Fancy Pants

One of my “themes” for this blog is simplicity. I like to make simple food and simple desserts. From working as a pastry chef, I have the experience to make over the top desserts, but I just don’t have the time or energy to do it. This dessert is not like one of my usual desserts as it is fancy. Uber fancy… but I truly enjoyed making it. Thank you Daring Bakers for choosing it! To see more Daring Baker’s posts go here or go here to see all of my past Daring Baker posts.

This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. As with most challenges, we had many options for this dessert, but had to have the 6 elements of the yule log. This is not to be confused with the other version of a Yule Log, that we did last year.

Read more about this entry >>

December 29, 2008 | Filed Under Daring Bakers, Sweet Tooth

42 Critiques

Golly Jeepers… Happy Holidays!

Today is a very special day… my hubby’s birthday! Happy Birthday honey! I’m so excited because we’ll be celebrating tonight at our favorite Ft. Lauderdale Restaurant, Cafe Martaranos. You’re the best husband a girl could ask for… I’m truly blessed to have you in my life. Thank you for being you, and always putting up with me!

For everyone else, Happy Holidays!!! Every year, we create custom Holiday Cards, and this year is no different. When I saw this blog post, I knew what our 2008 theme had to be. This is my favorite card we’ve ever done, and now we have the pressure to top this next year. So here’s our version of a 1970ish Olan Mills portrait…

December 24, 2008 | Filed Under Kitchen Gossip

10 Critiques

Easiest Homemade Gift

So is everyone ready for Christmas? I haven’t been feeling particularly festive since its been so warm here. It is during times like these when I wish I lived in a cold environment. I’d love to go for a nice walk outside in the brisk weather all bundled up and then rush back in and drink a big mug of hot cocoa. Then I see what the hell is going on in Milwaukee (where my sister lives) and the rest of the mid-west and realize I’m perfectly happy stringing lights on my palm trees in 80 degree weather! :P

In an attempt to dive into the holiday spirit, I made caramels. These caramel candies are seriously one of the easiest homemade gifts you can possibly make. It has been a few years since I made them, but I’ve officially made the decision to make them every year. It only takes about 20 minutes to cook them… after they cool, cut and wrap them individually. Easy peasy… and they look so chic, especially if you put them in a nice festive container. I made them with a very light sprinkle of sea salt on top. It gives the caramels a nice balance of flavor and adds a bit of panache too.
Read more about this entry >>

December 23, 2008 | Filed Under Holiday Fare, Sweet Tooth

5 Critiques

Procrastination

Can you believe it is 6 days til Christmas? Yeah, me either. I thank goodness we have the internet as I am a tried and true procrastinator. I always wait until the last minute to do my shopping and then I vow to never do that again. Rrrright. Never going to happen. I started early this year… on the 18th. That was only because the retail industry got together and came up with “Free Shipping Day.” I just can’t pass up free shipping. So I got free shipping AND even started early… well, for me, at least.

One thing I did do early was bake Snowflake Sugar Cookies. I saw this recipe in the December Food and Wine magazine and had to try it. It uses a different method, as you do not cream the butter like in this recipe. Unfortunately, my kitchen was crazy hot, as I was baking other cookies while I was trying to roll these out. Note to self: always roll the sugar cookies BEFORE the oven gets turned on… especially if you live in South Florida where it is 80 degrees in December. So I had to roll the dough and put in the fridge. Cut a few cookies and put in the fridge. I could only cut 3-4 cookies before the dough got too soft and wouldn’t retain the shape. What a pain in the ass! But I did get the irony that I was attempting to make snowflake cookies in a 85 degree kitchen… Not funny at the time. However, the cookies are yummy and I liked the method as it was easy and quick. If your kitchen is a normal temperature, you’ll have no problems with this cookie!

Read more about this entry >>

December 19, 2008 | Filed Under Bakery, Holiday Fare, Sweet Tooth

4 Critiques

Cranberry Cookie Bars

As usual, after Thanksgiving, I have tons of homemade cranberry sauce leftover. I usually eat it with foods I’d never eat cranberry with until it is all gone… like pancakes ala cranberry, or french toast with cranberry sauce the side. Tasty, but not what I’d usually eat. This year, there was more cranberry sauce left over than I knew what to do with.

