Sunday Brunch

Brunch is wonderful. Brunch allows you to sleep in and still have breakfast; brunch doesn't judge your pajamas or your Hello Kitty slippers.

I was on iwastesomuchtime.com or maybe slowrobot.com, I'm not sure which one it was, but either way I saw these crazy good looking toast, egg, and bacon things last night. However, it was just a picture, so this morning I accepted the challenge and figured out how to put them together, what temperature would be best for baking them, and how long to leave them in the oven. Challenge not only accepted, but challenge accomplished.

 So simple and so filling. First, take your trusty cupcake pan and grease the bottom and sides with butter. Make sure to only grease the ones you'll be using, no point in wasting butter! Then, take whatever bread you like best for your toast, make sure it's fresh! Fold the piece of bread gently into a cupcake pan. Fresh bread is better because it's more flexible, if it is even the slightest bit stale when you're folding it into the cupcake pan it'll break or rip. Next, crack the egg into the little bread cup you just created and place half a strip of bacon on top.

See the one all the way in the back? That was the first one I did. I put the bacon in first and then when I cracked the egg on top egg whites overflowed onto my counter. With the bacon on the bottom there wasn't enough room for the egg whites; lesson learned. But, by all means, if you have a bigger cupcake pan, or managed to fit your bread in better than I did, go for the bacon on the bottom.

I'll admit, they aren't the tastiest looking things, but they are delicious. The butter that you used to grease the pan gives the bread a nice golden color, like the outside of a perfectly made grilled cheese. And the bacon is nice and tender (I don't like my bacon really crispy) and what I love about baking it is that there is minimal grease from the bacon. It feels a lot more healthy when you're eating it.

I set my oven at 350F and they baked for about 25 minutes to a half hour. I would recommend to keep checking them, you don't want to over cook the eggs or burn the toast.

A friendly tip, and this happened with two of the breakfast cups I made this morning: the bottom of the bread broke a little bit so some of the egg got through and it stuck to the bottom of the pan a little bit. Instead of sliding right out of the pan, the bottom ended up breaking. In such cases, a fork will most certainly help you in your breakfast endeavor. But, whether or not they stick to the pan, they're an amazing way to start the day off right.

Cookies, Flatbread, and Presents, Oh My!

This post, yeah, about it, it's kinda almost maybe about a week late? Maybe? But forgive me, this holiday season has me in lazy-mode. But, here's me filling you in.

Because of a previous post about how much my hand-mixer hates me, my lovely Mama gave me her standing mixer. Yay! Like almost everything else I own she'll soon get a name, once I find one worth her beauty.

On the eve or Christmas Eve I was baking like a mad woman all day. And I mean all day. I made sugar, molasses, peanut butter, and gingerbread cookies. Then proceeded to decorate the sugar cookies; all for a Christmas Eve party.

On top of this I also made this wonderful Navajo Flatbread I got from one of Jamie Oliver's books. If you've never heard of him, he's a wonderful British chef whose take on food makes me wanna cook everything and anything I can get my hands on. I hold myself back though, don't worry. But really, should should check him out: http://www.jamieoliver.com/ He has a wide range of recipes, and if you get a chance to read one of his books do it! He doesn't just give you the recipes, he talks about how they came into being and the experience he's had with it. It's wonderful.

Also, Christmas day and the Saturday after I made out like a bandit on baking related things. My wonderful Mama and Papa got me a chef coat. * gasps loudly * Seriously, it's amazing. I feel professional, even though I'm not..yet..I hope. Among that I received Joy the Baker's cookbook, adorable cupcake/cake stencils, a giant timer (that sounds like an old-fashioned phone when it goes off), a book about Julia Child and her love of cats and cooking, silicone guards for my oven racks (no burning myself anymore!), and this amazing pan that I can make mini pies in, among other many amazing things. But wait! There's more! Saturday we went to my boyfriend's mom's house for their family Christmas, and let me tell you, I feel loved. I got four, count 'em, one, two, three, four, FOUR different books all related to baking. The two I'm most excited about: Baking with the Cake Boss * more loud gasps *, and this amazing book called Easy Cake Decorating. From flipping through it I've gathered that it teaches about working with fondant, making icing flowers, and many other amazing things. Oh, I'm not done. On top of the four books I received recipe boxes, cupcake wrappers, all sorts of icing decorating tools (bottles that fold in like an accordion for easy-no-mess decorating, many decorating tips, etc.), cupcake pans and cake pans. And, oh my! That really isn't it. But, no need to bore you with everything, cause, it's a lot! I told you, bandit.

Among non-baking related gifts I got a wonderful new pea-coat, a beautiful scarf, a little water well, and some seriously cool ornaments, for next year of course.

