Last Post to this blog!

Hello~
I will be posting to my Pinks & Needles blog from now on....Come see me over there!

Butterflies & Buttercream DIY Cupcake Kit Giveaway Winner is.....

Congratulations Sugar Sugar 2010 for winning this fun baking giveaway! Thank you everyone who entered to win! We'll be doing another giveaway really soon!

DIY Cupcake Kit Giveaway! Open until May 5th! Cinco de Mayo!

This giveaway is for the US only - sorry International friends : (  Don't worry I'll be doing another giveaway soon!
Please leave a comment here if you would like to win this DIY Cupcake Kit! The winner may choose Classic Yellow Cake Mix or Devils Food Cake Mix (hermetically sealed). The kit includes: cake mix for 12 standard cupcakes, rainbow sprinkles, 12 cupcake liners, a PDF to make your own Cupcake Toppers (as shown in the picture) and last but not least a tote bag sewn by me with fabric I designed : ) The lining of the bag is a pretty white background with butterflies that match the outside of the tote bag! A perfect gift for a friend or a good excuse to bake some cuppies of your own! Please note frosting not included! Open to US only! Sorry International peeps...I'll be doing another giveaway soon Worldwide Welcome!

Here's what's inside:

 

Happy Baking!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I baked these a while ago and forgot to post. So here they are a little late. I used the original Toll House recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag and then added a ton of shredded coconut to add chewiness and a little crunch. My mom and I both love crunchy cookies. I like soft too but there's something really satisfying about taking a bit out of something and hearing it crunch! I love these particular cookies right out of the freezer too! Yum!
So here's the ingredients:

Here's the cookie dough all balled up via a melon baller. The regular recipe made 84 small cookies! That way you can eat 3 and not feel totally guilty! Only 2.5 grams of fat per cookie (not including the healthy fat from the walnuts. Never count healthy fat!

 

The final resting place in the cookie jar (which I bought at Wal-Mart over the holidays). I think it was under $5! I love it because it has an old fashioned feel to it - don't you think?

Until next time........ : )

Potato Kale Soup

My mom used to make this all the time! I love soup in Winter and seriously make a pot every week while it's cold here in Arizona!
This one is easy and seems to do well if you add extras to it like today I had some celery, mini peppers and broccoli that normally doesn't go in it : )The flavor is heavenly!

Easy Fire Roasted Salsa

I have made salsa for years and I always like to experiment with ingredients : ) This time around I used fire roasted canned tomatoes instead of petite diced canned tomatoes! Final result? Delish!!!

Ingredients:

2 small cans fire roasted tomatoes (undrained)
1/2 bunch cilantro (chopped)
1/3 - 1/2 of a red onion (chopped) - depends on how oniony you like it
1 whole fresh jalapeno (seeds included) - I love super spicy so I keep all the seeds
juice from 1/2 of a lime
olive oil (float a bit on top once it's in a storage container - this helps to keep it fresh)

Options: serrano peppers instead of jalapeno - in case you like it really hot!

Once you get all your ingredients ready - put it into a food processor and pulse a few times until it's a nice small chunky salsa - that's it!

I do not add salt since most tortilla chips are riddled with it. I feel adding salt to the salsa itself makes it way too salty : )

My Gramma's Cranberries

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone - a day late! I wanted to post this before Thanksgiving but I didn't have a chance to. I had to wing this recipe since I couldn't find my Gramma Mere's recipe, my mom couldn't find her copy and Gramma herself couldn't find hers. So I did it from memory and in my opinion it came out perfect! And it's so easy!

Recipe:
(2) 12 oz bags fresh cranberries - rinsed
(2) c. sugar
(2) c. water

Bring these ingredients to a boil and and let them cook about 10-12 minutes. They'll start popping and making noise : )

They look like cranberries in the snow!

 

They're starting to pop!

 

At the end of about 12 minutes they've reduced down to this!

Remove the cranberries from the stove and let them cool a bit.

Meanwhile zest 3 nice size oranges and juice 2 of them. You'll hopefully end up with about 3/4 of a cup of juice. Set aside zest and juice.

Take about half of the cooling cranberries and push them through a sieve. The idea is to push them through to release the pectin (that's what makes it thicken as it cools). Don't throw away what's left behind in the sieve!!! That's where all the nutrition is! Mix it all together with the other half of the cooling cranberries that didn't get pushed through the sieve.

Add your orange juice and zest to the cranberries and mix well : )

You'll end up with this! The color is amazing! The taste is out of this world! You'll never want to eat congealed cranberry out of a can ever again!

I love this cranberry on pancakes, waffles, vanilla ice cream, and my favorite marzipan white on white cupcakes I'll be blogging about in my next post!