Champagne Wednesday is, as you probably remember, our quick, easy to way to liven up the boring midweek with a bit of bubbly.  We do this by buying the tiny, 187-ml bottles of sparkling wines that you can get at grocery stores and Whole Foods and making two little cocktails out of them.

This week’s cocktail was the D’Artagnan, a nice little mix of orange, Grand Marnier and sparkling wine.  I’ve noticed that most champagne recipes have a citrus flair to them.  I think next week we’ll try something entirely different, but this one was pretty good. Continue reading →

I was very excited to learn about the Food Blogger Cookie Swap this year.  I love getting mail from random strangers, I love cookies and I love the food blogging community so everything about it appealed to me, including the opportunity to donate to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.

I decided to make a recipe I’ve had in my Evernote recipe notebook for years but never got around to making, an Algerian treat called “Bousou La Tmssou” or some variation of that.  These are adorable little things made very simply with powdered sugar, ghee (clarified butter), flour and orange blossom water.   Continue reading →

Are you a fan of Google+?  Or at least, G-curious?  They’ve finally unleashed a feature I’ve been wanting for a long time: joinable communities.  And of course, us foodies are flocking to them.  A bunch of great ones have just opened up.  The one I’m going to plug, though, is the Home Cooking Community–a great place for home cooks like us to share, chat and play.  Check it out!

Home Cooking Community on Google+

You like all of those words.  You like them individually.  You’ll also like them together.  You’ll want them to hang out more, maybe rent an apartment in New York together.  You’ll want them to have an insanely popular television show on TLC where you can follow along with their hopes, dreams, careers, personal relationships, good times and inevitable betrayals.  And you’ll cry at the reunion show, “Lemon Cranberry Cream Cheese Muffins: The Next Batch” because no one thought that Cranberry would show up, but she will.  She will.

(This is why you shouldn’t write blog posts when you’re tired.) Continue reading →

Champagne Wednesday may just be the best idea I’ve ever had that involved champagne.  It’s really a nice little pick-me-up on what is maybe the most “meh” day of the week.  This time, I got inspired by the blood orange sparklers from the lovely gals at We Ae Not Martha.  I didn’t have any blood orange juice available though, so I took a different route with mango juice and orange biggers.  I still ended up at the desired location, though: the corner of Delicious St and Bubbly Avenue. Continue reading →

Eating locally is not only good for your pocketbook and the economy, but it’s also good for your taste buds and it can help you explore your culinary creativity.  If you’re new to cooking or your local food scene, sometimes it can be daunting to get started.  That’s why I’ve teamed up with Skillshare to offer this FREE online course about how to craft a unique recipe entirely from local ingredients.

Over the 2 weeks of this class, we’ll cover how to learn more about foods raised in your area, source ingredients, create and modify a recipe and cook it. By the end of class, you will master a self-made, locally-sourced dish and gain skills, confidence and insights into your local food community.

And as a bonus, it will also help you learn about the ways you can use Evernote, the most phenomenal application ever made, to help you create a library of local food producers, craft your recipes and record your cooking experiments.  Pretty good for a simple two week course that costs exactly $0.

Note: This is not a class on “how” to cook, although you will get some great resources that will help you increase your skill.  This is a class that is meant to help you expand your connection with your local food scene and gain some experiencing in creating your own recipes from scratch.

My friend Mac recently had a birthday.  His request?  A peanut butter cup cake.

Challenge accepted.

So I browsed through my collection of cake recipes and thought about my plan of attack.  I decided that what I wanted was a two layer chocolate cake with a layer of peanut butter frosting in the middle and a crown of tiny peanut butter cups on the top. Continue reading →

I have recently decided that certain things need to start being a way of life.  One of these things is Champagne Wednesday.  What, you may ask, is Champagne Wednesday?  Well, my good man/woman/non-gendered person/furry, Champagne Wednesday is a celebration of the everyday.  You combine the normal humdrum that is Wednesday with the sparkle and verve of unexpected champagne.  Well, I guess it’s not really unexpected now that I’ve told you we’re going to do it every week.  But it’s delightful nonetheless! Continue reading →

I know.  You’re stressed.  You’re frustrated.  You’re angry and doggone-it, you’re hungry.  The holidays are coming up and just the thought of all that planning and preparation and pie–ok, maybe not the pie–are making you fret.  Well stop biting those nails and tearing out that hair.  We are here to help.  By we, I mean Evernote and me.  We are here to help you survive the holidays.

That’s why Evernote has launched a full slate of events, tips and plans aimed at helping you navigate these busy, bustling times.  First up?  A test-run Holiday Potluck with yours truly!  (Me.  It’s me.) Continue reading →

Take a look at some of my favorite food finds from this week’s social media. Continue reading →

I like having little snack foods around the house.  Something I can just grab a quick handful of as I go about my day, cleaning house, playing with the dogs, being awesome, avoiding doing chores.  I like these snacks to be crunchy but flavorful and preferably something easy to make.  I also like a variety of flavors…I bore easily, after all.  Hey, let’s go ride bikes!

I’m just kidding.  It’s too cold outside to ride bikes.

Anyway, these almonds are great.  I made them last year as Christmas gifts.  I started making them again this fall as snacks for get-togethers or just to keep around the house.  I’ve tried a few different flavors, my favorites being rosemary-olive oil, and cinnamon-sugar.  The pumpkin spice were pretty good, too.  Last year, I made these with regular sugar but this year I started making them with Splenda so that my sugar-conscious friends could still enjoy them and to be honest, you really can’t tell the difference.

Everyone loves munching on the sweet (or savory) and crunchy little snacks.  If you need a snack to put out before holiday meals this year, this is it.  They also make great, hand-made gifts wrapped up in pretty cellophane bags and tied with a bow.  And if you get almonds from a bulk-food co-op or store like Costco, they can be really affordable too!