Creamy Carrot Soup with Potato

Creamy Carrot Soup with Roasted Potatoes

One of the things I love best about cooking is that you can never stop improving your skills in the kitchen. There are always new dishes to try, techniques to master and menus to plan. While I’ve never had any formal training, learning most of what I know from watching my parents at home and my culinary idols on the Food Network, I like to think I know my way around a kitchen, at least for the most part.  But one thing I’ve never been super confident about, and a skill that is absolutely essential to be a serious cook, is knowing how to properly use a chef’s knife.  Continue reading

Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts

Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts

Every Sunday, I have a routine of visiting my local farmers market and stocking up on fresh fruits and veggies for the week. Recently, my favorite produce stand has gotten into the habit of bringing these deliciously spiced, absolutely scrumptious apple cider doughnuts with them every Sunday. So naturally, apple cider doughnuts have found their way into my weekly routine.  Continue reading

Apple Butter Bundt Cake with Cider Caramel Glaze #bundtbakers

Apple Butter Bundt with Cider Caramel Glaze

Last weekend, my sister, Sam, and I visited our good friend Lydia in Massachusetts.  Lydia is incredibly talented in the kitchen, and has taken her talent and passion for all things sweet to create her own brand: Sweet Lydia’s.  She’s pretty much a celebrity in her home town, and is known by everyone as the woman who makes the delectable marshmallows and sweets that she sells in her store.  I really admire how Lydia has taken her passion and turned it into a successful business.  She works so hard, and it’s so exciting to see her business grow.  Continue reading

Carrot Bundt Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting #BundtBakers

Carrot Bundt Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

My boyfriend, Jordan, is obsessed with making lists.  He makes lists for everything, his top 10 albums of all time, his top 5 trips of all time, his top 10 Cassie’s Kitchen recipes, he’s always and forever ranking items in his head and somehow manages to remember them all when asked to recite them.  He’s always asking me for my favorites – and I don’t always have an answer because my tastes change pretty often.  The music I listen to now is certainly different than what I was listening to in high school or college, and the things I like to do have changed as well.  But something that has never changed, from the time I was little, is my favorite month of the year – September.  Continue reading

Spicy Butternut Squash Salad with Lentils and Goat Cheese

Spicy Butternut Squash Salad

Eating healthy can be really hard in winter.  It’s been so cold and there’s nothing like good-old comfort food to keep you warm.  Sometimes eating a regular old salad for dinner just won’t do, and you find yourself pining for something more satisfying that will make you forget about the snow that won’t stop falling.  But is it possible to stay on track and still feel completely satisfied with weeknight comfort food? With this recipe, I say absolutely.  Continue reading

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts with Brown Butter Maple Glaze

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There has been an overwhelming obsession with doughnuts lately here in New York.  They are everywhere, in popup bakeries, on fancy restaurant dessert menus, in coffee shops, not to mention a certain “donut” shop (seriously, they don’t even spell it right) which now dominates Manhattan and Brooklyn real estate.  Doughnuts are now even being turned into French fusions, with the creation of the cronut (don’t get me started).  So seriously, what is the obsession with the doughnut?  I think the answer might be obvious, it’s fried dough.   Continue reading

Butternut Squash Risotto with Sage and Thyme

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It snowed yesterday.  Seriously?  I’m just not ready for this.  I haven’t even gotten around to buying a new winter coat, my old one bearing the burden of five New York winters that it’s just not capable of surviving another. But I’m stubborn, avoiding the fact that winter is quickly approaching by unreasonably walking around New York City in a light, fall jacket, while snowflakes clutter the sky and people race by, bundled in down jackets and wool scarves.  Not to mention the fact that every store is now adorned in holiday decorations, blinding us with tinsel and plastic evergreens, an obvious sign that winter is coming. Continue reading

Maple and Pecan Apple Crisp

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There’s been something in the air here in New York that’s hard to put into words.   With the cool mornings, perfect for a run along the East River, turning into sun drenched afternoons ideal for exploring, that make way for perfectly crisp nights dining out.  When all you need is a light jacket to wander through the streets of the East Village, lined with red and yellow leaves and leftover Halloween decorations.  Where every restaurant has pumpkin on the menu and every coffee shop has spiced apple cider for sale.  It’s been nothing short of perfection.  I’ve never seen so many posts on Instagram or Facebook documenting weekend outings to orchards for apple picking and apple cider tastings and comments on how perfect the weather has been.   Continue reading

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

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A good friend of mine is severely allergic to nuts.  Like EpiPen stat, rush to the hospital kind of allergic.  It’s a constant paranoia whenever I’m baking and sharing to make everyone aware if a dessert contains nuts. I warn everybody before they take a bite ‘- “WAIT – Those cookies have nuts, are you allergic?”  The tough thing is, I absolutely love nuts, of all kinds.  Hazelnut, cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, pistachio nuts (I couldn’t help myself), and often include them in a lot of my baked goods.  So when my friend told me that she has a hard time finding pumpkin flavored desserts, one of her favorite ingredients, without nuts, I had to immediately fix this problem.   Continue reading

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes with Sautéed Apples

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Hotcakes, Griddle Cakes, Flapjacks, whatever you’ve grown up calling them, Pancakes are an American staple that just about anyone can enjoy.  So it makes sense that a Brit has my absolute favorite recipe, right?  My sister gave me Nigella Lawson’s cookbook “How to be a Domestic Goddess” for Christmas a few years ago, and it’s been my go-to for quick, simple recipes for easy baked goods like pancakes, muffins, quick breads and desserts since.   Continue reading