Such an easy dinner – and so savory. Salmon is super tender.

About a week ago my grandson, Vaughan, age 13, came to stay with me for about 5 days. He lives about an hour or two away and his parents were taking a quick trip to Montana, and he would have had wi-fi difficulty there as he is doing middle school remotely for now. He’s been a joy to have around, and on top of that, he knows how to cook. His parents are foodies, and I’ve posted numerous pictures and recipes from Karen, my daughter-in-law, and of my son Powell’s grilling pursuits. Vaughan’s not like a lot of kids, unwilling to try new things. Nope. He’ll try most everything, and even likes vegetables (most, anyway). He asked if we could have salmon one night – sure, I said. Had some in the freezer, so he told me what he needed. Usually he makes this with watercress, but that I didn’t have, so we used spinach instead.

There he is, stirring the lemon butter sauce, and the salmon is in the closer pan, lidded for steaming.

This recipe is so very easy. You could pull this together in a matter of about 20 minutes with no difficulty at all. It helps if you have everything out and ready, mis en place. The salmon is salted and peppered. You bring about an inch of water to a boil in a pan large enough to hold the salmon, and tall enough so the lid won’t rest on the salmon (like mine did). Use a steamer basket or rack. We used a small metal rack, then I put the salmon on a piece of foil, poked about 20 little holes in the foil and put that in the pan. The lid went on and we started a timer for 5 1/2 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan (the one he’s stirring) he melted butter, then added just a little jot of lemon juice (and add more, he says, if you like a more lemony taste). If you have thicker salmon, it might need an extra minute, or if your salmon is thinner, maybe 30-60 seconds less time. Remove the salmon when it has reached 135°F.

Once the salmon was cooked – we tested it  – we removed the salmon and the rack. If you want, tent the salmon with foil to keep it warm. We poured out the water from the pan, then melted more butter and cooked the spinach. Taste for salt and pepper.

Simple – plate the salmon, place the spinach along side, then gently pour the butter sauce over the salmon. If some of it dribbles over the spinach that’s fine. Thank you, grandson Vaughan, for a delicious dinner!

What’s GOOD: for me, the fact that the dish was SO easy and quick to make, and it was so delicious. The salmon is super tender – just right. And the lemon butter sauce – not only is it hardly a cooked sauce, it was quick and added lovely flavor to the salmon.

What’s NOT: Nothing, really. The next time I make it I won’t have my grandson doing all the cooking!
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It’s been awhile since I wrote up a recipe where I blasted out at you saying – you have to make this! Maybe the Curried Shepherd’s Pie recently. I think I watched a Cook’s Country program where they made this cabbage – or maybe it was just that I’ve been going through my old issues pulling out recipes that sound amazing. This one did.

The recipe indicated it’s imperative you use Savoy and not a regular cabbage. Savoy is more delicate and roasts differently (quicker and better, I would imagine). Fortunately I was able to buy one and couldn’t wait to try this. You need to start about 45 minutes ahead of time – giving ample time for the oven to heat to 475°F, and to let a chunk of butter warm to room temp (important) and in that time you prep the cabbage. Pull off any discolored or damaged outer leaves. Cut the cabbage into wedges with EACH wedge containing part of the core (which holds it together during roasting). Foil line a roasting sheetpan. Using your hand, grab about a tablespoon of the softened butter (I warmed mine in the microwave – took about 14 seconds) and gently rub it on the two cut sides, the outer edge, then gently lift some of the layers and spread a bit in there too. There is not enough butter to do all the various layers.

Both sides of each wedge get a sprinkling of salt and pepper, then place them on the foil-lined baking pan. Cover the pan with another sheet of foil. Into the oven they go for 15 minutes. Then the top foil is removed, turn the pan around and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. In that time the edges will have turned golden and a few of the outer leaves may have blackened (it’s okay – they even taste good).

Meanwhile, you make the sauce: simple ingredients – unseasoned rice wine vinegar (if all you have is seasoned [sweetened] eliminate the honey), soy sauce, EVOO, honey, paprika, cayenne. I didn’t heat it as I was able to get the honey to dissolve with some vigorous stirring. Have at the ready a small amount of toasted sesame seeds, and a bit of chopped up cilantro leaves for garnish.

