We're back!

Back from Europe and the endless iterations of cheese and tomato sandwiches got me itching to get in kitchen and cook.

Friday night Amelia came over to help us make dinner. Nick claims to have just made his amazing pan-seared scallops with butter cream and onion sauce from scratch and to have forgotten what he did (sorry guys) but I can tell you how I made my contribution for the evening - maple-glazed corn on the cob.

It's a really simple process - you mix maple syrup and butter to get the basic glaze (usually a bit more syrup than butter, but you can always play with the consistency - the more butter, the more liquidy the glaze gets) and then season to taste. I used garlic, pepper, and a bit of cayenne pepper to give it some zing. Dump the corn in the glaze and roll it around gleefully like a dog in a swimming pool, then plop it on the grill. Done!

Then yesterday Cora came for a visit and we made not one but *two* desserty treats. First, we made this recipe for Lemon-Blueberry Buckle. It's a solid recipe yielding delicious dividends, the only advice we have is, when you make the lemon glaze, put in about twice as much sugar as the recipe suggests. Otherwise you won't achieve the syrupy consistency you need. Also, FYI - the recipe is very tart and lemony. If that's not your thing - you just want a hint of lemon - try only using the juice of one lemon in the cake, and being sparing with the zezt when making the lemon crumbs and the lemon syrup.

Finally, we spent about five minutes making these peanut-butter chocolate balls (we renamed them Heart Attack Balls), which are so easy a four year old could make them, and so bad for you a four year old should know better. Seriously. You basically take a cup of corn syrup and a cup of sugar, heat it up, add a jar of peanut butter, roll in a bunch of corn flakes, and top with chocolate. Disgusting. And yet I can't stop eating them. Someone please come to my house and take them away?