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Written on May 30, 2011 by Kate

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend! The boy and I drove out to visit my BFF, Keri, and her girls, and we brought along these yummy cookies. The last few months I’ve been on sugar cookie overload, so these were a nice change ~ nice in the sense that they taste pretty awesome, not so nice in the sense that I literally could not stop eating them. In a matter of hours, I think I inhaled enough cookies to cancel out my last three workouts.

My girlfriend Jen got me addicted to Pure Barre. There’s a Pure Barre workout studio in our area and they’re starting to pop up in other places. I highly recommend it!It is the most intense workout I’ve ever done. Those of you who lived through my divorce might remember the divorce diet. It’s not a diet anyone chooses to go on. I didn’t eat much for about a year and running was one of the few things I found that helped me cope. After about twelve months with no appetite, I finally found myself feeling hungry again. Coinciding my desire for food, was a sense of dread at the thought of spending an hour running on the treadmill. It wasn’t long after that that I said goodbye to my size zero jeans and finally realized life was going to be okay. The Pure Barre workout is way more intense than the divorce diet workout. It utilizes a ballet bar and works out the butt, thighs, abs, and arms more than I ever thought physically possible. The best part of the workout is that it requires such intense focus to get through it, you forget about everything stressful in your life. Sixty minutes of meditation and your skinny jeans are less snug (provided you don’t inhale a plate of these cookies).

Here’s my advice..Make these and share them and come take a Pure Barre class with me. These are the perfect combination of sweet and salty and worth the calories if you can eat just a few. I found this recipe on Melissa’s food blog, The Alchemist. Check out her blog for more great recipes!

Chocolate, Caramel, Pretzel Cookies (Adapted from The Alchemist)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups (248 g.) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks (one cup) (230 g.) butter
1 cup (192 g.) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (100 g.) brown sugar
2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips
8 oz. bag caramels (approximately 25 pieces), unwrapped and chopped into pea sized pieces
1 cup chopped pretzels

For Topping

a handful more chocolate chips, chopped caramels, and chopped pretzels

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in flour mixture in two additions. When all is incorporated, stir in chocolate chips (or chocolate pieces) caramels and pretzels.

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto baking sheets covered in parchment paper.

Push the cookie down with your hand to flatten a little bit. Add a few bits of caramel, pretzel, and chocolate.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes, until cookies are golden. Let them cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets, then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies (depending on how much cookie dough you consume before baking, of course!).

Tips

Don’t forgo the parchment paper. You will thank me for this. The caramel melts and spreads on these. You don’t want to scrub dishes, do you?

Check the bottom of the rolled cookie dough pieces before baking and make sure minimal caramel pieces are on the bottom. This will help you avoid the blobs of caramel after baking. If you don’t care if they’re pretty cookies, this step isn’t necessary.

Also, don’t be tempted to cut the caramel in hunks. The bigger the caramel pieces, the more of an ooey, gooey mess you’ll make.

Don’t panic if the caramel does spread a bit while baking. Once the cookies cool, the excess carmel should be pretty easy to break off.

Have a great week!

chocolate, cookies, Desserts Galore, Recipes

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Written on May 11, 2011 by Kate

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Here’s a quick wrap-up of the boy’s birthday party. In addition to the cake and cupcakes, the boy and I wanted to have some other dessert options for the kids to choose from. We decided to make Angry Bird brownie pops to tie in with the video-game theme. If you haven’t heard of Angry Birds, it’s a game app that has a huge cult following of kids and adults. When it comes to cake pops vs. brownie pops, brownie pops seem to be the winner at our functions. There are people who absolutely love cake pops, but an equal number of people who don’t like the texture of them. There are also kids who don’t eat cupcakes (which I don’t understand at all), so brownie pops makes a good alternative.