I decided to make simple bars to use up the bulk of the sauce. The result is a sweet cookie like bar with the tart flavor of the berries. One note, your sauce must be chunky and thick. If it is more on the jelly or runny side, it probably won’t work as well. The recipe I use for cranberry sauce is here. Read more about this entry >>

December 12, 2008 | Filed Under Bakery, Holiday Fare, Sweet Tooth

15 Critiques

A Cheap Cookie

My usual holiday baking gets expensive… very expensive. One of my favorite cookies to make is my Almond Crescent Cookies, which will easily cost me $20 a batch. It uses 2 tubes of almond paste, which at my grocery store, costs $7 a tube. When you think of the time invested (and time is money) then those cookies are outrageous expensive. But… they are also outrageously delish, so I still make them occasionally.

This cookie, Cinnamon Palmiers, is the polar opposite of the almond crescents. It is an extremely frugal cookie with only flour, butter, sugar and cinnamon. Quite time consuming, but very easy to make. The cookie requires three book folds, like puff pastry or danish dough, and then a final rolling in a healthy (or not so healthy) dose of cinnamon sugar. The result is a very crisp, buttery and caramely cookie. They also look very fancy and quite impressive. Who would have thought those 4 little ingredients could make something so elegant? The recipe is adapted from the December 2007 Gourmet. I held on to this issue because of this cookie, and am so glad I did!

Read more about this entry >>

December 10, 2008 | Filed Under Bakery, Sweet Tooth

12 Critiques

4 Years

It is amazing how time flies… Today is our 4th wedding anniversary! I dedicate this post to my hubby, Stephan. We have a good thing going… we laugh together, we work together and we argue like the Costanzas! :P I wouldn’t want it any other way. Thank you for always being so supportive of me, in every thing I do. You’re the best fan club a girl could ask for.

Here’s a few pictures from our wedding… no food shots today! Tonight, we’ll be going to my favorite Miami restaurant… Joe’s Stone Crab for a decadent dinner to celebrate. Before drinking too much wine, hopefully we can get some pictures of the amazing food there!
Read more about this entry >>

December 4, 2008 | Filed Under Kitchen Gossip

18 Critiques

A Snowball’s Chance

Can you believe it is December? It seems like we just took our tree down and it is time to put it up again. I’m trying to get into the Christmas spirit by starting my holiday baking early this year. This cookie is one of my favorites and always makes me think of the holidays. There are many names for this cookie, Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding cookies, Snowballs, etc… These cookies are very simple and easy to make, which makes it a great cookie to start your baking this year.
Read more about this entry >>

December 2, 2008 | Filed Under Bakery, Holiday Fare, Sweet Tooth

11 Critiques

Bacon Butter

I’m finally clawing my way out of the turkey coma and blogging about my Thanksgiving. We’ve been unusually busy the past few weeks with weddings. Last weekend, we photographed a wedding in Miami Saturday night and then hopped on a plane four hours later at 6:00 the next morning to shoot another one in Cape May, New Jersey. Returned home late Monday night, and started Thanksgiving cooking on Tuesday. Needless to say… I’m still catching up on my sleep!

As I was flipping through my plethora of cooking magazines, I came across a recipe that piqued my interest. It was for a turkey flavored with Bacon Butter. Yes, you heard me right. That’s bacon and butter, thrown in the food processor and pureed. Seriously… its so wrong, it’s right. The original recipe called for mustard, but I omitted it and added fresh herbs instead. I did my usual brine, but instead of boring old butter under the skin, I made the bacon butter and schmeared it between the skin and meat. My arm still hurts from repeatedly patting myself on the back. This was the best tasting turkey I’ve ever made. The flavors of the bacon and herbs infused the meat and also made it oh so juicy.

You can find most recipes here, from last year’s post. I tend to make the same recipes every year, with one or two new ones. The bacon butter is a new addition that I’m pretty sure I”ll be making again! Check out some pics of our Thanksgiving spread. As usual I have to thank Stephan for documenting the whole cooking process.