My Baking Skills class at the Institute for Culinary Education definitely widened my baking aperture. Before attending the class, cutting up a pre-made log of Tollhouse cookie dough and sticking it in the oven was my definition of baking. I never would’ve thought I’d be baking cakes I can’t even pronounce in English. One of my favorite items on our hit list is the Hazelnut Financier cake (pronounced fee-nahng-syehr). These are lovely French tea cakes, that also go by the name Friands, which aptly means "dainty" or "tasty." After becoming … [Read more...]
Holiday Gingerbread
December 21, 2011 By 20 Comments
Winter vacation isn’t complete without a family Gingerbread house construction. We love opening up the boxes, laying out all the candy pieces in an assembly line, and determining our creative design for the houses’ façade. We laugh while we sneak eat at least 1/3 of the candy pieces. We have a grand old time watching our houses transform from 2D pieces to festive 3D creations; the perfect window display against winter’s snowy backdrop. Gingerbread house made last year Gingerbread house made this year With all our focus on … [Read more...]
Holiday Carrot Pudding
December 19, 2011 By 2 Comments
Don’t you feel like you’re on a constant sugar rush the entire month of December? After all, it’s holiday time. We're all hyper-focused on those festive treats: cakes, cookies, candy, pies. Cookie recipes are swapped, sweet-toothed teacher gifts are distributed, candy canes are licked adnauseum. Poor veggies. They seem to always get the shaft. Well, who wants to talk about boiling broccoli or steaming asparagus when you can bake and design holiday shortbread cookies or make and break apart festive Peppermint Bark? Let’s face it, the … [Read more...]
The Art of (Re)Gifting
December 16, 2011 By 5 Comments
It’s holiday time. Everyone is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Work parties. School parties. Teacher gifts. Holiday cards. Secret Santas. Eight Days of Hanukkah. New Year’s. No one can deny: gift giving is synonymous with the month of December. And, let’s face it, if you don’t make lists, if you don’t plan ahead, someone is bound to inadvertently get left out. A common side effect to lack of planning? Re-gifting. Come on. Don’t you have that drawer somewhere in your home? You know, that drawer … [Read more...]
