I wasn’t always a brownie fan but now, there’s nothing like a warm pan of rich, chewy brownies with a cup of coffee! I enjoy cutting out designs and decorating them for various occasions. I used to make this recipe with semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips. Once I tried milk chocolate, I’ve never gone back.

• SALTED BUTTER: I like salted butter in this recipe. I think it adds balance. If you only have unsalted butter on hand, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt when melting the butter.
• COCOA & VANILLA: I get the unsweetened cocoa powder and bourbon vanilla extract at Trader Joe’s. You can use any cocoa you like as long as it’s unsweetened and you can use regular vanilla.
• BROWN SUGAR: I love brown sugar in my recipes! It gives the brownies a nice crunchy top and edges. If you don’t have brown sugar, replace it with another cup of granulated sugar...1 cup total.
• ESPRESSO POWDER: The 1/4 teaspoon of espresso powder enhances the chocolate flavor. You will not taste any coffee in the brownies. Most stores carry it in their coffee section. You may leave it out, if you prefer.
• BAKING TIME: Baking time is 25 minutes in my oven. Be careful not to over bake. Remember, they will continue to cook a little while cooling. You want them to be gooey and chewy.
• PAN SIZE: For regular brownie thickness, use a 9 x 9 pan. If you would like a thicker brownie, use an 8 x 8 pan and adjust your baking time.
• NUTS: You may add a1/4 cup of chopped toasted pecans or walnuts. I have also used chopped peanuts.

I’ve been asked this question quite a bit. I have tested so many brands... There can be a difference depending on what you’re making.

MY FAVORITES:

• Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips and also Milk Chocolate Chips.​
• Guitard Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips and also Dark Chocolate Chips.
• Whole Foods 365 Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips.

I used Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips in this recipe and it tastes amazing!

Trader Joe's used to be my favorite but after the pandemic, something changed. The chocolate chips have a liquor taste and it distracts from the other ingredients I have tried to balance in the recipe. So, if you use your favorite chocolate and the recipe tastes different or fails, it may be a change in the supplier's recipe. 

After cutting heart shaped brownies, I placed them on a pan with a rack, melted 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips, then drizzled the white chocolate on the brownies using a spoon. The drizzle lines don’t have to be perfect. Have fun with it. I made two passes over each brownie.

When done, add sprinkles.

The brownie is a canvas for different flavors of chocolate and the thousands of sprinkle options available. It’s a great gift for family and friends!

How about some real comfort food? Baked ham is one of those beloved foods that works for any occasion—one bite brings you right back to childhood, when all you needed was some yummy, smoky goodness to feel that everything was right with the world. 
 
Ham is already cooked when you purchase it, so all you need to do is decide on your favorite glaze and reheat it. The ease of making this nostalgic centerpiece dish is one of its finest attributes, especially when you smoke it in the Big Green Egg. 
 
Low and slow-smoked meat offers a three-dimensional explosion of flavors. It could be connected to the fact that it’s elemental, and universal. As Korean-American-Southern chef Edward Lee writes in his cookbook, Smoke & Pickles, the appeal spans the continents. “Some say umami is the fifth [taste], in addition to salty, sweet, sour, and bitter,” Lee writes. “I say smoke is the sixth.” And then there are the leftovers...need we say more?

LOW AND SLOW!
 
The purpose of low and slow cooking and smoking is to allow meat to cook fully, but to avoid burning or drying out the meat in the process. Smoking adds flavor and depth to the meat itself during the cooking process.
 
Ham comes from the rear leg of the pig and is then salted and dried or smoked. In the 1940s, Harry Hoenselaar invented the spiral-slicing machine. It holds ham while an oscillating blade makes thin cuts into the meat around the bone. Now, precooked spiral ham is a heat-and-serve holiday classic.

Your best bud is going to love this recipe!! It’s super easy to make, only four ingredients, and easy to store.
​
If your pup doesn’t like kale, you can switch out the vegetable. Make sure the pieces are small or finely chopped. These are just a few suggestions I have tried with Zu.

