart-shaped cookie cutter to create the sweet little edible decorations.

Another wonderful use for a can of almond paste. I've got a couple more ideas, though. My almond paste frenzy is still well-fueled.

Brandied Apricot and Almond Pound Cake

Brandied Apricot Ribbon:

• 8 ounces dried apricots
• 1/2 cup apricot brandy

Pound Cake Batter:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 (8-ounce) can almond paste
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup apricot brandy
• 1 teaspoon orange liqueur
• 1/2 teaspoon rum flavoring
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Apricot Brandy Glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup apricot brandy
• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk or cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup tube or Bundt pan. Set aside.

Place apricots and 1/2 cup brandy in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the brandy to a boil. Cover saucepan. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Measure apricot brandy, orange liqueur, rum flavoring, almond extract and vanilla into a small bowl. Into another bowl, sift flour with baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and almond paste together until smooth. Add sugar gradually and beat until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time. As one egg becomes incorporated into the batter, add the next egg. Add sour cream and blend. Add dry ingredients and liquid ingredients alternately in small amounts, beginning with the dry ingredients and ending with dry ingredients.

Puree cooled apricots and brandy in food processor until smooth.

In another mixing bowl, combine the apricot puree with 1 3/4 cups of the cake batter. Blend well.

Spoon apricot batter over the almond paste cake batter. Use a rubber spatula to fold the apricot mixture into the batter, just enough to marble. Do not over-mix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake for an hour. Check cake with a wooden pick. If there is batter on the pick when you remove it from the cake, bake for another five mintues. Continue this process until cake tests done. Do not overbake the cake.

Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto a rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze, sift 2 cups of powderd sugar into a mixing bowl. Whisk in brandy and 1 tablespoon milk until smooth. Add remaining tablespoon of milk or cream to make a thick glaze. Spoon glaze over the top of the cooled cake, letting it drip down the sides. Cake may be stored, covered, at room temperature for a few days or frozen for up to 1 month.

Makes 12 to 14 servings.

More than 20 years ago, I used to take cooking classes from Andrea Halgrimson in Fargo. At that time, she was the librarian and food columnist at the daily newspaper in Fargo and had a reputation for her expert cooking skills. She'd have a small group of eager home cooks into her intimate condo kitchen. We'd give our full attention to Andrea as she prepared gourmet meals, teaching us her tips and techniques as she deftly created the most beautiful and delicious meals I'd ever eaten. I still have all the recipe handouts from those classes, with my notes written in the margins.

I remember one of the classes I attended in Andrea's kitchen focused on chocolate. One of the desserts was based on chocolate crepes, cut into strips to resemble fettuccine. She served the chocolate pasta in large balloon glasses. A sauce of dark chocolate was drizzled over the dessert and served with whipped cream.

I've made the Chocolate Fettuccine several times since that class, but never with a glass of champagne as Andrea did those many years ago. I was a young mother at the time, and that class was probably one of the most extragavant things I had ever experienced.

The chocolate crepes along with dark chocolate sauce can be used in many ways. The sauce can be used as an ice cream topping, of course. It's also good drizzled over cheesecake, pound cake, pecan pie or poached pears. The possibilities are endless.

The crepes don't have to be cut into strips to become a decadent dessert. I've come up with an almond filling to stuff into the thin disks of chocolate and then use raspberry and chocolate sauces to serve with the dessert crepes. You can see a picture of them and find the recipe in my column this week. Click here to go right to the recipe for Almond-filled chocolate crepes.

If you like crepes, you may be interested in the recipes I posted for Hungarian-style crepes with ricotta filling. Just click here and here.

The good news: Anyway you serve chocolate crepes, they're chocolate. And that's a good thing. The bad news: Andrea no longer teaches cooking classes in Fargo, but you can sample some of her recipes in a column that she writes for The Forum.

I'm amazed at myself. It's not that I had purposely laid out a plan early in December to mix up more cookie dough than I could possibly have time to bake before Christmas just so that I would have extra dough to play with in January. No, I'm amazed that I remembered I had a wad of cookie dough in the freezer.

In November, when I was participating in a marathon Swedish Ginger Snaps baking day with three other women, I had the opportunity to taste a few kinds of holiday cookies that our hostess, Judy, had already baked up and was storing in her freezer. And this was the middle of November!

Judy shared recipes with me for Chocolate Caramel Thumbprint Cookies. I made those chocolatey two-bite morsels with the soft caramel filling and posted them on this blog. I've added that recipe to my line-up of cookies that I make every holiday season. You can click here if you'd like to go right to that recipe.

I was lucky to get Judy's recipe for Holiday Shortbread Logs. Both ends of chubby little logs of shortbread are dipped in a brandy-flavored glaze and then in chopped pecans. They were melt-in-the-mouth buttery delicious. I mixed up a batch of the dough, but..........never got around to making the logs.

That's the dough I just rememberd I had in the freezer. I decided to pat the thawed dough into a 9- x 13-inch baking dish and use it as a crust for some apricot topping. Simmering dried apricots in apricot brandy for a couple of minutes, softens the apricots and spikes them with a subtle punch of brandy flavor.

Maybe I've been living under a rock, but I did not know that Solo was selling almond paste in a can these days. Solo Almond Paste is available in just about every well-stocked supermarket. It's soft and moist with distinct yet mellow almond fragrance and flavor. And since I have a real love for the combination of apricot and almond, I had to include it in these bars. Into a struesel topping it went, along with butter, brown sugar, sliced almonds....all good things. I didn't use the whole 8-ounce can, but almond paste can be refrigerated for a week or so and also stores well in the freezer.

Once baked, the shortbread crust is rich and crunchy. The apricot filling is not too sweet so that you can still taste apricots. And the topping -- I'm already making plans to use it on an apple pie.

When Brandied Apricot and Almond Shortbread Bars are cut into dainty little triangles, they are well-suited for tea parties. I think they would be a pretty and tasty addition to a tray of Christmas cookies, too.

For any day, they are just amazing. It's handy having some of this shortbread dough in the freezer.

