STAND UP and…

This recipe comes from my friend, boss, and mentor, Barbara Pool Fenzl, owner of Les Gourmettes Cooking School in Phoenix.  Barb and I have worked together for 22  wonderful years. She made these bars for the classes she taught at the school this year and agreed to allow me to share them with you.

These beautiful and delicious bars are the perfect autumn and holiday treat. They are a gorgeous rich dark and light layered caramel-colored indulgence.

Dulce de leche is a rich caramel sauce that can be found in 13.4-ounce cans in the Hispanic section of most grocery stores.  You will divide and use the entire can for this recipe.

The picture just below and before the recipe is from when the Superbowl was in Arizona for the first time in 1996 at ASU Sun Devil Stadium. Barb was asked to come and cook on the Today Show and she took me along to assist, the picture is with Bryant Gumble, who was the host at that time. In front of the photograph is one of my favorite things in Barb’s kitchen – a little clock made from an empty thyme tin can. I am going to dig through my old spice cans and make one for myself… someday!

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

My gorgeous friend forever, Laura, and me – Happy birthday to YOU!

Before I get to the details of the surprise party mentioned in yesterday’s post; I want to send birthday wishes to my dearest friend, Laura Heffron. Laura and I (pictured above) have been friends since high school, when we discovered our birthdays were only one day apart, added together, we have been alive for 100 years!  Laura was my maid-of-honor 25 years ago and is Marissa’s godmother. I was a bridesmaid at her wedding and am godmother to 2 of her 3 sons. Happy Birthday, Laura! I love you!

[Read more →]

Today is my birthday. Normally I wouldn’t make a special note of it (yeah, right!) but today is a big one. I’ll let you figure it out from the picture above. It’s already been a week-long celebration. My sweet sister, Sloane, took me out to a very special dinner at Elements at The Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain.

[Read more →]

These little pigs-in-a-blanket, dressed up as Halloween mummies, will disappear before you eyes!

[Read more →]

When we visited Connor in Flagstaff last weekend, of course, we made a couple of the required trips to Target to load him up with the “necessities.” On the first trip through the doors, I stopped at the $1 bins and spotted a little Pillsbury cookbook called Halloween Fun. The recipes for today and tomorrow’s posts are directly from the booklet, they are just too cute and easy not to share!

The decorations needed for the eyes of the owls are the Brache’s candy stars that I always used to see hanging on the pegs at every grocery store around. I visited Fry’s and they no longer carry Brache’s, only their store brand of “Brache’s” candies and there were no stars. I went to Safeway and although they still carry Brache’s, no stars there either. Finally, I went to Walgreens, feeling 100% confident they would have the disappearing stars… no!!! What’s up with that? I was forced to whip up my own chocolate frosting (or you could purchase a ready-made can) and pipe on the eyes using a pastry bag and a star tip.

[Read more →]

I call these A++ BLT Biscuits because we have both avocado and arugula. No actual lettuce to be seen. Although we need the “T” because if I was to call them BAT, no one would know what I was talking about… but say BLT, and it brings a smile to almost every face! My plan was to serve these as an appetizer at a party I had last Friday. As the time approached and I still hadn’t cleaned the house or even taken a shower… this was the recipe that was sacrificed. I replaced it with something I had in my freezer but I still have all the purchased ingredients in my fridge.  What to do? Make the biscuits sandwich size instead of appetizer size and serve them for dinner to Dave and Marissa. Perfect, and both of them had smiling faces and tummies! Click on the chipotle mayonnaise below and it will take you to a previous post with the directions to make it. Lastly, I don’t know if my gorgeous niece, Raina, reads this blog… but even if not, I send out a huge Happy 25th Birthday to you, Raina! xoxo

[Read more →]