Archive for Read This!
French Women Eat Pastry…
I am still recovering from my trip and from a very Manic day at work, but was excited to finally be writing this post… my apologies if I am scattered, but I hope you enjoy!
So I have finally (after 2 months too long…) finished reading French Women Don’t Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano, the CEO of Clicquot, Inc (they make the awesome Champagne Veuve Clicquot). I absolutely, positively adored this book. Please allow me to explain some of her tips that I found useful and why I loved this book….
1. This is NOT a diet book. (I know… this blog is far from a diet or healthy living blog… just bear with me here!) You all know how much I enjoy my sweets, yet eating healthy is just as important. My life simply would not be complete without cookies, cake or pastry. It is important to me that they are a part of my eating life style. Guiliano makes eating pastry acceptable, guilt-free, and with a little common sense strategies, will not pack on the pounds. If you eat a pastry today, skip the pastry tomorrow and compensate with some extra healthy meals in your day. As I have mentioned before, making healthy choices and eating well is important to me… and Guiliano meshed these two ideas well in an adorable and witty way!
2. Tip: Eat QUALITY not QUANTITY. Yes, sometimes nothing is better than satisfying your chocolate craving by binging on 100 Mini Snickers— but really you will be more satisfied with just one piece of uber high quality dark chocolate or milk chocolate. All the sugars and processed ingredients in the Snicker’s just make you crave it more, and over eat. Personally, I’ll take a decadent piece of 70% cocoa chocolate square any day over a Snickers! This was a simple, straightforward tip that I have heard before… but a friendly reminder is always helpful!
3. Move more and drink more Water and Wine: Take the stairs, always have your water in hand… and don’t forget a spectacular red wine with dinner. Yes, Mireille… I can handle this! (Oh how I love a good Pinot come winter time!)
These are just a few tips, and the book is full of so many more. The premise and overall philosophy is eat good food, drink good drinks and savor every minute of it. I think it was a philosophy i was already trying to live by, and Guiliano clarified this for me. She encourages baking your own bread a pastry, enjoying the fruits of your labor and not over-doing it. She makes it do-able and gets you so excited about your next meal. She has totally inspired me. I am now obsessed with the French culture and have tentative plans for a trip to Paris with my sister. Guiliano also has a second book… French Women for All Seasons and I can’t wait to get it. Overall awesome book… and would make a fab. holiday gift! If you’ve read it already, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Happy Baking and Reading!
-Kristy
This book is a must read.
12 Days of Cookies!
How Exciting! Starting November 30, the Food Network will again begin it’s 12 Days of Cookies Email Newsletter Series! (Sign up by Clicking here!) Many of your Food Network Fav’s will share awesome cookie recipes, stories and of course fab. baking tips for the upcoming holiday season. Click here and you can check out a few holiday cookie videos and see cookie recipes from past years 12 Days of Cookies! I obviously LOVE testing out new cookie recipes, so I am totally looking forward to this! Hope you are too!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Some good info on Flour!
So I had to travel the end of this, hence my delay in posting, but one great things about traveling is that I get caught up on all my well over due magazine reading. For my flights, I took the latest Glamour, In Style, Cooking Light and Martha Stewart. I’ve already made it through almost all of them and I am only on day 2 out of 6 in my trip!
Anyways, onto the important stuff. In the ‘Ask Martha’ section of the November Martha Stewart Living, Martha explains the difference between all-purpose flour, cake flour and bread flour. This is really vital information for all semi-professional bakers! Here are some of the basics…
- All Purpose Flour- It’s ‘All Purpose’ because it works great for cookies, cakes, bread, crusts, etc. It has enough protein to keep a layer cake strong yet fluffy, but not enough to make it too heavy (FYI- the amount of protein in the flour is what causes a baked delight to be sturdy or soft… the more protein the tougher, less protein softer.)
- Bread Flour: To make this as simple as possible… it has more protein… so its harder and stronger.
- Cake Flour: Again, to make this super simple… has less protein making it light and soft lending for a perfect cake consistency.
