I have a strong difference of opinion with myself. Brightly colored vibrant foods are my first choices. The more colors in the market basket or on a plate the better. The oranges and greens, reds and purples, and occasional black foods make me salivate just to look at.

Yet when it comes to desserts, I'm drawn to the modest beiges, creamy whites, and browns of all shades. My affinity is for rustic, crumbly sweets that out-perform their appearances. There is a place for sprinkles and colorful frosting and fancy flourishes, but for day-to-day desserts the homier the better.

Hazelnut Meringue Cookies

Oregonians are rightfully proud of our home-grown hazelnuts, with 99% of U. S. hazelnuts grown right here in the Willamette Valley. This fast and simple four-ingredient recipe (five if you use the optional almond extract) features them like the heroes they are.

Nutty meringue cookies have been around for decades. The difference here is that I've developed this recipe to feature as much hazelnut flavor and texture as the egg white meringue will hold. Don't let this quiet beige cookie fool you-- they pack in a lot of hazelnut along with their very pleasant crispy and chewy texture.

Hazelnut Meringue Cookies are terrific served with summer fruit platters, any kind of fruit, chocolate, or caramel ice creams or sorbets, (like my Strawberry Sorbet and DF Ice Cream duo!) They are also delicious as a coffee or tea break treat.

The recipe contains no gluten, no grain, and no additional fat besides that which is natural to the nuts.

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Chewy Hazelnut Meringue Cookies

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French, Pacific Northwest

Season: Bounty (August - October), Evergreen (April - July), Mist (November - March)

Dietary: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free

Preparation: Baking

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 30 cookies

Five handy ingredients come together fast and easy for these delicious chewy cookies. Perfect with coffee or tea, and especially nice alongside a dish of your favorite ice cream for a simple dessert.

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 14 oz. finely chopped Oregon hazelnuts or hazelnut flour about 2 ¾ cups
• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. almond extract (optional) this magnifies the nutty flavor but use only a little!
• ½ tsp. salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment or non-stick baking mats.
• Finely chop hazelnuts in a food processor or by hand, if using whole. Set aside.
• In an upright mixer or using a hand mixer, begin whipping egg whites on medium speed. As they begin to get bubbly and foamy, add in the extracts and salt. Increase mixer speed to high and continue beating until eggs white turn solid white. Begin adding sugar in, one Tablespoon at a time in fairly quick succession, until all the sugar is added.
• Continue whipping egg whites until they are very stiff and hold stiff peaks, and the sugar is completely dissolved into them. (Rub a little of the mixture between your fingers to feel if the sugar is dissolved.
• Using a spatula, gently but thoroughly fold the hazelnuts into the egg whites in three batches. The mixture will become a little stiff at the end-- that's OK.
• Using a one Tablespoon scoop or spoon, drop the batter into the baking sheets. With lightly damp fingers, gently pat the tops of the cookies down. (They will not spread as they bake.) Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden around the edges and on the bottom. Cool on baking sheets.
• These will keep in a sealed container for several days, and freeze well.

Notes

Make It Your Own:

This recipe works well with chopped walnuts and almond, too!

If you like your cookie a bit chewier, add 1/4 cup less nuts to the whipped egg whites. 

It was May, just as the strawberry fields were beginning to ripen, when my family and I moved to rural Oregon from the desert southwest. A big hand-painted plywood sign announcing "U-Pick Strawberries" near our new house beckoned. As motivation and reward I promised my then nine, seven, and three-year-old kids we would go as soon as we were unpacked and settled in.

Having grown up in cities, this "U-Pick" idea was just the best thing I'd ever heard of. Farmers actually let people onto their property to pick their produce? I had no idea I was expected to bring our own buckets or bowls, and we showed up that first day empty-handed and wearing inappropriate shoes for farm work.

Farmers, in general, are really nice people, and they had met our kind before. Spare grocery sacks were handed out, and we skipped off to our assigned rows.

The four of us had never tasted strawberries before. Yes, we'd had the trucked-in grocery store variety a lot of times, but the color, aroma, and taste of these field-ripened berries was like Dorothy entering the technicolor Land of Oz.

The kids and I laughed and stopped to look at the loamy earth, the bugs, and the whiskery leaves of the strawberry plants growing in mounds. We raced to see who could pick the most berries. There was no way to hide my then three-year-old's strawberry-stained face, hands, and belly, and truth be told all of us had eaten our fair share in the field. I offered to pay for what we'd eaten, and the clerk made me a customer for life when she laughed and said it was all part of the experience.