If you like this recipe, you might like to see my recipe for Buttery Shortbread.Click here to go to that post.

Brandied Apricot and Almond Shortbread Bars

Brandied Apricot Filling:

• 8 ounces dried apricots
• 1 cup apricot brandy, divided

Almond Struesel:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup crumbled almond paste (about 2 3/4 ounces)
• 1/4 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

Shortbread Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

First, make Brandied Apricot Filling: Place dried apricots in a small heavy saucepan. Pour 1/2 cup apricot brandy over the apricots. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Boil, covered, for 2 minutes, until apricots are soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Puree cooked apricots with any brandy left in the pot in a blender or food processor. Slowly pour in remaining 1/2 cup apricot brandy and continue to puree until mixture is quite smooth. Set aside.

Make the Almond Struesel: Whisk flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt to blend in medium bowl. Add almond paste and butter. Rub in with fingertips until mixture begins to clump together. (It can also be mixed with a food processor.) Add almonds and work in with fingertips until well incorporated. Refrigerate until ready to use. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated.)

Combine all ingredients for Shortbread Crust in a large mixing bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until ingredients are well mixed, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Line a 9- x 13-inch baking dish with parchment paper, allowing enough paper to come up over the sides of the dish. These will serve as handles to pull the cooled bars from the dish.

Bake the Shortbread Crust in preheated 350-degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the top is just starting to brown.

Remove dish from oven. Spread Brandied Apricot Filling evenly over the hot Shortbread Crust. Sprinkle Almond Struesel over the filling. Press the Filling slightly.

Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool bars completely in dish on wire rack.

Use the parchment paper to pull the cooled bars from the dish. It's much easier to cut them when they are on a cutting board rather than in the dish.

Cut 4 rows from short end to short end and 8 rows from side to side. Cut each square diagonally to make triangles.

My mom would have called it garlic toast. She would often slice up a loaf of Italian bread, brush it with butter and sprinkle each slice with garlic salt and a little paprika before she baked them to crispness. Most times we'd gobble that toast down between mouthfuls of spaghetti with marinara (I'm pretty sure we called it spaghetti sauce).

But me? I make "crostini." Sliced rounds of French baguette. Butter? No, no, no. It's olive oil for those who want a healthy heart. Garlic salt? Never. Only fresh, chubby cloves of garlic, minced so fine. I do sneak in a little paprika, too. Yes, that's my crostini.

Crostini is an Italian word that means "little toasts." They can be eaten with anything you'd eat with crackers. Crumbled over a salad of fresh greens, Garlic Crostini become croutons. Try dippping them into cheese fondue -- divine. Float them in a bowl of homemade tomato soup -- they really make a splash.

I pulled some Black Bean Chili out of the freezer the other day to heat up for a quick meal. I happened to have some Garlic Crostini in a container on the counter. I'd made it to serve with Artichoke-Green Chile Slather and had just a few slices remaining. With a can of green chiles and few other ingredients, I mixed up a topping for the Garlic Crostini. The little Italian toasts would have looked like a fish out of water sitting on top of a bowl of chili, but with a shot of New Mexico green chiles, they seemed quite comfortable.

I'm sharing my recipe for Black Bean Chili along with the recipes for Garlic Crostini and Green Chile Topping.

The pick-me-up in the chili is the espresso powder that's added to the pot. You'll think it's lots of onions and garlic. It is. And that's what adds the kind of flavor I appreciate in chili. It's a thick, meatless, tummy-warming concoction. Topped with Garlic Crostini with Green Chile Topping -- well, it's just as pretty as a picture. Pretty adaptable, those "little toasts."

Pick-Me-Up Black Bean Chili

• ½ cup olive oil
• 5 medium-sized yellow onions, chopped
• 6 large garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ cup instant espresso powder
• ¼ cup chili powder
• ¼ cup ground cumin
• ¼ cup dried oregano leaves
• 2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes with added puree
• 1/3 cup honey
• 4 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (15-ounce) can black eyed peas, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon chipotle chili powder or chili powder

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until tender, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and saute for another minute or two. Remove from heat and mix in espresso powder, ¼ cup chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Return to heat and cook 1 minute. Mix in tomatoes and honey. Bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low heat, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Add beans, 2 cups water, salt and chipotle chili powder. Bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered until mixture thickens slightly, stirring often, about 30 minutes. Season with salt. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and refrigerate. Rewarm before serving.) Serves 8.

Garlic Crostini with Green Chile Topping

Crostini:

• 1 baguette
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  
• 1/8 teaspoon Hungarian paprika

Cut the baguette into ¼-inch round slices. Whisk the olive oil, garlic, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper in a bowl. Brush each side of the bread rounds with the olive oil mixture. Arrange bread rounds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 13 to 15 minutes, turning bread rounds over after 10 minutes through the baking time. When crostini is crisp and golden brown, remove from oven. Cool on a wire rack. These can be made up to 3 days in advance. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

I make extra of the olive oil mixture. I love dipping chunks of whole wheat French bread into the garlicky oil for a mid-afternoon snack. Have breath mints close by.

Green Chile Topping:

• 1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 1 avocado
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
• 1 chubby clove garlic, minced
• Pinch of salt or to taste
• Diced tomato, for garnish (This time of year I use Glen Muir Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes)
• Cilantro leaves, for garnish

Mash half of avocado in a bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours before eating. Just before serving, chop the remaining half of avocado and gently stir into the topping. Place a heaping teaspoon of Green Chile Topping on each of 8 slices of Garlic Crostini. Garnish with tomato and cilantro. Nestle one slice on each serving of Black Bean Chile. Offer extra Garlic Crostini and Green Chile Topping at the table.

I know. It looks like a muffin, doesn't it? That's exactly what my husband thought, too, when he came into the kitchen yesterday morning, ready to head out to the office.

It's a little breakfast pie. It's my labor of love.

After being so focused on pasties for the last couple of weeks, I was still thinking about the breakfast pasties that I brought home from Turtle River Pasties. I purchased them in their frozen state and baked them for breakfast for overnight guests. It was the first time I had tasted the flakey pastry filled with eggs, Mark's homemade sausage, potatoes, cheese oozing out with each warm bite. They made a very filling and satisfying breakfast.

