Sesame Cookies

Luke and I actually made these Sesame cookies together while Ava was in school one day.  I let him blend the ingredients and then he helped to roll the cookies out and dip them in the milk and sesame seeds.  It's always fun to bake with my little man.

Ingredients

¼ lb butter, softened

½ Cup sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups flour

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

Additional milk

1 cup sesame seeds

Here’s What You Do

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar - about 3 minutes. This is a really important step. You should always, always, always cream butter for 3 minutes.  Add the egg, milk and vanilla.  Mix until well blended.  On low speed, add the flour and baking powder. Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until blended.  This will be a soft dough.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls.  I use an ice cream scoop.  Dip balls in a bowl of about a 1/2 cup of milk, then in a bowl filled with sesame seeds.  This will help the seeds adhere.  Place the cookies on parchment-lined cookie sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.  Gently press the tops of the cookies to flatten.

Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned.  I bake mine for 12 minutes.  Again, it depends upon your oven. Remove cookie sheets from oven. Use a metal spatula to transfer cookies from the cookie sheet onto a wire cooling rack.  Cool.  Store in an airtight container.

 

Enjoy!

These cookies are delicious and were a perfect addition to my Christmas cookie trays.

Pignoli Cookies

My family loves Pignoli cookies.  What's not to love, right? I've made 4 batches already this season.  Some for us, but most have been meant for the cookie platters I've been making for family and friends.  They're always a huge hit so I always include them on my cookie trays.   

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs Almond Paste

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup Confectioners' sugar

4 egg whites

1 Cup pine nuts

Here's What You Do

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees

In an electric mixer, combine the almond paste, sugar, confectioners' sugar and egg whites on low speed until blended.  Then mix for 2 minutes on medium speed which will make the dough sticky.

Roll the dough into one inch balls.  I use an ice cream scooper and it works great!  Place the cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.  Using your fingers, slightly flatten the tops of the cookies and then sprinkle them with pine nuts. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes.  I bake mine for 15 minutes, it really depends on your oven.  

Remove from oven and let the cookies cool on parchment for easiest removal.  This is a really important step.  I forgot all about it when making my first batch this season and the cookies were really hard to remove from the silicon baking pan I used without parchment.  

When the cookies are completely cool, use a spatula to loosen them from the parchment.  

Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!!!

If you plan on making a lot of Pignoli Cookies and perhaps have a family member or friend you can split a large quantity with, I have a huge money saving tip for you...

Nutsonline.com sells nuts in bulk and therefore at a very deep discount.   My mom and I shared a 7 lb can of Almond Paste this season for Thirty Seven dollars.  This is a huge savings because in the past I've paid Ten Dollars a Pound for the Almond paste in my local supermarket.

Christmas Pretzels

 We've been baking up a storm over here!  I have lots of great recipes to share with you but for now here are some pictures of our Christmas pretzels.  They came out great! We're planning on giving them out in decorative jars and tins and have also been using them to help decorate our cookie trays.

For instructions on how to make them, just click  here on my blog post entitled Chocolate covered M&M pretzels.

Deceptively Delicious Doughnuts

The kids and I baked Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious doughnuts this morning for breakfast.  They were delicious!  Here is the recipe for you to try too. 

I did a couple of things differently though.  The recipe calls for you to coat the doughnut mold with non-stick cooking spray but in my experience, and from what I've read, you're not supposed to use non-stick spray on non-stick pans because it ruins the properties of the pan.  I've always found that the non-stick spray leaves a really sticky residue on pans that's very difficult to get off and it just doesn't work as well as butter.  You can use light butter though, as I did this morning. 

Also, the recipe calls for you to cook the doughnuts for 20-25 minutes, however, when using mini-doughnut or mini-muffin pans, they take only 10 minutes to bake.

Ingredients
Butter or light butter for greasing pan

1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sweet potato puree
1/2 cup skim milk
1 large egg white
1 Tablespoon trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread (I used Country Crock)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

Here's what you do
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat mini-doughnut mold or mini-muffin tins with butter.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, pumpkin and sweet potato purees, milk, egg white, margarine and vanilla. 

Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon and mix until completely incorporated.

Pour the batter into a gallon-sized plastic bag and cut the bottom tip off of one side of the bag.  Use a pastry bag if you have one.  Then, squeeze the batter into the doughnut or mini-muffin mold. 

Bake until the tops are lightly browned and toothpick comes out clean when inserted, about 10 minutes.  Turn the doughnuts out onto a rack to cool. Coat with confectioner's sugar when cool.

Yum!!!!

