kitchen highlights

Lately, the kitchen hasn't been my friend. I keep making terrible dinners that I end up tossing and desserts that either don't turn out or aren't worth saving the recipe for.

So here are some of the more successful ones out of this recent string of kitchen failures.

I tried to replicate my mom's chicken soup recipe. it's close, but not as good as hers.



I made strawberry freezer jam. I love the pectin that comes in a jar, so that I can make small batches of jam in about the time it takes to wash and cut the fruit.



I made a marble cheesecake from the recipe in the America's Test Kitchen baking book, along with a raspberry sauce and strawberry sauce. I didn't love it but I think other people liked it.



The sleeper hit was the maple meringue. I bought some maple sugar at the King Arthur store earlier this summer and hadn't yet tried it. So I used the leftover egg whites from the cheesecake to make these. I usually make my meringues in a hot oven for short times, which gives them a crunchy exterior and sticky interior. I did a lower heat/longer bake on these, which gave a better texture (though they didn't hold up as well over time). But on the first day, right out of the oven, crazy good.