The Best of 2014

Hello! I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas and a wonderful Hannukah.  I had a great Christmas this year- I celebrated Christmas Eve with more pasta and stuffed shellfish than anyone should ever have to consume (it was a really delicious endeavor), and my lazy at-home Christmas Day was perfect, complete with comfy sweatpants, a giant pot of picadillo, and rich brownies for dessert.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect holiday season, and I couldn't have asked for a better year. Lots of exciting changes took place, and I can't wait to see what changes await me next year.  I started a new job in publishing, took an amazing trip to Colombia, and am working on some exciting new projects.  They're top secret for now, but I hope to be able to share them soon!

The blog has been pretty quiet these past few days, and I've taken a break from social media as well.  I just wanted to recharge my batteries and get ready for a whole new year of baking, photography, and writing, and for e me, the best way to go about that was by unplugging.  I've been spending time with my family, catching up on missed sleep (still working on catching up on what I missed in college), and I've finally gotten around to binge-watching all of Gilmore Girls.  It's been nice to take a bit of a break from creating content for the blog, but I have been busy writing down ideas for next year's posts, and I can't wait to get started.  Make sure to stay tuned!

And with that, let's take a look back at some of the best posts from 2014.  It wasn't easy narrowing down the list- there's many posts that didn't make the cut, but I really think these are the most memorable, the most photogenic, and the most delicious.  They're the recipes you need to make sure to write down on your to-do list for 2015.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, and very happy new year.  Cheers to 2015!

Brigadeiros (Brazilian Truffles)

In honor of the ongoing World Cup, I've made some brigadeiros! Brigadeiros are Brazilian chocolate truffles made with condensed milk, cocoa powder, a touch of butter, and lots of chocolate sprinkles.  They're pretty awesome, and are a must for any World Cup viewing party. I hope you guys are watching, because there have been some pretty amazing moments so far!

By amazing moments, I am most definitely referring to Colombia's TWO victories.  After winning both of their games so far, they're at the top of their group and are advancing to the Round of 16 which is incredibly exciting since it's been 24 years since the last time that's happened!  I definitely had the last fifteen minutes of the game playing on my phone today at work (on silent of course) but I couldn't resist.  I just had to watch!  Let me tell you, those 15 minutes I got to watch were incredibly nerve wracking and stressful, but we did it!  There was an amazing sea of yellow in the stadium and so much energy.  I celebrated Colombia's win by getting myself a treat at the specialty chocolate shop next the office (have I mentioned that I love working on the LES before?).  If I had some of these brigadeiros with me at work, that would have been a really great way to celebrate too!

Hershey's Chocolate Spreads Review, and Giveaway Winner!

It's time for my fourth and final Hershey's post!  By now, you're all aware that I was asked to take on the heavy task of sampling, reviewing, and baking with Hershey's newest addition to their product line, their chocolate spreads.  It was an intense process, but I was up to the task.  I mean, someone has to take one for the team, right?  Lots of time and energy was spent tasting all three varieties of chocolate spread, both on their own, and then with a wide variety of snacks, and then even more time was spent conjuring up the perfect recipe in which to feature one of the spreads.  Let's take a look back at these posts, shall we?

It all started just before Christmas, when I received my package of chocolate spreads in the mail.  I was planning my cookie week for the blog, in which I featured a new cookie recipe every day, and I got the urge to use the Chocolate Almond spread as a quick last minute enhancement for my Oatmeal Lace Cookies.  I loved how they turned out!

Once those cookies were made, I became curious about other delicious ways I could use the spreads.  I wanted to know what different flavor possibilities I could use the Hershey's spreads in whenever I wanted a quick, fuss-free snack.  I think I came up with some great, yummy pairings, and my favorite pairings were definitely the potato chip/ plain chocolate spread combination and chocolate-almond spread drizzled over vanilla ice cream.

Buffalo Chicken Empanadas for the Make and Takes Blog!

Hello everyone!  This is literally the latest I've ever published a blog post, but believe me.  I've had a super, super, super long day.  Today I started a new freelance position, and of course, with my luck, my first day just had to be the day right after a huge snowstorm hit Long Island.  Sigh.  I was so stressed the night before just trying to think about how the hell I was going to make it to work on time that I completely forgot to write this post in advance and schedule it to publish automatically (I actually realized I had forgotten to do so while I was standing on the train in the morning, and I got really upset at myself).  Then, after a super, super, super long day at the office, my brain just stopped working and I got on the wrong train, and ended up going downtown into Brooklyn instead of uptown towards Manhattan.  Now, I love Brooklyn, but it was literally the last place I wanted to be tonight.  I just wanted to be home already!  After a very extended commute home due to weather complications that messed up all the trains heading to Long Island, I finally made it home.  It's 10:30 PM, and I've just finished dinner.  I'm about to just put on my comfiest sweats, curl up in bed, and fall asleep to the sound of terrible reality television, and hope that tomorrow goes just a little more smoothly.  In the meantime though, here's those empanadas I promised you guys yesterday afternoon.  There was no way I was going to fail on my promise!

With the Super Bowl coming up in just a few days, I thought it was high time that we make some awesome snacks!  I have a few more yummy goodies to share with you guys in preparation for the big game, and these empanadas are the first.  I'm hoping a few of you guessed they were going to have a buffalo chicken filling, due to the celery sticks and blue cheese dressing in my Instagram pic, but if not, here's a formal announcement:  I MADE BUFFALO CHICKEN EMPANADAS GUYS, AND THEY WERE AWESOME.  

