Daring Baker's September Challege: Sugar Rush..

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

I love me some sugar cookies. I love the concept of a cookie on a stick. :)

I do live near the city of Berkeley so I had try a bit of tye dye.

From the awesome band The Beetles. All you need is.....


Yes, all you do need is love. As I found out the dog ate the cookies while I was away at work. They were sitting on the counter far from the edge. I guess the smell of a sugar cookie was too hard to resist. He had to swipe the off the counter. I had a weird suspicion something was up when I walked through the door and he was running around the sofa like a speed demon. After further investigation, I find some crumbs and the lollipop sticks upstairs. Silly Dog. I guess it was punishment for making him wear this the night before.


He's a banana split for Halloween. Look! Doesn't he look excited?? Ha ha ha.

Daring Cooks: Food Preservation

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Question: What do you do with a garden full of tomatoes? Give up?? You preserve them! I decided to take a stab of freezing roasted tomatoes.

Here is my lovely photo of the tomatoes fresh out of the oven.

Bagged and ready for another day. Also here are a few of the tomatoes from the garden. With the wonky weather here in California. The tomatoes are late coming in.

Of course, I gotta leave you with a photo of the yummy food in action. Toasted bread with cheese, topped with a roasted tomato and homemade pesto. I made an abundance of pesto sauce. I threw them in an ice cube tray and froze them for later. Another food preservation win!

Daring Cooks: Pierogies

The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.





This month's challenge, I decided to put a bit of my own twist on this challenge. Instead of the traditional perogi filled with cheese, potatoes, and bacon. I used ingredients from my garden.

















Photo on the left: Zucchini and with ground turkey. Photo on the right: Chinese green chives with baked tofu.

I guess you can called these Chinese pierogies. These were quite tasty. Husband was quite thrilled with them too. I made so many, I have a freezer full of them now. Perfect for days when I don't feel like cooking.