Making Marshmallows

I only recently learn how to make home made marshmallows. Now I can't get enough of making them! I love just stirring the sugar mixture on the shop, its relaxing. Then when it is ready pouring into a bowl to cool slightly and then using the electric mixer to beat into white yummy fluff. To me it is magical that each batch turns into a pan of fluffy marshmallows. I've been sending the test samples off to a special man in my life. My partners father. He lives in California, tells me he isn't a real judge of what is good or bad if cooked, but swears he loves these treats he is getting & they are the best he has ever had, then in the next breathe tells me he Has to excerise extra hard now to maintain his high school weight. LOL for a man who is 86 years old he is in excellent shape! He was the high school PE teacher and coach for several sports before he retired. He is slender and just as cute as he can be. I just tell him if he wants just toss the treats in the trash it won't hurt my feelings or share with all his buddies down at the YMCA swimming hole that he goes to 3 times a week. He has called a couple of times now when he runs out of fresh Marshmallows and makes up some funny excuse and then I know its time to make a new batch and mail them out. Friday I made a batch of Anise flavored marshies. The ones I test tasted where really good! Soooo I know Dad will love them. I'll be adding them to my shop tomorrow. Pop on over to my Etsy shop and place your order

Oh I'm dancing for pure joy! I'm toooo excited - I can hardly type. My shop is the featured shop at Lollishops.com! Yes me little ole baker girl of gourmet homemade sweets and treats. OMG Front page. Okay my shop is: http://www.lollishops.com/coveredinchocolate If you get lost just click on my shops banner and it will take you right back to my shops yummie treats. Go on over take a look...order up something for the family or just for yourself. Put in message to me "Featured seller March 5 - 7" and I'll double your order as my celebration gift to you and ship your treats right off to you"

Baking Mistakes

Yes every now and then I do create a ugly or a monster that just won't go away. Most of my dessert I truly love to bake and can not wait to eat them. Last week I tried some new baking pans for brownies. I wanted to become the brownie queen. I desired to amaze my customers. I wanted them to be so delighted they danced in the streets. I thought oh these pop brownie pan would be perfect for me...brought it. Not cheap either folks...stirred up a quick batch of brownies, spooned the mixture into the silcone pop pan (does 8 at a time and takes 35 minutes to cook) Then waited and waited for cooling so I could get these little brownie pops out onto the cooling racks. They do come out easy; once I learned the popping trick of pushing from the bottom. Once on cooling rack they sorta look like a mound of science gone bad. Just totally weird looking. So I though okay its just me, I am old fashion in what things baked should look like - must get with the times. Told myself to buck up and frost those mounds. Frosting idea went to another corner of my mind very fast. Do you wonder how your brain works some days? I do. My brain seems to be on another planet on rare moments like this: Decided instead to dip in chocolate and make them look pretty for a little girls birthday party. My creation of ugly ---> I found pink chocolate coating over a chocolate brownie is not so pretty. Even after putting sprinkles all over it. Maybe some little girl will jump for joy but not this big girl. I will admit I did taste and they were lovely, its just not my cup of tea for that vision in my mind.

Yes this is dinner from last night!

cAs I said we eat rather well in this household. I love to cook, I love to bake, I love trying out new recipes, I love doing old recipes. I have my favorites, and the man who eats my cooking has his favorites . When I hit the jackpot he says "Can we have this again" then I know the recipe is a keeper. He loves wild rice. If you do not know wild rice is black and takes longer to cook and has a nutty crunchy taste - it is also a more expensive rice to purchase. I love rice of any flavor! Red rice is fun, brown rice is nice, and white rice although bleached out it is just pretty to look at. I like rice on the side, fried is omg so good, in soups, as mixture of the main course, but not as dessert. So to help the grocery budget I get Black Rice and jasmine rice and mix them together so that the flavors can mingle and makes the Black Rice last longer. So we had roasted boneless & skinless chicken breast with BBQ sauce added last 15 minutes of cbaking, my rice dish, red/green/yellow fried pepper slices, and the ever favorite of both of us - Asparagus. On the asparagus I roasted in the oven just a little to long...it was not quite overdone but was close. Asparagus cooked should still have a slight snap to it when you bite into it. If you bite down and its mushy well thats just nasty and wayyyyyyyyyy over cooked!