Once the cabbage comes out of the oven, it’s serving time. If you remember, trim off the cabbage core before plating. If you’re serving guests, have a heated platter (or pop one in that hot-hot oven for about 2-3 minutes before plating the cabbage on it). I used a spatula to pick up one wedge and onto my own dinner plate, then gently poured some of the sauce over the cut side. Those juices – some from the cabbage but also the sauce will pool a bit on the plate. Sprinkle the cut side with some toasted sesame seeds and cilantro. Done. For me, I used a half of the Savoy head, cut into 3 wedges. A whole head would serve 6 unless you have hungry football players at your table.

What’s GOOD: sublime. Absolutely unctuous, sweet (but not overly so), tasty cabbage. I had to restrain myself to not eat a second portion. I’d served it with a pork chop (another recipe coming up next) and was full – but I wanted more. I’m happy to have leftovers. Can’t wait!

What’s NOT: only that you want to start this about an hour ahead; maybe 45 minutes at a minimum. You could do all the prep ahead and the 30 minutes of roasting would be done at the last minute. This wasn’t quite as good warmed up as leftovers, so keep that in mind – only make as much as you need for one meal.

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An easy something-different, colorful side salad.

You may remember at least a month ago I mentioned that on September 1st, I was going to dig into my big plastic storage bin and bring out my fall décor, no matter that the temperatures here in SoCal are still hovering around 90 nearly every day and our state is being ravaged by wildfires. And I did get out the plates and décor. So the plate the carrots are resting upon are my fall/pumpkin plates that I’ve been using all month. I simply love this set of plates I bought at Williams-Sonoma last fall. They were on sale, so they weren’t as “dear” as they could have been. I’ll use them through Thanksgiving, then they’ll get put away and I’ll bring out my old Christmas set. Albeit I may be spending the holidays alone. Hope not, but all depends on Covid.

Anyway, when I had read the recipe for this carrot salad it just sounded different and relatively easy. I don’t buy big, honkin’ carrots anymore, but I get the smaller ones, so my “ribbons” weren’t quite as big as they might have been. But that makes no difference in the taste or texture. The carrot strips are tossed with salt and microwaved briefly – just until crisp-tender. Do NOT overcook them or you’ll lose the whole point of making this salad. Poppy seeds are toasted – let me just say that it’s kind of hard to determine that poppy seeds are toasted, unless there happen to be some white ones in the mix – and even then it was difficult. You’re not toasting them for color, merely for the toasted flavor. I don’t think I’ve ever in my cooking life toasted poppy seeds. Have you?

The dressing is made in the same saucepan you used for the poppy seeds, then that’s poured over the carrots and tossed. Once cool, you add the poppy seeds and parsley. Done. There is no reason this couldn’t be made hours ahead. I made a smaller batch and had enough for two servings, and it was fine the 2nd day.

What’s GOOD: loved the colorful quality, and enjoyed the just barely crisp tender texture. The lemon juice and EVOO dressing was lovely with the moderate hint of garlic. I couldn’t really taste the star anise. It was delicious altogether. Nice for guests, or a picnic too.

What’s NOT: only that  you do have to prep the carrots – not difficult. Even children who are safe with a vegetable peeler could do that part. You need to use a Y-shape peeler for this, in order to get the wide ribbons.

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Maybe I’m bored with my own cooking of late. Decided to do something outside the box.

As I’ve mentioned many times here, most days I have soup (laden with lots of veggies) for lunch. But you probably heard earlier this month here in SoCal, the temps were in the 100s. One day it was 108 here at my house. Even though I have AC in my house (thank you, Lord!) I could still feel hot around the edges. I didn’t want hot soup, and the soup I had in the frig wasn’t one that could be eaten cold. So I decided to fix myself an open faced sandwich. I didn’t even have leftover chicken – so I used canned chicken. I do that sometimes when I’m not wanting to cook a chicken breast. Costco’s canned chicken is very good, if you’ve never tried it.

These days, with the pandemic still keeping me at home (oh, I’m so very tired of it), I don’t always have food items I need to make something new. So I used what I had and created a chicken salad and served it atop a nice wheat type thin slice of toast, some sliced avocado (hidden under the greenery) and with arugula. So, I thought about what I could do to make this salad different. Well, I had dill. Good, that would work. I had almonds in the freezer, so that was easy, although I didn’t toast them (it was just too hot even to turn on the toaster oven). I combined the chicken, Best Foods mayo, some minutely diced celery, lemon juice, a minced up green onion, some red grapes that I diced up (optional) and then I threw in a heaping tablespoon of mango chutney. That chutney was just the ticket. It added that slight bit of sweetness and flavor variation that I was seeking. I had enough to make this sandwich three times, although only the first time did I use the toast and avocados.

