Dessert Archives | Musings on Momentum

A Delicious Summertime Champagne Popsicle Recipe

August 27, 2018

Despite a few false alarms here in Kansas City, it appears that summer isn’t ready to bid adieu just yet. Regardless of how much I may want to whip out my fall wardrobe, with temperatures hovering steadily in the mid-90’s, I may have to wait a while. I am trying to make the most of this seemingly endless summer by packing these last few weeks of the season with sunny-day activities and treats. This champagne popsicle recipe has been my constant companion as of late, satisfying my sweet tooth while keeping me cool.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Spiced Cookies

October 4, 2016

The temperature has yet to dip below 65 degrees in Los Angeles, but I’m still trying to get into the autumn spirit any and every way I can. The best way to infuse a bit of fall into my life? By creating a recipe for gluten free pumpkin spiced cookies, of course!

Strawberry Champagne Sorbet

September 6, 2016

In honor of my trip to Paris (that I’m sadly returning home from today), I’m sharing two French-influenced recipes this month. French gastronomy is as legendary as it is heavenly and no conversation about the genre can be had without the inclusion of champagne. Due to the fact Los Angeles is still experiencing temperatures in the high 70’s, I decided a classic champagne cocktail wouldn’t do and created today’s strawberry champagne sorbet recipe with the last of the year’s hot summer nights in mind.

Grilled Balsamic Peaches – A Savory Summer Dessert

July 5, 2016

There is something that is quintessentially summer to me about peaches. Perhaps it is because they were hard to come by the majority of the year when I was growing up in the Pacific Northwest. Once summer rolled around however, they could be found in abundance and I made the most of it.

Today I can scoop up peaches just about whenever I want, however I still find myself gravitating towards them almost exclusively during the summer. A few weeks ago I found myself with several perfectly ripe peaches just begging to be eaten. Always one to experiment, I sliced them up and threw them on the grill, drizzling them in balsamic vinegar and serving them up with a side of basil as the perfect summer dessert. One sweet and juicy bite was all it took to transport me back to barefoot summer days in Washington.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter S’more Cookies

April 19, 2016

Have I ever mentioned that summer camp was a huge part of my life throughout my middle school and high school years? I both attended and later worked at camps in Washington State as a camper and then as a counselor. In fact, my first real job was at Camp Don Bosco in Carnation, Washington as a dishwasher! To this day it was one of the hardest yet most rewarding jobs I have had.

To me camp was an escape from reality; an escape from being bullied in school, an escape from feeling out of place and awkward every day. At camp I was given the acceptance and support to really discover who I was and who I wanted to be. It was working at camp where I met one of the best friends I will ever have and it was camp I turned to when I lost him unexpectedly seven years later. Camp was life, camp was love, camp was the smell of crackling embers, the sound of water lapping against the shore, the sight of hundreds of stars against the pitch black night sky. Camp was…s’mores.

I always adored s’mores and the fact that I got to make them with my campers on our weekly campouts in the woods was something I always looked forward to, as did my campers. The whole lot of us equated s’mores to a complete camping adventure and, even when our camp outs were occasionally rained out, I always made sure to still give the kids that part of their summer camp experience.

It has been years since I slept beneath the stars and even longer since I successfully built and started a campfire on my own. I’m not sure I could flip a canoe these days to save my life and the words to some of the camp songs I once loved are long since gone from my head. What remains are fleeting memories of being blissfully happy and free, memories of the sound of my best friend’s voice and laughter, sounds I will never hear again, and memories of roasting marshmallows around a campfire. Camp may be gone from my daily life but every time I bite into a s’more I’m taken back to a less complicated time and place where I fell asleep to the stars and woke to the sunrise, where I’d surprise myself by discovering tan lines on my cheeks from smiling so much, where I fell in love for the first time, where I grew up.

Today, in honor of the warming weather, in honor of the days getting longer, in honor of it almost being time for summer camp once again, and in honor of my best friend, I’m sharing a piece of myself I don’t normally share along with a recipe for s’more cookies.