An Apple a Day…
Back in the spring I decided to take a Wilton course at my local Michael’s in hopes of learning some nice decorating techniques for cakes. After taking Course 1 and quickly learning that you can’t do much great decorating without using butter cream icing, which works best for decorating purposes when it is made with vegetable shortening (GAG!); I decided that I wasn’t a big fan. I would much rather decorate a cake with things that actually taste good. I still use some of the techniques that I learned, but I try to avoid using the dreaded butter cream as much as possible. I tend to try and decorate with fruit, chocolate shavings, etc. I also sometimes choose to ice

Perfect Pesto & More
As you may have noticed, I was absent for about two weeks, up until two days ago. My husband and I were actually in Long Island and NYC for a wedding and vacation for a few days and then I had family visiting for a week. So it has been a bit hectic and I apologize for my lack of posting. I promise that I will be sharing some highlights from our NYC trip very soon though. Needless to say, we had some amazing food during our visit. While wandering around the city we decided to check out the market and shops in Grand Central Terminal. We were very excited to find a Penzey’s, since we don’t have one in South Florida and have alway

The Best Challah Yet!
I always love to take on challenges, so when I met my Jewish husband I decided that it would be necessary for me to learn to cook some of the traditional holiday foods. I especially made this a goal when we moved away from his family and wanted to make sure that he was still able to enjoy the dishes he grew up on. Of course it is easy to go to the store and buy many of these foods in easy to make boxed, jarred or frozen versions, but anyone who has placed these “foods” in their mouth knows that they can be down right disgusting and sometimes not even seem edible. So again, it would be a necessity to learn how to make some things from scratch. Challah is actually one

Finding Balance and a CSA
We reside in a society that generally struggles with the balancing act of busy careers, home lives, making good food choices, and making good choices for the environment, all while trying to make everyone happy. Yes, you do have the group of people who are willing to change their whole lifestyle to live perfectly green while producing their own healthful foods, staying organic and keeping waste at an extreme bare minimum. Unfortunately you also have the group at the other end of the spectrum that doesn’t want to take the time to think twice about what they are putting into their bodies and who also don’t care about waste or don’t want to believe that our environment will go down

Oh, those college days!
As a mentioned in a previous post, I decided to make my husband’s cousin a little care package and send it off to her in college. This is her freshman year and of course she is living in the dorms and having the time of her life. It seems like just yesterday I was moving into my dorm and starting college, but it has actually been 8 years since that big move! It is crazy how time flies. I do remember though how nice it was to get packages of goodies from my mom and my Nana. I mean if she is anything like I was, I lived off of ramen noodles and rice, unless I ventured off to hav