There are no words to describe how alive I felt that day.

It was then I realized what a sheltered life I'd lived in the big city. It was then that I developed my sustained mad crush on local farms, farm stands, farmers, and the generosity of Oregon itself. That day goes down as one of the best in my life, and it changed me forever.

As the summer moved along and for many summers afterward we U-picked cherries, raspberries, blueberries, and Oregon's famous Marionberries. Wonder-filled memories were made through the years, from the gathering of the berries to the lovely things we made and ate from them.

Fun Dessert Duo: Strawberry Sorbet + Strawberry Ice Cream

The only thing better than ice cream for dessert is ice cream and sorbet for dessert! Making them with the same fruit makes a beautifully balanced contrast of color, tanginess, sweetness, creaminess and frostiness.

This type of dessert duo is one of my entertaining go-to's. The frozen desserts can be made in advance-- a big win for any host! There is something show-stopping about serving the two this way.

I like to serve my ice cream/sorbet duos with some type of cookie, often a shortbread or something nutty. This time I made my Rustic + Lovely Hazelnut Meringue Cookies.

Strawberry Sorbet and Strawberry Ice Cream Duo (Dairy-Free)

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Pacific Northwest

Season: Evergreen (April - July)

Dietary: Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Gluten-Free

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 8

The only thing better than ice cream for dessert is ice cream and sorbet for dessert! Making them with the same fruit makes a beautifully balanced contrast of color, tanginess, sweetness, creaminess and frostiness. This type of frozen dessert duo is one of my entertaining go-to's. The frozen desserts can be made in advance-- a big win for the host! There is something show-stopping about serving it this way.

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Strawberry Sorbet Ingredients

• 2 lbs. strawberries, hulled and quartered (about 5 ½ cups)
• 2 small lemons, divided
• ¾ - 1 cup sugar depending on the ripeness of the berries)
• 1 pinch salt

Dairy-Free Strawberry Ice Cream Ingredients

• 10 oz. strawberries, hulled and quartered, divided (about 2 ½ cups)
• 1 13.6 oz. can full-fat coconut milk
• ? - ½ cup honey depending the the ripeness of the berries
• ½ tsp. xanthan gum
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 3 drops almond extract (optional)
• 2 tsp. lemon juice

Instructions

Strawberry Sorbet Instructions

• Prepare (hull and quarter) strawberries and set aside.
• In a food processor, process ½ small lemon with sugar, pulsing and whirring until the lemon is in tiny even bits and fully incorporated into the sugar.
  
• Add the strawberries, the juice of 1 ½ lemons, and the salt. Process until the strawberries are completely pureed, stopping to scrape the sides a few times to incorporate all of the sugar mixture.
  
• For best results, chill the sorbet mixture at least one hour or up to overnight. (It will freeze better in an ice cream maker if it is chilled, or you can make it ahead to this step and freeze the mixture the next day.) Freeze according to your ice cream maker directions. For soft-serve, serve right away. For a firmer scoop, store in the freezer for an hour before serving.

Dairy-Free Strawberry Ice Cream Instructions

• Reserve about 1/2“ of the hulled and quartered strawberries. Add all remaining ingredients (1/2 of the berries through lemon juice) to a food processor and process until smooth.
• Add the reserved 1/2“ strawberries to the mixture in the processor, and pulse a few times to break them up into bits and chunks.
• For best results, chill the ice cream mixture at least one hour or up to overnight. (It will freeze better in an ice cream maker if it is chilled, or you can make it ahead to this step and freeze the mixture the next day.) Freeze according to your ice cream maker directions. For soft-serve, serve right away. For a firmer scoop, store in the freezer for an hour before serving.

Notes

Plan ahead if you are making these both at once. If you are using a Cuisinart-style tabletop ice cream maker you will either need two freezer inserts or you will need time to refreeze your insert. 

The broad category of humans called mothers, like all the other broad categories of humans, are not intractably indivisible and uniform. Nope, the perfect motherhood monolith is just a false notion. Every single person who bears the label "Mother" stands uniquely alone in their personhood. The way each mom fills out their mother-space is theirs alone.

My mom and I live nearly 3,000 coast-to-coast miles apart, or roughly the same distance as it is from my home to Mexico City or Montreal, Quebec. It's been nearly 16 months since I've seen her.

