Favorite Recipes and Cookbooks

[Carnegie-Stout Public Library]

Since we're entering the season of family gatherings, holiday baking, and parties requiring hors d'oeuvres, let's share some of our favorite recipes, cookbooks, and kitchen disasters!

[Sarah]

I'll share a story of a recent kitchen disaster, well, it wasn't entirely a disaster, but it certainly wasn't a resounding success! As Thanksgiving approaches, you'll probably hear at least one story about the infamous Turducken (a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey). Did you know there's a dessert version? It's called a Cherpumple, a layer cake consisting of a cherry pie inside a white cake, an apple pie inside a yellow cake, and a pumpkin pie inside a spice cake. Official recipe: http://www.charlesphoenix.com/cherpum...

I recently attempted a single layer of a cherry pie inside a chocolate cake (a single layer is sometimes referred to as a "pake"). Unfortunately, the cake doesn't quite cook all the way through in the middle, but is very dry at the edges. I think I'll stick to baking my cakes and pies separately in the future :)

[Sarah]

My husband and I just spent a long weekend in Vermont visiting his sister. She is an amazing cook and the recipes she uses are often simple ingredients put together to make something that seems way more complicated than it really is.

While we were there, she made an Avocado Mac and Cheese out of this book

http://www.amazon.com/Melt-The-Art-Ma....

There are some pretty crazy recipes out of it, but this one was pretty manageable - even for me!