For the angry birds, I fortunately had every color of candy melt on-hand. If you don’t want to buy all of the colors pre-made, you can buy the white candy melts and a package of Wilton candy coloring. Do not use Wilton or Americolor’s regular decorating gels. I’ve gotten away with a drop or two, but too much and the chocolate will seize. We used candy-coated sunflower seeds for the beaks and feathers. The top of the black and red birds were made by dipping a snippet of licorice into the melted candy coating mixture. I didn’t realize until mid-party that the angry birds looked quite happy. These were made the hour before the party (which I don’t recommend). The eyebrows, which they lacked, are needed for that angry expression, but who wants anger at a birthday party anyway, right?

The Pac Man cookies were made for me. I was willing to share them, but the boy didn’t appreciate them as much as the girl who grew up in the 80’s, so I claimed them as my own. One thing you don’t know about me is that I am the Ms. Pac Man, Frogger, and Centipede champion of the 80’s (among my friends, of course ~ no national rankings or titles). I’ve always been a little obsessed with Ms. PacMan. I think it’s the love story between Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man that drew me in. The cookie ghosts were made using a mini tulip cookie cutter. Pac Man and his girlfriend were made by using a small circle cookie cutter and the pointy part of a mini heart cookie cutter to take out a piece for the mouth. The eyes on the ghosts are royal icing eyes that I buy pre-made. They come in a whole variety of sizes, and they’re great to use on pops and sugar cookies.

As if there wasn’t enough junk served at the party, we sent each kid home with a wii-mote sugar cookie favor. I’ve done these before and previously piped all of the details (which takes forever!). This time around I used the edible markers and drew in the details. This was a huge time-saver. I do like the look of the intricate piping better, so I’ll continue to do that for cookie orders.

The boy is a bit obsessed with an app. on his itouch called Cut the Rope. It features a little green candy-lovin’ creature who goes through a series of levels to earn lollipops and other treats. We made the monster out of green fondant and added Twizzlers and lollipops to a clear vase. The kids loved these mini-lollipops, and snacked on the licorice throughout the party.

Finally, there was a pizza-lovin’ creature at the party who hit the jackpot. I have no idea if there was pizza in the box when she discovered it or not. Really, I don’t want to know. I am told that the Naughty One, like the cupcake-hoarding boy from the party (described a few posts back), enjoyed quite a bit of party food that night. Thankfully, like the cupcake hoarder, she never got sick! The Naughty One, not the boy, is my party-animal!

Brownies & Bars, Candy, chocolate, Desserts Galore, Favors, Parties, Recipes

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Written on May 2, 2011 by Kate

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My boy turned ten yesterday. I can’t believe we’ve arrived at the double digits.

This year the boy wanted a party. Mind you, this is the boy who hasn’t had a birthday party since kindergarten. He isn’t a huge fan of large celebrations. It remains a genetic mystery how he didn’t inherit the dominant party gene from my side of the family. My niece, who also just celebrated a birthday, clearly inherited the party gene.

Maybe because I was caught off guard that he was asking to have a party, he was somehow able to convince me to let him invite his entire class, all of the boys on the baseball team, and the rest of his best buddies that he hangs out. It was awesome seeing how excited he was for the big event. He checked my Evite account several times a day to see who RSVP’d. Maybe our party-lovin’ ways are wearing off on him!

The boy decided on a video game themed party, so we went big and rented a video game truck. (When I say big, what I mean is that I had to spend my life savings plus his college savings to support this endeavor). And let me tell you… It was completely worth it! Have you seen these game trucks? Sixteen kids sit in front of four flat screen tv’s and get to play their favorite games for two hours. In addition to the games, lights are flashing, and music is blaring. This particular game truck had an open-air stage at the back of the truck for the kids to play Rock Band. This is what heaven looks like in a boy’s world. If you are over eighteen, be warned, it’s like being on the tea cups at Disneyland, you walk out of there with motion sickness wondering how the heck the kids aren’t phased by the sensory overload.

