October 31, 2008 – 7:01 AM
Happy Halloween!Sweet treats have been abundant to celebrate the fun of Halloween, so I decided to incorporate a bit of the gross-out factor that Halloween usually encompasses into our dinner last night. Martha Stewart’s folks came up with this icky-but-yummy soup idea that I re-named Eyeball Soup with Bugs.
Before you get too weirded out by [...]
October 29, 2008 – 7:01 AM
This month’s Daring Baker challenge involved experimenting with the Basic Pizza Dough from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. It was a fun challenge, and my family enjoyed the month-long pizza recipe trials.
Since I already have a go-to pizza crust recipe that is very simple, I found the directions for this one to be rather [...]
October 27, 2008 – 7:01 AM
With only 5 days until Halloween, my little one politely requested that I make Cinnamon Werewolves, Strawberry Dracula’s and Grape Frankenstein’s this week. Here’s a bit of our conversation:………………………………………………………………………………………….
me: “Where did those ideas come from?”kiddo: “They’re cookies that this kid made in a book that I read. All of the recipes and directions are in [...]
October 24, 2008 – 7:01 AM
You’ve gotta love seasonally themed- M&M’s. They can make anything festive. My favorite Oreo-Chunk Brownies are good enough on their own, but the addition of M&M’s gives them a little Halloween Pizzazz.
These brownies are baked on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet (12 x 18-inches). After an overnight chill, the foil aides in lifting the entire [...]
October 23, 2008 – 6:22 PM
ALLSPICE: The flavor is reminiscent of a combination of a few spices… cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. It’s available whole or ground.
Whole allspice look like peppercorns. They can be used to season things like stock and pickles.
*Kept in a cool, dark place, they’ll keep for at least a year.
Ground allspice is a popular [...]
October 22, 2008 – 7:01 AM
Are you a fan of those waxy little Halloween candies known as candy corns? My family seems to find them addicting. I’ve bought several bags of the stuff (must be Brach’s brand) for recipes this year and they keep disappearing. Here’s a cookie recipe that copies the look of this candy: Candy Corn Cookies.
This is [...]
October 20, 2008 – 7:01 AM
Oh, how I wish I had the creative mind of Martha. I have her energy. I have her ability to juggle many things at once. I share her enthusiasm for entertaining and her obsession with making things perfect. And I even have her ‘blondish’ hair.
Though I can follow directions very well, and I can manipulate [...]
October 17, 2008 – 7:01 AM
Inspired by Bakerella’s creations, I set about to create a fall-themed cake pop: Pumpkin Cake Pops. What is a cake pop? Well, it’s cake (sort of) on a stick.
Festive little treats, aren’t they?
Here’s the how-to:
Bake up a Pumpkin-Spice Cake (or a more simple boxed cake mix). Then destroy it by processing it into crumbs. [...]
October 15, 2008 – 7:01 AM
The ‘Sea of Apples’ from our family apple-picking venture is almost entirely depleted. It has been an apple-recipe-a-day around here for the past couple of weeks, and it’s been fun selecting some new and unique recipes that utilize this fall fruit favorite. My family urged me to make a pie. Can’t have a bunch o’ [...]
October 12, 2008 – 7:01 AM
October is generally our warmest month. It’s the time of year where we fret about hot weather + wind, which creates the recipe to fuel wildfires. I find myself longing for the change of seasons that we typically don’t get here. Beautiful leaf color transformations and crisp, cool weather are nowhere to be found. I’m [...]
October 9, 2008 – 7:01 AM
Whenever I come across a recipe that includes the words “dulce de leche,” I’m immediately intrigued. I’m a caramel lover, you see, and dulce de leche puts caramel to shame. It’s infinitely more decadent and creamy, and it does magical things to baked goods too.
The latest dulce recipe that captured my full- attention: Dulce de [...]
October 6, 2008 – 7:01 AM
What do you do with 65 apples?
We took a fabulous drive up into the local mountains of Julian yesterday, where they celebrate apples every Fall season. It was a cloudy and drizzly sort of day… the best for picking apples in an apple orchard.
Over 20 years in San Diego and this was my first [...]
October 5, 2008 – 1:15 PM
I’m guilty… of occasionally buying frozen waffles at Costco. It’s never my idea. I sometimes cave to incessant begging from my little one. But I find that the giant box of waffles tends to last forever, takes up my precious freezer space, and they really aren’t even all that good. In fact, they rather stink.
Everyone [...]
October 3, 2008 – 7:01 AM
Abandon your diet, and get out the milk.
Just when you think you’ve tried them all… that you can’t possibly find a brownie more decadent than the Cappuccino Brownies, more creamy than the Mascarpone Brownies, or more all-around-fantastic than the Oreo Chunk Brownies… one comes along that produces more drool than you ever thought you could [...]
October 1, 2008 – 7:01 AM
It’s seriously pumpkin season in full swing. Pumpkins have arrived at our markets, and the makeshift pumpkin patches are getting ready to set up their little scenes in empty lots here and there around town. We’ll be making our annual trip to Bates Nut Farm sometime soon to pick out the best pumpkins in the [...]
