Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes

I have the attention span of a five year old…after they have devoured all of their Halloween candy. It’s sad really because there are times when said short attention span gets the better of me. Just recently, while driving, I got distracted by my Blackberry and missed a turn. And by distracted, I mean I was busy taking a picture of me driving in my mother’s Miata…so I could post it on Facebook (disclaimer: I was at a stop light, so it wasn’t like I was barreling down the streets of Georgia with one hand on the wheel and the other on my Blackberry trying to strike a pose).

My attention span only gets shorter when a nifty new gadget or piece of gear is in my general vicinity (and by general vicinity I mean within a ten mile radius because I can sniff out new techie things like a police dog sniffing out cocaine at an airport in Miami circa 1983). So it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that when I set out to make these mini key lime cheesecakes for our New Year’s Eve celebration, my new baby kept distracting me. Sure, this is the same camera model I had earlier in the year. But I just now got around to replacing the one that had to be sent back due to a defective flash. And this time I actually read the owner’s manual from cover to cover…and discovered you can control the camera from your LAPTOP!!! I don’t need no stinkin’ camera remote, I have my Macbook! Wait, where was I going with this post????

Daring Bakers Challenge: Caramel Cake Cupcakes

I’ve missed the Daring Bakers! When I took a bit of a sabbatical from food blogging, I also took a break from the Daring Bakers. But I’m back and just in time for a sugar rush! Challenge hosts Dolores from Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity, Alex from Blondie and Brownie, Jenny of Foray into Food and Natalie of Gluten A Go Go found what can only be described as a dentist’s worst nightmare. This month’s challenge recipe is Shuna Fish Lydon’s Caramel Cake, as published on the Bay Area Bites blog, an ode to sugar at its finest. It’s a cake…with caramel in the batter…topped with a carmelized buttercream. My teeth ached just reading the recipe. For my first challenge back in the saddle, however, this was an easy yet versatile recipe…even more so since I turned them into cupcakes.

Artisan Boule Bread

So I promised you guys a treat if you voted. And you were good, right? I mean the voter turnout was amazingly high, so you must have voted. Well, either way, I am not one to renege on a promise so here it is: Artisan Boule Bread! And let me just tell you, this is a treat of legendary proportions…because it’s not just about the bread. Oh no sir! It’s about so much more…

Wedding Cake Cupcakes

On my walk to work yesterday morning, I noticed a young couple who were obviously lost. I had the feeling they were tourists (the confused looks on their faces was the first clue), but they weren’t doing the normal, annoying touristy things (you know, standing in the middle of the sidewalk with a map the size of North Dakota folded out and obstructing everyone’s view). I was about to go over and offer assistance when a man beat me to it. This guy looked like the typical DC lawyer: impeccably dressed, briefcase in hand and a cellphone glued to his ear. But he still stopped and helped this couple find their way. It was one of the nicest gestures I’ve seen in a while and put me in the mood to make these cupcakes.

Summer Peach Cobbler

I have a bit of a confession: I don’t really like peaches. I know, I know, you’re thinking: “But you’re from Georgia…isn’t that I don’t know, the PEACH state?”. Yes it is, you insolent ass but that doesn’t negate the fact that I am not really a peach fan. They always seemed to lack flavor and had a weird fuzzy consistency that reminded me of eating bugs (not that I go around eating bugs, but you get the drift). But as with most things, that was before I had some fresh, lovely peaches straight from the farm.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread…And a Lazy Man’s Coconut Beans & Rice

I’ll admit it: my apartment is a mess, I haven’t cooked in days (boiling angel hair pasta and then adding sun dried tomatoes and parmesan cheese doesn’t count…does it?) and I have been tucked into bed by 7 pm five out of the last seven nights. So when I was thinking about what to eat for dinner Friday night, imagine my surprise when the urge to actually do a bit of baking hit me. Mind you, I didn’t want to do anything elaborate…and I didn’t want to go to the grocery store (did I mention I haven’t done any grocery shopping in almost two weeks), so I had to think of something that didn’t require a lot of butter…or sugar…or chocolate…or whole milk. That’s when I remembered an Irish soda bread Food Rockzman had made for a St. Patrick’s Day dinner I was lucky enough to attend. He had mentioned how easy it was to make, so I took a gander at the recipe…and decided I had to find something even easier.

Apple Danish Braid: A Daring Baker’s Challenge

I was not about to make the same mistakes I made with my very first Daring Baker challenge. I had most definitely learned my lessons last time and applied them whole heartedly with this new challenge. So on a Friday night before going to bed, I fully read the recipe, jotting down each time the dough required chilling. This helped me to calculate the total time needed to make this bread. I made out a bit of a schedule, made sure I had all the ingredients and set off on my baking adventure the following Saturday…during a fucking heat wave in DC.