The boy had presents galore to open afterward, but I’d have to say by the look on his face, the best gift was having his parents planning it with him every step of the way. We’ve worked hard to do this and still continue to defy the divorced family stereotypes. It’s not without its challenges. We’re certainly not perfect. Matt’s girlfriend and I had a falling out about a year ago, but in spite of the challenges that come our way, we remain committed to having the best relationship we can for our son.

Here’s a sneak peek at the yummy video-game inspired treats we served. It was a bit of video game & sugar overload… personally, I loved it! This week, I’ll put up a few posts, highlighting a few of the things we made, with a few tips. There were of course, cookie favors to take home (pics. still to come). It was a whirlwind of a birthday weekend, but you only turn ten once in your life, so you gotta go big!

Brownies & Bars, Candy, chocolate, cookies, Cupcakes, Desserts Galore, Favors, Parties, Tips

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Written on April 27, 2011 by Kate

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I’ve heard there are people who throw out their kids’ Halloween candy the day after Halloween… Please tell me you don’t do this. That seems like a form of torture if you ask me. I suppose the same people who throw out Halloween candy are the ones who dump all of the left-over Easter candy too.

I have no problem throwing food out, and I don’t keep left-overs. It’s really only candy that I can’t bear to part with. Well, wine too. This is my rule, if you ask for a glass of wine, finish it. Don’t waste a drop. The only exception is if it is cheap wine. Life is too short to drink bad wine (or to have friends who pour you cheap wine).

I did come up with the perfect solution to my candy dilemma. See, it’s not that I feel the need to eat all of the candy. I just don’t like the idea of a child’s uneaten Easter candy in a landfill. In October, I made the candy bar bark recipe that was featured in Gourmet magazine, and decided to do the same with the left-over Easter candy this week (except for the Peeps and jelly beans… still not sure what to do with those yet.). M&M’s, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup eggs, Reese’s Pieces, Robin’s eggs, and a few pretzels (gotta have a little salt) is heavenly! Make it, eat a piece (or two), and then give the rest to friends… just make sure they aren’t those parents known to confiscate Easter baskets (but your friends wouldn’t do this, right?).

Gourmet’s Candy Bark Recipe

Here are a few pics. from our night-time egg hunt last weekend. It was a great night with a great bunch of people!! The older these kiddos get, the more fun we have.

Brownies & Bars, Candy, chocolate, cookies, Desserts Galore, Holidays, Parties, Recipes

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Written on February 21, 2011 by Kate

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I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. This coming Saturday will be my final testing day of the school year. I’ve been to about forty schools and tested over 1,000 kids over the past couple of months. Whose idea was that to send me to all of these schools? Oh, that was my brilliant plan. In addition, to the big Saturday testing events, this year I ventured out to the sites to work one-on-one with kids (self-inflicted craziness). I’m exhausted, yet invigorated. Being on school campuses, making connections with the kids is why I went into education.

The insane craziness is wrapping up, and life will soon go back to the level of craziness that I enjoy. I know, it’s taken me awhile to post these photos from my girlfriend, Tammy’s baby shower. Tammy is my friend that has a million or so friends on Facebook. She is fun and outgoing and a little bit wild. She is a great person, and I’m so happy for her that this new little one is coming into her life. I remembered reading about a “Born to be Wild” themed baby shower on Hostess With the Mostess and thought that was the perfect theme to celebrate her son’s arrival. (The picture on the right is of the two Tammy’s in our group of friends.)

Fifty of Tammy’s friends came over to my house for lunch. Thanks to my partner-in-crime, and best girlfriend, Jen, all went smoothly! Jen’s on the left serving lemonade & iced tea cocktails. She and I both are big fans of Happy Hour, any hour! The color scheme was turquoise, white, and black, with zebra prints mixed in. We had black, turquoise, and zebra printed balloons throughout, and I put together simple white floral arrangements with roses and daisies. Jen and I created an adorable “Born to be Wild” banner with her Cricut. I’m now pining for a Cricut. I love that little machine! After going through my pictures, I realized I never took one of the banner… so, so sad! You’ll just have to trust me, it was adorable and as soon as I get my Cricut, I’m going to be a banner queen.