Time to Make the Doughnuts

"Make sure you look pretty today Mommy," were Ava's words to me yesterday morning while getting ready to take her to school.  What she meant was that in addition to a "pretty outfit," she wanted me to put my make-up on.  I look pretty without make-up you see, but WAY, WAY prettier with it on.  It was important to Ava that we all look our best, even Luke, because yesterday was a big day.

Yesterday was a big day, because her teacher invited me and Luke to come into the classroom to bake doughnuts with the kids.  Each week Ava's Kindergarten class studies a letter of the alphabet and as part of their study, cook something that corresponds with the letter of the week.  Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious Doughnuts were on the menu for yesterday and they truly were delicious. 

I originally didn't have doughnut pans but after a trial run Tuesday morning, I realized that without them, our mini-doughnuts, were truly mini-muffins. I figured the kids were too smart for me to be able to pass mini-muffins off as Munchkins, so doughnut pans were a must.  There was no way I was going to be the mommy who came in to make the doughnuts, but really made muffins.  

My neurosis intense drive so as not to embarrass myself or my daughter, resulted in a credit card purchase of $18.64 for two mini-doughnut pans from Amazon.com and an additional $19.97 to ship them overnight.  Yep, that's exactly how my anxiety-ridden mind rolls.  I can't help it, I just like things to be right.

My cute little doughnut pans arrived on schedule and with the help of two other moms, and an adorable bunch of kids, I am happy to report that the baked doughnut making process was a complete success!

I will post the recipe and pictures once Ava and I make a batch at home for ourselves.

Chocolate covered M&M pretzels

Mmmmm, just in time for Valentine's Day....chocolate covered pretzels with M&M's!

This is a delicious, super easy recipe, that I got from my cousin Andrea. I love the combination of salty and sweet! My daughter and I make them to give to friends during the Holidays.  We give them out at Christmas, when M&M's comes out with their Holiday mix, containing only reds and greens. We make them for Valentine's Day, when M&M's are sold in special packages containing only red, white and pinks. Then again on Easter, when they come out with packages containing only pastels.

Ingredients

Salted mini pretzels

Chocolate wafers

M&M's

Here's what you do

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, to make clean up a breeze (do not spray or grease).

Line salted mini pretzels along the entire cookie sheet.

Place chocolate wafers on top of pretzels (you can get them at craft stores like A.C. Moore).

Place in the oven for about 2-3 minutes, just enough time for the chocolate wafer to melt a little bit.

Remove from oven and start pressing 2 M&M's into each chocolate wafer.  I like to mix the colors up a bit to make them look prettier.

Place in fridge to cool.

Place them in decorative bags, jars or tins, or use them to decorate your cookie trays.

The Competition

Bright and early, this past Sunday morning, my mom made Rice Krispies Treats Holiday Houses, for the big event; Our 1st annual Rice Krispies Treats Christmas House Decorating Competition. 

The contestants: me, my daughter, Joanne (my sister), my mother and Rose Marie, my brother's girlfriend.

The judge: My father, a.k.a, Pop Pop

My mom had all sorts of deliciousness separated into bowls for use as decorations on our Christmas houses; Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Reese's Pieces, M&M's, pretzel rods, Twix bars, chocolate chips, coconut, oreo cookies and dried cranberries, to name a few.

My mother insisted that we all wear a special Christmas hat during the competition.  Our choices; one of 2 Santa hats, one of 2 Elf hats, a choice between 3 reindeer antlers or a baseball cap complete with moose antlers which says, "Merry KrisMoose."  I chose the Santa cap.

Below are our houses:

This one is mine.  The green M&M's on the top portion of my house are meant to be a wreath.  The 4 red M&M's dangling down from said wreath depict a festive ribbon  The pretzel sticks with yellow Reese's Pieces are beautiful candles flickering for all passerby's to enjoy and admire, through brown M&M windows.  As you can tell from the red M&M's that fill the front, my Christmas house is really a Brownstone. The coconut on the top of said brownstone is snow...I stole the snow idea from my sister Joanne.

This one is my daughter's.  She did a great job!

My mother's.

Rose Marie's house.

Here is my sister Joanne's house.  She's a bit of a show-off with her fancy Christmas trees and snowman. Yes, it's true, I'm just jealous that I didn't think of it first. Well done Aunt Joannie!!!!  You did an amazing job!!!

Naturally, Pop Pop chose my daughter as winner.  Joanne came in 2nd place and my mother, Rose Marie and I all tied for 3rd place!!!!  Awww, thanks for judging Pop Pop!!!  I look forward to next year's competition.  Watch out Aunt Joannie...I'll be coming for YOU!!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

Baking with Kids - Mexican Wedding Cookies

My daughter and I made Mexican Wedding cookies together the other day. I had never made them before but my mom and her cousin made them together last year and I just loved them. I didn't use their recipe, only because I didn't have it. This one is from Gooseberry Patch.