Angels in my Garden

Angels are everywhere. Some folks believe - some folks don't. Either way is fine with me. The angels you see on Victorian cards are endearing, the full drawn angel with white flowing wings are beautiful. And the statues of angels seen in various country gardens are delightful. I know I have a whole lot of angels watching over me - it's a full time job keeping me in line and keeping me safe. Here is my version of angels: http://www.lollishops.com/node/12856 Just too darling! Drop by the shop today and order. Yes what the angels are gathered in IS white vanilla chocolate. Yes you can eat that Jewel Box! I'll will be selling the Chocolate Jewel Box shortly...we are working on the fine details of the flowers and design; when you work with melted chocolate it can wreck havoc on another color in the design when you pour additional chocolate onto the first colored chocolate. Practice makes perfect - I want the Chocolate boxes to be perfect! But then again it is so much fun to eat the practice pieces Over the weekend we will be adding a bunch of new products! We also are working on a Business Website of our very own. If you are wanting to check it out here is what we have so far: http://coveredinchocolate.food.officelive.com Let me know what you think. Still have to add pages of products, pricing, shipping and more but will give you the Professional Business Look that is a goal of mine.

Just Cooking...

Cooking for two at times becomes a challenge simply for the fact both of us do not like left overs. Yep we are spoiled. Although if the meal is big and more than I can eat, I'm one of those who can't really toss the leftovers into the trash. Goes into the fridge. Sometimes I'll warm up for lunch, most times a few weeks later I pull this awful looking creature out of the fridge; tossing promptly into the trash. The one thing I do like as leftovers are my soups! A hot bowl of homemade soup is really great on a cold winter day. It's minus 8 degrees this morning. Last night we had "Pat's Potato Soup" I love this hearty meal. A big ole slice of warm french bread and dinner is ready. I of course saved the leftover for today's lunch YES! Here's the recipe - Cook it up for your family tonight Serve 4 Pats Potato Soup 1 yellow onion 1 teaspoon dried chopped chives Seasoning: pepper, grey sea salt, mrs.dash, Use to your tastes but I suggest 1/2Teaspoon of pepper, mrs dash and ¼ of grey sea salt. 2 cloves of garlic peeled (toss in soup when you add the onion/zucchini/corn to soup mixture) 2 tablespoon butter 3 ½ cups water 2 to 3 cups of pre made powdered milk (you can use whole milk also) 2 potatoes ( you can use Yams also in this recipe and is really good too!) 1 small carrot shredded 1 medium size zucchini 2/3 cup frozen corn 1 can of tri beans (any brand is good) rinse under cold water until water runs clear and set aside to last 10 minutes of cooking soup. The brand I buy has kidney, pinto, and red beans in it. I’ve done just about any bean in this soup - all work. I just like seeing bits of color in this soup! White beans are really good in this also! Just what ever kind you like go for it but they must be rinsed so there is no carry over of coloring from the can of beans. COOKING DIRECTIONS: sliced potatoes in half length wise and then sliced thin, add potatoes and shredded carrot to water and add milk mixture, add seasonings, dried chopped chives and butter. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes then turn to low temp. While potatoes start to cook dice onion, saute in frying pan until cooked, slice zucchini in half and then slice ½“ thick, add zucchini and frozen corn to cooked onion, season to taste and cook about 5 minutes over low to medium heat, then add onion/ zucchini/corn to potato soup mixture. Cook on low for about 1 hour stirring often so that nothing sticks to bottom of pot. Last 10 minutes of cooking soup add the rinsed tri beans to pot. Serve with warm garlic bread.