Kristy, of Posh Pixels, is an amazing graphic designer. She’s been featured on Hostess With the Mostess, Amy Atlas’ blog, Living Locurto, and a bunch more of the best entertaining blogs out there. Check out her Etsy store and you’ll see what I mean! (Note: Etsy says her online store is closed for a short time, so make sure you check her website above if you click over to Etsy and it’s closed.) Kristy worked with me to customize the turquoise zebra and polka-dotted cupcake toppers. I love the personalization, “Tammy’s Shower”, “Due March 2011”, and “Oh Baby!”.

For dessert, I made chocolate cupcakes in zebra cupcake liners. I tinted the frosting with a little of Americolor’s, turquoise (didn’t want the frosting to come out too dark). I used Wilton’s 2D tip. I love the ruffle texture you can pipe with it.

I also made up a platter of chocolate-covered strawberries drizzled in dark chocolate. I usually buy Wilton’s candy melts from Michael’s. The white is not a true white, more of an off-white. I ordered Mercken’s Super White candy melts just to compare. They taste the same, so it’s really all about the color you’re going for. For a truly white color, opt for Mercken’s

The cookie favors turned out super cute. I have a polka-dot fetish and couldn’t resist mixing polka dots with the zebra design. Look, I even found coordinating ribbon at Michael’s. I love it when it when a theme comes together! Monogrammed cookies are one of my favorite designs. They add a personal touch for the ones you are celebrating. The J is for Jace, Tammy’s baby’s name. The J’s were made by melting black candy melts, and piping the J’s onto waxed paper, and sprinkling with black sanding sugar before the chocolate set.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

chocolate, cookies, Cupcakes, Desserts Galore, Favors, Parties, Table Setting Ideas

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Written on February 7, 2011 by Kate

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Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. It doesn’t matter if Prince Charming hasn’t appeared on my doorstep yet. I am a hopeless romantic, and still believe there is someone I’m destined to be with. I’m not the naive hopeless romantic who believes there is only one person out there for everyone. I think a lot of it has to do with timing, falling in love with someone who’s at the same place you are, and someone who’s heading in the same direction. The truth is I’m in no rush to find him. Unless, I wait another eight years, I’m not just looking for Mr. Right for Me. I’ve got a boy and his Naughty Dachshund to consider… and that completely overwhelms me. So for the next eight years, we’ll have to see if Mr Right for Us rings our doorbell, and if those two approve.

Partly, what has freaked me out about the whole idea of finding someone is watching my son struggle to deal with two other people, who he didn’t pick, in his dad’s life. I’ve watched his dad struggle too, knowing how much he loves our boy and having to accept things that played out in his life. The boy won’t be picking who we let into our life, but I’ve given him my word, if it ever happens, he is my number one priority.

Thankfully, the boy was blessed with a sense of humor, and as he has gotten older and understood more, it’s helped him cope with some of the challenges he’s been handed. Last week he shared with me some criteria that Mr. Right for Us would have to meet to gain access into our world. Top of the list… he has to have the means and willingness to put a pool in our backyard. This, of course, I fully concur with. Additionally, Mr. Right for Us cannot have a dog, unless it is a wiener dog, and the Naughty One has final say about adding another pup to the family. In terms of children, the boy prefers Mr. Right for Us has no children, however, if he happens to have children the boy’s age, and if the boy decides he likes them, he may make an exception. Probably the most challenging of all, Mr. Right For Us has to embrace our not so typical family dynamic. The boy, his dad, and I will remain a team, enjoying our lives together and parenting the boy as long as he needs our guidance (which pretty much means for life).

Upon telling my mom this story, she convinced the boy to add additional criteria. Apparently, the grandparents now have veto power in whomever we choose (which means I could be single for a VERY long time).