• Boiled carrots
• Boiled sweet potatoes, slightly firm
• Cooked broccoli
• Cooked green beans
• Spinach

I used coconut oil to line the baking dish, just enough to keep the meatballs from sticking. It’s an oil that’s part of Zu’s regular diet. You may substitute with olive oil or flaxseed oil but avoid vegetable oils especially corn oil and anything with soybeans. Even though your dog may be fine with peanut butter, avoid peanut oil. The molecular structure changes in the heat and dogs can develop stomachaches...same with heated butter. You may use a non-stick metal baking pan instead.

I’ve read that vegetables need to be cooked and pureed before dogs can digest them. Wolves usually get their greens from the stomachs of their kill. It’s pre-digested. In this recipe, I used frozen uncooked kale. It’s easy to smash into tiny pieces within the bag. Zu has showed no signs of being unable to digest any of the vegetables I give him a few times a week.

Make sure the meatballs are cooked through, especially if you have small children in the house. If your dog eats a semi-raw treat then licks your child’s face, germs can easily be passed on. Always be careful when handling raw meat. Clean and disinfect your counter and utensils once the treats go into the oven.

Dogs usually get all of the good stuff when it comes to toys and treats. Let's face it, cats are finicky and prefer to lie around dictating their needs. We love their independence!

Fig is super finicky about her food and it's hard to find treats she enjoys. It took a few tries but I finally made something she likes. ​

Use a small cookie cutter when baking and break up the treat when feeding. Cats like smaller bites.

I use oat flour in my pet recipes. Oats are a grain least likely to cause allergies. You can make your own oat flour by purchasing organic oats and blending them 1 cup at a time until they reach desired constancy. 

I store my treats in the freezer and pull a few at a time. Cats can get bored with the same flavors, plus with tuna as an ingredient, it's good to keep them as fresh as possible. The treats will keep for up to 3 months frozen. 

Make sure the treat is room temperature before feeding. Cold food is not good for a cats digestion. 

Brrrr... with the snow, ice, cold winter weather blowing through this weekend, how about a savory beef stew? This easy one skillet meal can be made for a warm and delicious meal for your family or friends. We cooked ours on the Big Green Egg to add that extra flavor. You can make this at home in a traditional oven just as well.. Fresh herbs and butter make all the difference in this recipe. Yummy!

I grew up inhaling Oreos. Plus, when they invented Double Stuf, I just about lost my eight year old mind. I couldn’t understand how anyone could ever go back to the original. Flash forward to adulthood and Oreos’ taste has changed a bit. I started looking for other sandwich cookies with less preservatives and more taste. They are hard to find unless you make them yourself.
​
Introduced in 1898, the merging of several companies formed the National Biscuit Company, or as we know it today, Nabisco. After rolling out the very successful Barnum’s Animal Crackers in 1902, Nabisco had an idea for a new cookie…well, it was sort of their idea. The two chocolate disk cookie with creme filling had already been made by the Sunshine Biscuit Company in 1908 called Hydrox. Four years after, Nabisco introduced their version, the Oreo, It quickly surpassed the popularity of its predecessor and in 1912, Nabisco filed for a trademark.

Why the name Oreo? Well, the cookie first appeared as the Oreo Biscuit, then the Oreo Sandwich, then the Oreo Creme Sandwich…then in 1974, right before I lost my eight year old mind over Double Stuf, they settled on the Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie. It would be the public who decided it was just the “Oreo”.

If you ask Nabisco, no one seems to know where the name originally came from. Some believe the name is from a French word for gold, taken from the original color on the packaging. Others claim it was the hill-shaped prototype that never made it to the shelves to be named oreo, the Greek word for mountain. Or, it could be a combination of letters from “cream” and “chocolate”.

No matter where the name originated, as of last year, an estimated 450 billion Oreo cookies have been sold since 1912. I may have eaten about half of those.
​
In my recipe, the chocolate cookies are not super sweet. I held back on the sugar because the vanilla creme and jam are packed with sweetness. I was looking for balance and I think I nailed it.

Bonnie’s Jams has become my new favorite. She really knows how to balance the flavors. I could eat a case of the Peach Ginger. Not kidding. I ate it in the cookies, on roasted chicken, toast, mixed it into a salad dressing… You can find out more about Bonnie’s Jams by reading about her in our latest edition of Nourish & Flourish. Visit her website and order jam for family and friends this holiday season. Don’t wait because I know she will be very busy!

Download the recipe and give it a try! Let us know what you think by leaving a comment or tagging us on Instagram and Facebook.