Hope you find this bit of info helpful! If any of you want the inside scoop on how to make your own cake flour at home, check out Joy the Baker’s Blog in my Blog Roll for some simple how-to info, or click here!
Will do my best to post again over the weekend! If not I will have lots to catch everybody up on when I get back on Wednesday!
Happy Baking and Traveling!
-Kristy
Cross Country Cookies!
Today has been one of those days where it is now about 10:30pm and this was the first chance I had to chill on the couch for a bit. Monday’s are part of my “weekend” but I spent most of the day running errands all over this vast city, and baking about 5 dozen chocolate chip cookies. Oh how wonderful it feels to be in PJ’s, lounging on the couch, watching my BF play WII!
I baked all those cookies tonight to mail out to friends and family. After growing up in Boston, going to school in Florida and moving out to Los Angeles, I legit have friends and family all over this country… MA, FL, IL, KY, OK, DC, PR, NC… oh the list could go on! Since I send tons and tons of cookies cross country, especially in the up coming holiday season, I thought it might be a good idea to share where I get some of my packaging supplies and shipping tips. Okay, not the most thrilling topics for a baking blog, but important none the less!
For one, I am OBSESSED with Nashville Wraps! I get just about everything from them… boxes, bags, tissue paper, ribbon, and packing supplies. (Actually, the colors and design of my website was developed after I picked out the packaging I liked best for my cookies on this website!) They carry just about everything you need in a million different categories. I obviously tend to frequently check out their food packaging options, as well as enjoy their echo-friendly packaging options. On top of having just about everything imaginable that you would need for packaging your favorite pastry, their pricing is oh so wallet friendly… Something that I am sure is on the minds of many!
For Labels and such, I love Zazzle.com. You can customize just about anything and can create your own account and save all your customized items for future purchase. I find them to be a touch on the expensive side and tend to wait till I have a coupon to make a purchase. FYI- Martha Stewart Living has a coupon for Zazzle in just about every issue! Good thing I have a subscription to MSL!
Lastly, when it comes to shipping, I stick with the good old, USPS. I am a huge fan the flat rate boxes that ship anywhere in the country, on 2-3 day service for a “low flat rate!” Especially when shipping anything perishable, I want it to arrive at its destination still tasting freshly baked, and using this service has never failed me! The boxes are free, so you can stock up, package at home, and know exactly what you will play when you get to the post office. It really couldn’t be any easier!
Those are all the tips I have for now! I hope you bakers will find them helpful when sending cookies and treats cross country! If you have any additional tips, leave a comment and share your thoughts!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Magazines, Books and Blogs!
One great thing about having a website and a blog is that you can pass along info, resources and suggestions. For today’s post, I’ve decided to pass long a few things that I am loving right now. Here they are…
The November Issue of Cooking Light. I freaking LOVE this magazine. When I open up the mail box on that one day a month when it arrives, my day is always made a little bit brighter. This months issue blew me away. I always go through and flag all the recipes I am interested in during my first look through, then go back again and read them all, plus read all the fab articles. Well this month, I swear I flagged majority of the mag! Here’s a couple of the recipes that tickled my fancy… Pecan Pie with Spike Cream, Roasted Butternut Soup with Goat Cheese Toast, Frosted Pumpkin Cake, Baked Brie with Golden Raisin Compotes, Carmel Apple Pie, Vanilla-Bourbon Pumpkin Tart, Satsuma Orange Cheesecake, Cranberry Upside-Down Cake, Pumpkin Ice Cream Torte and a wonderful how-to article on Tempering Chocolate. Okay thats more than just a couple recipes… but shows how awesome this issue is.. go pick up your own copy before they all fly off the shelves!