It took me very few minutes to make the salad, toast the bread, slice the avocado, chop up the arugula, mince the dill, and it was done. Don’t add salt until after you’ve tasted it – the mayo has some already – so I didn’t add any, though I did grind in some pepper.

What’s GOOD: very easy and quick to make. The mango chutney was the surprise flavor here, and I really liked it. The dill was another flavor profile I enjoyed. I don’t suppose this recipe will win any county fair prizes, but it was just the answer to my wish for something easy and different.

What’s NOT: well, during a pandemic, you might not have all the ingredients. I always keep Major Gray’s mango chutney in my refrigerator – it virtually keeps forever, and the other ingredients were all staples, except for the dill. I wish I could grow dill at my house, but it’s always too hot. This sandwich isn’t low calorie – I was kind of surprised when I looked at the nutrition count. Must be the mayonnaise!

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Comfort food galore. Has the weather begun to cool for you? This casserole should be in your future.

Having a bit of ground beef and ground pork on hand, I needed to find a use for it, other than meatloaf or meatballs. When I spotted this old-old recipe I’ve had in my to-try file for a long time, I decided to lighten it up a bit by using riced cauliflower instead of potatoes. You don’t have to do that if you don’t care about the carbs. What you do need to know is that this casserole is spot-on fabulous. The original came from Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey, way back in 1984. But, I didn’t stick to the recipe exactly – mostly, but not verbatim.

First you cook some onions, then add garlic, then lastly a few spices (curry powder, obviously, plus ground cumin and ground coriander). Some tomatoes were added (I used fresh but you can use canned) and some chicken broth. That simmered for just a short time to blend the flavors.

Meanwhile, I cooked the cauliflower rice in an open pan so it wouldn’t get too wet and soggy. A tiny bit of butter was added, some salt and pepper, then I used my stick blender to mush it well – it didn’t need much of that – and I added in a little bit of frozen peas (I think you need them for color). The hot meat mixture went into a large ceramic pie plate (I made a half recipe), then the mashed cauliflower goes on top. I veered off just a bit by adding some grated Fontina cheese to the top. Oh-so-good.

You can bake the casserole right then, which will require nothing more than a bit of a broil to brown the top a little bit. I made it in the morning, chilled it, then baked it for about 45 minutes in my toaster oven, then turned on the broil element and browned the top with the cheese on it. The photo above, left, is the finished casserole.

It’s good to let it sit for at least 5 minutes, because it’s way too hot to eat. That was my dinner – since there were veggies on the top (the cauliflower rice, pureed) I had a full meal with my serving. But, I went back for seconds it was so darned good.

What’s GOOD: well, I love Shepherd’s Pie in any way, shape or form. This one, though, with the curry flavors, was exceptional. And how did the cauliflower go as far as a stand-in for potatoes? Well, it wasn’t JUST like potatoes, but it was close enough. It gave me the illusion anyway. As I write this I’ve had it twice, and there are at least 2 more servings in the casserole. I’ll probably freeze one portion. Remember, though, I halved the recipe. SO good.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever. Delicious on all levels.

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Want something really refreshing and different? Oh my, were these delicious!

My daughter-in-law, Karen, made these cocktails recently, when I visited with them for a part of a day. They’re really like a smoothie in texture, but they are an alcoholic beverage. So, it’s for sipping on a hot day. You know how I get such a kick out of where recipes come from – this is one of those. I asked Karen if it would be okay to post this on my blog – she said of course – and then she went hunting for the recipe. She said it came from chewy. Say what? Chewy? If you’re not an animal owner, you’ve probably never heard of chewy. Chewy is an online pet food supply company.

I do subscribe to Chewy, so I get an email from them every few days, because I do buy from them occasionally, for my kitty-cat. But what surprised me was how far she (and I) had to drill down within their website to find this. It had to do with hydration. Karen, Powell and grandson Vaughan, own a Bernese Mountain Dog (think: huge, picture at left – and by the way, he’s an AKC champion). He’s a very lovable pet but he’s almost all black, so they are careful about taking him for walks when it’s hot, as the heat can really fatigue him in a hurry. But anyway, Karen was intrigued by the little subtitle regarding keeping your animal hydrated, and it was with watermelon. Once she read their write-up about it, at the end they offered another option – to make the hydration watermelon pet oriented non-alcoholic mock-tail into an adult drink. What fun, huh?

