Happy Friday kids!
Sorry this is late, but here on cape cod we just had a major thunder & lighting storm, and our power
kept going out.
Thunder storm in the middle of February! And it was just as powerful as one in the summer!
Crazy.

I made chocolate shortbread fingers.

Do you like nutty crusts? I do.
Here is a pecan crusted strawberry bars. Very easy and quite tasty too.

The motherload of Cadbury Mini Eggs (an almost 2 pound bag found at Walmart).
I was so happy at this find. Is that bad? It's bad right?

Those bistro boxes at Starbucks are quite good.
This is the chicken & hummus bistro box.
This is my kind of fast food--no crash & burn after lunch.

Have you tried these Valhrona chocolate perles?
Like a crunchy cookie-like biscuit in the middle. Terribly addicting.
Found at Whole Foods (in the cheese and/or chocolate sections)

Yeah it's pretty and all, but I'm so tired of snow already.

It's February 21 and we've had over 10 snowstorms? I've lost count on how many feet we've gotten....

So tired of it...

Bass River, cape cod

Minimal flooding this storm around; fingers crossed it stays that way.
Around the web:
cheesecake factory avocado egg rolls
diet coke addict drinks up to 50 cans a day! (if this is in fact true, how is she still alive?)
chocolate-sour cream cupcakes
homemade lime curd
12 types of procrastinators (I'm the snacker & the perpetuator)
steak frites on sticks
understanding inflammation & healing for athletes
DIY cultured butter (have you tried cultured butter? It's really good!)
12 chemicals that are screwing up your hormones
the real reason your cable bill is so high (might go higher now that Comcast might join Time Warner)
vegan comfort food: cashew "cheese" dip
meyer lemon pudding cakes
butterscotch cookies w/ burnt butter icing
DIY dulce de leche (it's so easy!)
turn a sheet into a laundry bag
how to make a heart shaped cake (using your own cake pans!)
chicken flautas
the stupid docu-soap "The Vineyard" might be coming back. I hope not!
how do you tame tension? take the stress-busters quiz
news anchor Brian Williams does a perfect 'cover' of rapper's delight (hilarious)
show your best cookie cutters to Serious Eats!
This is what an $85 million estate looks like
flourless brownies
sweet potato sliders w/ goat cheese & pecans
14 most unintentional terrifying statues in the world (warning: not for kids!)
new french toast goldfish
thin & crispy chocolate cookies
chocolate & weight loss
making buttermilk at home
2014 james beard semifinalists! (congrats to my Baked Boys!)
nutter butter cookies
in case you wanted to know how to put fringe on your sneakers
are make & bake mini loaf pans worth the time & money?
rib-eye steak with béarnaise
best exercise for weight loss?
dan harris: how an 'on air' panic attack improved my life
phone sends smelly calls & texts! (oh dear)
2 helpless deer on icy lake get rescued with brilliant idea
worlds first-ever internet emergency room
STOP! Scented jewelry! I want! So cute
sunlight pills!
16 savory muffin recipes (excellent list)
Have a wonderful weekend!
2/21/14
friday links
2/17/14
Interview with cookbook author Warren Brown of Cake Love +Giveaway
Today I’m delighted to be given the chance to ask cookbook author, star of the food network tv show: Sugarush, and bakery owner Warren Brown a few questions about his books, his bakeries, and his life. And more importantly--how he does it all!
Most of you may know Warren from his hit tv show on food network Sugar Rush from 2005-2007. And you may also know him by the infamous bakery CakeLove in Washington, DC that he started after he left his career in practicing law. It was that bakery that started him on his journey to becoming a cookbook author first book CakeLove, then came United Cakes of America, CakeLove in the Morning, and most recently Pie Love (which is my favorite).

CakeLove from Scratch, United Cakes of America, CakeLove in the Morning, PieLove
I gave Warren a few extra questions because I'm so fascinated by how much he's done in his life, admired his dedication to taking on so much in his life; leaving a secure career to go off and do another chapter in his life.
Thank you to Warren for taking the time to answer each and every one of my questions!
Were there one or two defining moments that made you want to leave your career in law to open a bakery?
In the first three months of my job doing administrative litigation there was a Friday evening I was doing research for a case that one of my superiors asked me to work on. It was after hours, probably around 6/6:30pm. I walked out of my office to use the restroom and couldn’t help but notice how quiet it was. I just thought to myself, I’m ready to work hard, maybe harder than what’s expected of me here. I wanted to work hard and do it building something that I enjoyed.
Was it in fact a love of wanting to open a bakery or something else that led to the bakery?

