We love Turkey as much as the next person, but for the holidays it becomes daunting to cook a whole bird. This is a great way to enjoy this holiday staple without so much fuss. Marinading the breast meat will ensure it stays succulent, while also infusing it with a lot of flavor.
Get the Recipe Here!
Tell us what you think in the comments!
For the last night of Hanukkah, Zoe teaches us how to play the game of Dreidel.
Red Velvet cake is known for its deep red color… and also for the fact that you either like it or you don’t. I sometimes like it, and sometimes it’s really just not good at all.
These brownies though, I have it on good authority that they are good. I had so many that I had to just give them away. Ryan took them to work with him and gave them to his employees. He received several texts the next day saying how much they loved the brownies and that they were looking forward to more.
If that’s not enough hype for you, then you’ll just have to try them for yourself!
OMG, it’s here!!!! Since the Nintendo Switch was Launched in 2017 I’ve been eagerly anticipating the launch of this video game franchise staple. With the fifth generation of the game everyone is here! That means over 70 characters built into the game to choose from. I’m so pumped for this launch that I had to make something to celebrate. I’ve also wanted to try my hand at cake decorating. For this cake I decorated with fondant. It’s my second time working with it, and first on this scale. It didn’t come out perfect, but I learned a lot from it. As a tip, don’t roll it out too thin. Also, use a little powdered sugar to prevent it from sticking to the rolling surface. One problem I had was I laid it down too close to the middle. Unfortunately, there was no moving it afterwards. Still a great learning experience!
Unless you’re like me and start shopping for holiday gifts right after Halloween, this is a good time to start! You have a LOT of options. From the mall, to flea markets and holiday markets to the vast internet, every present you could ever want is out there.
While I can’t speak for all of you, I love to shop online. I have a knack for finding deals and coupons, and employ a variety of plug-ins on Google Chrome to find even more deals! I even use the app Paribus to get money back on Amazon purchases.
https://paribus.co/ Get Paribus Here
https://www.joinhoney.com/ Get Honey Here
While these are all well and good, that doesn’t tell you where to go. Obviously, the favorite site is Amazon. If you don’t regularly buy Amazon Prime, here’s a little tip for you. You can get a month of free prime as a trial every year. I save mine for December so I can get all my purchases with free shipping. Would you like another Amazon tip? Order early in the month. Like, right now. The post office receives well over 5 million packages every year for delivery. Since Amazon has a contract with USPS, don’t over-burden your local post office at the end of the month by ordering everything last minute. Your postal carrier will definitely thank you for it.
If you’re into unique items that you probably can’t find on Amazon, check out Etsy. Etsy is a maker’s site, and you can find all sorts of handmade, unique and one of a kind items there. I also know that supporting artists is incredibly important (I used to sell on Etsy). The prices range from low to extremely expensive. It’s definitely possible to find something for every price range and every person on Etsy.
My secret favorite website is the last one I’ll tell you about. If you haven’t before, check out Wish. Most of what you can buy from Wish seems to be overstock. You can find incredible items for very little more, or free and all you pay is $2-4 in shipping. I buy a lot of my items off of Wish, but there is one big issue. Shipping isn’t really tracked, and it’s not very fast. So if you’re going to order off of Wish, do it NOW. I ordered all my Wish items at the beginning of November.
I pride myself on being a fantastic gift giver. I’m a big fan of useful gifts, as in, gifts you can actively use or need. If you need any help with your gift choices, send us a message on here, or on any of our social media sites. We’ll find you an idea and a deal.
*None of these sites have paid for promotion.
This month, Zoe & Eric are reviewing The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book, a cookie/dessert cookbook. This cookbook is all about shortcuts, making cookies with pre-made mixes and other shortcuts to make the process easier and faster.
8/10
I love pecan pie. It’s my favorite at Thanksgiving and my favorite at Christmas too. The biggest problem I have with pie is that the crust is often too much. With these pecan pie bars, I felt like I didn’t have to deal with a large amount of crust while I was eating it, which was definitely a plus. What I didn’t like so much was that the shortcut in the recipe made it so the pecans I added last didn’t really want to stay on the top, they just sunk into the batter. I also didn’t use corn syrup, I used honey instead, which didn’t make a big difference. I would definitely recommend these bars to a pecan pie lover, or someone who has a ton of people coming over for the holiday.
8/10
This cookie bar was delicious. It’s really just a denser pecan pie that you can cut into bars. The big “short-cut” here was using cake mix for the bottom. The recipe called for a 18.25 ounce package. The problem with that is most cake mixes don’t come in that size. It’s difficult to account for measured conversions when baking with eggs, so I just ignored the fact I was missing some mix. This was used in the crust, which is baked first. The dough wasn’t the easiest to spread, but I eventually got it level. The mix was easy enough to put together, but in following the directions exactly I believe I over-mixed my “Filling” (The pecan/custard part). The directions called for mixing for a minute on low speed, then a minute on medium speed. This recipe was also very rich. A square inch of this bar is enough for me. Those last two reasons are why this recipe lost two points. Overall very good and they ended up being a crowd pleaser!
