Going nutty

I'm dying to bake with nuts. All the concoctions in my head are nut-based, only I can't try them out because I'm on a nut-free diet for the next few months (and have been for 8 months now). I could try them, but then I can't eat them myself and well, who wants really wants to bake and not eat what they baked, right?

So, I haven't been able to experiment as much as I'd like and instead have been experimenting with my cooking instead. Much to my husband's excitement, I've been cooking all sorts of different stuff, only going back to my old repertoire of stuff occasionally. I should have taken pictures of all the stuff I've been cooking...so maybe I'll start doing that now.

Happy Halloween!!!

Club cupcake?

I've been reading more and more about bacon on cupcakes. Apparently they're quite tasty. I'm not sure what they'd taste like, but I'm curious. Maybe it's the salty and sweet thing that makes them so delicious. Maybe I'll try 'em out.

Experimenting

I've been experimenting with a few recipes in recent weeks. One of them is Congo Bars, also known as Brookies. Essentially, they're a brownie and chocolate chip cookie in one. Dee. Lect. A. Bull.

Available to order

Cupcake revolution

Cupcakes have been around forever. Or, at least they've been around since I was a kid, which was over 20 years ago. I'm sure they were around way before that too. I had my first cupcake in junior kindergarten. A classmate's mother brought them for her birthday.

Having said this, for the past few years, I've found it strangely interesting that cupcakes have only really taken off in recent years. People everywhere have been looking to make the best, most beautiful, most creative ways to make a cupcake.

I, personally, find the most simple ones to be good. It's one thing to have a pretty cupcake, decked out to the max that you don't really wanna eat it, and another to have one that is delicious (and another to have one that is pretty AND delicious!). I have two in my fridge right now that I haven't eaten because they're so pretty. I think I just might go raid the fridge and eat one in a few minutes.

Let them eat...pie?

Summer's coming and that means all sorts of fruits are going to be in season and cheap! Yay! So that, in turn, means, it's time to make pie! I'm hoping to expand my "pie repertoire" this summer. Stay tuned for pics and reports on how these pies are going!

I also want to experiment with pie crusts. Sometimes I get lazy and just use the frozen ones...especially when they're on sale (which has been pretty often lately!). I only have two pie crust recipes -- the usual pie crust and the flaky crust, but I'd like to learn to make different variations of them. I also want to experiment with pie crust designs. As much as I love the traditional lattice and also the simple pie crust, I'd like to try out other designs.

Now if I could just find some people to feed all these experiments to...

P.S. Here's something my nephew sent to me when we were going back and forth about baked goods. He's a huge cheesecake fan, and as I've learned, a pie fan too.

All the time in the world...

...and no butter and no eggs.

I have officially begun my maternity leave this week and have already found that I need something to do, other than watch Oprah in 4 different time zones.

I was really itching to do some baking today and when I opened my fridge, found that I'm almost out of butter and have only 2 eggs. This will not do.

On another note though, I did buy a mega pack of chocolate chips and have a lot of brown sugar and icing sugar on hand. Also, I think we're starting to make a dent in all the leftovers in our fridge, so there'll be some room for storing cookie dough.

I think I'll do some groceries tomorrow and look for a rattle cookie cutter.