Ingredients

1 c. butter or margarine, softened

1/4 c. powdered sugar

1 t. almond extract

2 c. all-purpose flour

1/4 c. walnuts, finely chopped

powdered sugar

Here's What You Do

Beat first three ingredients until creamy. Stir in flour and nuts. Chill for a couple of hours. Make small balls and bake at 375 degrees for about 17 minutes. Cool a little and toss in powdered sugar. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

After we made the cookie batter, I flipped through a Holiday baking magazine and found a different recipe for Mexican Wedding cookies, which contained double the amount of powdered sugar and pecans instead of the walnuts. I bet those would be delicious too.

These cookies were very good and simple to make too.  I'm always surprised at how much I like cookies that don't contain chocolate. I never think that they're going to be as delicious, yet after tasting them am always pleasantly surprised by how much I like them. 

Baking with Kids - Buckeyes

Our family loves peanut butter. Peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter cookies, peanut butter straight off the spoon. So when my daughter and I were choosing the recipes for sweet treats to try for the Holidays, from our Gooseberry Patch cookbooks, we came across this recipe for Buckeyes and knew that we just had to make these.

Ingredients
2 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 t. vanilla extract

1lb powdered sugar

3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Here's What You Do

In a large mixing bowl, mix peanut butter, butter and vanilla together.  Add powdered sugar, a small amount at a time, mixing by hand. Continue to add powdered sugar until mixture can be rolled in one-inch balls that stay together. Melt chocolate in double boiler. Placing a ball on a fork, dip 3/4 of ball into chocolate. Place balls onto wax paper-lined baking sheet. Place in refrigerator or freezer to set. Makes 4-5 dozen.

These are Delicious! They were super easy to make too, until the time came to roll 3/4 of the peanut butter ball in the chocolate. I found this step to be very tedious, but in the end, well worth it. We will definitely be making these again.

Baking with Kids - Christmas Truffles

I was extremely excited to try this Gooseberry Patch Truffle recipe. My daughter and I both love chocolate truffles and this recipe calls for dipping the truffles in various coatings at the end.

I knew that she and I we were going to have a lot of fun making these together, and we did!

Gooseberry Patch suggested flaked coconut, chopped nuts, powdered sugar, chocolate sprinkles and baking cocoa for truffle coatings. All were delicious.

In addition to their suggestions I picked out Heath Toffee bits because I love toffee, and my daughter spied Christmas colored sprinkles in the baking aisle. It was an excellent find because the red/green and green/white sprinkles made for a very beautiful and festive platter. You have to try this one.

Ingredients
2/3 c. heavy cream

12 oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 T. unsalted butter, softened

Toasted flaked coconut

Toasted finely chopped nuts

powdered sugar

chocolate sprinkles

baking cocoa

*Red and Green Sprinkles

*Green and white Sprinkles

*Heath candy

candy paper cups

Here's what you do
Heat cream just to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate chips and butter; beat until smooth. Place pan over a bowl of ice water. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixture 3 to 4 minutes or until soft peaks form. Cover and refrigerate 3 hours or until firm.

Scoop out one-inch balls using a melon baller or small scoop. Roll between your hands, then dip balls into various coatings. Place in paper cups or on a sheet of wax paper.

Cover and store in refrigerator. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

I don't have a big sweet tooth but I could not resist these and ate quite a few. My daughter's favorites were the ones coated in festive sprinkles. My husband favored the ones dipped in the baking cocoa and my favorites were the ones dipped in the Heath Toffee bits, followed by the ones coated in coconut and then those we coated in baking cocoa.

These festive little truffles are so delicious that we decided they would be the most perfect treats to share with our whole family, not only for Christmas, but for Thanksgiving too!

Baking with Kids - Chocolate Covered Cherries

Ingredients
10 oz. Pkg. Powdered Sugar

1/2 c. Butter, softened

1 T. Evaporated milk

2 t. Vanilla extract

2 10 oz. Jars Maraschino cherries, with or without stems, drained

12 oz. chocolate flavored candy coating

6 oz. Pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Here's What You Do

Blend together sugar, butter, evaporated milk and vanilla. Wrap each cherry in about 1 tsp. sugar mixture. Arrange on wax paper in a baking pan and chill overnight.

Melt together candy coating and chocolate chips in a double boiler; stir until melted and blended. Use a candy dipper to dip cherries in chocolate, tapping off excess. Place on wax paper to cool.