Your first bakery CakeLove, was it pretty much hands on, work 16 hours days until you got the flow going? I know it can be hard laying down a “real routine” in bakeries.

In the article it read: ”….. at first, Brown took on cake baking as a hobby, teaching himself through cookbooks and an occasional professional class. He watched the faces of dinner guests light up when the cake came out….”

It’s hard to find time to talk in detail with bakery owners, but when you can grab as much time as you can and ask direct questions. If they don’t feel comfortable answering, then they won’t.
Many people respect someone who knows their stuff and asks the right questions, so do your homework.

There’s not a lot of downtime though.

How did that come about?
Cake and cream cheese icing layered together in 4 or 12 oz jars.
I’m pivoting CakeLove away from a business model focused on retail storefronts to wholesale supplier of a packaged consumer good.
I enjoy focusing our work on making the product and allowing the grocer retailer to handles retailing the product. I hope to make the full transition complete within the next 2 years.

We have many different bases and favor extensions off of each base. I only wish that the rest of the market fully appreciated the nuances of cooked buttercreams and what it takes to appropriately serve them – namely to not eat it cold. We never want people to eat cold cake and resorted to disclaimers of different sorts to give people the heads up. That was met with resistance of various sorts over the years.
You may be surprised to know how much push back and flak we’ve caught from critics to consumers because we make and stuck with cooked buttercreams all of these years, instead of just resorting to American Buttercream.
Why? Well, I really like to focus on specific ingredient flavors and let that item dictate what format it needs to be in for the best presentation of taste. Sometimes that means bending to the will of the food in order to capture the best of what it has to offer. Take strawberries, they’re fabulous in buttercream. We let the mixer beat freshly cut strawberries into Italian meringue buttercream.
Or a different way to feature coconut in buttercream, our “New German Chocolate” (also coconut buttercream in CakeLove)—it’s a coconut vanilla brown sugar buttercream that is built around a yolk based custard. Both of these have to be held under refrigeration b/c of the ingredients and method of production, but as long as it’s at room temperature when served, it’s fabulous. Really delicious.
I think the steps to necessary to serve it are just like chilling beer or bubbly before a party, setting out cheese so it’s not fridge cold when sliced and served, or setting out an ice cream cake to slightly thaw before it’s cut and served. Fine food requires a little work and cake is no exception.

Warren was kind enough to donate one lucky winner, one copy of each of his four cookbooks.
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling us which one of Warren's books intrigues you most.
CakeLove - How to bake cakes from scratch
United Cakes of America - recipes celebrating every state
CakeLove in the Morning - recipes for muffins, scones, pancakes, waffles, biscuits & other breakfast treats
PieLove - recipes for sweet & savory pies, galettes, pastry cremes, tarts & turnovers
All anonymous comments will be deleted!
Please have a valid signature line, name AND email!
Drawing will be held 2/24/14
Good Luck!
2/14/14
friday links
Happy Valentine's Day!

How this foodie does Valentine's Day.

Before all the snow moved in...(Nauset Beach, Wellfleet, MA)


Treasure hunters out on Corporation Beach in Dennis.
One never knows what the sea will wash up with all these winter storms we've been having.

Low tide in east dennis, ma. In a couple months this beach will be filled with people,
hard to imagine now that it's 20 degrees and very blustery.

Lands end in Dennis, MA.
A couple days ago this was covered over with the ocean.
One day it's calm and beautiful, the next day it's covered with raging waves and snow.

Sagamore Bridge, Cape Cod, MA--gateway to cape cod.
Have you crossed it? Rather have you sat in traffic on it?

Imagine having this view every day? Dennis, MA

New ice cream joint on the cape: The Local Scoop in Orleans on cranberry highway.
Make your own sundae.
They have nutella whipped cream!