I like macarons. Not to be confused with macaroons (a soft and chewy coconut cookie) or Macron (the President of France). Macarons are delicate little confections, tiny almond cookies that people take beautiful pictures of. You’ve probably seen them before, even if you’ve never had them.
I think they taste good, but only when they come in creative flavors such as peanut butter and jelly or white chocolate blackberry. The technique required can be seen as difficult, because all elements must be perfect in order to ensure a smooth shell, raised feet, no cracks and the perfect texture.
This was actually my first time making macarons. I messed up the first batch of shells. How? I had my oven temperature up too high. I really hope that you’ll try to make some, it’s actually a pretty fun process.
Show us if you make our macarons on our Instagram and Facebook page!
Find the recipe here.
We’re excited to share this video from the first night of Hanukkah. This was Eric’s first, so he sat down with Zoe and she explained some of the history. We hope you enjoy this candle lighting and brief chat. We hope this video serves as a screen test for what is to come in 2019 and beyond.
This is classic peppermint bark. Smooth milk and white chocolate topped with candy cane pieces. But we added Oreo cookie pieces to bring it to the next level. With extra crunch and chocolaty goodness you can’t go wrong with these! Also a great alternative to the office cookie swap party!
Find the recipe HERE!
What’s your favorite holiday candy? Tell us in the comments below!
So you say you never bake because you can’t. Is there truth to that? Maybe. But no one is asking for you to bake a three layer cake with a infused butter cream frosting and fondant roses. Unless you bake for fun or you do it as a job, the parent who asked you to bring cupcakes to the school bake sale is not expecting anything more than a basic cupcake with a little frosting out of a jar.
Then we find out, you’re a perfectionist. You don’t want to serve cupcakes, let alone an actual cake if it’s not going to taste absolutely delicious.
So let’s change the name of the game. Go to the store. Get a boxed mix. “But Zoe,” you say, “everyone will know it came out of a box!” Will they? For a while now, people have been “dressing up” their boxed cake mix to make luxurious and delectable cakes that taste just like you made them from scratch.
Step 1: Pick a decent boxed mix. I personally like Pillsbury (a classic choice) Betty Crocker and Ghirardelli. You can choose your own favorites, I won’t pick that for you.
Step 2: Choosing the number of eggs.
The first thing you should do is add an extra egg. If it says 2, add 3. Eggs do a few things
when added to a cake. They help provide structure that keeps the cake from falling,
softens the texture and the fats make the cake richer.
I don’t know about you, but that all sounds pretty good. If adding one extra egg will make my cake taste better and be more delicious, sign me up!
Step 3: Oil… or butter?
Pretty much every single cake mix out there will tell you to use 1/3, ¼, ½ etc. of
vegetable oil. If that’s all you have, go for it. The change using melted butter is not a
necessary step, but we like doing it. Adding the same amount of melted butter instead of
oil will give the cake a better flavor (who doesn’t love the taste of butter?!)
If you follow all the steps except this one, and find that your cake still seems to be missing something, try adding the butter. I haven’t found that it is necessary for all boxed cake mixes, but if your cake is missing some of that rich flavor, this is why.
Step 4: Use Milk, not water.
In case you hadn’t realized yet, all of these tips involve ingredients that have fat in them.
This is because fat is flavor. Milk has a lot more flavor than water, last time I checked. It
is also creamy, smooth and adds density to your cake. Like using an extra egg, milk can
be instrumental to the structure of your cake, as well as giving it that boost of flavor it
may still need.
Pro-tip, I use chocolate milk in my chocolate cakes because I am a chocolate fiend, and the more chocolate the better.
Now, there are a ton of things you can do beyond these steps to add to your boxed cake mix. Some of these include:
-Add extracts! There are more extracts than just vanilla. Try almond or hazelnut.
-Adding coffee or espresso to chocolate cake will add a whole other dimension you didn’t
even know you were looking for. Try adding a splash to your mix. See what happens.
-Add a teaspoon of salt. Chocolate and salt are best friends.
-Layer your cake with butter cream frosting.
-Poke your cake with holes before baking, and pour your favorite cake topping in it. I like
to do this with caramel.
There are so many things you can do. You don’t need to know the science or amounts or what temperature to set your oven to. The box mix tells you all that. All you need is to be a little bit creative… and no one will know the difference!
Happy Baking!
