When we were young, we left birthday parties with a plastic treat bag of excitement… filled with candy, little games and fake tattoos. Then we started growing up, and somewhere in our 20’s leaving a birthday party now meant a cab ride and a hangover the next morning. When I handed my friends a treat…
kitchen
Playing in the Kitchen: Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
This recipe, from my grandma, makes wonderfully soft sugar cookies. Not just “not crunchy” or “chewy” but seriously SOFT. And delicious. What sets this recipe apart from your standard sugar cookie is the soured cream. No, not Sour Cream (save that for your enchiladas). These cookies call for Heavy Cream that has soured. Don’t worry,…
Are You a Good Egg?
A quick lesson in cooking: Test your eggs before you use them! Drop egg in a glass or bowl full of water. If it… * Sinks to the bottom and stays there, it is about three to six days old. * Sinks, but floats at an angle, it’s more than a week old. * Sinks,…
Playing in the Kitchen: Chocolate Pixies
Sometimes you are just in the mood for a good Chocolate Cookie … put you polished off that box of Thin Mints yesterday … and ate the last few Oreos the day before. Oh No! What do you do?! Well, these Chocolate Pixies are a perfect save! They are very easy to make; you don’t…
Playing in the Kitchen: 5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
A single serving of chocolate cake, made in 5 minutes w/o having to turn on the oven?? Sounds Fabulous. And wouldn’t a mug with a baggie of ingredients & recipe card attached make a creative Christmas gift for friends? My mom and I decided to try the recipe before investing the time and money in…
Butterflying a Chicken
Bon Appetit did provide some written instructions on how this little chicken operation works… but I like visual demos. And YouTube is a great place to find a video demo on pretty much anything you’d want to do (what, you thought it was just for funny videos that you’re totally NOT watching at work right…
Playing in the Kitchen: Birthday Cake! (One Bowl Chocolate Cake)
My birthday cake masterpiece is another success from the Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. Sure, you can make a chocolate cake from a boxed mix, but this recipe made a FABULOUS cake with ingredients you already have one hand. And it does not include what is usually the most pricey baking ingredient, butter. My birthday cake…
Playing in the Kitchen: Apple-Spice Layer Cake
The recipe for this delicious Apple-Spice Layer Cake comes from the pages of Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook, one of my new favorite additions to my cookbook collection. This is one of the few cookbooks where I genuinely want to try every recipe, and it is full of helpful techniques that even a novice baker can handle….
Playing in the Kitchen: Chocolate Turtle Cake
I very much enjoy baking… namely cakes and cookies. One great thing about college (or working in an office) was the ample amount of people willing to accept free food! A great way to test new recipes… even the ones that turned out not-so-hot would be devoured in minutes when left alone in the break…
Playing in the Kitchen: Pink Cupcakes (Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes)
In honor of Valentines Day, here are some lovely pink cupcakes! They are the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes, with canned White (not vanilla) icing, Wilton Pink Sugar Sprinkles and Wilton Pink Color Mist. These vanilla cupcakes are some of the best around, though I cannot take credit. The Magnolia Bakery is famous for their…