You do need to plan ahead a bit – as cubed watermelon needs to be frozen first, as those frozen cubes become the freezing catalyst to make this a smoothie style drink. Coconut milk (oh, do use the full fat to get the most flavor). Karen used Trader Joe’s brand. Add in a jigger of Malibu coconut rum, whiz it up (but not overly so or you’ll add in too much air), pour into a glass and add the lime juice to taste. Easy.

What’s GOOD: refreshing is all I can say. Lovely texture and flavors all around.

What’s NOT: nothing other than you do need to freeze the watermelon cubes ahead of time, and you need to have the Malibu rum, coconut milk and limes on hand.

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This is definitely a savory dish – no pudding as we know it – it’s made with ground beef, ground pork and a lot of cabbage. And then there’s a luscious little drizzle of a sauce that starts with jam or preserves.

Back when my DH (dear hubby Dave) was alive, I cooked a regular dinner every night, unless we went out, or unless we had sufficient leftovers. Now, 6+ years on, my routine is changed significantly. About once I week I fix a traditional dinner with a meat, a veg and maybe a salad. Most evenings now, I make a big green salad with lots of raw veggies in it, with just a speck of some protein (chicken, tuna or eggs). On one of the weekend evenings, I often will fix that more traditional dinner, though. And I think back, fondly, that my DH rarely asked I cook anything in particular  – he was happy with whatever I wanted to make, bless him! Occasionally he’d ask if maybe we could barbecue a steak, as he wanted them more frequently than I thought we should. So, obviously, it was left to the cook in the house as to “what shall we have for dinner?” Most frequently my weekend meal is some kind of salmon since it’s so good for us, and I love it. The rest of the time, well, I leave it to my cravings, which are a kind of whimsical thing. I looked it up:

Often, the craving is for foods high in sugar and fats, which can make maintaining a healthful diet difficult. Food cravings are caused by the regions of the brain that are responsible for memory, pleasure, and reward. An imbalance of hormones, such as leptin and serotonin, can also cause food cravings. – from a medical website

In this instance, I don’t think it was that I was craving sugar or fat, so what does that say? What I really wanted was a casserole of some kind. And casseroles usually have carbs. That may have been my desire, yet I try really hard to eat very little carbohydrates. I still do – fruit are, and even some veggies have carbs. It’s the obvious carbs I steer clear from, like potatoes, rice, pasta, beans, bread, corn and peas. Then there’s the sugar carbs – baked goods and desserts.

Last week I ordered a food delivery from Amazon/Whole Foods. In the order I’d asked for a pound of organic ground pork that I was going to stick in the freezer – probably to make a fall style dish, maybe meatballs in a month or so. I didn’t know what. So when they delivered the food, it was ground beef, not ground pork. Sigh. Then my neighbor made a trip to Trader Joe’s and she found ground pork there. Rather than freezing both chunks of meat, I decided to fix something with them. So you’ll find this recipe, and probably another one shortly with the second half of the meat.

Looking up recipes in my to-try repertoire, I found a bunch (many meatball oriented) including this dish. It was probably the cabbage that sucked me in. Meatloaf is something I do crave now and then – I’d like nothing better than to have my tried and true favorite one, Sweet and Sour Meatloaf. I wrote up that recipe during the first year I had this blog, 2007. But it contains quite a bit of sugar in the tomato sauced topping, and I try to steer away from those kinds of recipes too, as best I can. Although I could easily substitute monkfruit brown sugar in lieu of the regular stuff and see if I liked it. And use cauliflower mashed potatoes. Maybe I will do that sometime soon as well. Recently I watched a Rachel Ray show and was intrigued with her Sicilian Meatballs. They are calling my name too.

Meanwhile, back to this dish . . . sorry, that was a whole lot of trivia and not getting to this recipe. The explanation about this dish (I had to look it up online) is that kal in Swedish means cabbage. Someone wrote that if you’d written it as Col-pudding, lots of English/Irish speakers would know cabbage (from colcannon, potatoes and cabbage). The pudding part is so misleading. We think pudding must be sweet, but to the Swedes, I guess it’s not. It has to do with minced meat, and a savory pudding means meatloaf.