With a wad of buttery pastry dough wrapped up and taking up space on a shelf in my refrigerator and leftover porketta (also served to overnight guests), I decided to make a breakfast something. Why not a breakfast Puffin? A miniature pie-look-alike, baked like a muffin. I was pretty sure my husband would love it.

By the way, Beth Dooley has a delicious-sounding porketta recipe at Simple, Good and Tasty. I should have tried that one. Next time. (There's a reason I had leftover porketta in my refrigerator.)

On Monday evening I cubed and cooked a potato with visions of loaded breakfast hot-pockets and big mugs of dark coffee for a morning wake-up meal with my husband.

I hopped out of bed at 6:00 yesterday morning, feeling confident I'd have a hot Breakfast Puffin ready for my husband to eat before heading out the door for the day.

I prepared the filling ingredients, chopping porketta, peppers, onion, grating cheese. Finally, rolling out pastry dough, cutting it and forming it into muffin cups.

It all took much longer than I had anticipated. Prep time would have been much shorter if I had laid the groundwork the night before. That would have meant just rolling and cutting the dough in the morning.

The little Puffins went into the oven a little after 7:00. They were golden, puffed up, hot and ready to devour about 25 minutes later. That happened to be the exact same time my husband entered the kitchen, coat on, briefcase in hand, ready to leave.

He: Muffins?

Me: No. They're little breakfast pies. You don't have time for one?

He: No. But I'll take one with me.

Me: They're so hot. It might be hard to eat one in the car.

He: That's okay. I'll eat it when I get to work.

I wrapped a piping hot puffin loosely in a paper towel. He clamped onto it as if it were a baseball, gave me a quick kiss and off he went.

Fifteen minutes later I answered my phone.

He: That little breakfast pie was delicious.

Me: You already ate it?

He: Yup. I'm just pulling into the parking lot and I've already eaten the whole thing.

Me: Wow. What made it delicous?

He: The crust was so flakey and flavorful. The filling had just the right mix of ingredients. Everything about it was perfect.

Me: Smile :) I'm glad you liked it.

Mission accomplished. Chopping, rolling, cutting, cooking, baking at 6:00 a.m. all worth while. Labor of love enjoyed and appreciated.

As I sat down to enjoy a Breakfast Puffin with a big mug of hot, dark coffee, I thought about my next challenge: ways to use the remaining filling ingredients I didn't need for the Breakfast Puffins.

Refrigerate any remaining filling ingredients. Here's how I will use them:

• Layer them onto a whole wheat tortilla, roll up and heat for breakfast or lunch. I'll be sure to add some of those cooked potato chunks in my refrigerator.
• Toast some bread. Layer filling ingredients on the toast. Slide under the broiler until bubbly. Top with sliced avocado. Great for lunch.

Do you have any other ideas for me? Please leave a comment if you do.

Breakfast Puffins

For the pastry:

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon seasoned salt or garlic salt
• 2/3 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• 5 to 6 tablespoons ice water
• A little bit of milk or cream for brushing over the top of each puffin
• A pinch of coarse salt for sprinkling over the top of each puffin

Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut butter into flour until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Add 1 tablespoon of ice water at a time, gently tossing with a fork between additions, until the dough begins to come together. Shape dough into a ball, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (My chunk of pastry had been in the refrigerator for 4 days. The dough can also be stored in the freezer for about a month.)

For the Filling:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup chopped red or green bell pepper (I used a combination of both)
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 6 eggs
• Seasoning of your choice
• 1 cup chopped cooked porketta, ham, sausage or bacon
• 1 heaping cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Briefly saute peppers and onion in the hot butter. Whisk eggs together and pour into skillet. Add seasonings. Cook stir the eggs until almost done. Transfer egg mixture to plate to cool.

Toss cheeses together and set aside.

Roll out chilled pastry dough on lightly floured work surface. Cut rounds to fit into muffin tins, allowing some of the pastry to come up over the top. Cut smaller rounds to fit as tops for the puffins. (I used muffin tins with 1/2-cup wells, a little larger than the traditional size. I used an upside-down saucer as my guide for the larger rounds and a round cookie cutter for the tops.)

Line 4 to 6 muffin cups with pastry, leaving an empty cup between each one. The number of puffins you make will depend on the size of your muffin cups. I made 4 with one batch of pastry.

Layer cheese, meat, scrambled egg mixture and more cheese in each pastry-lined cup, filling generously.

Top with pastry round and seal edges. Use the tip of a sharp knife to poke a couple of slits in the top of each puffin. Brush each puffin with some milk and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for about 25 minutes. The puffins should be golden brown and you will hear the filling sizzle.

Remove from oven. Gently pull the puffins from the tin. Eat while hot -- out-of-hand or with a fork.

• Sure, you can use refrigerated pie dough from the grocery store.
• To save time in the morning, make the pies the night before and refrigerate in a sealed container. Allow a little extra baking time in the morning. Or, make, bake and freeze on the weekend. Reheat the frozen pies for about 20 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven.

Be careful when you do a Google search for pasties. I was searching for the edible kind, the Cornish kind-- pastry stuffed with meat and vegetables. But, ummmm, you know, the other kind came up. Google misunderstood. It did try, though. Google asked: Did you mean to search for: all about pastry?

I had just returned to my office after a visit with Mark and Peggy Schultz, owners of a pasty (PASS-tee) shop in Turtle River, Minnesota, not far from where I live. After spending time in the Turtle River Pasties kitchen, watching Mark create very chubby pasties, all-butter pastry turnovers stuffed with beef and root vegetables, I was anxious to use the tips he shared with me to make my own batch.

I first learned of pasties over 20 years ago when I was in Ely for a state Legion baseball tournament. They were part of the line-up at the concession stand. A pasty is a little bit like a filled dumpling, but it's baked, not boiled. It's a little bit like a pie with a flaky crust, but it's eaten out of hand, not with a fork. It's a little bit like a sandwich filled with meat and vegetables, but there's no bread involved.

