Way less money than they cost in the store, PLUS you can whip these up in less time than it takes to run to the store!!!  (no whipping required) (in our local Pesach bakery, two dozen macaroons will run you about $9-12, if you’re LUCKY… these homemade ones taste fresher and cost well under $5) Homemade Pesach Coconut Macaroons (adapted from Bonnie Stern’s Passover Almond Haystacks ) Ingredients: 4 egg whites 1 cup sugar (include a bit of vanillin sugar, if desired) 275g (about 2 1/2 cups?) bag or container of finely-grated coconut – original calls for 3 cups of slivered almonds optional:  1 bag Pesach chocolate chips How to do it: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir egg whites together with sugar until evenly mixed.  Do not beat or whip!  I don’t know if anything bad happens if you try, but you really don’t have to! Stir in coconut until evenly mixed. Drop walnut-sized teaspoonfuls of mixture onto parchment paper.  They don’t spread much, so

Inspired by Stephanies Kitchen’s approach to the Daring Bakers Pizza Challenge, I …. whoops!  Forgot to post this for a million years and didn’t find it until I was cleaning out my “Drafts” folder tonight.  Anyway, I did make this for yom tov (Rosh Hashanah 5770; maybe because of the apples?) a couple of years ago and am mostly posting it as a cautionary tale.  It looked delightful, but it was not a homemade crust (I think) and was not actually a very delightful experience to eat.  Ted likes his fruit desserts more fruity and less sugary, and I like mine more sugary and less fruity, so neither of us ate it. Live and learn, I guess… not a total disaster, but I never have made it since.

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out!  Easiest Pecan Pie in the World!!! The recipe I use is Janis Dohmann’s Pecan Pie , from the Dohmann Pecan Farms website.  I guess they know pecans, but they most definitely know pie.  (though they do warn you that if you use anything other than Texas native pecans, “don't complain to us if you aren't happy with the way your pie turns out.”  I have no clue of the provenance of my pecans, but have never had occasion to complain about this pie. It’s pareve, but it’s my favourite kind of pareve… the kind where you don’t have to substitute or leave anything out to get the taste of the real thing.  See how tattered the recipe has gotten?  And this is just one copy; I have several floating around… The one thing I sometimes do to “doctor” this pie, though I forgot this week, is to add a bit of rum while adding or instead of the vanilla.  Shhh… what they don’t know they’re eating won’t hurt ‘em.  (ok, except my mother-in-law