First you cook the cabbage in butter and a bit of molasses. In Sweden I think they’d use Lyle’s golden syrup, but most westerners would use molasses. I have some Lyle’s, but didn’t want to open the jar, so I used the molasses on the shelf. It doesn’t need much. It helps the cabbage caramelize and gives it a lovely lightly sweetened taste. It took awhile, probably 15-20 minutes, to get the cabbage cooked down and slightly caramelized. The molasses gives it the dark brown color.

Meanwhile you mix up the meatloaf part with raw onion, salt, pepper, cream and about a third of the cooked cabbage (chopped up finely). No egg in this one. It also had some bread crumbs (I used panko because that’s all I keep on hand). I halved the recipe below and I think I’ll have 3-4 more servings of it, so I used a smaller casserole dish. The meat was spread into the bottom, then the caramelized cabbage is spread on top and leveled a bit. You pour on a little bit of broth on top. It’s been way too hot to turn on my main oven lately, so I baked it in my toaster oven (it has lots of functions, so I used bake at first) and then at the end I turned on the broil function to crisp up the cabbage a little bit. Hence the finished dish (up a few paragraphs) looks slightly burned, but it’s not. Trust me on that!

While the meat is baking, you mix up the sauce. Lingonberry jam is what’s called for, but I didn’t have any, but I did have blueberry preserves, so they had to suffice. It’s heated up with some butter, red wine vinegar, and then a moderate amount (to taste) of Worcestershire sauce. Someone else who made this recipe substituted raspberry jam for the lingonberries. I know I could buy some if I made a trip to Ikea. It’s about 15 miles away – too far, plus I’m not shopping in stores.

What’s GOOD: altogether delicious. It definitely satisfied my cravings for a casserole. The meat was very light and tasty, and the cabbage is certainly a great variation on meatloaf. Then the sauce – oh yes, that part is really, really good. Yes, I’d make it again. I think I might make it in a bread pan next time – it might make for easier slicing and serving.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of, really. Very easy to make. Very filling.

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Spiced doesn’t mean hot, it means with spices.

In the midst of a pandemic, summer heat and sometimes limited groceries, why I wanted a beef stew, I don’t know. My garage freezer is filled with meat, but it’s pork chops, salmon or halibut fillets, chicken breasts and thighs, and a few ribeye steaks. Nothing there that would make do as a stand-in for chuck roast. But, fortunately, my neighbor was going to Costco and found a huge package of chuck roasts (3 of them) and so I cut up one for stews, and the others are now vacuum sealed as roasts, for when the weather turns a bit cooler. As I’m writing this, it’s supposed to hit 100 today, or close to it. Fortunately, I made this a few days ago before this heat wave hit. But then, I live in the comfort of an air conditioned home – thank goodness!

This recipe came from a class I took with Phillis Carey 15 years ago. Before I started writing this blog, and so far as I know, I’ve never posted this recipe. It’s a good one. Ideally, it’s supposed to have red onions in it. Alas, I only had white ones and a half of a red one. And in the midst of this time, here in California, some onions produced in our central valley were contaminated with salmonella, so onions were in short supply. I had to throw out 6 very large yellow onions because they were from one of the contaminated farms.

What makes it “spiced” is the addition of allspice and cinnamon to the flour mixture you use to dredge the beef stew cubes. The other thing that’s different about this stew is the addition of dried cranberries. They add a sweetness to the stew you wouldn’t ordinary expect. But I like them in there. I use Unsweetened Dried Cranberries. The stew also calls for sugar, though you might not need it if you use sweetened dried cranberries. Taste the soupy mixture to see before adding the sugar. The stew is full of mushrooms – both shiitake and button, but you can use whatever mushrooms you have. Shiitake add a different, more boosted mushroom flavor, though they’re expensive, so I don’t use much of them.

You could probably make this stew in the instant pot (pressure), which would take much less time, but when doing a braised type of meat, I think the long, slow cooking (in this case 2 hours) adds more flavor to a dish. I made it one day, cooled and chilled it, then had some the following day. I made half of the below recipe, so had about 4 small servings. What I didn’t eat in the 2 meals went into ziploc bags and are now in the freezer. What it did do was satisfy my craving for a beef stew. This stew doesn’t use potatoes, although you could add them if you wanted to. I think it’d be terrific with mashed cauliflower or mashed potatoes on the side. Some of that stew liquid spread into them would be delicious. You could even serve the stew in a bowl on TOP of mashed cauliflower or mashed potatoes.