Well, this was not one of my finer moments. This is one of the Gooseberry Patch recipes that I was most excited to try too. The recipe looked innocent enough, but, Oh no, NEVER again, what a pain in the neck. This was a tedious nightmare!

It seemed to me, right off the bat, that the powdered sugar mixture was going to be a problem. The texture of it seemed all wrong, the cherries were difficult to wrap, and there was no way that we were going to be able to make them all nice and neat and uniform.

So, my daughter and I wrapped each of the tiny little cherries, in the very messy mixture, as best we could.  At one point, she knocked the bowl containing the sugary mixture off of the table, and some of the sugar fell all over the floor. My son hurried over and had a field day playing in the sugary mess.....eating some and wearing most. I just couldn't get to him fast enough because my hands were so messy from the mixture. Now that I think about it though, he was so messy, what was a little more gunk!

We finally finished the cherries, cleaned ourselves up, and placed the cherries in the fridge to chill overnight.

The next day my daughter and I dipped each sugar covered cherry in the chocolate and again, it was a very messy, tedious project. At this point, I didn't even bother to melt the dipping chocolate and chocolate chips in the double boiler. I just opened up the pre-packed chocolate, put it in the microwave and we started dipping. The added weight of the chocolate on the sugary cherry pulled the stems off some while dipping.

They were too sweet for me and Stephen but on the bright side, my daughter was happy and she and my son loved them. We shared with Stephen's cousins and they loved them too.

If we make chocolate covered cherries in the future, I think we'll skip the sugar step altogether, and just dip the maraschino cherry straight in the chocolate.

This is not to say that you won't have better luck. If any of you try this recipe and can give me some helpful tips, I'd consider trying it again... sometime in the not so near future.... perhaps a few years from now, when the memory of the tediousness has faded, and I start to think of this ordeal, as the time when my son looked absolutely adorable all covered in sugar, while my daughter and I had a fabulously-fun time making chocolate covered cherries together!

Baking With Kids - "The Best Bread Pudding" by Paula Deen

My daughter and I typically bake on the weekends. Last nights bread pudding adventure was inspired by an overabundance of Italian bread. See, my husband's cousins were given many loaves of bread by a friend who owns a small restaurant. The poor guy ordered all of these loaves for a customer, to be included in their catering order. The customer cancelled the order last minute and our friend was left with loaves upon loaves of Italian bread, which he so generously shared with Stephen's cousins, and they in turn, very generously shared with us.

What to do with all of this bread? Why, make bread pudding, of course!

Except, I had never made bread pudding before so I did a search on Food TV's website and came across "The Best Bread Pudding" recipe by Paula Deen. It seemed simple enough and I am so happy that we tried it because this bread pudding recipe is outstanding! It is rich and sweet and delicious and if you like bread pudding, I highly encourage you to try it too!

Ingredients

• 2 cups granulated sugar

• 5 large beaten eggs

• 2 cups milk

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 3 cups cubed Italian bread, allow to stale overnight in a bowl

• 1 cup packed light brown sugar

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

• 1 cup chopped pecans

For the sauce:

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

• 1 egg, beaten

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 1/4 cup brandy

Here's What You Do

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Mix together granulated sugar, eggs, and milk in a bowl; add vanilla. Pour over cubed bread and let sit for 10 minutes.

In another bowl, mix and crumble together brown sugar, butter, and pecans.

Pour bread mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over the top and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven.

For the sauce:

Mix together the granulated sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir together until the sugar is melted. Add the brandy, stirring well. Pour over bread pudding. Serve warm or cold.

This recipe calls for you to bake the bread pudding in the oven for 35-45 minutes, however, I kept it in much longer...about an hour. I did this because I was envisioning one of those thick bread puddings, that my husband has been served numerous times before, in various steakhouses (bread pudding is his favorite). I kept checking the pan and it seemed "loose" to me so I kept it in. When I finally went back to consult the picture on Food Network's website, I saw in the picture, that the bread pudding is meant to be on the loose side, with more of a yes, pudding-like appearance, rather than thick cake.

Our bread pudding was not at all over done though, even with the added baking time. We all absolutely loved it!  I hope that you try it and love it too. 

Enjoy!

Baking with Kids - Heavenly Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I thought it would be fun for my daughter and I to do some baking on this nice lazy Sunday. I decided to try a recipe that we flagged in one of our Gooseberry Patch Christmas cookbooks. Just the other day, she asked if we could bake chocolate chip cookies on our next adventure, so I thought this would be a great recipe to try. They're not your average Chocolate Chip cookies either, as the recipe calls for 2T. instant coffee granules. It's a nice twist on an old classic.