I recently purchased the book Soda Fountain Classics by Elsa Petersen-Shepelern with photography by Debi Treloar. It’s an adorable book that features the history of and recipes for classic ice cream sundae’s, floats, parfaits, malts, sauces and syrups. The pictures cause some serious ice cream cravings and the dessert recipes are all totally do-able and easy. I am really looking forward to making a classic New York Egg Cream and testing out the Raspberry Sherbet Recipe… Check out Amazon.com to find a copy of the book for yourself as low as $2 for a brand new, hard cover copy! It’s an awesome book, at an awesome price… and makes an awesome gift for the upcoming holidays! Perfect
- Caroline Dines is the blog from one of my BFF’s from college. She and I were pretty much obsessed with food all through school and was for sure one of the things we totally bonded over! Her blog is full of lots of healthy and smart eating tips and recipes, as well as features her adventures of working at a local farm and eating out in the Boston area. I often turn to her blog when I need a great idea on how to change up a simple salad or sandwich, or even to gather idea’s on how to make a favorite dessert guilt-free. It’s so a blog worth reading!
Well I am going to spend the rest of my Sunday evening perusing recipes, blog reading and magazine flipping! Mmm… it will be a delightfully relaxing evening for sure!
Happy Baking and Reading everyone!
-Kristy
More Photo’s From Past Pastries!
I had quite a rough day at work today… and have a bottle of wine waiting for me in my fridge… hence this post will be brief, but so worth sharing! When I found the picture of the Sex and the City Cookie, I also found this picture of these amazing Chocolate Cupcakes I made a few month back! I REALLY wish I had one these right now (you know how much I love wine and cupcakes!) I used the Luscious Chocolate Layer Cake Recipe from the Luscious Chocolate Desserts cook book that I have and blogged about last week. It always lends for a great cupcake!
These are simple, and fabulous Chocolate Cupcakes, and I always jazz them up a little with extra drizzled semi-sweet chocolate. The more Chocolate, the better! I love adding simple details to simple treats. The drizzled chocolate took all of two minutes of my time, but I think added extra depth to the flavor of the chocolate frosting, but also made them even more aesthetically appealing to the eye. It totally made the cupcakes look professionally made and will surely impresses whoever you are serving them too. A little extra love and detail goes a long way! What details do you like to add your cupcake ?!?!
My wine is calling!…Big things are coming so stay tuned!
Happy Baking!
-KM
The Best Chocolate Cook Book Ever!
I believe one of the best investments anyone can make is a book. And I have tons of them. Fiction, nonfiction, text, reference and cook books… I love ‘em! I wanted to share with you briefly one of my favorite Chocolate Cook books… Luscious Chocolate Desserts by Lori Longbotham with photographs by William Meppem. The cakes and desserts in this book are simply amazing, easy to follow and dangerously decadent. I am addicted to one of her most basic recipes, Luscious Chocolate Layer Cake. It super rich, moist and has a big, bold chocolate flavor. I made the cake into cupcakes that I brought into work not too long ago. The cupcakes were gone in minutes and I was getting requests to bring more in! Requests for more are always good signs of a great cake!
In addition to sharing cake, pudding, ice cream, mousse, custard and souffle recipes, Longbotham provides and intro the history of chocolate, how it’s processed, and even reviews the health benefits of it! (She’s my kind of lady! I’ll take any excuse to eat more chocolate!) She also has a section of the book about how to work with chocolate in baking, provides some simple baking tips, conversation tables and instruction on the proper way to use particular baking tools. Her book has not only become my chocolate bible, but also has been an awesome reference book when a recipe goes a-rye! It has a permanent place on my counter now whenever I am baking something new. I think one of the best ways to tell how good a cook book is, it by how many spots and sticky pages it has… and mine has tons! (Hence, I provided you with a pic. of her book from the Internet!) I got this book as a gift, but is so worth the $20 investment! Check it out for yourself!
Happy Baking and Reading!
-KM
The Best Movie of the Year!
The day I had been waiting for finally arrived… Last night Kate and I went to see Julie and Julia. Yes, you guessed it and what a surprise… I FREAKIN’ LOVED IT!!!!! So did Kate! We laughed, we smiled, we cried… yes, both Kate and I cried! Meryl Streep made such an amazing Julia Child and Amy Adams made Julie to be an amazingly like-able character despite her bits of narcissism!
