Did I paint my nails just for this picture? Yes. Did I paint just the left hand? Also yes. How long did it take for me to paint the right hand? 48 hours. I've been this way for years. It either takes me an hour to do my nails... or days. Or I never finish and I just start over again with fresh polish. But back to the macarons. I bought matcha back in December for these cookie swap cookies . It's a really unique flavor profile. If someone tells you they don't like matcha, I feel like they are being picky. Matcha absolutely has *some flavor* but its also like *no flavor* at the same time. I came across a recipe for mango coconut macaron ... which sounded great. But I didn't have any mango and it felt like a lot of work. I did have matcha and the flavors matched up well. Like I said, matcha isn't that strong of a flavor in general. Or I have low bar matcha. That could also be true. A few notes about this recipe / attempt: - I don't think it is advisab...
I've had this cake on my list for most of the summer. And sweet lord, it is good. It also has like a whole lot more steps than I normally take on. But, the minute I tasted this frosting I knew it was all worth it. I have literally never tasted anything so light and airy in my life. Pure heaven. Candidly, I made this cake for a casual family gathering. My birthday. I know it's not something normally accepted for a birthday girl to make her own cake - but it is what I wanted. And what the birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets. So my parents don't get shamed for this, here is text message evidence of the initial decline when I asked to make the cake. Here are a few things to know about this cake: Blackberry Compote // you can use frozen berries. My grocery store didn't have fresh blackberries in-stock and we all lived after eating this cake. No big deal. Lime Cake // the current flavor profile is subtle. My aunt didn't even take note of the lime f...
Yes, I made up this cake name. Yes, it is perfect for any firework related holiday but really perfect for the 4th of July. Or perhaps a child's birthday? Either way, I have a lot of excess pop rocks and I'd like to find a new home for them preferably outside of my house. The idea here is a simple sheet cake with a little bit of pizazz. The end result was a very tasty, fresh cake that took very little effort to pull together. I can imagine it being good for someone baking with kids. I was drawn to the original recipe because of the blue stripes ... for which I got absolutely none of that. In the recipe's defense, I did cut back on the food coloring by about 50% but I'm not sure it would have made that big of a difference. A few notes: too much pudding // the initial recipe called for 3 boxes of instant pudding... which I dutifully made and used. It was a bit obscene. I had a pudding layer about an inch thick on top of the cake. After it had firmed up I scr...
  Have you ever eaten a good, fudgy brownie ... and been like why can't this be a whole cake? If so, this is the cake for you. It is like a cake make out of just the middle fudgy part of the brownie. Not the crust not the bottom, not the edges... just the fudgy middle part. It's pretty amazing. I saw this recipe initially on the internet. The baker posted a video of her making the cake. It was captivatingly easy ... and I love that she kept calling her grandmother her "Nan". So those are the reasons I made this cake. This is not the best logic, but I was also trying to make a "lighter" cake than the previous ones from the summer ( banana cinnamon , banana hazelnut ). This cake is an absolute winner. If you invite me to your house, there is a decent chance that I'll bring this with me. A few things about this cake: perfect for a "make your own" bar type event. I ate this cake with whip cream and berries.... and then again with just peanut butter...
I'm going to make this quick... because green bean salad is pretty straight forward. I almost wouldn't write it up but when I was menu planning for this years 4th of July... I realized I never wrote down what I made last year. Devastating. My formula for the 4th of July menu is always the same: + potato based + pasta based + bean based + dessert So this is the bean dish. I try to keep the dishes to only be something that I would want to potentially eat for days. You never know what people are going to eat at a party and I hate waste. I also try to keep the ingredients affordable since we are already doing so much cooking. Out of the 4 things I made, this was one of the most affordable. Minimal number of ingredients and nothing too high class pricey. Here's how it goes. The only real downside to this is you will get sweaty after boiling so many batches of green beans. But if you are me, you can reward yourself with an ice cream sandwich after. That makes it worth it. Bring a...
I will continue to stand by the principle that I only make things I wouldn't mind eating for several days. That will be the case 1000% with this pasta salad. Turns out I didn't need to double it... one batch would have been just fine. Thankfully, this super easy pasta salad is light enough that you don't mind. Candidly, when I first saw this recipe pop up on Food52 I thought "peperonata" was going to lead me to some sausage or pepperoni. I read the recipe several times trying to figure out what I was missing. Turns out "peperonata" is just a whole ton of peppers... and more of course, but no meat. At all. Which is fine because at a BBQ with burgers and hot dogs, we will be just fine with a meat-less option. A few notes: Peppers // When you decide to make this yourself, splurge and buy more than one color of pepper. It makes cooking so beautiful. I stopped to take a picture of the skillet it was so pretty. All the peppers contrasting with the red onion? S...
I love a good potato salad. It can be so many things... extra creamy, extra savory, extra just about anything. There was this amazing potato salad we grew up with that had peas and bacon in it. I'm sure there were other things but I flipping love that stuff. It came as a side whenever you got a sandwich and I demolished that little dixie cup of deliciousness. Unfortunately, Mug Shots the restaurant no longer exists so I just have dream about it. But - for this year's 4th of July party I created a potato salad that was pretty great. There is no real way you can screw up a roasted potato. I have a hard time resisting snacking on the slightly salty warm squares fresh out of the oven.  There are a few things that could be said about this salad: Arugula // Some people at the party requested more arugula. I can totally get that. So add more or less to make it fit for your crowd Roasted potatoes // I like the potatoes a bit crispy but that is not the super traditional salad style. The...