Be an "Expert Icer"

I have an awesome baking tool to share with everyone!

I love to decorate cookies! I love taking that freshly baked gingerbread cookie and loading it full of frosting, sprinkles, and candies. However, anyone who knows me would tell you I'm kind of a perfectionist. So it's always in the back of my head when I'm decorating, "Ahh, these look so silly". It's fun to go crazy, but sometimes you just want those perfect Martha Stewartesk cookies. Well SURPRISE, I saw these watching MS one day...

SweetdaniB.com sells these great little frosting bottles! They come with small tips or large and they're so easy to use! I decorated over 200 mini heart cookies for valentines day in just a couple hours. Just mix up your frosting, color it, put into the bottles, and decorate like a pro!

They're so much fun and kids love to use them! 

(Sorry these pictures aren't higher quality)

Check out this video from SweetdaniB.com.
 It's Dani herself using the bottles.  

http://youtu.be/6d_DVmcCCNQ


For the icing recipe and to purchase the bottle kit please visit:

www.sweetdanib.com

Mothers day is coming, and so is my Pampered Chef Open House!

Come one, come all!

I'm having a Pampered Chef Open House this Saturday! If you are interested in hosting a show or would just like to place an order, please feel free to contact me!

I LOVE PC SO much!!! Seriously, not just because I sell the stuff, but because I really use it! I know you can get kitchen stuff cheaper at places like Target, don't worry, I do have my own little love affair with Target too, but if you want truly good quality stuff that is going to last forever, where do you go? Some place like William Sonoma right? Well we (Pampered Chef) totally compare to WS. Pampered Chef only sells the highest quality products that are actually useful too! Trust me, I use some of my stuff almost everyday. Promise!

Anyway, no more sales pitch. Sorry. If you want/need some new stuff for the BBQ season, a unique gift for mom on Mother's Day (Hurry it's coming fast), or just need to replace that nasty old spatula, let me know. There are over 50 NEW products in the spring catalog!!!

I'll be posting some photos from the party and maybe even some video! :O Actually, you can expect a couple demonstration videos at some point in the near future. I'll make lots of noise when those are up.

So until then feel free to take a look at the PC website and let me know if I can help you with an order.

Happy shopping!

http://www.pamperedchef.com/ordering/category_details.tpc?code=MG&id=75&parentCatId=75&parentId=

Using what you have

"I want to bake. Hmmm, what do I have in the cupboards? Not much there. I'll try the fridge...OH, I have pizza dough. What can I do with that beside pizza? How about monkey bread! Yea, that sounds sufficiently unhealthy and delicious!"

That's pretty much how it went a few days ago. I really like to use things I have in the house. Partly because it otherwise means running out to get supplies. And partly because it means spending more money or both. So, I improvise.

If you've never heard of monkey bread, basically it is a loaf of cinnamon buns dripping with a caramel goo and frosting. YUM! They are dough rolled in butter and a cinnamon sugar mixture. Then drizzled with a cream cheese frosting, if you want. (But who wouldn't?) I don't know why it's called monkey bread, but from the research I've done it probably has something to do with the Monkey Puzzle Tree. (Whatever that is) My husband Jordan says maybe it has something to do with the way monkeys pull bugs off each other. I say, eww, but who knows, maybe.

So Jordan just reminded me...DUH, I need to put the recipe for monkey bread on here. So done and done! Check out my Recipes page for the recipe.

"A" is for apple pie

OK, so I'm new at this whole blog thing. Therefore any readers we may have, please cut me some slack. I totally intended to document my making pies with pictures throughout the process. I also planned to make cup-pies. I didn't do either. *sheepish look* I totally forgot to take pictures while I was working and I just plain didn't want to do cup-pies. I couldn't help imagining cutting into the whole pie and taking out that big juicy slice and putting it in my tummy! 

So here are a couple pictures of the finished product. I promise I'll do a better job of documenting next time. Enjoy, I know I will! :D

P.S. Still thinking of making that rhubarb custard. I just have to find some rhubarb first. I'll keep you posted... 

Look at that flaky crust! MMmm!

I used Granny Smith apples to make a wonderfully tart pie, but added at least one Cameo apple for a little sweet.

RHUBARB!!!

It's rhubarb season! So sayeth Martha (Stewart), and who am I to squabble with MS? I happen to LOVE rhubarb, so I am going to make rhubarb custard this weekend! (Yes, along with my apple pies.) 

(Photo courtesy bojongourmet.com)

Hmmm, maybe I'll even make some homemade vanilla ice cream to put it over!

If you want to try something more interesting, I found this recipe on MarthaStewart.com...

http://www.marthastewart.com/900666/rhubarb-ice-cream-honey-scented-strawberries-and-whipped-cream

"Blogging is the new poetry" ~Unknown

I don't know that our blog is going to be poetry, but I like to think baking and cooking are poetry expressed with food.

So stay tuned, who knows what kind of baking limericks we might compose. :)

I'll be posting the first official post this weekend, *Psst! I'm making apple cup-pies from my moms award-winning apple pie recipe* but for now, here are a few fun pictures from some past triumphs.

I made 200 mini heart cookies and decorated them for Valentines day! *Whew*

A successful Hello Kitty cake. I hadn't tried shaping one like this before. I feel pretty good about it!

 

Cherry-filled, confetti cake-pops! YUM!

 

Bender from Futurama cake!

Spice cake in the shape of a pumpkin!

My first attempt with fondant. It's not perfect, but the two year old who devoured it didn't seem to mind.

If you can't find a four leaf clover in your backyard, check your cupcakes!

A Companion Cube from the game Portal for my nerdy husbands birthday. This one was tough. To make it a perfect square it ended up being something like 8 layers thick! But every devils food layer, separated with chocolate raspberry ganache was delicious!!!