This weekend was time-change weekend for most of us in the United States. The fall back one always hits me a little harder than the spring one. I think it has to do with the sun setting before I walk out of work at 5:00 for the next four months. As a way to cope with this, I decided to do one of the healthiest, and therapy-approved methods: bake something sweet!
Continue reading “The Richest Brownies You’ll Ever Eat – Barefoot Contessa 63”
Believe it or not, we are less than one week away from Halloween! Whether you love the holiday, or hate it, more often than not, kids will be ringing your doorbell looking for candy.
If you have kids of your own, you may even find yourself having to host (or wanting to host, depending on how you feel about it) a Halloween party for their friends. If you’re having trouble deciding on what you should make, here are three awesome ideas. Each one of these will surely bring Halloween cheer to your guests.
Note: For the recipes shown in the photos below, simply click on the photo.
These cute treats are a spin on the classic peanut butter cookie. Easily make them holiday appropriate by adding a miniature Reese’s peanut butter cup on top and some chocolate drizzle for the legs. This recipe from Love in My Oven uses only a handful of ingredients and can be whipped up in no time!
Need to avoid peanuts? Use sugar cookies instead and you a mini Snickers bar instead of the peanut butter cup. It won’t give you the exact effect, but still similar enough to be fun!
Charcuterie Boards are all the rage right now! Whether it’s meats and cheeses, a butter board, or a dessert board. Why not try this Halloween option for your party? Its super easy to make and you can customize what you put on the board to your guests’ taste. Take inspiration from Two Peas and Their Pod to make life even easier.
No kids party is complete without Rice Krispie Treats! Instead of serving the standard one, take this kid-favorite treat into the holiday spirit by turning them into Monsters! With only a few ingredients and about 45 minutes worth of work, you’ll have a unique treat that kids will love! You can even go a step further and make witches as well! That would be super fun. Check out Chelsea’s Messy Apron for more quick and easy Halloween treat ideas!
Well, there you have it! A few quick and easy Halloween treats for your Halloween party. While I did find these with kids in mind, I’m sure many adults will gobble them up just as quickly. It’s okay, we won’t tell anyone if you wanna make these for yourself too!
Happy Halloween readers!
It’s October and that means its now socially acceptable to bake pumpkin things without getting an eye-roll from pumpkin haters. I had an extra day off earlier this week so I decided to see if the baking bug was still within my soul. (Hint: it was.) What did I bake? None other than Ina Garten’s Pumpkin Roulade with Ginger Mascarpone Filling.
Continue reading “Pumpkin Roll for an October Afternoon – Barefoot Contessa 62”
Fall has officially arrived! Pumpkin spice, large crisp apples, cooler days and nights, and soon the leaves will change colors. Fair season is in full swing in New England with the Big E now in its final week. Sadly, I won’t be able to make it this year due to my new work schedule and lack of time off. But there’s always next year!
Continue reading “My Top 5 Fall Bakes”
Last week, I told you all that I misjudged the Bake From Scratch cookbooks. The one I originally reviewed didn’t have much appeal to me. However, I will now admit that I was wrong. Baking a recipe out of the fifth volume proves it!
Continue reading “A Potential Game-Changer in the Cooke World!”
A few months ago, I wrote a blog post where I reviewed the second volume of the Bake From Scratch cookbooks. I was able to get this one from my local library and figured it would be best to “try before I buy.” You can read the full review here, but in a nutshell, I wasn’t too impressed with many of the recipes in the book. I did find the book to be well-made and the quality of the food photography is some of the best I’ve seen. However, at that time, I decided against buying that book or any of the Bake From Scratch cookbooks.
Continue reading “I Was Wrong About Bake From Scratch!”
Welcome to Baking Shoulder Season!
“What is that?”, you may ask. It’s the term I coined this weekend when trying to find a recipe. It’s when it’s too late in the summer to get enough flavor from the stone fruit and berries, so you don’t really want to use them in your baking. But it’s still too early for all the “fall bakes:” things like pumpkin, apple, cinnamon, and ginger. These things are inching their way towards the spotlight, but not quite yet. Plus I can’t bring myself to bake something pumpkin-related until at least after Labor Day.
What is one to do during this time?
Continue reading “Ina Garten’s Blueberry Crumb Cake”
Last week I obtained a new cookbook for my collection. B. Dylan Hollis’s cookbook features recipes from every decade between 1900 and 1980. If you haven’t heard of Dylan, he became TikTok-famous in 2020 when he started making recipes from the antique cookbooks in his collection. When I heard he was coming out with a cookbook that featured many of the recipes he made online, I knew I had to order it.
Continue reading “Better Than Sex Cake”Earlier this week my reserved copy of Dylan Hollis’ cookbook, Baking Yesteryear arrived at my doorstep. Have you heard of Dylan? No! I’m surprised, especially if you are someone who spends a significant amount of time on social media.
During quarantine, Dylan started making TikTok shorts of him baking recipes from his vintage cookbook collection. The recipes ranged in dates from the 1900s to the 1980s. Thanks to his personality and delivery of his content, he went viral. In fact, I came across his stuff on Instagram then used YouTube to watch more. Since he became popular, he started posting a few, longer-form videos on YouTube that have a very different vibe than his TikToks. If you haven’t seen him yet, go and check him out. He’s quite entertaining.
Similar to most people who become popular online, he ended up releasing a cookbook featuring some of the best recipes from each decade that he cooked from. (Gotta diversify that income stream, I suppose.)
I am quite intrigued with his content and his cookbook, so this weekend I plan to bake one of the recipes from it. I haven’t decided which one yet, or even which decade. Though the cookies that are called
“Rocks” is really calling to me for some reason. What is interesting about these recipes is that they are quite different from the ones I’ve been using lately.
The recipes from the Depression don’t usually have ingredients such as butter because it was a lot harder to come by during those harsh economic times (though, one could argue that paying close to $5 a pound is similar). These recipes were also designed to use up with people had on hand, another requirement for large families trying to survive the period.
Much like fashion and hair styles have changed with each decade, so did America’s taste buds. There are some ingredients in his content that I would never dream of using such as Cool Whip or margarine. That’s why I want to do this. I want to expand my horizons and accept the fact that I don’t need the top quality ingredients every time I want to make something.
I can’t wait to share with you all what I baked!
Hi Readers!!
Things have been really busy for me lately, which is why I haven’t been posting too much. But I had a little bit of time today and I finally finished Part One of Atlanticus, which is one of my current crochet projects. Here’s what it looks like after doing 14 rounds.
I really enjoy the colors I chose for this project and I think it works with the ocean/mermaid theme splendidly. While this section is not perfect (you can see that it is slightly asymmetrical), I think its beautiful and I cannot wait to see how this one works up. Eventually it will turn square shape. Since I am slightly over-gauge, my blanket will be a bit larger than the original finished design, but that’s okay with me. I’m just worried I may need more yarn.
I hope to get back to baking soon, but until then, stitch on!
