Turkey Cookies

For Thanksgiving, my sister Joellen had the idea to make some really cute sugar cookies decorated like turkeys. She got the idea from a really cute cookie blog: Bake at 350.

To start, we followed Paula Deen's recipe for Snowflake Cookies. When the dough was finished, we covered it with plastic wrap and let it chill for about an hour.

We rolled it out, and used a knife to cut around the turkey cutout we printed from the website I can't remember the name of.

We arranged them on top of parchment paper on the cookie sheet, and baked them.

They looked great!

We made royal icing and mixed in the different food color gels!

Icing the cookies was fun! First, we piped the outline of the turkey shape,

and then we filled in the outline by "flooding" the area with slightly thinner icing.

Joellen added the turkey face and they were complete!

They were delicious too!

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

I was unable to put down this truly magical and heartwarming story of a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. It is written for kids ages 8-12 to enjoy, but I found it incredibly enjoyable myself, and I am definitely going to recommend it at my next book club meeting :) Whoever you are, you should read it too - you'll feel like a kid again!

"Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely.

And then, one day, he was lost.

Kate DiCamillo and Bagram Ibatoulline take us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hoboes' camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to the streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again."

- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, edwardtulane.com

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies... Yum!

My recipe is no secret - and it is in my opinion the VERY best chocolate chip cookie recipe. So good, in fact, that I've never had the slightest urge to try any other recipes. They're always very satisfying.

The secret is in the order you combine the ingredients, and the way you bake them. They need to be baked at 375; last time I accidentally baked them at a lower temperature, and they didn't get crispy on the outside. When they come out perfectly, they're ever so slightly crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside. Absolutely scrumptious!

Start with these ingredients:

2 1/4 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened.

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Cream the softened butter and sugars until fluffy and blended together. Add vanilla and eggs. Add flour mixture a little at a time until it is all incorporated.

Fold in cchocolate chips.

Look at the amazing dough you just made!

Scoop into 1-inch balls, and place on an ungreased baking sheet. My baking sheets, Baker's Secret, from Amazon.com, work really well!

Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees. Mine took 10 minutes.

Enjoy with a glass of milk!

The apple is king at Burton-Conner

via web.mit.edu

Our event was featured by MIT News! Click the link above to read the full article.

Apple Bake

This year's apple bake started out with an amazing theme of, "Peace Love and Apple Bake!"

Lisa and I began the day by venturing out to Costco and Target. We purchased this fun Balloon Time Helium Tank for $20 at Target, and were able to blow up about 50 balloons for our event! It was a much better deal than the $1.50/balloon Shaw's wanted to charge us, and it was easy and fun.

We tied the balloons to our amazing prize mugs, and used them as centerpieces for all of our tables.

Before we knew it, the students were bringing in all sorts of yummy apple dishes!

The MIT press even came to our event, and took some amazing pictures. The pictures below are some they may be featuring in an article about us! When I get the link, I will definitely be sharing :) Many thanks to Stephanie Keeler!

Below is my favorite entry, which was entered into the Apple Art category, and was called "Hook'em Apple!!!"

And this was another fun entry in the "Apple Art" category:

[wpvideo Qe6IpuEp]

At the end of the event, we gave away over $500 in prizes to 26 students!

And in the end, our balloons looked great on the prize table! This year was by far the best Apple Bake ever!

Apple Bake is coming...

This Sunday is the *th Annual Apple Bake Competition at Burton Conner.

*I wish I knew how long it has been going on, so I could call it 7th Annual, 8th Annual, 4th Annual, or whatever... but the truth is that no one knows how long it has been going on. This is the second year Jamie and I have planned it, so I guess we can call it the 2nd Annual, but I don't want to do that beacause it's not really true - this event happened before we lived here. We'll have to get someone investigating this...

It is going to be exciting! We've been planning for about a month, with our wonderful friends Lisa and Andrew, who are organizing it with us this year. The event is hugely popular among the residents of Burton Conner (an undergraduate dorm at MIT), who bake hundreds of apple dishes in one day, submit them to be judged, and have the opportunity to win over $500 in prizes! Last year, we had almost 150 entries, and we expect to have more this year. They bake all kinds of creative things, like "Sausage Apple Pie" and "Apple Cheescake Muffins". I was never that creative with food as a college student, so they really impress me. I can't wait to see what kinds of things they come up with this year, and to taste as many of them as I can.

I am hoping with all the craziness that I will have time to take pictures of the beautiful dishes so we can all remember the awesomeness, and I can share it with you!

An Inspiring Story

via amazon.com

Did you know that Ameilia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt were friends?

I didn't until I read Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride.

The book allows the reader the opportunity to become a part of history by joining two friends, who also happen to be real-life strong female figures, on an incredible journey that begins with an elegant dinner at the White House. Amelia describes to Eleanor the feelings she experiences while flying her airplane at night, and suggests that they take a trip! Eleanor agrees that it is a splendid idea, so they soar over the Washington D.C. night sky together. The best part is that these events actually happened!

In the book, Pam Munoz Ryan includes a special recipe from The White House, as well as details of the true events that occurred that night and how she discovered this amazing story.

It is really an interesting read, and a fun trip back in time! Even though it is a picture book, it is fun for adults too!