Sweets for the Sweet

Of course I baked Pink Cloud Sugar Cookies for Valentines Day.......

Superbowl Snackdown

Yeah!!!! My annual Superbowl party rocked! The highlights: chocolate dipped football strawberries. The fumbles: the individual seven-layer dips in-a-jar ended up at the office the next day.

Sugar Cookie of the Week

OK. This is my second attempt at decorated sugar cookies. Yeah, I like doing this, and am proud of how they are turning out. Plus they are delicious! It does make me a bit sad that these little works of art just disappear, but at least my storage unit is still organized (as I havn't created and stored, created and stored, created and stored).

Hershey's Nuggets Barbie Books

As a child, I played with Barbies. My mother did not play with Barbies, but she made me an incredible mansion for my Barbies. In the kitchen was a stove with little burners made from washers. She cut the pictures out of coupons and pasted them onto blocks to make Barbie size cereal boxes. I was reminded of this fond memory while creating this free printable to turn Hershey's Nuggets into a little Twilight Saga book series.

I'm filling my office candy bowl with these little books. They will also be part of the pre-Breaking Dawn viewing snack fest. Plus they are just fun and cute.

Hershey's Twilight Saga Book Covers

free printable

I have NEVER......

I love serving lasagna for a party. I have my favorite recipies because they always get ooohhss and ahhhas, but the best part: Check out this picture of my kitchen taken 1 hour before the arrival of 25 hungry halloweeners. In the oven, I have a portobello proscuitto lasagna, a butternut squash, and a classic bolognese. When everyone arrives, I take them out and place them on the bar for a buffet of yum. Yes, some guests did acknowledge my shopping habit: three matching lasagna pans.

Sugar Cookies

A few years ago, I bought a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I wanted to make cookies to take to my meetings.....special, decorated, sugar cookies. I don't know what I was thinking as I usually have less than an hour between work and a meeting, which obviously isn't enough time to bake and decorate cookies.

However, for a party, I've figured it out. Tuesday after work, I make the dough, roll it between two sheets of parchment, encase in saran wrap, and pop it in the fridge. Wednesday after work, remove it from the fridge and cut and bake the cookies. Thursday after work, make one recipe of Royal Icing with meringue powder, divide into fourths, color and drip into squeeze bottles. Decorate and dry overnight. It was fun!

I used kitchengifts.com recipies and they turned out perfect and stayed fresh for at least 7 days. Really. I served them vertically (I know vertical presentation is out, but....) stacked in a glass vase.

Standing at the Door of The Slanted Door

11:45am Reservations. We waited in the rain for the doors of The Slanted Door to open. We loved our modern Vietnamese brunch.

As any foodie can tell you more about this restaurant than I, these are the highlights:

five spice duck confit salad with frisee and asian pear - I always try to order something that I would never make at home: duck confit.

grilled black mission figs, lemon ice cream, toasted parmesan: ok, this sounds a little wierd, and it felt a little like judging 'chopped', but yum.

And the tea. I'd had this type of tea at my friend Eileen's home. Here, served in a goblet, steaming on a rainy afternoon, it was just fabulous. I will be serving this at home, with this inspiring presentation.

mmmmmMOMA

How inspiring is the desssert table and menu at the SFMOMA Rooftop Coffee Bar?

Mondrian is translated into so much modern design, usually as literally as this slice of cake, but who cares? It reminds me that art is everywhere and in everything.