Since I've received a total of five new books that have amazing recipes in them and considered my third Christmas is next weekend, I'll be making some goodies and sharing them with you!

As a parting gift I leave you with a darling picture of our adorable kittens. You're welcome.

Saturday

Oooooh, that's why I'm easy, easy like Sunday morning..
No, Lionel, no, Saturday.

Anyway, Saturday I went over my my Mom's house to bake. Because baking is wonderful and so is my Mom. In the spirit of Christmas we decided to make reindeer cookies. Adorable reindeer cookies. See..

Notice the blob of a cookie with an M&M in it? That is the result of leftover dough.

These cookies are soooo simple and soooo adorable.

To make these cookies use your favorite sugar cookie recipe, no point in me telling you which to use. For the shape of the reindeer head we used a cookie cutter in the shape of a bell. Turn the bell upside down when you decorate, so that the clapper (part inside the bell that makes that lovely noise) can be used as the nose. Then add M&Ms for the eyes and nose, pretzels for the ears. Presto!

Ideally, you should add these in before you bake them, so that they bake right in and you don't have to use icing. However, my Mom and I didn't remember that point until the last tray, that only had six cookies on it (the tray shown in the picture). So, we stuck everything else on with icing. Simple solution for simple cookies!

While visiting at my parent's I gotta play with the wonderful animals they have.
This is Dio. Look how cute.

This is Alice cat. (By the way, Dio was named after the one and only Ronnie James Dio, and Alice after the infamous Alice Cooper) This was the best out of five pictures, she wouldn't sit still for anything.

And this is my Sasha girl. Who seemed very sad that Mom was putting all the cookies away.

And after the baking and decorating my Dad took me on a hike in the woods to find a Christmas tree. That is now decorating and sitting in my living room.

Ignore the lights slightly dangling at the bottom, one word explanation: kittens.

Although the holiday season has already started: Have a wonderful holiday season (regardless of what holiday you celebrate)! And, more posts to come within the following days!

Today Sucked

And what do you do when the day sucks? You bake, of course.

You bake the thing that makes you happy. Birthday's are filled with cake and cupcakes. Cupcakes make us happy on those days. I baked cupcakes. See my line of thinking?

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting, to be precise. Today, this is what made me happy.

Baking is therapeutic; at least for me it is. My bad day left me shaky and frustrated, then my hand mixer made me more frustrated. The slowest speed on my mixer was toooooo fast for the cupcake batter, so I had to do it by hand. Which, turns out, is very relaxing. Before I realized it, I was smiling and having a grand ole time. No, really. Therapeutic. Say it with me.. ther-a-peuuuu-tic. Isn't that nice?

Before I was born my parents painted my bedroom a very nice green color, it was very pastel-y. And it stayed that color all the way up until I moved out; now it's a peach color. But anyway, my point: I love pastel colors because of that room. So, these cupcakes were topped with a nice pastel-y blue. As pastel-y as I could get it. You know food coloring..

Sadly, this picture doesn't do the color the justice I hoped it would.

And yes, pastel-y is a word..now..

These cupcakes were very good, fabulous even. To the point where I wish I could take credit, but I can't. So, giving credit where credit is due..Joy the Baker, everybody! http://joythebaker.com/2009/07/twelve-frosted-cupcakes-just-one-stick-of-butter-promise/

If you have yet to read her blog, DO IT NOW! I'm telling you, she's amazing. She's a very down-to-earth, classy chick. And though we have not met, I love her. I do. She's just below Julia Child but just above Nikki Sixx. Don't judge me..

Here ya go..the final product. Notice the green sprinkles? Sprinkles make this world a better place. It's a fact. A proven fact.

Goodbye bad day.. I wish, for anyone reading this, that you had a much better day and just let me say that..you're wonderful.<3

Welcome to my blog all about food!

Let me start by introducing myself.. I'm Isabella, I'm currently a hotel and restaurant management student. After I graduate with my A.A.S. I'm hoping to go on to a culinary program. One day I wanna open my own bakery.

I know I still have a lot to learn about baking and cooking, so, enter blog. As I learn how to make something new, or just an old favorite, I'll be posting pictures and/or blogging about it. I promise to try to keep this as up to date as I can, I pinky promise.

So, let the journey begin..

Tonight I made bruschetta. It was divine, if I do say so myself. Though, no one can attest to this but me since I was the only one eating it. But trust me, it was amazing.

I've made bruschetta quite a few times in the past, but this time I did it a little differently. Here's what I did: I lightly toasted a few slices of Italian bread, sliced not too thin, but not too fat. Then I tossed yellow and orange bell peppers, spinach leaves, and tomato in a little bit of olive oil. Put on the bread and top with mozzarella cheese.

See, divine. It's not only heavenly, but it's healthy! Oh, and here's a picture, so you can see just how divine it really was.