And with that, please head on over to the Make and Takes blog, where you'll get the full recipe instructions and more pics!  

Hershey's Chocolate Spreads Flavor Pairings!

We went from healthy fruit smoothies in my last post and talks of  being healthy and taking a break from the richness of the holiday season in the post before that, to a post filled entirely with rich chocolate spreads.  That doesn't make any sense, yet, here is this post.  You didn't think I'd forget about these fantastic Hershey's chocolate spreads, right?  No way.  There's always room for a little chocolate!  I first introduced these spreads back during my cookie week before Christmas, where I use the chocolate spreads to sandwich two oatmeal lace cookies together.  Now, I'm pairing the chocolate spreads with treats other than cookies. Hershey's gave me a a kit full of different snacks that could be enjoyed with the chocolate spreads, and it was a lot of fun trying them all out to see which I liked best.  My favorite, hands down, were the pita chips and pretzel crisps dipped in the chocolate spreads. That sweet-salty flavor combination is just irresistible to me!

While I really enjoyed the flavor pairings that already came in my Hershey's kit, I knew that I wanted to explore outside the kit to see what other great flavor combinations I could come up with.  Since my favorite pairings within the kit were with the pita chips and pretzels, I decided to stick with the salty direction first.  I had a solo tasting party (wise move?  I'm still debating that...), and dipped kettle cooked potato chips, plantain chips, and Wheat Thins in each of the chocolate spreads.  I seriously loved how these salty snacks paired with the rich chocolatey spreads, with the kettle cooked potato chips combination being my favorite.  The plantain chips and Wheat Thins were both great with the spreads too, but because they have a naturally subtle sweetness to them, I ended up preferring the pure saltiness of the potato chips paired with the chocolate.  I just love that sweet-salty contrast!

Birthday Circus Cake

Alright, here it is!  A quick little post of mostly pictures of this past Sunday's adorable little circus cake.  My cousin's baby girl turned one yesterday, and they celebrated with a circus-themed birthday party over the weekend.  The party was great, and everyone loved how the cake turned out.  My sister gets a lot of the credit for how great this cake turned out; she made all the little fondant circus animals and clown, and all the flat clowns for the cupcakes.  My mom made and assembled the whole cake, and she was the one that came up with the great (and delicious) idea to use caramel corn as a border for the bottom of the cake.  It was the perfect sweet and crunchy way to finish off the cake!  As for me, I had the task of making, frosting, and assembling the cupcakes.  I'm not much of a fancy cake decorator myself; I love bakery style cakes covered in frosting and sprinkles, and to be perfectly honest, I just don't really have the patience for it.  I do however, love seeing what my mom and my sister can come up with together.  I think this might be one of my favorite cakes that they've made together!

Thinking of You...

I had a great recipe to share with you all today.  I wanted to vent a bit about finals, and talk about the prospect of finally going home for winter break.  That's going to have to wait though.  Whatever I had been planning to say, it can wait one more day.  None of it is really very important, to be honest. 

Everyone knows what happened on Friday morning in Connecticut.  I still can't believe it, and I don't want to.  I know that nothing I say, nothing I do, and certainly, no cookie recipe I post will be able to ease the minds of those affected, but regardless, I simply wanted to let them know that they are not alone, and that they will always be in our thoughts.  I cannot pretend that I know what anyone experienced that day, and all I can offer are my deepest sympathies, respect, and love. 

Take care, Newtown. 

Tea Party Cupcakes

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a tweet this past weekend that went along the lines of baking and decorating 6 dozen red velvet cupcakes.  I really wasn't lying, that was how I spent my Friday night! I hadn't initially intended to spend my Friday night baking and decorating so many cupcakes...this kinda just sort of felt into my lap unexpectedly.  You see, my mom had been put in charge of making the cake for my cousin's baby shower on Saturday, and we had planned out an amazinggg cake for it.  Seriously, this cake was gonna be amazing.  

The theme of the shower was a combination of Alice in Wonderland, gardens, and tea parties.  My mom and I had planned out the cake, and I drew up a sketch of what the final cake would look like.  It was to have three tiers or red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.  Each tier was to be covered in fondant.  The bottom tier was to be a garden, and covered with fondant grass, flowers, butterflies, and the like.  The second tier was going to be a pale shade of pink with a white fondant bow along the bottom, and the top tier was going to be a tea party setting, complete with an engraved tablecloth and a full tea set.  It had the prospects of being a really beautiful cake.  

Note that I say, "it had..."

Unfortunately, the cake my mom and I had spent so much time planning out never actually happened.  Three days prior to Saturday's shower, on Wednesday afternoon, my mom somehow managed to fracture her hand while adding the green coloring to the fondant for the bottom tier.  I know, it sounds crazy, but it actually happened.  I guess it makes sense though...mixing fondant colors by hand is hard enough, but it's even harder when you have to mix enough fondant to cover a 16" cake that's supposed to be 4" tall!  If you've never added color to fondant by hand before, imagine that it is something like play-doh, but much much much harder.  In any case, after a relatively quick trip to the emergency room, my mom was left with a totally bandaged hand, and the next day, a bright purple cast all the way up to her elbow.