Taste

There is one combination in a dessert that excites me like no other — chocolate and peanut butter. Whoever first decided to put these two foods together is a genius.

On one of nightly surf through Pinterest, I found a cake recipe that stopped me in my tracks, a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cake.

This was one cake I needed to try to conquer.

I will warn you, this one has some complications.

I come from a family that likes to try new things. Several years ago, I decided to make a traditional Irish meal for St. Patrick’s Day and it is now a tradition.

Each year’s meal usually includes shepherd’s pie and Irish soda bread, without raisins, but the sides and dessert often change. Often, my search for new recipes requires research and math. The research involves finding what foods are traditionally Irish and not an American invention, and math because if they are from websites in Ireland a little measurement conversion is needed.

Welcome to my kitchen.

I’m probably like most of you, a self-made cook. I try to get fancy, slightly gourmet, with my cooking sometimes and at other times I’m looking for something quick to fix at the end of a tiring day at work.

My passion for cooking leads me to drool over Food Network programs, collect a massive amount of cookbooks and skim websites such as Pinterest for the next recipe to try.

OK, I’ve got good news and bad news. I’m getting ready to retire, and this will be my last food column. I am so excited about the prospect of getting to spend more time with my grandchildren, but, at the same time, I will miss all of you who I’ve gotten to know through writing a food column and working on the Community News Team here for many, many years.