So of course, there are differences from the book. There were no corporate friends in the book and neither were the many details about Julia Child’s life included, but I enjoyed the little adjustments that were made. What I think I loved the most was the beautiful love story of Julia and Paul that is less prominent in the book. They were so in love and lived a life in Paris that I could only dream of. I think the cutest part was at the very end. Paul was helping Julia organize her pots and pans in her new glorious Kitchen at the their new home in Cambridge MA (which just happens to be the same city I went to college in). It was the sweetest thing ever. He was so careful and meticulous… I swear it made me melt!
Julie, on the other hand, was a seriously relate-able character. I loved that she was herself, she had her melt downs, but kept cooking. She totally took charge of her life. I swear I don’t know one person who hasn’t been in a rut and simply needed a way to dig themselves out. Cooking was her shovel, and she dug her way through! Cooking is totally my self care as well.
After the movie Kate and I went for a glass of wine to chat and we both were in love with it, and a bit inspired. It is a serious must see. It was really much better than I ever could have anticipated. I swear I had the most ridiculously giddy smile on my face for the rest of the night. A good movie, a good friend and good glass of wine…. I don’t if last night could have been any better! Now its the count down till its out on DVD!
GO see this movie! It’s Freaking Fabulous!
Happy Baking and Watching!
-KM
The Best Gift My Sister Ever Sent Me!
A few months ago my sister, (who is known for giving the most fabulous gifts such as a Kate Spade planner for graduation, Tiffany Jewelry for being in her wedding… you get the idea!) sent me a completely random gift in the mail. It was the book Julie and Julia written by Julie Powell. At this point, there were no commercials about the movie, and I had never even heard anything about the project Julie had begun. But, this was the most perfect and best gift for me, knowing my interest.
I literally just finished reading the book about 5 minutes ago. It had come to be my lunch time escape from the chaos and mayhem that is working on a locked psych unit. I was bummed today when I had about 10 pages to go… but had already run over my lunch break by about 10 minutes. I got in from work, put on comfortable clothes, and snuggled up on the coach with my pup, and iced soy latte (also a recent obsession) and the last pages of Julie and Julie. And, all I can say is, and in tribute to the author Julie- What a f***ing fabulous book!
What I love so much about it, really was Julie. I totally appreciate how she put her self out there, telling the world about all her neurotic tendencies, wanting to give up at times on what some considered to be a silly project, but wouldn’t. I could totally relate to her! and I am sure, my boyfriend at times could relate to her husband! She knew there was a greater meaning to it all for her and it seems to me there really was. I also seriously commend her on her bravery. Murdering lobsters, cooking brain, boning a duck and retrieving marrow from a bone are things that I don’t consider to be typical cooking challenges. She took it all on, with some hysterical fits in between and accomplished a great task. Julie, you fucking rock. You might just be my new idle, aside from Martha Stewart that is.
Also, her book reminded me of my own love for Julia Child. Growing up in Boston meant Julia’s show was always on PBS. I remember I used to watch with my Dad on Sunday mornings. I am sure I have tried some of her recipes at some point, as I am sure my father was the only other brave enough person I know to attempt one! Julia Child is simply a legend in the cooking world.. and I have been ridiculously excited to see that they have been rerunning her shows on PBS over the last couple weeks.
So I’ve refused to see the movie until I have finished the book, and have plans to go see it this weekend hopefully. Kate and I will proabaly go bakery tasting then off to the movie. Pretty much everybody I know that knows I am into cooking has asked me if I have seen it and I can’t wait to tell them all I finally have. So stay tuned over the next couple days to read my review!
Lastly, thank you again Jillian for another thoughtful gift. And for those of you who haven’t read it, you NEED to go get a copy!
Happy Baking and Reading All!
-KM
PS- Julie Powell still Blogs! Check it out by clicking here!
