Gettin in the mood...

Uhhh no!! This is NOT that kinda blog..and I'm not gettin in that kinda mood..if I was I certainly wouldn't blog about it..lol I'm getting in the festive Halloween mood!!! Which is really odd for me because I've never been big on Halloween, even as a kid. I guess as a small child I got pretty excited about the whole experience..the idea of dressing up excited me but when it came down to it, I never had some really cool, totally homemade elaborate costume...we never went all out practically turning our front yard into a haunted house. Many kids don't right?? Well true, but I think that's what it would have taken for me to get all gung-ho about Halloween. Well this year is quite the opposite..or so you'd think if you've been around my kitchen lately. Let's run down the list of Halloween goodies I've slaved over..err I mean baked within the last week... Halloween cookies decorated with royal icing Halloween mini-cupcakes Pumpkin cakes I started of the baking frenzy with the chocolate cookies. I used all my halloween cookie cutters & tried the most yummy recipe for chocolate cut-out cookies. A perfect substitute for using the standard ol sugar cookie. The cupcakes were just chocolate with butter cream that I colored orange & I topped them off with chocolate sprinkles. I was very pleased with how cute they came out..and extra excited when I saw one of my flickr photos on Cupcakes Take the Cake's blog..that was pretty cool..I was giggling & pointing at my monitor for a good 2 minutes when I saw my cupcakes posted on their blog..ah but I digress..lol And the pumpkin cakes..I bought the cutest Wilton pan on eBay & received it last week, just in time to try it out for halloween. It's the mini pumpkin pan from I believe 1991. Makes 4 cakes, they end up being maybe a little bigger than a regular size cupcake, so I was able to make them & have some batter left over for the cupcakes..worked out nicely. Check out the pics!!

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Ok, well he's not actually the president, but he is the founder of Williams-Sonoma. I'm talking about Chuck Williams, he turns 90 this month. I recently read his story in my local news paper "The Charlotte Observer". Being a foodie & totally obsessed with continuously acquiring new kitchen gadgets, I've always LOVED Williams-Sonoma, but I never knew when or how the store was founded, now I think I love it even more, and I feel eternally indebted to good ol' Chuck for introducing American's to well-designed cookware. So again..I say Happy Birthday Mr. President..umm I mean Mr. Williams. Check out what Fortune Magazine has to say about Mr. Williams-Sonoma himself.

Which foot does this shoe go on??

Shoes, chefs. What'a combination right?? Well the man who has captured many a woman's heart - Stuart Weitzman - has paired the two together, no pun intended. Weitzman is a brilliant & incredibly sucessful shoemaker, no make that shoe DESIGNER. If you love shoes, he's a must. This girl may be food-obsessed, but I LOVE me some shoes. Anyway, that's beside the point a bit. Weitzman has launched a campaign to help raise money for & awareness of the fight against breast cancer. His campaign is called "Bid for the Cure", and it involves all basically ALL of the FoodNetwork chefs. They were each given 1 shoe & allowed to go wild with a design, just do whatever their heart desired. The chefs' creations are currently up for auction on StuartWeitzman.com. They're raising some BIG BUCKS already Rachael Ray's shoe has been bid up to $3,000 & my favorite - Paula Deen - her shoe is running a close second at $2,600. But the artwork & creativity that went into the designs. Some of those shoes are absolutely amazing.

Cookies for my cuties

I BAKED DOG COOKIES!!!! As the saying goes.."Better late than never." I've been sooo lax & uninspired by the things I've been baking lately, that I don't even seem excited enough to blog about them. And well, these cookies..I was really excited about them & darn if I didn't forget to take photos of the final product before they were all packed away & later munched on. But anyway..you'll just have to use your imagination I guess..lol Recently I was at the library checking out the recipes in the magazines I refuse to buy..yup call me cheap if you want, I prefer to remind myself that if I bought all the magazines I wanted 1 or 2 recipes from I would spend..well WAY too much money. While there I noticed they had just gotten in some new cook books, one was from The Three Dog Bakery, which was quite coincidental because I'd been searching for a recipe for homemade dog treats I could make for my cuties. I found plenty of recipes, but most called for quite a few ingredients that I don't keep on hand & would have no use for other than making the dog biscuits. So I checked out the book & found quite a few good recipes, all of which appear to be very easy & don't call for any unusual ingredients, just oatmeal, honey, milk, flour & baking soda. I don't have the book in front of me or I would post the name & the recipe. But they were super simple & I feel good about feeding my dogs these treats because they're all natural...yanno even doggies don't need all those additives & junk. I'll try & remember to post the recipe later in case anyone actually reads this & wants it..but if you check this out & do want the recipe just comment me & leave me your email address & I'll send it to you ASAP. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Celebration for a soldier

Welp, party #2 is over & done, my nephew has offically finished celebrating his 6th birthday. Thought I would finally post a photo or 2 of the cake. The photos pretty much say it all, I decided to give him something different, I think his mom & I both had enough of Spiderman with the first party. And I know he loves toy guns & military stuff, so I created a "camoflauge cake". I tried a new recipe yellow cake & I'm pretty happy it had a nice flavor & it was moist..so we just might have a winner this time..yaaay!! Chocolate buttercream icing, I used a cupcake to make the "hill", the "logs" are made of pretzel rods covered in buttercream, and the road is made of oreo cookie crumbs, and I just freehanded the camoflauge splotches on the sides of the cake.