Ingredients

2 c. plus 2 T. all-purpose flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

3/4 c. butter

2 T. instant coffee granules

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

11 1/2 oz. pkg.semi-sweet double chocolate mega-chips or 12 oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c. walnut halves, toasted (optional)

Here's What You Do
Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Combine first 3 ingredients; stir well.

Combine butter and coffee granules in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat until butter melts and coffee granules dissolve. Stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature (don't let butter resolidify).

Combine butter mixture, sugars, egg and egg yolk in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixture until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed until just blended.

Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts (optional).

Drop dough by heaping tablespoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 325 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Let cool slightly on baking sheets.

The cookies are really tasty and are very simple to make. As I mentioned, not your run of the mill chocolate chip cookies because of the instant coffee granules. I wasn't 100% sure that my daughter was going to like them because of this, but she absolutely loves them! She's already eaten 3!!! She didn't want walnuts in her cookies, so we omitted them from our recipe. We used regular chocolate chips instead of the mega-chunk chips because that's what we had in our pantry.  We were at Sam's Club yesterday and I scored a 72 oz. bag of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips for just $7.94 (woo hoo)!  I knew that they were going to come in handy with all of baking we have planned.

Hope that you try this recipe with your kids too and that they love the cookies as much as my daughter does.  Looking forward to hearing from you!

Baking with Kids - "Those Darn Cookies"

Today my daughter and I made one of my mom's recipes, "Darn cookies!" You got it, because they're so darn good! And simple to make too! I have to admit that we actually call them something else when the kids aren't around :-)

Yes, it's true, I totally went ahead and chose a recipe that I was very familiar with to share first, and I am ok with that.

Ingredients

1 1/2 sleeves of Saltine Crackers

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup butter

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts, today we chose walnuts


Here's What You do

Pre-heat oven to 350

Line entire cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with Pam.

Lay out Saltines, completely covering bottom of pan.

Cook sugar and butter for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly (on a low to medium heat) until caramel colored. Do not let it boil over.

Pour hot sugar over crackers. Then spread  butter and brown sugar mixture over the crackers with a spatula. Bake at 350 for 4-5 minutes. tip...bake on top rack and keep a close eye.

Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips on top of hot crackers.



Return to oven for an additional 4-5 minutes. Spread melted chocolate.

Sprinkle with nuts (optional).

Place the tray in fridge to cool. Once the cookies set, you can either just break them up by hand or cut neatly into squares with a butter knife.

My daughter and I made these cookies a couple weeks ago to bring to a party at her school. We didn't make them with nuts then, but decided to "mix it up a little" today (as my daughter says) and sprinkled walnuts on top. They taste delicious both ways, but I think they look prettier with the nuts on top.

Enjoy!!!

Adventures in Baking

One of the things that I enjoy most is sharing quality time baking with my daughter, so I was very excited, back in August, when my mother gave me three of her Gooseberry Patch Holiday cookbooks. I can't help it, I take comfort in reading cookbooks. I just love them!

My daughter and I went through all of them together right away and began flagging the pages of both the sweet and savory recipes that we thought would be fun to try together.

Just going through the books together, in itself, was great fun. I had some of those post-it flags, that she calls staffs... (she thinks they look like a Shepherds staff). As we went through the books, my daughter placed a "staff" on all of the pages containing recipes that looked good to us. We used pink and yellow for the sweets and blue to mark the savory dishes.

When my daughter and I bake together we make very simple, yet delicious treats. The recipes made from scratch are also very simple and most of them have been passed along by family members. I also have some favorites from the Food Network stars.

When we make cakes, cupcakes, brownies and muffins, I typically use a store bought mix, but then dress the recipe up a little or just have fun decorating. For instance, just a couple of weeks ago we made a boxed brownie mix, but then my daughter lined Reese's Peanut Butter cups, up and down the pan, after I poured the brownie mix in it. It was delicious! Another time we made store boxed cupcakes but then "mixed it up a little," like my daughter says, and decorated them with M&M's.

I made sure that all the recipes we flagged from the Gooseberry Patch books were simple. Well, they looked simple. This is going to be an adventure but one that I would like to share with you! I hope that you will try some of the recipes that I share, both new and old.  I hope that you enjoy the old ones and that we both enjoy the new ones too!!!

There is a comments section on my blog, so if any of the recipes look good to you, and you end up trying them out, I would love any feedback that you have. Also, if you have any simple recipes that you would like to share with me, I'd love to try them too.

So as not to make this a super long post, I am going to share today's adventure in a separate entry.