Just Baking

This past week I had the pleasure of going through one of the first copies of Hannah Kaminsky’s new cookbook My Sweet Vegan and it really is impressive. I knew there would be great recipes in it but what surprised me was how complete of a cookbook it is. This book not only had a […]

The Christmas Pearl is a Christmas book with which to get you into the Holiday Spirit, complete with many family heirloom recipes, many of which the titles simply pique your curiosity. Among my most interested, were the recipe called Sands. A simple recipe (as most were, when a wooden spoon and your hands were the […]

As a native southern Californian, I grew up with a rather different appreciation for Fall. Changing colors and colder temperatures were distant notions that existed mainly in photographs and calendars. Now that I live in the Midwest, I have come to witness the power of the changing seasons. Not only do our bodies have to […]

I love my range, with its capacious workhorse of an oven, but there are times when I just don’t need almost four cubic feet of heat. And my pop-up toaster is okay, but now and then it would be really great to be able to toast more than two slices at once.
So I convinced myself […]

I went a bit nuts for the The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook (which is actually nut-free by the way), as well evidenced by the book review and blog post I put up within one week.  Mixing home-style and gourmet, this cookbook is more about good (real) food than any sort of special diet.
Of course, my favorite […]

When I returned to a dairy-free lifestyle, I scoured the Internet for recipes and ideas, as I am certain many people do.  Yet, there was one cookbook that seemed to appear with almost every search, The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.  While intrigued by the title, I have never missed cheese much, so it was filed away […]

While I am by no means a chocoholic, forsaking all things chocolate flavored for their vanilla cousins, I do have a huge weakness for those little chips.  Of course, the chocolate chip itself is merely a piece of candy without a proper medium.  For myself, the perfect chocolate chip cookie is thick, soft, and chewy. 
I […]

I was recently introduced to a new potential superfood, chia seeds.  Like most people, my first reaction was chia what?  Is that the same as a chia pet?  In a way, yes.  Chia pets are grown using the chia seeds, but as it turns out, these tiny little bits of food pack quite a bit […]

Take one look at the pictures of the ornately decorated cookies and cakes in Confetti Cakes by Elisa Strauss (with Christie Matheson), and you would expect them to take some work to complete. After I read over the book’s recipe for “Fruit Cookies,” I knew I had to be prepared for a good few hours of baking and decorating. So, I set aside Saturday to tackle the fruit cookies, hopefully, in the end, to produce a finished product as decieving as Ms. Strauss’s.

I began sometime in the afternoon, starting out by gathering the various ingredients needed for the sugar cookie recipe Ms. Strauss provides.

I love baking from scratch.  There is something so fun and rewarding about transforming ordinary ingredients into a delicious dessert.  But lets face it; sometimes we have a sweet tooth with no time or energy to play Rachael Ray.  In our household, the cravings come most often from my husband.  Sudden bursts of “I need […]