Fruit of the Underworld (Pomegranate lime vanilla cake)

Pretty in pink can be difficult to achieve without food dye. Unfortunately, taking an all-natural approach might not always turn out as you expected. This was the case with a batch of blood orange cinnamon rolls Aaron prepared one day. While delicious, the attempt to stain the icing ruby red with blood orange juice instead yielded a deeply unappetizing mauve-taupe. My attempts to correct with the trusty dropper of food dye resulted in nuclear pink. Ultimately, the project was abandoned for photographic purposes. This pomegranate lime vanilla yogurt cake, on the other hand, is perfectly calibrated to yield a beautiful finish using only the most natural of ingredients.

Au naturale

Mixed Feelings (Lollipop Lamb Chops)

This post is also available as an article in the 11/28/2012 Williamsport Sun Gazette.

My sister Kelly and her husband, Jonathan, have excellent taste in cookbooks, so it was exciting to get a new one for my birthday: Barefoot Contessa Foolproof. Reading through it, I was intrigued by what I thought was an unusually high proportion of lamb dishes. I suppose it makes sense, though, as lamb is pretty foolproof.

Foolproof!

Preparing for the Inevitable (Spiced Cranberry Apple Chutney with Pomegranate)

In my opinion, Thanksgiving is clearly the Superbowl of cooking. I can't help but get excited at the prospect. I'm especially excited because, this Thanksgiving, we get to host our friends Geoff and Laura. Their kitchen is currently undergoing some remodeling, so they headed South to visit. So far, Geoff has fixed my food processor and introduced us to a great new red. Laura has helped me pick the flowers, redo November's header for the blog, and cooked, shot and post-produced our cranberry chutney for tomorrow.

It's the chutneyest!