Whoever your sweetie is this Valentine’s Day, this is a quick dessert that’s sure to please. I made up a batch of brownies, using this Wilton silicone mold, which I definitely recommend (just spray well with non-stick spray). You can also make a batch of brownies in a pan and either cut or use cookie cutters to create the shapes you like. Using Wilton candy melts, dip strawberries and marshmallows and add sprinkles before it sets. Here’s the key, skewer the marshmallows and strawberries before they are completely set, otherwise the chocolate will break into pieces. The best way to do this is to dip a few at a time so that they partially set, and then skewer. This can be made the day before and then refrigerated, but not much farther in advance or the strawberries will become soggy.

For more specifics on making chocolate-covered strawberries (they’re really easy!), read through this post for tips. If you don’t know, I have a bit of a chocolate-covered strawberry fetish so there are several other yummy recipes I’ve posted.

Have a great week everyone!

I’m working on editing pictures from my girlfriend, Tammy’s shower that I hosted this weekend ~ Can’t wait to share!

Brownies & Bars, chocolate, Desserts Galore, Holidays, Products, Recipes, Tips

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Written on January 2, 2011 by Kate

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Hope everyone had a great New Year’s. We had fun ringing in the New Year with friends. The boy lasted until midnight, which he was very happy about. I brought along these shimmery star cupcakes to celebrate. The gold star cupcake toppers were made using Wilton white candy melts. White chocolate can be substituted, but the candy melts are very easy to work with. The candy melts were melted in the microwave and poured into a piping bag. I printed out stars in the size that I wanted on the computer and placed a piece of wax paper on top of the printout. I outlined the star shapes by piping the chocolate using a small tip. Chocolate was then added to the center of the stars and spread to the edges. The gold sparkly effect was made by sprinkling gold sanding sugar on top before the chocolate set. Once they were completely dried, I removed them with a small spatula and they were ready to add to the cupcakes. The small gold confetti stars are another Wilton product that I love.

I used this same technique last winter to make chocolate snowflake cupcake toppers and have photos that show the same steps in that post. The snowflakes turned out beautiful. I did have some breakage making the chocolate snowflakes because of their shape, but made plenty of extra. I expected a little breakage with the stars, but all of them worked and were very stable once set.

The cupcake recipe started with a cake mix, but was then fancied up a bit. I used Duncan Hine’s Devil’s food cake mix and the amount of eggs and oil called for on the package. The package calls for 1 1/3 cup water. I used a cup of water and substituted Bailey’s liqueur for the remaining 1/3 cup. I also stirred 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips into the batter before baking. Another great option I discovered last year was to use Godiva’s white chocolate liqueur to make the cupcakes. I have added soda, juice, and alcohol, tea, and coffee to cupcakes and have had a lot of success by keeping the amount of additional liquid the same as the amount of water that the recipe calls for. I usually grab my Wilton 1M tip to frost cupcakes (as seen in the snowflake cupcake photo). For these fancy cupcakes, I opted for the Wilton 2D tip. I love the ruffly effect it makes.

The last day of our break has been spent running around getting ready to go back to school and back to work. I have made sure my coffee maker is set to brew right before my alarm goes off in the morning. I’m hoping the early dose of caffeine will help me get out the door in time. I can’t wait to get back into the regular routine, but have a feeling making myself cute before 8AM may pose a challenge. If that’s my greatest challenge of the week, it’s going to be a good one!

Wishing you a happy week ahead!

chocolate, Cupcakes, Desserts Galore, Holidays, Parties, Products, Recipes, Tips

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Written on December 31, 2010 by Kate

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Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe another year has past. Why is it that the older you get, the faster time goes by? Looking back, it’s a little scary to see all of the dessert calories I’ve consumed. Luckily, the dial on the scale has stayed in the same place, which is further proof that you don’t have to give up dessert to stay healthy! Here are my top ten favorite dessert recipes from 2010, in no particular order. (Okay, I lied… I just recounted and it’s eleven. Too hard to narrow it down!)

Thank you to everyone who has followed my blog this year. I can’t wait to see what sweet things are in store for 2011!