It seems pasties first appeared in Cornwall, England. Housewives formed piecrust around a filling of beef and root vegetables and then baked them, creating a convenient meal for the men to take down into the damp tin mines. The pasty, a hardy meal nestled into a crust, could be eaten by hand and was tasty hot, warm or cold.

Eventually, immigrants brought the pasty to America. It's likely you will find pasties wherever there are mines. In Minnesota, they've become a traditional part of the food scene on the Iron Range.

Mark and Peggy Schultz and their children had eaten pasties on trips through Michigan's Upper Peninsula. They decided to try making their own version. They started with a traditional style pasty, highlighting Mark's own smoked brisket. After much trial and error and lots of pasty-eating, they came up with the perfect pasty. Now, they offer a total of eight varieties.

Mark showed me how he makes the traditional beef pasty. Two things set it apart from all other pasties: the rich, flaky crust and the smoked brisket.

Mark cuts cubes of freshly smoked brisket to mix with potatoes, rutabaga, onions and carrots for his traditional-style pasties. A large smoker is in the kitchen right next to the ovens.

Once the pastry dough has been mixed, it goes through a sausage-stuffer. Mark cuts the dough as it comes out of the stuffer, getting just the right amount of dough to form each pasty.

Rather than roll the dough by hand, Mark gives each piece of dough two passes through the rollers.

Now, it's ready to fill.

Mark stuffs each pasty, one at a time, and crimps it closed with a very special kitchen tool. It's a professional-style crimper. And it sure does the job.

Loaded with beef and vegetables and perfecty crimped, the pasties are ready to go into the oven.

Turtle River Pasties are sold hot and ready to eat or pre-baked and frozen, ready to heat up in your home oven.

I'm lucky. I can drive 10 miles or so to Turtle River Pasties to buy several varieties of delicious meals in a pastry crust and have a visit with Mark and Peggy Schultz at the same time.

Mark Schultz is not only a great pasty-maker, he's a super teacher. I did make my own pasties using all of the tips I learned from Mark. I used small chunks of tri-tip roast that I had leftover from another meal. And I made the pastry dough with lots of butter. I rolled the dough by hand, stuffed and crimped it.

And then, I ate one. Almost as good as a Turtle River Pasty.

If you don't live near Turtle River Pasties, you can make your own meal in a pastry pocket. I discovered it's not difficult. I share the recipe for my Not-So-Traditional Pasties, pictured above, in my column this week. Click here to go right to the recipe. It will save you a Google search!

Turtle River Pasties

12486 Hwy 71 Connection in Turtle River, 10 miles north of Bemidji on Highway 71, next to the 71 Mart Convenience Store

218-586-4004

When you live in the Midwest, northern Minnesota to be more exact, where below-zero temperatures are no big deal, but just part of winter life, a hot bowl of hearty homemade soup is highly appreciated.

A few weeks ago I received a copy of "Enlightened Soups," by Camilla V. Saulsbury. As I was in the midst of holiday preparations, I didn't have much time to look through the cookbook. But as the New Year rang in, I was ready to get back to a more healthful eating routine. And, during the first week of the new year, a few of Camilla's Enlightened Soups have been a part of my lower fat, lower calorie eating plan.

As I paged through the cookbook filled with more than 135 light and healthful soup recipes, I soon noticed the recipes used ingredients that can be found in most supermarkets and that the soups did not take long to make. All can be prepared in an hour or less, some in just 20 minutes. Each recipe has a small illustration that shows how long it takes to prepare the soup. As I soon discovered, enlightened soups don't need to cook for hours to deliver wonderful flavor.

Another feature of "Enlightened Soups" is the nutritional information included with each recipe.

I first tried Red Lentil Mulligatawny. It was rich with flavor and took 45 minutes to prepare from start to finish.You can read about that recipe in my column this week.

As a guest writer on my blog, Camilla Saulsbury agreed to share her top ten tips for enlightened soup-making. Her helpful tips can be applied to the recipes from her "Enlightened Soups" cookbook or they can help you turn your own favorite homemade soups into enlightened soups.

Camilla also shares her recipe for Dijon Vegetable Chowder, pictured above.

Learn more about Camilla as well as other enlightened cookbooks she has written by visiting her Enlightened Cooking blog.

******************************************************************************************************************

Hi everyone. I am so happy to be guest-posting here on Sue Doeden’s blog, and share a recipe from my cookbook, Enlightened Soups: More Than 135 Light, Healthy, Delicious and Beautiful Soups in 60 Minutes or Less. Although I’ve written 10 cookbooks to date, Enlightened Soups is my very favorite; developing the recipes was a labor of love.

And soup is what I’ve been making—almost every day—since Christmas. It’s so warming on these chilly January days (yes, it’s even cold here in Texas; not as cold as Minnesota and the Dakotas, but in the 20s), and it is the best fast food around.

My objection to most “fast food” is the adjective “fast.” Loading myself (and my 3-year -old son) into the car in freezing temperatures, only to drive to a line of 15+ cars, is anything but desirable; or fast. I’d much rather stay in my warm kitchen, listening to NPR, and making a batch of Dijon Vegetable Chowder, a favorite recipe from my book It’s ready in minutes, a cinch to prepare, and made from pantry ingredients. An added fillip? It’s light in fat and calories despite its rich, velvety taste.

I hope you’ll give it a try. I’ve also included my top ten tips for streamlining all of your soup-making. Soup’s on!

Dijon Vegetable Chowder

Total Time (Prep + Cooking): 60 minutes

Creamy and rich—despite containing neither cream nor butter—this soup wards off winter with every spoonful. Don’t skip the addition of the Dijon mustard—it adds tremendous flavor and depth in one easy step.

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 medium red bell peppers, seeded, diced
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups 1% lowfat milk
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• 4 medium baking potatoes (about 2 and 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1 16-ounce bag frozen white or yellow corn
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 16-ounce bag frozen cut green beans

Heat the oil in a large saucepan set over medium heat. Add the onion, bell peppers, and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes. Add the garlic, milk, broth, water, and potatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until potatoes are almost tender, about 10 minutes.

