Hello, my friends, I’d like you to meet my new friend, burrata. This little lump of cheese has made me one of the happiest people in the world. And I think it will do the same for you.

I was first introduced to this little orb of the creamier, dreamier relative of fresh mozzarella, when my peeps at babble took us out to dinner in New York last year. Since then, I have been searching high and low for it in Utah. I am happy to announce, that last week, I found it at Whole Foods, one of my favorite places in the world.

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That’s French for “torched peaches with ice cream.” I made this the other afternoon, when I was eating a gorgeous peach whose flavor didn’t measure up to what I thought it should. I knew dipping it in sugar was the only way to make it taste good, but of course, taking fruit from the farmer’s market and dipping in sugar borders on blasphemy. Dipping it in sugar and then lighting it on fire . . . well, that’s another thing entirely.

I topped it with some vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce, and gave that mediocre peach a chance to shine.

Now just imagine how good this dessert will be when it’s made with a good peach.

pêches brûlées à la glace

1 large peach, cut into 16 slices
sugar, about 1/4 cup
vanilla ice cream
homemade caramel sauce

1. Dip peach slices in sugar on one side. Place 4 slices on each plate, with the sugar side up. Use a spoon to sprinkle any remaining sugar on top of the peaches. Use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar.

2. Top with vanilla ice cream and drizzle with caramel.

I am still getting used to the light in my new house. I am back to using a tripod again, and haven’t even unpacked my strobes. So this has been interesting. I love my new kitchen. You can see the backsplash in the picture, which I helped tile. When my five-year-old walked in while we were tiling, he said, “Wow, this looks so Martha Stewarty now!”

These brownies are almost the same as the Fudgy Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies I made years ago, but without the cream cheese layer. You could, of course, follow that recipe to make gluten-free cream cheese brownies. All you would need to do is swap out the all-purpose flour for something gluten-free. Since this recipe has so little flour, you can really relax about how the non-gluten flours will taste. The structure of these beauties lies mostly in the chocolate chips themselves. The flour is an afterthought. I think more desserts should be like that.

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This is the macaroni and cheese I grew up on, and is nothing like what you find in a box. I suppose it is slightly reminiscent of a lasagna, made with layers of cheese and tomatoes. However, this dish, passed down to me from my mother, who got it from her mother, is layered with bacon. I’m sorry, but nothing else can compare to it. It is truly addicting.

When Newman’s Own* asked me to take a favorite recipe and make it my own using their pasta sauce, I thought of my Mom-Mom’s Macaroni and Cheese. Instead of using canned tomatoes and seasoning each layer with salt and pepper, I simply used Newman’s Own Fire Roasted Tomato and Garlic Pasta Sauce. It adds a new depth of flavor to the dish, cuts out the step of seasoning it, while keeping it as delicious as I remember it.

I’m excited to have this recipe appear in the latest issue of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food. There is just something about her October magazines that make me giddy for cooler weather, sweaters, and socks. So if you see this issue, be sure to pick up a copy. I can’t wait to get mine. And Ashley Rodriguez of Not Without Salt has a Newman’s Own recipe in Martha Stewart Living this month, as well, so you’ll need to see it. She made a gorgeous calzone.

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With all this moving, I got a little overwhelmed and decided to tack some of the bake sale recipes onto this week. You don’t mind, do you?

On Sunday, my daughter asked me to make a cookie that was lemony, chewy, and had no eggs in it (so she could eat the dough, of course). I told her it was a tall order, and probably couldn’t be done. As I went back in my archives, I found a lemon cookie ice cream sandwich. All I did was adapt the recipe a squeak, and we had our cookie. We thought we’d coat them in powdered sugar to make them extra special.

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I thought I’d do something for bake sale week that goes a little beyond the ordinary. Most of the time, we’re thinking brownies and cupcakes, but I remember one time, on an episode of The Barefoot Contessa, when Ina was asked to donate something to a local bake sale. She ended up making little cellophane bags filled homemade marshmallows with toasted coconut. And I’m sure they were sold out in about 14 seconds.

Today, I wanted to do something along the same lines. First I thought of making caramel popcorn drizzled with melted chocolate, which is always a good idea. But then, as the popcorn was in the oven, I spied my jar of peanuts on the shelf, and I fancied making homemade cracker jack instead. The peanuts were almost gone, and I almost dropped the idea, but then reasoned that peanuts are probably the main reason bake sales are hardly ever done anymore in this country.

All that said, this cracker jack is basically only caramel popcorn. But once you put it in cute bags with labels (you can download my PDF labels here), and throw in a cheap dime store toy, you’ll be the hit of the bake sale.

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Okay, I gave these a different name, but I have to be honest: they’re practically the same dessert as the raspberry jam bars and the peach cobbler bars. I got the basic recipe from a friend a few years ago, who, when she makes it, dots the top of the batter with cherry pie filling, which is also great. It has become my ultimate go-to recipe whenever I am in a pinch and have to bring a dessert for a lot of people.

Since I was in a hurry doing family history research today, and didn’t have a lot of time, I fell back on this new standby. To change it up a bit, I just added a bunch of locally grown apricots, and I have to say, this may just be the best version yet.

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I own a mini bundt pan. I think that puts me in the the Crazy Baker category or something. When I bought it a year ago, I thought for sure I was going to ride the mini bundt cake trend that was sure to replace the cupcake scene. Since then, I have made all of two recipes, and honestly, I don’t see that many other people have been may either. I suspect it’s owing to the fact that little cakes are a beast to pry out, let alone the sticky mess putting the batter into the pan.

So even though these cakes are pretty and cute, rest assured there’s no need to feel like an underachiever if you can’t make them with what you’ve already got. I say use your muffin tins. I’m sure they’ll be wonderful.

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