**Someone very sweet, went and nominated my blog on The 2014 Homie Awards via The Kitchn.
First, whoever did that thank you so much!
And second, since I'm up there, I would love to see how far I can get up there; be kind of neat to get in the top 20 or top 10?
Would you mind voting for me?
That would just be so neat. And thank you so much if you did and to whoever went ahead and nominated little old me.
Around the web:
researcher uses controversial experiments to prove our thoughts & intentions can alter our physical world
misunderstanding orange juice as a health drink
25 horrible things that happen when you don't get enough sleep
20 minute sriracha sauce
how to make your own sprinkles
little french fudge cakes
many benefits of turmeric (Dr. Weil)
how to make turmeric tea
how to respond to negative people without being negative
18 north carolina patients possibly exposed to rare brain disease
normal physical activity obliterates the deleterious effects of high caloric intake
gluten sensitivity may be misnomer for distinct illnesses to various wheat proteins
potential tactics for defeating cancer
dark chocolate addiction is driving up the price of chocolate
everything you need to know about selenium
deep fried peanut butter & jelly sandwiches!
stop obsessing over alignment in yoga class
birthday cake M&M's are here
how about a custom, luxury, rolling cabin?
difference between omega 3's in fish oil vs. flaxseeds?
why writers are the worst procrastinators
I want this cookbook so badly: How Can It Be Gluten Free from America's Test Kitchen
how to correctly check you cats vitals
DIY sequined chocolate boxes (gorgeous!)
homemade tortilla chips (guess what? it's easy!)
coconut butter & nutella pie pops
quick & easy mongolian beef
homemade strawberry almond milk
kitchen 101: cooking fats & oils
are you ruining your coffee by grinding the beans the wrong way?
graham cracker cookies
homemade welsh cakes
samoas rice krispies treats
manhattan cocktail truffles
how to build a better oatmeal muffin recipe
is pasteurized juice a good choice or not?
dark chocolate quinoa cake w/ peanut butter frosting


Whole Foods is my perfect valentine's!
Can't wait till they open on the cape, hopefully this summer?
Have a wonderful weekend!
2/8/14
flourless peanut butter-cinnamon cookies for #ElleAPalooza
As many of you might know by now, the food blogging world lost a dear dear friend way too early.
Elle of ellesnewenglandkitchen.com
(See my past post about her passing).
To honor her, her love, her friendships, her mentoring, and most of all her memory, a group of friends who all knew Elle have formed an #ElleAPalooza.
(There is also an auction to help raise funds for her family. Elle leaves behind a wonderful husband, and four children. If you can, please help donate to the fund. You can only imagine, in this economy, how hard things are for her husband now--so please donate, give what you can--any amount is welcome).
If you're interested in joining the celebration of Elle and the #ElleAPalooza, please visit the Facebook page: Friends of Elle.
Bloggers that participate, pick a favorite recipe from Elle's blog, recreate as is or with a twist--all done with loving Elle in memory. Along with the recipe, bloggers reflect back on their memories with Elle, how they met her, what they loved about her, what they learned from her, etc...
I personally never met Elle, but we became fairly close online via facebook and our food blogs.
In fact, Elle was one of the first people to leave a comment on my blog back in 2008 when I first started blogging.
Funny as my first few posts had horrid food photos and the cheesiest words to accompany those photos. So cheesy I swear....I like to think I've gotten better as I've aged?
Darling Elle saw past the cheesy words and always loved the recipes.
She would always tell me how creative I was, and when in the world was my first cookbook coming out?
As the years passed, she, the football Patriot loving friend, soon became someone I loved to share my morning espresso with on Facebook while I was supposed to be writing and working.
Oh it was easy to giggle and pass the morning by with her; she had a great sense of humor.
And always, and I do mean always, was very supportive of any new venture I took or any other food bloggers she knew.
Someone asked me what one thing, one true memory of Elle that stood out ?
Oh that's so easy to answer: she was so SUPPORTIVE.
Supportive to even people she casually knew in the food blogging world; she would encourage, encourage, encourage!
I like to call her the cheerleader of the food blogging world--she was always coaching people on, always sharing cooking contest links to me, pushing me on to enter--even if she was entering to.
She was not selfish at all.
Such a kind, gentle soul...you are so missed my dear.
For the #ElleAPalooza, I choose Elle's flourless peanut cookies, which are made with toffee and chocolate, but since Elle knew me so well, she knows that pretty much everything I do I have to put my own spin on it.
Since I love cinnamon with my peanut butter in the mornings, I decided to add cinnamon chips.
Those cinnamons chips went so well with the rich peanut butter flavor of the cookies.
Oh and a little sea salt on top never hurts either.

This is quite possibly one of the better peanut butter cookie recipes I've come across--it's very rich, deep peanut butter flavor....almost like a really good slice of chocolate cake that leaves you so thirsty.
This is that, but in a cookie. Very satisfying, and no flour used.
Of course, one bowl easy too.


I think what also made these smell and taste so good was the new bottle of tahitian vanilla I bought as a splurge item. Just a little something-something added in the background of the cookie.

I know that the tahitian beans are one of the more fragrant ones, and I can attest to this as the smell these cookies made in the house while baking was strong--almost tropical. Okay tropical mixed with peanut butter, really nice smell.