Stir in corn and simmer 2 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer 3 cups of the solids and 1 cup liquid to a blender. Add the mustard and puree until smooth. Return to pot and add green beans. Bring to a simmer, cooking 8 minutes or until beans are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition per Serving:
Calories 142; Fat 4.9g (sat 2.9g, mono 1.0g, poly 0.3g); Protein 6.6g; Cholesterol 15mg; Sodium 509mg; Carbohydrate 24.8g.

Camilla Saulsbury's Top 10 Tips for Enlightened Soups
Whether you’re making Classic Tomato Soup, Garden Gazpacho, or Rice Congee Soup, it helps to remember that soup is a forgiving dish, making it one of the best ways to learn about the magic of cooking. Soup offers the opportunity to learn about the fundamentals of cooking, from sautéing to caramelizing to the blending of techniques, textures, and flavors, all with easy-to-follow steps. Further, soup is flexible, meaning you can tweak it to your palate’s content.

Nevertheless, it’s always important to begin by reading through the recipe before cooking begins, checking that you have all the necessary ingredients, and then gathering together all of the needed equipment for the task.

And for even greater assurance of success, follow my top ten tips for enlightened soup-making:

1. Know Your Salt & Pepper.
Proper seasoning with salt and pepper is the key difference between a great soup and a blah soup.

Salt is about as close to a magic ingredient as there is. Proper seasoning with salt doesn’t make a soup salty; rather, the myriad complex flavors of the brew come to the fore. But add too much, and all your hard work can be ruined.

Fresh peppercorns are likewise key to creating great soup. They have tremendous flavor, especially in comparison to the pre-ground stuff. You can use your own pepper grinder, or look for the new peppercorn bottles in the supermarket with the grinder built in.

2. Cut the Fat in the Sauté Step.
Many soup recipes begin by cooking and stirring aromatic vegetables—e.g., onions, garlic, peppers, ginger—in butter or oil.

You can slash the fat in most traditional recipe by cutting down to a few teaspoons or tablespoons of oil or butter. The results are still delicious (the vegetables are softened and slightly caramelized), and the technique can be applied to other soups in your repertoire. Note that if the vegetables stick a bit, simply add a small amount of broth or water to the pan.

3. Don’t Go Stir-Crazy
In the first phase of cooking the soup (i.e., cooking and stirring the onions, aromatics, and other vegetables), don’t stir the vegetables too often; once every two minutes or so is plenty. This helps them brown, caramelizing their sugars. That, in turn, will further enhance the flavor of the soup without adding excess fat.

4. Puree Soup in Blenders, in Small Batches
When making pureed soups, use a blender for the creamiest texture. A food processor will give a slightly grainy texture. Handheld immersion blenders are excellent when you only want to blend soups a little bit, but they are not effective for making creamy purees.

Be sure to purée in small batches and crack the blender lid slightly (or remove the center cap from the lid). Steam can build up once you start blending, and if the lid is on tight or the blender is overfilled, it will spray hot soup all over you and your kitchen. For protection, cover the top with a dishtowel while puréeing.

5. Steer Clear of HIGH Heat.
As one who has scorched her fair share of soups in days gone by, I urge you to consider the following: keep the burner dial away from HIGH, even when bringing soup to a boil. It can take mere seconds for a soup to scorch if left unattended boiling at high heat.

6. Handle Dairy Additions with Care.
Follow the directions carefully for adding dairy products to soup. Keep the heat relatively low to prevent the dairy product from separating; boiling will create an unpleasant texture. If you’re making a soup ahead of time, prepare it up to the point of adding the dairy, then cool and store. Reheat the soup when ready to eat, adding the dairy for a quick heating just before eating.

7. Give Yourself Permission to Use Ready-Prepped Ingredients
Sure, fresh is best. But when you’re exhausted and hungry, my position is that a homemade soup made with a few shortcuts is still so much better—both in terms of taste and good health— than fast food. So go head and plan for those emergency moments and stock the pantry and freezer with plenty of ready-made broths, vegetables, rice, beans, and pasta.

8. Cut Vegetables Small for Faster Cooking.
A 1/2-inch size chop or dice needs no more than 10 minutes of simmering before it’s soft, speeding soup to the table in no time.

9. Head to the Deli Counter for Cooked Meat & Poultry.
You don’t need to simmer meat and poultry for hours on end to pack a healthy and flavorful addition to almost any soup. Instead, head to the deli counter of your supermarket for a wide selection of fully cooked meats. Shred the meat from deli rotisserie chicken (discard the skin, and freeze any leftover meat for future meals), or request thick cuts of roast beef, smoked turkey, and ham, then easily dice into small pieces at home.

10. Add Instant Dazzle with a Drizzle, Splash, or Sprinkle.
Elevate any Enlightened Soup, whether for everyday or entertaining, with a sprinkle or drizzle of one of the following: a few shavings of Parmesan cheese, made with a vegetable peeler, flavorful oil (fruit extra-virgin olive oil, hazelnut oil, toasted sesame oil), finely grated citrus zest, or ready-made condiments such as black olive tapenade, sun-dried tomato tapenade, or basil pesto. A very small splash of citrus juice (lemon or lime), red wine vinegar, cider vinegar, or good-quality balsamic vinegar, can brighten and enhance the flavors of many soups, too.

A fluffy and chubby-looking bunny was right outside my window the other day, happily nibbling away on sprigs of Russian Sage that were poking out of the snow. He was so cute as he started at the tip of each sprig and made fast work of downing it, looking as though he was slurping long spaghetti. He's not so cute in the summer, though, when I find him filling his tummy on my flowers.

When that little bunny finally had his fill, he turned and quickly hopped away, his little white tail bouncing. And that's when I was reminded of Bunny Hole Cookies.

