Tag Archives: baking

two thanksgivings are better than one……

24 Nov

while most of you are preparing for that one day a year where you eat turkey with all the fixin’s,

bake pies and while setting that endlessly long dinner table, i was preparing for that day twice!

ahhhhh, thanksgiving! who doesn’t love it?! and even better christmas follows!!!

so this year the husby and i celebrated the holiday, tuesday night with some of giuseppe’s family, and thursday with mine.

my contribution to both celebrations was of coarse dessert!!

i made, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies….yum!

i have so much to be thankful for this year, and i’m so happy that we get this holiday every year to remind us of how fortunate we are.

here’s so pictures of both of our thankful days!

hope everyone had a memorable thanksgiving with your family and friends!

   

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festive foods…..

16 Oct

holiday’s mean holiday parties and with that comes food, the question is,

what food???

well i’ve got a couple halloween festive foods that are super easy and super yummy!!!

i hope this takes that stress out of your holiday party planning.

what fun festive foods do you like to make?!

“pepperoni pizza snake”

“white chocolate pretzel bones”

………

things you will need for the pizza snake

  1. a sheet pan lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray
  2. pizza dough (any kind, i used rosemary focaccia for more flavor)
  3. a little flour to roll out the dough
  4. rolling pin
  5. shredded mozzarella cheese
  6. any  pizza topping you like (i kept it classic with pepperoni for the allusion of blood and bones)
  7. an egg
  8. green food coloring
  9. 2 green olives for eyes
  10. 1 red pepper for the tongue
  11. 2 toothpicks

– begin by pre heating your oven to 350 degrees

– flour the surface of your counter and roll out the dough to a rectangular shape

– add your topping to the center portion making the first and last layer cheese

– roll the pizza into a log

– form into an “s” on your greased sheet pan, seam side down

– brush the top of the roll with the beaten egg and food coloring

– bake for 30-35 min. or until golden

-place toothpicks where the eyes would go and then place olives on the toothpicks

– cut the pepper into a tongue shape and place in the mouth

– then serve!!!!

easy as that!!!

……..

now for the white chocolate pretzel bones

  1. pretzel rods
  2. mini marshmallows
  3. white chocolate to melt
  4. wax paper
  5. a fork

– put a mini marshmallow on each end of the pretzel rod

– dip in melted white chocolate (i melt my chocolate in the microwave at 30 sec 3x)

– use the fork to fish the bone out

– place on wax paper

–  refrigerate for 15-20 min or until chocolate is hard

– place in a bowl and serve

happy party planning everyone!!!!!

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sunday overdose

9 May

this weekend was my cousin walters birthday, so like most sundays where we end up at my parents for lunch, that’s exactly how this day started…. except with an overdose of sugar!  the guys spent the morning on the couch watching soccer and us girls stayed outside enjoying the beautiful weather and admiring my mothers blooming garden.  then after a typical feast of food, we ended this meal with two amazing desserts, one, a candy birthday cake made by my brother mimmo and his girlfriend nikki, (both not too shabby in the kitchen) and the other a pineapple cheese cake that my mom surprised us with after i had mentioned  the night before that it had been years since we had it.  it was definitely a treat for all of us!  we spent the rest of the afternoon in a sugar comma, just long enough to regain some energy for an evening out, to continue the birthday celebration. so around 9:00, a few of us met for some appetizers (don’t ask how we even had room to eat more) at my family restaurant, then went to a club on the strip ( can’t remember the last time i was in a club, and when we got there, i realized why it had been so long…. not my scene these days) regardless, i was with good people, which meant a good time. happy birthday wally!!!

here’s some pictures of the day!

that’s my mom working on her vegetable/herb garden

that’s my pops and adorable nephew

there’s the cake bakers, my brother mimmo and his girlfriend nikki

here’s the rest of the  photo’s from the evening….

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ooey gooey goodness

28 Apr

so as you probably know by now, i really enjoy baking, so when my brother’s girlfriend nikki asked for some help to make some sweets for her sisters bake sale, i volunteered without hesitation. i decided to make the most deliciously moist and gooey chocolate chip cookies ever!  i have to thank monica, who i work with, for giving me this recipe and for sharing a few tweaks she has made, that only make these cookies even more ridiculously scrumptious. this recipe is super easy, and you can always freeze the dough for later use.  so here’s the tweaks: add an extra 1/2 box of pudding. this makes the cookies so super soft, and use a full teaspoon of coarse sea salt. to balance out the sweetness. hope you enjoy these cookies as much as i do. happy baking!!

click here for the recipe

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nonna’s crusty bread

22 Apr

so my older sister teresa is married with two kids, gianna who’s 9 and gino who’s 8. now i don’t yet know how crazy life can be with two children, but judging from my sister’s family, it can get pretty hectic.  if they’re not at school, they’re racing, if they’re not racing, they’re at soccer, if they’re not a soccer, they’re at religious ed. so needless to say, there’s not much time for anything else. so when the list gets too full, she calls in for reinforcements, me! and that’s what brings us to this weekend. my nephew gino is having his first communion in a couple of weeks, so to finish his religious ed classes, one of his assignments was to bake a loaf of bread to share with the church, and with not even an extra minute in their schedule to do so, i was deemed baker for the day. this actually turned out to be a fun little baking night, and the bread came out  delicious.  so good in fact that giuseppe is boycotting store-bought bread and has requested that i bake fresh bread everyday now, not to mention how good the house smelled. i would definitely recommend  trying this recipe. it’s super easy and only requires 4 ingredients.  happy baking!!

click here for the recipe!

don't mind the dirty oven door

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