elephant ears

This Saturday I got to spend the whole day with my Grandma, and we baked elephant ears. They're also called palmiers, but I like the first name better. They look like fancy French cookies, but they're actually so easy to make!

Just roll out a sheet of puff pastry covered in sugar

fold the sides inward three times

cut 3/8 inch slices, bake them for 6 min on each side...

..and voila!

Beautiful heart-shapped, elephant ear cookies

Here's a link to the full recipe description from Ina Garten. She makes them with cinnamon, which I think would be even better.

Today my little sister's coming to visit me, and I can't wait! I hope you're having a happy Thursday, and if you live in Athens go see Emily Hearn at the Melting Point tonight. You can buy tickets for just $5 here ;)

suzanne's kitchen

One of the best parts about being home for the past two days has been eating my mom's delicious dinners. On Monday night she made sage limeade drinks (above), mushroom stuffed pork tenderloin and chocolate-banana ice cream pie for dessert. Just by the names you can tell it was all incredible.

Tonight we had this loaded chopped salad (below) and herb soup with crab. Both were even better than last night's meal, and right now we're making strawberry blondies to top it all off!

Not everyone knows this about my mom, because she usually keeps new recipes to the privacy of family dinners, but she is an incredible cook. Rather than make the same dishes over and over, she has made something new almost every night of my life. She just goes through magazines and cookbooks, recipe by recipe, and tries every one that looks good.

I think she's the best cook in the entire world, and I hope someday I can be as good at cooking and as adventurous with recipes as she is.