Archive for See This!
Baking For Good!
I recently came across this amazing website worth sharing. It’s an online bakery called Baking For Good. Here’s what makes this online bakery so unique… 15% of all proceeds made from each order go to charity, AND you can choose which charitable organization (from a HUGE list on their website) that you would like to support. What an awesome concept!
As for baked goods, you have lots to choose from. Iced cookies, drop cookies, brownies, bars, allergy free treats and even event favors. There’s gift boxes, corporate gifts and gift cards as well. Click here to look at the extensive treat list!
I had the opportunity to speak with the CEO of the Company, Emily Dubner a couple weeks back. Turns out she and I had a surprisingly similar background! We both grew up in Massachusetts baking treats for our classmates all through elementary school. Both went to college in Cambridge, MA and graduate the same year. And, we both have a HUGE passion for baking and doing good deeds! I hope at some point to get involved with the company, just because I so believe in the cause and the efforts Emily has put forward. We’ll have to wait and see if this could be a possibility!
So check out the bakery, tell your friends and place an order!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
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
Snoop Dog on Martha!
I freaking love Martha Stewart and try to catch her show as much as possible… which generally turn outs to be only one day per week! Oh how working full time gets in the way of the important things!! My friend Camille recently sent me this link to a clip of Snoop Dog on the Martha Stewart Show… and it is hysterical! You’ve got to watch it!
The mashed potatoes sound delish!
Happy Baking and Watching!
-Kristy
Memories from Maine!
I grew up in New England and my family was lucky and fortunate enough to have a summer house on the coast of Maine (thanks to my wonderfully smart grandparents!). I’ve haven’t been able to visit our summer home in well over 3 years now, and I miss it terribly! There is something about how simple, relaxing and enjoyable summer life is this vacation town. Your biggest decisions of the day are which beaches to go to and where to go get your evening ice cream sundae. I love falling asleep to the sounds of the surf rather than the howell of cop sirens. I love the smell of the salty air and watching the sail boats drift along the water while I eat my breakfast on our back porch every morning. I love that the street our cottage is on has no street lights, and stars at night are overwhelmingly abundant. Believe me.. the list of my the many things I love about Maine could go on and on, but I’ll stop here for now! Oh Maine… we have been apart far too long!
Today I received a package from my parents full of wonderful little delights from the small but lovely town of York Beach, ME. There were T-Shirts, photos, post cards, fresh blueberry jam and the best part, was the Salt Water Taffy from The Goldenrod, called Kisses. The Goldenrod is a landmark of York Beach. Its a restaurant, ice cream parlor and candy shop all rolled into one (really, it couldn’t appeal to me more!). You can get a delicious sandwich with a freshly made Raspberry-Lime Ricky, followed by a traditional Banana Split and on your way out pick up a pound of Taffy. It been in the same place since 1896 and the salt water taffy is made the same way now as they did when it originated. You can watch the taffy being made from the sidewalk outside the restaurant and the sweet smell of the hot sugar wafts a few blocks down attracting lots of onlookers (Mmm… it smells soo sweet and delicious!). As a child, my brother, sister and I used to watch the process for hours, and try to guess which kind of taffy was being made. I was seriously always mesmerized by it!
As soon as I opened the package I dug right into the taffy! My parents sent me a mixed box, so I have lots of variety. I opted for a strawberry, followed but a peppermint. The taffy was light and airy, and sweet and delicious! Sometimes taffy is so sticky and chewy I feel as if it would pull my teeth right out, and I hate that. But this taffy is NEVER like that! Its perfectly chewy, without being ridiculously sticky! My favorite flavor growing up was the peanut butter, and I have decided to save those for last! The peanut butter taffy has a wonderfully rich and nutty flavor, and has a creamy peanut butter center. Okay, I might just have to have one peanut butter kiss to start… Mmmm… Pardon me while I take another bite!
It amazes me how the flavor and smell of a particular food can make me so nostalgic! Thank so much for listening… or I mean reading along with my little mental trip back to one of my favorite places in the world! I hope you enjoyed the ride!
Happy Baking and Taffy Tasting!
-KM
It’s a Wonderful Day For Pie!
With all the pie baking, and pie tasting I have been doing, this video seemed very appropriate to share with you! I think it demonstrates what theme song that has been running through my head! Anyone on here fans of Family Guy?!?! I love the show! I know it can be rude, crude and sometimes very far from PC, but generally it can give me a good laugh. This clip is from a show a couple weeks back. Hopefully it will give you a good giggle, put a smile on your face, or will have you singing about pie for the next week or so! Enjoy!
Happy Baking and Watching!
-KM
Any Sex and the City Fans Out There?!?!
I came across this picture today and had to share it with you, despite the fact its over a year old! Are any of you Sex and the City Fans?? Well I am! So last summer when the movie came out in theatres, my girlfriends and I decided to have a Sex and the City pre-veiwing party. We all purchased tickets to the midnight showing opening night at our local theatre and all the ladies convened at my pad for food, drinks, the Sex and the City trivia game (which I kick ass at!) and of course watching as many episodes as we could.
In order to fully embrace our “Sex and the City” party theme, we decided to have only food and drinks at the party that were featured in the show… so we ate Fried Chicken, Krispy Kreme’s, Chocolate Cake, Chinese Food, Saltines with Jelly, and drank Manhattans, Absolute Hunk Martini’s and of course, lots of Cosmopolitans! ( I have no idea how we made it through the movie after all we ate and drank that night!) Along with the Absolute Hunk (which was absolutely delicious!) my other contribution was the “I Love You” Cookie (I tried to find the scene on you-tube but was unsuccessful… if any of you find it send it my way!). This cookie was featured in the scene where Dr. Robert Leeds arrives at Miranda’s apartment with Pizza and another dessert mystery box. Dr. Leeds gets paged, needs to return to work and is unable to stay for dinner. Once he leaves Miranda peeks into the mystery box and discovers its a cookie that reads “I Love You” in chocolate chips! She inevidbly panics since she doesn’t know if she loves him and eats the whole thing! HA! Hysterical!
So, here is my own version that I served at my Sex and the City Pre-Viewing Party!
Hint, Hint to my Boyfriend… You can tell me you love me in a cookie any day of the week! I think it’s an awesome way to share your feelings and feed your belly!
Happy Baking, Party Planning and Sex and the City Watching!!
-KM
PS- Sex and the City 2 is supposedly already filming! Yippee!
Top Chef is Back!
This post will be brief and is really just a friendly reminder. Top Chef is back on Bravo! Yippee! This is one of my favorite shows. And season 6 is off to a great start. It’s only 3 weeks in and the competition if fierce! This year there are brothers, Michael and Bryan, competing against each other and some seriously impressively trained chef’s like Jennifer who has worked under Eric Ripert. Usually by now I have a winner picked, but this years cast to simply too good.
This is my one and only must see show of the week. I put on my PJ’s, poor myself a nice, big glass of wine.. and nothing can get me off the couch for this one hour. I get soo excited to watch how creative the chef’s are. And, I get even more excited when a see a chef make a kick-ass dessert. I loved Karla from season five, who always made a bang with a baked good! I specifically remember an apple tart served with a piece of cheddar cheese… OMG it looked soo good… which reminds me… it’s almost fall and apple season is right around the corner! mmm… I love a good apple dessert!
I am totally looking forward to see how this season will unroll! Be sure to watch every Wednesday (TONIGHT!!! YIPPEE!!) at 10pm (I know. I sound like a commercial huh… but I just seriously love this show that much!) More blogs re: Top Chef 6 will be on its way!
Happy Baking and Watching!
-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