Don't be tempted to flatten these--they won't be as puffy or tender when baked.
Just a little push down--barely.

If you try and take these off the sheet right after baking they will break apart.
Let them cool at least 20 minutes or longer.

Can't tell you how tasty these truly are...I'm certain Ms. Elle was with me when I created these.
You are missed Ms. Elle, you are missed...

flourless pb & cinnamon cookies
recipe idea from elle's new england kitchen
print recipe
2 cups peanut butter (not oily all natural kind)
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 ts pure vanilla extract
1 ts baking soda
1 ts sea salt
less than ½ cup cinnamon chips
a little extra sea salt for the tops of the cookies
In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients except for the cinnamon chips.
Mix well, then fold in the cinnamon chips
Cover bowl well, and put in fridge for at least 15 minutes.
OR using a 2-inch cookie scoop out cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets, barely pressing down on the dough balls, then set them into fridge to firm up before baking. (I did the latter).
Put a little sea salt on the tops of the cookies before baking, optional but wonderful.
The cookies won’t spread much during baking, but they do rise up a bit.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake cookies for 13-16 minutes.
It’s hard to know when the cookies are done as they stay soft and puffy while baking (they firm up a lot after baking)
I looked for almost-crisp, light golden brown edges.
After you remove from oven, let them sit on the hot cookie sheet for at least 15-20 minutes or longer if you can.
If you try and take them off the sheet right out of the oven they will break apart; very delicate after baking.
They don’t keep too fresh that long, maybe 3 days at best?
Makes about 21-25 cookies
2/7/14
friday links
Happy Friday!
The sunsets of late, having been giving me a gentle reminder that spring is just around the corner.
Have you noticed (those living in the Northeast) that the sun is getting a bit stronger?
As of today, we have 40 days till spring!

Sun setting over a frozen cranberry bog in Sandwich, MA

Empty marina in Harwichport, MA

What a view--I could easily live here.

So this happened....and it was worth the calories.

I was asked to try these herb and flowers crystals from Fresh Origins.
All natural, no additives, all-natural colors, an exciting crunch and incredible flavors of fresh flowers and herbs. Adding the hibiscus as a decorative touch on cupcakes, the basil to a fresh plate of pasta, adding the mint crystals to a fancy chocolate dessert, the cranberry crystals on a plate of assorted cheese....the possibilities are endless.
I found myself noshing on the hibiscus just for the flavor--they taste exactly like the real thing.

For more information on the fruit and herb crystals go to freshorigins.com
Restaurant owners/chefs, I highly recommend these products and
also don't forget to check out their large line of fresh micro greens.
Around The Web:
stretching for strength (I love stretching, feels so good)
DIY scented wax melts
the infamous Loehmann's store is closing its doors
crispy chinese meyer lemon chicken
DIY pistachio milk + other nut milks
your IT band is not the enemy (but maybe your foam roller is)
is there a link between diet & body odor?
how to be thankful for life with one word
easiest nutella cookie recipe
big meals vs. small snacks: what's best for you?
girl makes bank by eating on camera (odd)
some secrets of longevity
how exercise changes your muscles (love this blog)
typography pie (LOVE!)
remember the pink goop in McDonalds?
the skateboarding cat
cell phone radiation is real, how to protect yourself
deep fried oreo's--why not
cinnamon sugar & banana donut holes
cancer patients who exercise could halve their risk of death
what is pantothenic acid?
50 things to let go of before your next birthday
an aging brain is still pretty smart
chocolate covered cheetos! why not right?
meyer lemon meltaways
looking for a certificate of annoyance?
chicken flautas with spicy avocado sauce
DIY re-upholster dining room chairs
nutella doughnuts
korean fried chicken
3 stages of awakening: vishnu prasad
the secret of success: relax & do nothing
ultimate survival alaska casting call (ready?)
why does my iphone battery die so fast?
the nutrient your grandparents got that is missing from your diet
6 foods to boost your mood
why does cold, damp weather make my old injuries ache?
how to make frosted olympic ring cookies
always have room for dessert? here's why
8 things you didn't know about chinese new year
how to make homemade nutella
new phone scam (PLEASE read)
understanding other people: I just don't like you
red velvet sugar cookie bars
big danger in the NuvaRing
how to clean a cast iron skillet
vegetarian parm hero's
excess iron & copper contribute to chronic disease/aging
death-defying Ukrainians are insane
hilarious roundup of naughty dogs (really cute)
dad pre-writes over 800 notes for his daughter because he won't be around
ever wonder what sand really looks like up close? (amazing)
Have a wonderful weekend.


