In Seattle, snow is as rare as rain is common. Possibly more so, seeing as our reputation as a rainy city is partially true and partially a fable told and retold to Californians in an effort to keep them from moving to the area (judging from the traffic–and the fact that I’m married to a [...]

Ever since I first saw the picture of the cute little Mini Cranberry Meringue Pies in Martha Stewart Living a couple years ago, I’ve wanted to make them. Their photo showed one sliced down the middle, exposing the jewel-like filling and the lightness of the meringue to full effect. I never got around to it, but this year I decided to try all new recipes for Thanksgiving, and this went to the top of my list.

Isn’t she beautiful/he gorgeous/it fantastic? I struggled quite mightily to bring it out into the world. Cooking.com must be obsessed with boxes inside of boxes inside of boxes, which become very difficult to part when they’re huge and wedged together by packing peanuts. But I can’t really complain, since so far it seems to have weathered shipping without any harm done.

Tonight I made Black Bottom Cupcakes for–as the Toasty Chef calls him–Mr. T’s birthday tomorrow. I can blog about them tonight because Mr. T doesn’t know about this blog yet. Sneaky, right? We’re headed down the coast for a writer’s retreat all week, and while we’ll have a kitchen where we’re going, I wasn’t sure what equipment I’d find once I was there, so I figured I’d better come with cake in hand.