Any excuse to eat dessert in the middle of the afternoon, right? But a wedding shower makes a little pre-dinner dessert action even more justifiable! This particular spread of lovely bite-sized treats is easy to put together and still feels classy and elegant — important details if you happen to be the one organizing the shower.

You might never have known these desserts are vegan if we hadn't told you, proving that you don't need a lot of milk and butter to make a decadent dessert. Cashew cream, chocolate mousse, apple pie, hazelnut truffles... it's all here, and all surprisingly vegan!

It's that Easter egg-dying time of the year! I grew up using store-bought colored dye pellets that we dropped into bowls of water and vinegar, with wild and lurid results. This mild trauma has lead me down the path of natural dyes, which have come a long way from their murky, muddy hippie days. Read on for a roundup of sources for fun, innovative ways to dye and decorate eggs without all the chemicals.
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Certain desserts — a fruit crumble, a smooth pudding, a scoop of homemade ice cream — are best served in a bowl, one that's not too big, not too small. Here are 5 that are just right:

For a little after dinner treat you could have strawberries, or you could have strawberries dipped in chocolate. You could enjoy a macaron, or you could have a macaron dipped in chocolate. Yes, you could have a Nutter Butter, or you could have a Nutter Butter dipped in chocolate. You see where I'm going with this. Everything's better dipped in chocolate, particularly these 10 foods:

Chocolate pudding is a classic, and I'm never one to mess with a good thing just for the sake of trying something new. But I've been to a few restaurants lately that are offering their own boozy versions of the popular dessert, and it's gotten me to rethink my position pretty quickly. More

Spring is definitely in the air, and it's right about now that the idea of entertaining starts to have appeal again. After all, we need to remind each other what we look like without scarves covering our faces. The first get-together of spring needs a special dessert to mark the occasion, don't you think? A fluffy cake or a parfait with billowy whipped cream, something with crunchy nuts and topped with a drizzle of honey. Here are 15 recipes that we think will do the job admirably.

With spring seemingly just around the corner (maybe? please?), I can't think of anything better than a warm bowl of this spaghetti squash with tender asparagus and creamy herbed ricotta. Then again, those scallops with orzo and that citrusy millet salad are looking mighty fine, especially if you add a square of fresh rosemary focaccia to the bargain. But if you're still in a wintry mood, that braised beef over polenta or the hearty Spanish bean soup will keep you cozy, for sure.

Remember when everyone could eat bread? With more and more people avoiding gluten, bread has become a guilty pleasure at the dinner table, even for those of us who can tolerate it just fine. My deepest sympathies to those with gluten intolerance, who may want to look away while I take a moment to appreciate warm, soft, chewy, crusty, wonderful bread and all the ways you can turn a day-old loaf of it into a full meal.