French Fridays With Dorie

 

Yes, another blogging/baking & cooking group! 

I LOVE DORIE GREENSPAN.  She has helped me learn more about baking in the past year than I thought possible.  I adore her recipes.  There are few that I have not just LOVED.  When I heard that she had a new book coming out I could not wait to get it.  I was VERY excited to find out that it was being released early.  Then, I was even MORE excited to find out that my amazing friend, Laurie, was going to be heading up a new blogging group to cook their way through the new book, Around My French Table.

The first month’s recipes were chosen by Dorie herself.  This weeks recipe is the “Goureges”….a yummy, light, and delicious cheesey puffs of air.  They are simple to make, quick to make, and didn’t last long!  Aiden wasn’t sure about them….but Jakob inhaled one after another!

Look at these….don’t you just want to jump through the screen and eat one?

I put the Goureges “batter” into a pastry bag and used a large star tip to “pipe” them onto the silpat!  Can you tell???

Now….go to the new website and see all the amazing people that are participating in this new group….last I heard there were about 500 people signed up!!

 

12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

 

This year I decided to participate in….

Friends have put together the group, and since I am always looking for new and fantastic Christmas cookies to try and add to my array of goodies, it was a no brainer to join them.

I was SO looking forward to having a really good first cookie for this event.  I had it picked out over a week ago.  But being the procrastinator that I am I waited until this afternoon to bake them.  I know, I know….you would think that I had learned my lesson by now, but apparently not.

I found this recipe in this years “Better Home and Gardens Christmas Cookies” magazine. They were suppose to be Soft Maple Sugar Cookies, with a maple glaze.  I had looked at the recipe, and thought I could just swap out the 1/2 cup of shortening, for another 1/2 cup of butter.  Maybe that was be problem I made.  But the dough was SO soft that there was no way I could roll it into balls….and even after chilling the dough for two hours it was still too soft to do so.  I used my cookie scoop to drop nice formed globes onto my cookie sheet and hoped for the best.  NOPE.  Did NOT turn out.  Too soft, falling apart.  I didn’t even bake all the dough.  Made me sad.  I had high hopes for some yummy maple cookies.  Fall and Christmas rolled into one cookie.

Look at how sad these look….

I promise to not wait til the last minute to make next weeks cookies so that I have something spectacular to see!

Sorry!!

A Lazy TWD….

 

I think the Tarte Fine is a perfect Lazy TWD dessert.  It is so simple to put together, quick to bake, and tastes really good.  And if it wasn’t easy enough….I got lazy with it.  Which I shouldn’t have, because now I have chunks of apricot jam in my glaze that you can see in pictures….and undercooked puff pastry.  And there is nothing worse than undercooked puff pastry, it’s chewy and a little gross.  I got lazy.  I wanted to glaze it and eat it.  So when I saw the edges of this simple, easy tarte getting browned I pulled it!  I should have foiled the edges like Dorie told me too and let it bake longer.

So even though my pictures are spotted with bits of apricot, and my puff pastry is a little chewy, I think it looks good, and the edges are really good!!

I, of course, added a little caramel sauce!  I think it really goes with everything! 

Enjoy!

And be sure to go and check out all the other TWD creations of the Tarte Fine!

I just want to make cookies!

 

I had thought about making this title “Frustration Friday” to match my mood.  But that doesn’t really have a lot to do with the cookies!  But it does have to do with the fact that I missed the boat by just a few weeks. And I am kicking myself for it.

Let me backtrack a little……

There is this great party place here in Richmond Hill called Cutie P’ Tutie.  It has some of the cutest gifts, toys and throws an awesome party.  They host different themed parties for both boys and girls.  They go ALL out – including goodie bags and treats.  So a little light bulb went off for me.  Maybe I should make some cookies to go along with their themes, take them down to them, and see if they would be interested in having me make cookies for their parties. 

So these are what I made:

For the Spa Party…..

For the Pirate Party…..

 

For the Diva Party…..

Cute right?!?

Unfortunately, they had just signed a contract with the company that does their themed cakes to also provide cookie favours.  Bummer right?

Maybe I shouldn’t have waited so long.  Maybe next time.  Trying to not let it discourage me. Just going to keep on making cookies and get them out there.

Wish me luck!

First Day of Kindergarten

Are you kidding me? 

Where did the time go that I am now the Mama of a Kindergartener? 

How is it that Jakob is so grown up already? 

Slow Down!  Both of you, please, just slow down.

I think of how much he already knows, and what he will be learning this year, and I am amazed and excited for him.  This is a big time for him.  And I hope to make it as enjoyable experience as possible.  These are the years that will set the bar for his enjoyment of school for possibly the rest of his education career.  This is HUGE.  I am so lucky that he was looking forward to school, strutted his stuff walking in, and that he was sad that I had to leave.  It showed me that he was confident and independent but still needed me a little.  Thank you for that Jakob!

Here is my very excited little man on his first day….

Oh….and since I love to commemorate every occasion with cookies….I made these for Jakob to take to his class for snack time….

At then end of the day he was happy to start school, was excited to meet new friends (even though he couldn’t remember ANY of their names), and is looking forward to going back tomorrow. 

The only thing missing on this day is Jason.  Jakob really misses him and was sad that Daddy couldn’t be here.  But the good news is since we are moving mid-school year, Jakob will have another “first day of kindergarten” and Jason can take him that day.  ALWAYS look for the silver lining.

Military Monday….a farewell and a hello!

I am going to miss Nikki.  Next week there is a change of command happening….  Nikki’s husband Cory, Jason’s current Commanding Officer, is being moved to a different “company” and a new Commanding Officer is coming in….I don’t do well with some change.  But what this change means for me is a new FRG (Family Readiness Group) leader.  I am sure that JoAnn and I will get along well.  I am just sad that I wont be able to finish out my time at Ft. Stewart with Nikki as my partner in crime. 

Anyway…..so a few weeks ago we had a meeting to welcome JoAnn, and say goodbye and THANK YOU to Nikki.  Nikki has done a phenomenal job pulling all us crazy wives together and into a cohesive group.  She will be greatly missed. 

So, as co-leader of the group I thought it was only appropriate to acknowledge the occasion with cookies!  LOL

Here are my Thank You and Welcome cookies for Nikki & JoAnn.

Thank you Ladies for all your hard work.

One Word Wednesday!

Fearless!