Today was the second annual “Jew Help A Christian Day”, i.e. the second consecutive Christmas Eve I’ve driven across town to spend a few hours helping my friend Jen get ready for her big family dinner. (Last year’s recap is HERE.) I had a BLAST, which is something I don’t normally say when I’m cleaning and cooking in my own house. Something to work on. Anyway, last week I asked Jen what was on the menu for this year and it came up in conversation that, among other things, she was going to have me remove seeds from a pomegranate. I was clueless about the task: to be honest, I’ve…
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Sweet! Hand-Rolled, Melt-In-Your-Mouth Truffles
I haven’t done a lot of holiday baking in the past couple of years because whatever I bake, we eat. I know that’s the point but the combination of my tendency to go overboard (Go big or go home!) and our desire to not eat five hundred cookies and other sweets daily in December indicated that a cut-back was probably in order. One of the recipes I use that has always been a huge hit is my chocolate truffle recipe. Actually, it’s not “my” recipe: it comes from a book that was published in 1970. These truffles are so good that I didn’t even make them last year because see…
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Liveblogging the Latke-palooza
Wow, November 30th already?? I can’t believe NaBloPoMo is over today: I’ve blogged every single stinkin’ day (sometimes twice!) for the entire month of November. This has been the best NaBloPoMo/NaBloPoMoFo for me personally and I’m not sure why. I’m ending the month with almost all of my “just in case” drafts still snug in the draft folder, and I never once felt like I was struggling with finding something to write about. (Most of the time, LACK OF TIME was the problem!) Of course, it helped that I did a little traveling this month: it’s always easier to write about things when you’re not living the normal routine. Anyway,…
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Easiest Muffin Recipe Ever (You’re Welcome!)
In my never-ending quest to confuse my readers about my niche as a “Life Blogger” by tossing in a Food Blogger-ish recipe every now and then, today I present you with another family favorite around here: the muffin recipe I use ALL THE TIME. My Mom calls them “Sweeter Muffins” but the title I copied into my recipe book is “Twin Mountain Muffins” and I don’t know if that has a double meaning or not (Get your mind out of the gutter, OMG! And take mine with you!) so I’m just calling this recipe “The Easiest Muffin Recipe Ever” because I’m at a loss and that title describes it very…
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Taking A Moment
I’m currently in Detroit on business and I’m excited about it, not only because of what I’ll be doing while I’m here but also because I’m only THREE! DAYS! AWAY! from visiting my sistuh-from-anuthuh-mutha AND because I have been workingworkingworking like crazy on all of my various jobs for the past ten days in order to be able to make my deadlines AND not have to worry much about work other than “maintenance-type stuff” during my two trips. Shew. That was a long sentence. Actually, if you try and read it without taking a breath, you’ll have a teeny bit of an idea how it has felt to live my…
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Healthy Choice Baked Entrées: No Guilt!
This is the third (and last) in a series of sponsored posts I’m writing for the folks at Healthy Choice. I often look back on our pre-technology days and wistfully mutter about the simplicity of life back then. Usually only a minute or so goes by before I give myself a mental slap because truly, technology has indeed made almost everything easier. Take a second to remember how your life was before–ahem, depending on your age–computers, cell phones, MP3 players, DVRs, microwaves, television, automobiles, indoor plumbing… Wait, too far back? Okay, never mind. When I found out that my final Healthy Choice post would be about their Baked Entrées–and this…
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Healthy Choice 100% Naturals Café Steamers: Feedback = More Options!
This is the second in a series of sponsored posts I’m writing for the folks at Healthy Choice. A couple of weeks ago I told you about Healthy Choice Greek Frozen Yogurt. (Yum.) Today I want to tell you about their 100% Naturals Café Steamers, which just hit stores in July. I was already a fan of the other Café Steamers varieties (I love the way you cook these things and THEN stir the meat and veggies into the sauce after everything is warm, so the stuff that is supposed to be crisp stays crisp and the pasta is al dente, not mushy from sitting in liquid!), so the new…
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A Crisis Of Epic Proportions
I had a crisis of epic proportions the other day. My stomach dropped, my breathing intensified, and I started having heart palpitations. An anxiety attack was on the horizon. You see, I ran out of chocolate chips. I know; I couldn’t believe it either. I have posted on Facebook several times about how I “get nervous” when I run out of chocolate chips, but most people think I’m just trying to be funny. Sadly, I’m not. I truly have a physical reaction to the news that I have zero bags of those little semi-sweet teardrops in my freezer*. Granted, I hardly use them anymore: I don’t make chocolate chip banana…
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How To Make Portillo’s Chopped Salad At Home (& Dazzle Your Family!)
I am not–and never will be–a food blogger. (I’m guessing you’re not here for the recipes, anyway. So we’re good.) That said, I do enjoy food, and I am pretty good at making delicious things to eat. Sometimes I will prepare a family favorite for dinner and think, “I should share this on the blog.” Then I think, “But I’m not a food blogger, and the idea of staging the food for the pretty pictures makes me feel a little nauseous,” so I don’t share. Except just this once. I happen to have created a family favorite when I started making Portillo’s chopped salad at home, and I think you…
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I’ll Do It If She Will.
One of my favorite things to eat (besides steak) has always been movie popcorn with extra butter. I know it’s horrible nutritionally, but it tastes so good. I literally did a happy dance years ago when one of our local theaters installed the “butter-your-own-popcorn” stations because, you know, extra butter. Related: those stations can be dangerous for someone like me. I can out-eat anyone when it comes to movie popcorn with extra butter. Well, except for maybe one person: my mom. If my mom and I were each given a bucket of movie popcorn, buttered just the way we like it, I would be hard pressed to guess who could…
