Find yourself in the middle of a recipe with TMI? (Too Many Ingredients) Don’t worry–Jessica Harper has your back. Watch her solve a reader “TMI” dilemma with her new book, The Crabby Cook Cookbook, in this video.

Read an excerpt from Anne Byrn’s latest book, The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free. Take gluten-free cake mixes and doctor them to create 71 layer cakes, bundts, cookies, bars, brownies, and more.

I’m very lucky–other family members host our big gatherings, so when it comes to holiday cooking, all I have to make is dessert.

In researching options for this holiday season, a recipe for Pumpkin Cobbler caught my eye on KitchenScoop.com, the website of Desperation Dinners authors Alicia Ross and Beverly Mills. I decided to make it this past Thanksgiving.

The now-famous "magical cobbler"

While assembling the cobbler according to the recipe instructions, I was very confused. Why did the recipe say to place the crust mixture on the bottom, then read “The crust will not cover cobbler completely, but this is fine.” How would it cover the top at all if it was on the bottom?

The short answer? Because it’s magical! During the baking process, I peeked into the oven to discover the crust wrapped around the edges of the dish to envelop the top AND the bottom of the pumpkin mixture in a delicious, buttery crust!

The dish was a hit at Thanksgiving dinner. Now my whole family is calling it the “magical crust dessert,” and everyone wants to help bake it so they can see the “magic.” A holiday dish everyone is fighting to help make? That is definitely something to be thankful for!

Click here for the Pumpkin Cobbler recipe on KitchenScoop.com

Everyone knows kids love singing and dancing to Sandra Boynton songs, but the incredibly catchy tunes are also beloved by parents and grandparents alike. This grandfather sings and reads along with Barnyard Dance with high energy and quite a bit of gusto! It’s always fun to sing along while reading Boynton books, but you might want to refrain from doing this one at bedtime or your little one might end up dancing around the room instead of nodding off to sleep!

In Jessica Harper’s newest video, she sends her “less crabby second cousins” on a mission to find the perfect cookie recipe for her annual cookie swap. The result: Almond Yule Logs. Cookie crisis solved!

Visit Jessica Harper’s website at thecrabbycook.com

This group has a pretty impressive menagerie of barnyard animals, and it’s put to excellent use in this very accurate performance of Sandra Boynton’s Barnyard Dance. These kids don’t just pretend to bow to a horse and cow, they’ve got a cow, a horse, and even bouncing bunnies and chickens to spin with!

It didn’t take much searching on YouTube for us to realize that Sandra Boynton has a ton of amazingly creative fans out there. This fan created animation inspired by Sandra’s illustrations to put together a music video for “Shortest Song in The Universe” from Rhinoceros Tap. It’s a wonderful compliment to a beloved song.

Saturday, December 4th, Sandra Boynton will be celebrating the publication of AMAZING COWS! at Books of Wonder.

Not in NYC? Tune in here to watch Sandra Boynton and Michael Ford present a 15 minute stage show of three songs from their bestselling gold-certified book/CD sets Philadelphia Chickens and Blue Moo.

Click here at noon on Saturday to watch the show!

Thank you to the cows and chickens out there who are also bringing Sandra Boynton and Amazing Cows! to their world:

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Another delicious latke recipe from Judy Bart Kancigor’s Cooking Jewish. Click here for more Hanukkah posts.

MALAYSIAN LATKES
From Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family (Workman) by Judy Bart Kancigor

1/2 cup chopped unsalted cashews or peanuts
1/4 cup chopped mint or flat-leaf parsley, or a combination
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped jalapeño pepper, seeded and deveined
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons kosher (coarse) salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 large eggs, beaten
2 large baking potatoes (12 ounces each), cut into wedges
1 medium-size onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil, for frying
Cucumber Dip with Yogurt Sauce (recipe below)

1. Combine the cashews, mint, bell pepper, jalapeño, ginger, salt, curry powder, and eggs in a large bowl, and mix well. Set it aside.

2. Shred the potatoes and onion together in a food processor fitted with the shredding disk. Squeeze between several changes of paper towels to release as much liquid as possible. Add the potato/onion mixture to the egg mixture, and combine well. Stir in the flour.

3. Pour enough oil into a large, heavy skillet to cover the bottom, and heat it over medium-high heat. When the oil is quite hot but not smoking, add a scant 1/4 cup batter per latke and flatten them with a fork. Fry only as many latkes as will fit in the skillet without crowding. Cook until crisp and brown, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Transfer the latkes to paper towels to drain. Keep the latkes warm while frying the remainder.

4. Serve immediately, with the Cucumber dip. Makes about 16.

(Cacik) Cucumber Dip with Minty Yogurt Sauce

1 English (hothouse) cucumber
Kosher (coarse) salt
2 cups plain yogurt
1 to 2 teaspoons crushed garlic
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon toasted cumin seeds

1. Grate the cucumber coarsely into a colander. Sprinkle generously with salt, and allow to stand for 15 to 20 minutes. Then rinse off the salt and let drain.

2. Combine the yogurt, garlic, olive oil, cumin seeds, and salt to taste in a bowl, and whisk until smooth and creamy.

3. Pat the cucumbers dry, and combine them with the yogurt sauce. Taste and adjust the salt. Cover, and chill for at least 1 hour.

Start fresh in the new year by sharpening focus, improving your health, and feeling calmer through meditation. Real Happiness by Sharon Salzberg gives beginners a complete guide on how to meditate–basic techniques, dealing with problem areas, FAQs, plus a CD with four guided meditations. Listen to two audio samples from the CD and read an excerpt below.

Breathing meditation introduction:

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Breathing meditation:

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