I was invited to a holiday cookie bake-off a few weeks before Christmas. Dan "Klecko" McGleno and Kim Ode invited some fellow cookie-loving friends to gather in Klecko's laboratory at St. Agnes Baking Co. where he develops great bread. Yes, he's the same guy who bakes dog biscuits. We were instructed to bring cookie dough ready to be turned into holiday cookies to share.

The St. Agnes ovens were leaking sweet smells as all those cookies baked to perfection.

Klecko created the Bunny Hole cookies, a perfect sweet treat for wintery days in the Midwest. He simply cut rounds of sugar cookie dough and cut each round in half. Using an apple corer, he cut a small hole in one half of each unbaked cookie.

All of the solid halves got a big squirt of filling, either Bavarian chocolate or coconut.

He put the cookies together, each topped with a bunny hole. Once baked, the cookies had a dark bunny hole or a bunny hole with a cottontail peeking through. The baked cookies were showered with powdered sugar snow.

Children will not only love eating these cookies, but they will have a grand time making them with you. You can use your favorite dough for cut-out sugar cookies.

I use a recipe that I got years ago when I was in college working part-time at a private preschool in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. The owner of the preschool always used this recipe when she made cookies with the children. It makes a crunchy cookie. The dough is easy to roll out.

On one of these snowy winter days when it's too cold to be outside, gather the family in the kitchen to make some Bunny-Hole Cookies. It's especially fun once you've watched a cute little cottontail run back to its bunny hole with a tummy full of nibbles from your snow-covered flower garden. And, why not do the Bunny Hop right over to a plate of Bunny Hole Cookies? Nibble, nibble, crunch!

Kitty's Sugar Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Use an electric mixer to blend sugar and butter together. Add egg and flavorings and mix well. Sift flour, baking soda and cream of tartar together and stir in until totally incorporated. Refrigerate the dough for 2 to 3 hours.

Divide dough in half. Roll out one half at a time to desired thickness. The thinner the dough, the crispier the cookies will be. Cut as many cookies from each rolling as possible. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 7 to 8 minutes.

To turn this dough into Bunny Hole Cookies:

Cut rounds. Cut each round in half. Use a small round cutter or apple corer to make a bunny hole in half of the halves. If you want to use chocolate frosting and white frosting to fill the bunny holes, bake the cookies first. When the cookies are cool, sandwich together with fluffy frosting. Sprinkle some coconut on the white frosting so it looks like a bunny tail. Shower all the Bunny Hole Cookies with powdered sugar snow.

Happy New Year to you. If your refrigerator looks anything like mine right now, it's probably full of covered bowls and dishes, all holding bits of food leftover from holiday meals with family and social gatherings with friends. Actually, I think we have just one more single-serving size bowl of Hungarian sausage and roasted potatoes holding space on one of the refrigerator shelves. Since I don't get very excited about leftovers, my husband will be in charge of eliminating that last food sign of the final holiday gathering with friends we had at our house last Wednesday.

There is something else taking up space in my refrigerator, though. It's dough. In a big bowl.

It was just a silly coincidence that during the holidays we had lots of yeast dough going on around here. A day or two before Christmas, I mixed up a batch of the Brioche dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Some of it created a pan of Sticky Pecan Caramel Rolls for Christmas morning. Some of that same dough was turned into melt-in-the-mouth crescent rolls to go with a Swedish Meatball dinner. There's still some of that dough in a plastic container in the refrigerator.

While she was here for Christmas, my daughter-in-law, Katie, wanted to try making kolaches using a recipe she found in "The Pastry Queen" cookbook by Rebecca Rather. Wouldn't you know -- that dough also required an overnight in the refrigerator. We did find time to make the dough, but never had a chance to form the kolaches before Katie had to leave for home. I finally made those kolaches last week, stuffing them with lots of poppyseed filling and plum butter.They were not only beautiful, they were soft, fluffy and quite addictive.

You can get right to the Pastry Queen's kolache recipe by clicking here.

But, that wasn't the end of all the yeast dough. I decided to banish a lone baked sweet potato and some roasted cubes of butternut squash from my refrigerator by mashing them up and beating them into some yeast dough. I adapted a recipe I had for some rich biscuits made with yeast and baking powder. And, you guessed it. the dough required refrigeration. The good news, though, is that the dough can be rolled out, cut and then frozen if you don't want to bake all the biscuits at once. The biscuits are light, slightly sweet and soft. It's hard to eat just one. And that's good, because the recipe makes lots.

What I haven't told you yet, is that there is an old belief in my family, passed down through generations, (from my Hungarian side) that whatever you do on New Year's Day has a direct effect on your life for the rest of the year. It's more than that, though. If your house is a mess on the first day of the year -- a mess all year. Refrigerator full of leftovers, yep, all year. The good news -- you'll have food to eat all year. If you travel on New Year's Day -- really -- all year:) You get the idea.

So, with plenty of dough in my refrigerator, I guess it means I'll have dough all year. I'm just hoping the Hungarian gods of superstition think it's the green kind of dough. You know, cash.

That would make it a happy dough year!

Happy Dough Year and Happy New Year. May you have bread in your house all year long!

Sweet Potato-Butternut Squash Biscuits

• 3 envelopes (1/4-ounce) or 2 tablespoons plus 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water (105 to 110 degrees F)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks), softened
• 1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato
• 1 1/2 cups mashed cooked butternut squash
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

In a 2-cup glass measure, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon of the sugar in warm water. Set aside while yeast bubbles and grows.

In a large mixing bowl, combine remaining sugar and butter. Add water and yeast mixture and mix well. Use a wooden spoon to mix in sweet potato and butternut squash. When mixture is well combined, add 2 cups of the flour along with baking powder and salt. Mix well. Continue adding flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough comes together and pulls away from sides of bowl. There's a good chance you won't need all of the flour. If you have some of the flour remaining, sprinkle some of it on your work surface. Transfer the dough to floured work surface and knead for about 8 minutes. If dough is sticky, shower the work surface with more flour as you continue to knead. The dough should be smooth and elastic.

Place dough in a well-greased bowl, turning the dough to grease the top. At this point, dough can be covered and chilled overnight or even up to a couple of days.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with a 2-inch round cutter. At this point, the cut biscuits can be stored in the freezer for up to a month.