What’s GOOD: loved the flavor. Very tender beef after 2 hours of slow cooking. The mushrooms added tons of flavor, and the onions, of course. The carrots kind of lost their flavor (I think they gave up their flavor to the stew so there wasn’t much left for the carrots themselves). The juice/liquid is what tastes so good, plus the dried cranberries added in.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. A keeper. If encountering something sweet in a stew is not your thing, you might not like this version.

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Lovely little lamb chops with an easy pan sauce.

Pulling out of the freezer a small vacuum-sealed package, I thought I was defrosting a little ribeye steak. But when it was fully defrosted . . . no, it was little baby lamb chops. The sealed pouch edge had kind of curled up and I never saw the L-A-M-B I’d written on the label. I had a day to think about what I’d make with them, and recalled an old recipe I used to make often. I thought I’d posted it here – lucky for you, I had not. You need this recipe – especially if you like lamb.

Back in the early days of my first marriage, we shopped at the military commissary, and lamb shoulder chops were very inexpensive. Growing up, my dad wouldn’t eat lamb – no way, no how – so I’d not had lamb but a couple of times in my life up to that point. Once in a great while, if my dad was on a business trip, my mom and I would have lamb. She missed it too! You can make this recipe with either shoulder chops (cook them longer) or the super-tender loin lamb chops.

But, then move forward to the 60s, as a newlywed, I didn’t have very many cookbooks – only a couple were given to me upon my marriage, but I’d acquired a military wives’ cookbook. Over the years I bought several of them, and I still refer to them now and then. They’re pretty tattered and spotted, the pages having gradually turned a bit on the yellow side. This recipe came from one of those cookbooks.

In this instance I had beautiful little lamb chops – they may not look small in the photo, but they were. Maybe only 4 small bites per chop. The recipe indicates one chop per person, but that kind of depends on how big the chops are. You’ll need to use your own judgment as to whether your guests would eat one or two of them.

The chops are seasoned with salt and pepper and briefly sautéed in a frying pan in EVOO. I took them out of the pan when they’d reached about 110°F. They cook some more later on, so I knew I was safe removing them at that temp. Then you cook the pan sauce – green onions, celery, broth, thyme, and lastly some mushrooms, minced up finely. Then the chops are added back into the pan and cooked until they’re almost done (about 125°F or more), then you add a dollop of sour cream to the top of each chop. Cover it and let it simmer slowly for about one minute just to take the chill off that sour cream. Onto plates they go, with some of that pan sauce spooned in and over them. Garnish the sour cream with more green onions and some chopped parsley.

What’s GOOD: lovely flavor – oh, I do love lamb chops. I should have them more often. I think these came from Costco and I froze them in little 2-chop vacuum seal packages. So that means I probably have a couple more of them in the freezer. The pan sauce is just perfect with the chops, and the little dollop of sour cream adds a nice richness and color to it all. It’s a keeper of a recipe, and easy to make too.

What’s NOT: only if you don’t have all the ingredients to do the sauce – like the mushrooms, for instance. They add a lovely richness to the sauce profile. Not a thing to complain about this recipe.

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A post from Sara . . .

Do you remember that childhood treat, the Whoopie Pie?  That hand-held delectably moist chocolate cake with marshmallow buttercream inside?  I recently made this recipe again. I can’t remember when I made it last but whoa, was it good! My kids and their friends who are now in their 20’s ate them within 2 days and I made a double batch! I’ve already been asked to make more. They are an excellent make ahead individual dessert that travels well and freezes easily.

My suggestions while making the cakes:

• Use a scoop so that the cakes are close in size and shape.  That way they can be matched up easily to make the sandwich-style “pie.”
• Keep the cake batter chilled, as it tends to spread out if it gets too warm.
• When assembling the pies I paired the cakes on a cooling rack. Then flip every other row onto its top to expose the flat bottom of the cake for frosting.
• Use a smaller scoop to add frosting.  It spreads out on its own, no need to use a knife.  I topped each upside down frosted cake with another so that both cake tops were showing.
• If it’s warm, the top cake will slide.  So once assembled,  immediately refrigerate to solidify the frosting.

Due to COVID, I chose to wrap each pie individually in plastic wrap so the kids could just grab and enjoy.  

The recipe makes 8 pies but they are quite large.  I think using a smaller scoop and making twice as many would be better next time. There is a Wilton 12-Cavity Whoopie Pie Baking Pan available on amazon, but those are the larger (standard) size. If  you decide to make them smaller, just use a cookie sheet. These dessert cookies are very rich and full of flavor so I believe the smaller size is a better choice.

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