Archive for December, 2008

A Cheap Cookie

Posted by Candace on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

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 the rest }

4 Years

Posted by Candace on Thursday, December 4th, 2008

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 the rest }

A Snowball’s Chance

Posted by Candace on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

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 the rest }

Bacon Butter

Posted by Candace on Monday, December 1st, 2008

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.

{ Read the rest }