​From Morgan's Kitchen to Yours! Making your own homemade dog treats can be a fun reward for your dog.  As conscious consumers, we all look at food labels, and try to buy the most nutritional products on the market So why not do the same for your furry best friend? By making homemade dog treats you have more control and options - plus it is a fun, family activity that your kids and dog(s) will love!

• Nutritious and Wholseome! You can control the ingredients used to make the treats and tailor the recipes to your dog’s taste preferences as well as cater to any dietary restrictions.
• All Natural Ingredients: Prevent unhealthy additives, fillers and by-products. 
• Tasty alternative. Making your own dog treats allows you to provide your pet with a tasty alternative to his usual doggie ​biscuit.​​

​
This recipe includes bacon and we know your pup will love it. Since bacon is high in fat and salt, only give your pup very small amounts. This recipe calls for just one slice finely chopped. Just enough to give the treats that tasty bacon flavor - sometimes referred to as "meat candy!"

Mini peppers are delicious raw or cooked. They are crunchy, and their flavor is very mild. This is a simple recipe that only takes a few minutes to prep. The flavor you get from roasting these mini peppers is smoky and sweet. They can be served as a side dish or an appetizer with rustic bread and cheese. Once they come out of the oven or off the grill, they will collapse, releasing juices that infuse with the olive oil and balsamic to create an amazing taste.

As featured in "Flavors of the Season Cookbook" digital publication.

I add organic pumpkin to Zu’s bowl daily. It’s great for his digestion. Just make sure you purchase actual canned pumpkin and not the pie filling. You can exchange the pumpkin in the recipe with cooked sweet potatoes or organic canned sweet potatoes to mix things up.
You can use any cookie cutter for your treats. For this batch, I used a biscuit stamp. It’s one of my favorite cookie tools and you can find all kinds of rubber stamps, including holiday themes.

Zu is allergic to barley and has digestive issues with wheat. Oats are the only grain he gets in his diet.

No matter what grain you choose in your treats, watch for symptoms that can vary from dog to dog:
​

• Itchy, dry, flaky skin
• Hair loss
• Bumps, red underbelly
• Recurring ear infections
• Watery eyes
• Gastrointestinal issues

It can be hard to figure out what’s going on with our pups but it can also be a really simple fix by observing any changes after they eat and removing ingredients from their diets. If you feel your dog is in real distress after eating, please see your veterinarian right away. If something doesn’t feel right with our dogs, it probably isn’t.

Apple pies or tarts have been around, in one form or another, since the Middle Ages. Before the Pilgrims set sail for the New World, Asia and European cultures had already incorporated apples into their cuisine thousands of years earlier. The first written mention of the apple is that of Alexander the Great in 328 BCE: he noted Kazakhstan’s apples appeared to be ‘dwarfed,’ before bringing them back to Macedonia to be cultivated. By the late 14th century, sweet and savory pies were already an important part of the food culture in England, and so it comes as no surprise that apples made their way into these pastries; however, they traditionally were made without crust due to the high price of sugar. It wasn’t until the 15th century that Dutch bakers transformed the crust-less apple pie into the lattice-style pastry we commonly see today. Just a century later, the pies could be found across Europe.

It wasn’t until the mid-1600s through complex sea trade routes, that edible apples made their way to North America. Even then, they came in the form of trees, and required extensive pollination to bear fruit; as such, the fruit didn’t flourish until European honey bees were introduced decades later. Only one type of apple -- the malus, or “crabapple” -- was native to North America prior to this, and it was incredibly sour and foul-tasting.

According to the American Pie Council, Americans consume $700 million worth of retail pies each year -- and that doesn’t include those that are home-baked, or sold by restaurants and independent bakers. Of those who responded to surveys, 19% of Americans -- some 36 million people -- cited apple is their favorite flavor. That’s a lot of apple pie.

Though we’ve made the case here that apple pie isn’t so American after all, one could argue that just because something originated somewhere else doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t become a source of national pride elsewhere. America took the apple pie to heights it had never seen before -- elevated it as a treasured part of its lore and history. And though it wouldn’t be fair to call apple pie “American” without acknowledging its past, the baked good seems to be just at home here as anywhere else in the world.

I love to try new recipes from other bakers and I've fallen in love with this buttery pie crust from simplyrecipes.com! Let us know what you think by leaving a comment or tagging us on Instagram.