use real butter

Recipe: lychee martini

It’s the 18th. One week until Christmas. But I’m not stressing because we don’t celebrate Christmas. It’s not that I didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas, because in my non-religious family’s house – we celebrated the hell out of Christmas. My mother always made a phenomenal spread for dinner with lots of snacks sprinkled throughout the day to keep us out of the kitchen. As I’ve said before, my family does not have a baking tradition – *I* am the baker. But I do remember that my mom would make cookies once a year: puffy hearts and rings. I think it was a kind of cream puff dough, shaped into… hearts and rings, and spread with pink and green frosting and sprinkled with almond slivers. That frosting contained almond extract, which I looooooooved. I thought my mom was the best baker in the world! Kind of like when I thought my paternal grandmother had really stumbled onto something when she made me my first piece of toast :)

a snapshot from christmas past

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Recipe: chocolate truffles

Augggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I’m done! I’m done! I finished packing everything up at 3 this morning. It is all ready to be shipped or handed over. Get it away from me!

i made a huge mess yesterday

but i love it when things package up nicely

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Recipe: vanilla bean caramels

I’m learning. The reason I keep making these confections that I swore to never make again is because I think I’m really close to getting them right. First time I made orangettes, it was a success. Second time, they were rocks. This time – I think I got it. I just finished hand-dipping 160+ candied orange peels. I wouldn’t go to the trouble to make these except people seem to love them and they are one of Jeremy’s favorites.

candy making is a bitch

Today, I made a lot of headway into the list of baked goods and confections. That’s good, because yesterday I blew off baking entirely. There was fresh powder, so I met one of my tele betties on the hill. It was her birthday!

rippin’ at 49 – get it, girl!

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