I am finally letting my subscription to Family Fun  magazine run out.  I’ve been in denial for …oh, let’s say the past 8 years, that my family status (meaning the ages of my two remarkable and incredibly talented children) has long passed the prime target audience of this great magazine.  Kinda like a 25 year old still subscribing to Seventeen Magazine… it’s just sad!

But, if YOU happen to have young kids or grand-kids, you NEED to get this magazine!  There are SO many great ideas for crafts, vacations, recipes, backyard fun, parties, and on and on and on! But since my “kids” are 20 and nearly 24 – it is seriously time for me to let it go.

As a matter of fact, Family Fun was born the same year as Connor – founded in 1991 by Disney and it is the country’s number one magazine for families with children ages 3-12, with more than 2 millions subscribers. Now, if one of my two were to get married and have a child (BIG HEADS UP…that is the “right” order – BTW!) then, I will immediately re-subscribe! Until then, I shall reminisce with a couple of my favorite Halloween ideas taken directly from the pages of my beloved Family Fun….  Oh yeah, and here are my truly awful photos from when I could not remember how my own camera worked at 4 AM… yeah, good times!

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I was searching for something sweet and quick to put together today for not only this post but to bring along to a lunch date I have this afternoon. I’m meeting up with my kids’ 1st grade teacher and her daughter and two granddaughters. We’ve stayed in touch all these years later, thanks in part to Facebook and this blog. Mrs. Tunheim (Ginger, to me) was both Marissa and Connor’s favorite teacher. In fact, Connor had her three times; 1st grade, 3rd grade, and during high school he went back and was a teacher’s aide in her class for a semester… yup we all love Mrs. T! Her beautiful daughter, Kim, assisted me one summer of cooking classes back when she was a single college girl.  Kim is now married with two adorable little girls of her own, so I’m bringing along these sweets to share with them.

I also want to take this opportunity to extend exuberant, hearty, and heartfelt congratulations to my friend and colleague, Gwen Walters and her wonderful Pen & Fork, for winning Best Food Blog 2011 award given by Phoenix New Times!  Yay Gwen!!!  You can always check out Pen & Fork by just clicking on the link over there on the right side of this very page… it is AWESOME!

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Inspiration for this recipe came to me after enjoying a white chocolate and limoncello cupcake while visiting my daughter in San Francisco. Limoncello and white chocolate are a match made in heaven. You may use store-bought limoncello or make your own with THIS RECIPE.

I brought these sweeties to a neighborhood luncheon last week to test them out, and since they were a hit, I will be making them tomorrow, along with this puff pastry appetizer, on Channel 3-  Your Life A to Z.          I hope you can tune in at 10:00 AM Tuesday morning.

Oh, and please note, there are only six ingredients – seriously, these are “easy-breezy”!

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It has been 11 days since the above hashtag* in my post title first appeared on Twitter. It was Friday, August 12, 2011 and the food blogging community came out in full force to support one of their own. I was in Florida at the time, but I witnessed a beautiful and quickly growing phenom. When I returned home, my time was all about preparations for, and then posting about, this blog’s 2nd Anniversary Party.  But that hashtag and all it means has not been far from my heart or my thoughts these past days.

I am always on time and hate being late, but for the first time it has been great to be late. Had I made the Pie For Mikey a week ago, I would not have had a chance to see the outpouring of love from all of the amazing food bloggers out there. It reinforces why I so enjoy blogging on an almost daily basis. So today, 11 days later, I want to share it with you.

First, you must leave this site to watch and listen to this beautiful video… right now, please!  Honestly, don’t press “read more” until you’ve seen the video.

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After you have this decadent ice cream, you may never want to eat a plain old peanut butter cup all on its own again!

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Two weeks ago when I posted a picture of all the tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and garlic that we’d be using in classes, a loyal follower asked to see a picture of what my refrigerator looks like at the start of classes.  I said, “Oh no you don’t!” I assured her that it was so full, one had to worry about things falling out when opening the door, and that my extra freezer in the laundry room was so full that I had to use duct tape to insure that it would keep closed – embarrassing but true! But she insisted that she would enjoy seeing the fridge, so I told her I’d post a picture before the next set of classes… the day has come…ouch!

Above is the new set of tomatoes, potatoes, citrus, and friends and below……. is the fridge – don’t judge, it’s my job.  And you will never see a picture of the duct taped freezer, and that’s final!

Now on to prettier and tastier things….

Ganache (pronounced /gah NAHSH/) is a rich mixture of chocolate and cream which can be used as a frosting or filling. Depending on the intended use, different ratios of chocolate to cream are used, to create anything from a light glaze to a dense and rich chocolate truffle. Although ganache is exceedingly luxurious, yet it is what I like to call “easy-breezy” to make!  Ganache was developed in the mid-1800s, and both France and Switzerland claim the credit for the invention.

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What makes something suddenly become a fad, the new “in” thing, all the rage?  Especially when it’s something that’s been around forever?  And when I say “forever” – I’m talking more than 200 years.  And what I’m talking about are cupcakes!

According the source of all modern knowledge… Wikipedia… “The first mention of the cupcake can be traced as far back as 1796, when a recipe notation of “a cake to be baked in small cups” was written in American Cookery by Amelia Simms. The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza Leslie’s Receipts cookbook.”

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Yesterday in class we made the Samoa cookies, today we are using those cookies to make some seriously out of the world cupcakes. I would say, “Hey, don’t let the 7 1/2 sticks of butter (nearly 2 pounds!) between the recipe for the cookies and this recipe for the cupcakes, scare you off”… but I would be lying, it totally scares me!  According to my math (and my math is iffy at best-since I married a CPA and I rarely use that part of my brain) that is about 2 tablespoons of butter per cupcake! So let’s just agree that one cupcake would serve as your dessert for several days and not buy into the guilt.

Speaking of guilt, I’m going to add a little “Linda’s Psych 101″ into today’s post.  This is what I feel about “guilt”… it is a wasted emotion. I’ve heard it said that “The Jewish people invented guilt, and that the Roman Catholics perfected it.” I would have to agree, and here is one Roman Catholic who wants to abolish it!

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Yesterday, May 30th -Memorial Day 2011, was the first day of our 2011 Summer Classes. It marks the beginning of Les Petites Gourmettes’ 17th year. Seventeen years, that’s a long time! But it’s only about half as long as Girl Scout Samoa cookies have been around.

Today in class, the kids made homemade Samoa cookies, well kind of.  More like the top layer of Samoa cookies, the caramel-coconut-chocolate part, minus the crispy bottom cookie part. I’m including the full recipe (bottom and top portions) here.  The only reason we skipped a part was because of time restraints. We are going to use the cookies for our Samoa cupcakes that we are making today.  That recipe will be posted tomorrow.  If you want to make the cupcakes and if you don’t still have a box of Girl Scout Samoa cookies in the cupboard, and don’t want to make your own, you can purchase Keebler Coconut Dreams Cookies instead.

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My friend and neighbor, Ronnie, is a CAbi (Carol Anderson by invitation) Consultant. CAbi is a line of beautiful woman’s clothing that is sold at private parties in people’s homes. Recently one of Ronnie’s hostesses served these decadent toffee cookie bars that are seriously candy rich! The recipe is from a recent Pillsbury Bake-Off.  I believe the original Bake-Off recipe used white chocolate chips, but the hostess substituted peanut butter chips, which I think is a great idea.  Also the original recipe makes 24 bars, these are far too rich for that, so I cut them into 45 bars… much more manageable for the tummy!  Thanks, Ronnie for passing on this recipe to me. I hope you enjoy that I’m passing it on to you! [Read more →]