We've missed some big things this year-- we made the most of her 80th birthday celebration with a Zoom party. She's stayed well, the most important thing. But I miss her.

Here are some of the things that make my mom different than all the other moms in the world:

• My mom has always had that young-for-her-age cuteness.
• My mom has a great sense of aesthetic. It is from her that I learned to group things in odd numbers, what the word monochromatic meant, how to fan a stack of paper napkins with the bottom of a glass, and how to accessorize an outfit.
• My mom throws great parties. She makes custom invitations for every event, even a neighborhood weinie roast. She carries a theme all the way through the party, from that early invitation to some little parting gift-- usually something she's made.
• My mom made sure that my Christmas birthday was never overlooked. Not one single year in all my years has she ever given me a birthday gift wrapped in Christmas paper, and she always held some fun birthday party in the midst of the holiday bustle.
• My mom was a good cook and made sure she introduced my brother and me to lots of different foods at an early age.
• My mom is an intuitive gift-giver. She gives clever, meaningful presents that always surprise and delight.
• My mom likes bananas only if they are in the four-hour window of being pale-to-medium yellow and ever-so-slightly slightly green at the tip. At the ice-cream shop she asks to see the bananas before ordering a banana split. Deep yellow or spotted bananas are meant for baking ONLY.
• My mom LOVES all things wedding. My mom has made wedding bouquets for more brides than I can count, and a few wedding dresses and cakes too. Her telephone ringtone is Mendelssohn's Wedding March.
• My mom hosted a ladies-only royal wedding sleepover for William and Kate and stayed up all night watching the festivities. People from three states attended.
• My mom always cries at the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, the playing of the national anthem or Amazing Grace, and at goodbyes.
• My mom allowed me full access to her kitchen as a tiny little kid. It wasn't her kitchen-- it was our kitchen. She taught me how to use flame and knife safely and didn't hover over my experiments thereafter.
• My mom taught me that cleaning up after myself was an important part of cooking and would call me back into the kitchen if I'd slap-dashed through it. I appreciate the sense of discipline she instilled.
• My mom is not afraid to be the only couple on the dancefloor.
• My mom starts almost every day with coffee and a breakfast bar in bed. Her routine makes me smile.

If I were with her this week, I'd make mom these tasty Banana Coconutty Breakfast Cookies. I'd actually make a double-batch, and zippy-bag them up for her freezer so she'd have a month of homemade breakfast cookies after I left.

What makes your mom the unique person she is or was? Please leave a comment to help us all celebrate our mothers this week.

These breakfast cookies are made with hazelnuts, one of our Oregon treasures. They are naturally gluten-free if you chose GF oats. The contain no dairy, and no added sugar-- just naturally sweetened with very ripe bananas. Don't be tempted to use the green-stemmed ones here. The browner the better and you will never know there is no sugar added.

Banana Coconutty Breakfast Cookies

Course: Breakfast + Brunch, Dessert

Cuisine: Pacific Northwest

Season: Bounty (August - October), Evergreen (April - July), Mist (November - March)

Dietary: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian

Preparation: Baking

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes minutes

Servings: 20 cookies

A naturally sweetened, moist, nutty grab-and-go breakfast, coffee-break treat or after-school snack.

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 large very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup toasted hazelnuts
• 1 ½ cups rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
• ¾ cup hazelnut flour
• 1 tsp. baking power
• ½ tsp. ground cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, OR ginger
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut chips or flakes

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together mashed bananas, egg, olive oil, and vanilla. Set aside.
• Crush the hazelnuts with the wide side of a chef's knife blade, then roughly chop the hazelnuts a few times, leaving them somewhat chunky. Slide them into the wet ingredients.
• In a food processor fitted with its steel blade, pulse the oats five or six times to begin breaking them down. Add the hazelnut flour and pulse another 5 or 6 times to combine. Add the baking powder, spice of your choice, and salt and pulse another few times just to incorporate.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the bowl, along with the coconut. Stir thoroughly. Leave it sit 5 to 10 minutes.
• Scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the tops are light golden brown and the bottoms are lightly browned, switching the pans half-way through. (Teaspoon-sized drops will bake in about 16 minutes; larger drops will take longer.) Allow the cookies to cool on their baking sheets 5 minutes or so, them move them to a cooling rack to complete cooling.
  
• Store airtight for up to 5 days. These also freeze nicely.