Allow the biscuits to rise on a parchment-lined baking sheet, covered lightly with a tea towel, in a warm place until doubled in size.

Bake the biscuits in a preheated 400-degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm.

Yields 6 to 7 dozen biscuits.

Tip from the cook

• I placed the cut rounds of dough I wanted to freeze close together on two parchment-lined baking sheets, covered them tightly with Press'n Seal and slid them into the freezer. Once they were totally frozen, I packed them into freezer bags.
• These biscuits are delicious with butter and honey for breakfast. They go well with soup or salad, too. And they're not bad with a thick slice of ham sandwiched in their middle. I like them best with a thick pat of butter sandwiched in their warm middle.

When both of our boys' families are here, we have a total of 6 adults in the house as well as 4 young children. Food preferences are different for each one, but there are a few menus that please all.

The weather prevented our older son and his family from getting to our house for the Christmas weekend. The rest of us, though, stayed cozy in the house as the Christmas snow storm hit, creating a beautiful winter wonderland.

As the snowflakes fell, we ate -- A dinner of roasted pork loin stuffed with spinach, fontina cheese, pine nuts and Italian sausage along with creamy penne flavored with lots of roasted garlic, roasted Roma tomatoes and more pine nuts. Another meal of Swedish meatballs (my husband makes the best), gravy, mashed potatoes and candied carrots. A marinated tri-tip roast with a big green salad and potatoes. And a Hungarian-style meal with two kinds of our homemade Hungarian sausage along with roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Lunch-time meals are usually make-it-yourself style. I try to have a variety of deli meats, cheese and all kinds of ingredients that can be sandwiched, wrapped or rolled. That means there needs to be some things that can do the sandwiching, wrapping and rolling. Bread. Tortillas. Pita.

I've always got a package of my favorite whole wheat tortillas on hand. They make great wraps. And they also work perfectly for making quesadillas.

I had some poached chicken in the refrigerator -- the perfect foundation of a quesadilla. Also in the refrigerator: black bean puree and three-pepper salsa, both leftover from the recipe in my column this week.

To make a quesadilla, you don't really need a recipe. Just about any of your favorite sandwich fillings can be sandwiched between two tortillas and heated in a frying pan. Just perfect a technique that delivers a quesadilla you love, and that's all there is to it.

Earlier in the week (before everyone was due to arrive for Christmas) I prepared a healthful meal of poached chicken breasts with black bean puree and three-pepper salsa. I had some of each left in the refrigerator.

The black bean puree that I served with poached chicken was spiked with a little cayenne pepper to heat it up a little bit before spreading it over a whole wheat tortilla. Then, some slices of poached chicken and ripe avocado and plenty of shredded cheese. Three-Pepepr Salsa and sour cream was a perfect accompaniment to the warm quesadilla.

After today, my husband and I will be alone once again -- eating Christmas leftovers layered into grilled quesadillas.

Chicken and Black Bean Quesadilla

For each quesadilla:

• 1 whole wheat tortilla
• 2 tablespoons black bean puree
• dash of cayenne pepper
• 1 poached chicken breast, sliced
• 1/2 of a ripe avocado, halved, sliced
• 1/2 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
• Butter
• Sour cream
• cilantro leaves, chopped
• Three-Pepper Salsa

Lay tortilla on work surface. Mix black bean puree and cayenne pepper and spread over half of the tortilla. Layer chicken, avocado and cheese over black bean puree. Fold tortilla in half.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add stuffed and folded tortilla. Cook until one side is golden brown. Use a large metal spatula to flip the quesadilla. Cook until that side is golden brown. Transfer quesadilla to cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut the quesadilla into 3 wedges. Arrange on a plate and serve with Three-Pepper Salsa and sour cream. Garnish with cilantro.

Tips from the cook

Use black beans that have been mashed with a fork if you aren't making the black bean puree from my column recipe this week. Add a little salsa for moisture, if needed.

Use any salsa that is a favorite with your family.

UPS has been making frequent deliveries to our house this holiday season. One of those guys who drops packages at our door always remembers our Golden Retriever, Wrigley, with a couple of big biscuits. We never seem to be around when he brings his truck down our driveway. So, he doesn't know that Wrigley died in May. My husband takes the biscuits to work with him to give to the owner of one of Wrigley's friends, Taffy.

Wrigley was a sweet, sweet dog and I miss her like crazy. Since I work from home, she was my constant companion. She curled up on the floor in my office as I worked. She kept the kitchen floor clean of all crumbs as I tested and developed recipes. She was an eager taste-tester and loved everything I made. She greeted my visitors with much enthusiasm. She was my walking partner. She was my best friend on four legs.

Shortly before Wrigley died, I bought a copy of "K-9 Nation Biscuit Book," by Dan "Klecko" McGleno. You may have heard of Klecko. He is a master bread baker, founder of the St. Paul Bread Club and CEO of St. Agnes Baking Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. Klecko's book makes baking for your best friend fun and easy. It has about 3 dozen recipes for dog biscuits. These are not just your everyday dog treats. In his book, Klecko says dogs eat with their noses, not their eyes, so good-tasting biscuits need to contain great-smelling (to a dog) ingredients. His own dogs love anise (licorice), bacon, garlic and peanut butter.

The book has recipes for biscuits that any canine will begin to crave. If you're new to canine food development, you'll find recipes calling for ingredients found in most pantries. And then, there are recipes that totally kick a dog biscuit way, way up -- more than a single notch. Using ingredients like tuna, chervil, ramen noodles, sardines, red bell pepper, coconut oil, miso paste, coconut flour, pine nuts, dog grass powder and black sesame seeds, there's no doubt you'll deliver super health benefits to your dog. Be careful, though. Barks travel fast and far. You may have all the neighborhood dogs at your house waiting for freshly baked biscuits.

Klecko's compassionate and light-hearted personal dog stories throughout the book make a human want to take a romp through, being careful not to drool on the pages. You'll definitely be panting over many of the recipes. Some sound like good treats for humans, too. Coconut Dream Biscuits, anyone?

In the recipes he shares, Klecko pays close attention to what is good for the health and well-being of dogs. Each recipe is accompanied with detailed nutritional information.

Anyway, I chose K-9 Nation Biscuits, Klecko's most winning biscuits, as the first recipe to try out on Wrigley. She approved. So did her friend, Taffy.

Here's Wrigley, waiting for her next K-9 Biscuit.

And, here are the K-9 Dog Biscuits I made for Wrigley last spring.

We're expecting a new puppy in the spring. She will be born in April and we will bring her home in June. There will never be another Wrigley. But there's always a spot in my heart for another canine best friend.

For now, I will bake K-9 biscuits for all of Wrigley's old friends -- Taffy, Abby, Hershey and Dash. My holiday baking for humans is done. Maybe I'll start baking for the dogs when the big snow storm hits our area tomorrow.

Dan "Klecko" McGleno's "K-9 Nation Biscuit Book" would make a great gift for the dog-lovers on your list. There's still time to run out to your local bookstore to pick up a copy. And the homemade delicious-smelling (to dogs) biscuits can be a yummy gift for all of your canine friends.

Give your dog a biscuit and a holiday hug from me.

Merry Christmas!

K-9 NATION BISCUITS

• 3 cups whole-wheat flour

• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

• 1/4 cup flax seed

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 cup bacon, fried, drained and chopped

• 1 1/2 cups beef broth

• 1/2 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, place the flour, cornmeal, flaxseed, garlic powder and bacon, stirring to loosely incorporate these ingredients.

Add the broth and olive oil to the dry ingredients, stirring with a sturdy spoon until the dough becomes pliable.

Place the dough on a floured surface and roll out or pat down to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Using a pizza cutter, make horizontal and vertical slices through the dough to form cube shapes. The size of the cubes will depend on your dog's jaw size.

Place the biscuits on a baking pan covered with parchment paper. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown.

Note from Klecko: Fry the bacon first. When it starts to crisp, remove it from the pan and use paper towels to blot off the excess grease. When the bacon is cool, tear it or chop it into bits. From "K-9 Nation Biscuit Book."

Amidst the baking, shopping, cooking, card writing and cleaning that come with the holiday territory, I love it when friends stop by for some Christmas cheer. It gives me a good excuse to sit down, relax and enjoy the season.

I like to have a couple of things on hand to serve when I get visitors -- snacks that can be plated without a lot of fuss and served in just minutes.

At this time of year, I almost always have my favorite cheese ball in the refrigerator and compatible crackers in the pantry. The cheese ball has been an old holiday standby of mine for years. I shared the recipe on this blog a year or so ago. You can click here to go right to the recipe. I had a couple of cooking classes in my kitchen this month and had the cheese ball ready for particpants to dig into when they arrived. (And speaking of digging in, it's what makes a cheese ball look like a shipwreck on a plate in no time at all. If I want to serve the cheese ball mixture with a bit more elegance, I use a small portion scooper to form the cheese mixture into bite-sized balls.) For such an uncomplicated snack, it's always a favorite and I always get requests for the recipe.

On a recent trip to the Twin Cities, I spent a few hours one afternoon with my friend, Pat Sinclair. She had prepared Cranberry Brie Bites for me to try, a recipe she developed herself. Small chunks of creamy Brie were nestled into mini fillo shells. Pat's special spiced cranberry sauce covered each chunk. She heated the Bites in the oven for a few minutes before serving. They were so delicious. And, they reminded me that great appetizers don't have to take hours to make.

When a friend joined me for lunch the other day, I made Pat's spiced cranberry sauce to spoon over Brie cheese. But my finished product looked a lot different than Pat's tiny tarts.

I left the round of Brie whole and trimmed the filmy white rind from the top of the Brie. Refrigerated pizza crust dough became a bread braid that would surround the Brie cheese. Once I unrolled the pizza dough, I cut the rectangle lengthwise into long strips, 1/2- to 1-inch wide. One tube of dough will easily produce enough strips to make 3 braided wreaths. It was easy to find a bowl that I could turn upside down to form the wreath around. The bowl must be a size that results in a wreath of bread that will hold the round of Brie.

Once the braided wreath was baked, I set the trimmed round of Brie in its center and spooned Pat's spiced cranberry sauce over the Brie. Into the oven it went -- just long enough for the cheese to melt.

It's the kind of appetizer that demands a fork and plate. It's also makes a delightful holiday lunch when paired with a hearty green salad or a bright spinach salad.

So, now I have a jar of the spiced cranberry sauce in my refrigerator and one or two rounds of Brie. A couple of braided wreaths are in the freezer. I baked three of them at the same time.

I'm ready. Now all I need are some more visitors.

Pat Sinclair, author of Baking Basics and Beyond, gave me permission to share her recipe for tiny Cranberry Brie Bites in my newspaper column. If you'd like the recipe, click here. She also shares recipes along with her baking expertise on her blog, Pat Cooks and Bakes.

Cranberry-Topped Brie in a Bread Braid

• 1 (13.8-ounce) tube refrigerated pizza crust dough
• 1 (8-ounce) round of Brie cheese
• Spiced cranberry sauce (or your favorite cranberry sauce)
• Hulled pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Unroll pizza crust dough. Cut the dough into strips about an inch wide. For each braided wreath, braid three strips of dough together. On a baking sheet, form the braided dough around a bowl that has been turned upside down. It should be a diameter that will allow the baked wreath to easily hold the round of Brie cheese. Remove the bowl from the baking sheet. Bake the wreaths in a preheated 425-degree oven for about 10 minutes or until the dough is golden brown. Turn off the oven.

Remove rind from top of Brie cheese. Set the round of cheese in the middle of the dough wreath on an oven-proof platter. Top with your favorite cranberry sauce.

Place platter with Cranberry-Topped Brie in a Bread Braid in the warm oven. Even though the oven is no longer on, it will still be very warm. Keep an eye on the cheese. When it looks melty, remove from oven. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios and serve.