Cake and carbs

As promised here are some of the newbies (as in recipes) we tried when the Bitters came to town. Can you say carbs?

I made (for the first time) Annie's Eats tuxedo cake (sans chocolate topping, I ran out of time) and homemade bagels. Simply put, they were both amazing (pats self on back). I will show you a not super great picture of the cake, which was giant by the way. Seriously, both were extremely tasty. In fact, the bagels were so good I forgot to take a picture. Fear not though, I made another batch to take home to Virginia so I'll post some pictures soon!

I told you it was huge.

Old standbys

So I promised some more deets on what we snacked on when the soon-to-be in-laws came for a visit (hi Jim and Rose!). So with this post I will share some of my old standbys when it comes to snacks for company. They are easy, tasty and will impress your crowd whether it's parents or ravenous young men hungry for food and football (we seem to have a lot of the latter at Casa de McBitter).

Pizza bites, mmmm.

So first up, the pizza bite. What's more delicious than a bite size morsel of pizza? Nothing. Seriously, if you find something more satisfying than this let me know, you might also be able to solve global warming and peace in the Middle East. You can find the recipe over at Annie's Eats.

Sammies.

My other regular entertaining snack is also from Annie's Eats, enter the ham and cheese pretzel bites (sorry I forgot to take a picture). Are you sensing a trend? Bite sized treats are the best. It takes a little extra time to make the pretzel dough and boil the finished product, but believe me the hassle is well worth it.

And my final standby snack is the ham and cheese sammies from Tasty Kitchen. Yum. These are insanely easy to make ahead of time and you can just pop them in the oven 15 minutes before your guests arrive.

Enjoy! Look for a future post on some new recipes I tried out when the Bitters came for a visit, there will be cake and carbs!

Cupcake Monday!

So several of my colleagues have advised me Monday should be treat day. After all Mondays all on their own are pretty lame, so why not perk up the start of the work week with some sweet treats? So I've been trying to bring in some sort of goodie on Monday with varying degrees of success. Usually cookies are my treat of choice (see peanut butter, white chocolate, pretzel cookies below) because they are easy to make and transport.

BUT this Monday is a birthday so I threw caution to the wind and made some special cupcakes. Enter chocolate cupcakes with strawberry swiss-meringue buttercream frosting recipe via Pink Parsley Catering. The frosting almost threw me, I had to really crank up the Kitchen Aid to get the right consistency but after a few minutes it was perfect. Stay tuned and I'll let you know what the co-workers think.

Cookies and pizza (mmm sounds good to me)

OK, so this post will include details on two of my favorite bloggers. For anyone who is not acquainted with them already, please meet Picky Palate and THE Pioneer Woman. The recipes I tried out here come from their sites.

Both seem like pretty cool ladies in addition to being light on their feet in the kitchen and rockin' bloggers. Pioneer Woman is a particular favorite of mine. I own her cookbook and recently purchased her new book "From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels." Drop what you are doing right now (drop it!) and go buy her book.

PIZZA.

And now on to pizza and cookies. So this weekend I made an old standby, PW's perfect pizza dough, and tried out PP's newest cookie recipe. The pizza we had for dinner this week and the cookies were for work. Both dishes were wolfed down. The cookies are a perfect combo of sweet and salty -- translation they were extremely addictive.

And since I was feeling particularly adventurous I also decided to make my own pizza sauce. Also tasty and found on Annie's Eats. I am insanely jealous of that blog name by the way.

See the pictures. If one thing is obvious here besides the fact that I'm awesome (kidding, kind of) it's that my photography skills leave a lot to be desired. I'll work on that, in the meantime get crackin' and try these recipes

Cookies

The inaugural post

Get excited? Why? Because I'm starting a blog. Yep, that's right. I'm taking my love of baking, crafting, whining (and wine-ing, as in my made up word for drinking lots o' wine), bad TV and pretend Internet shopping (don't worry I'll explain) to the masses.

Here in this magical space I will chronicle my misadventures. It'll be fun -- no seriously, it will be. I'll cover everything from my latest kitchen triumph (this week peanut butter, white chocolate and pretzel cookies) to my latest Etsy obsession (um, awesome much?).

The happy couple.

But first let's start with a little about me. I've been living in Alabama (yes, Alabama. yes, as in Sweet Home Alabama) for a while now. I'm a Virginia native, Richmond to more specific. So what would bring me so far south you ask? To a land where football reigns supreme and the summers are consumed by 90 degree days with humidity so powerful it wreaks so much havoc on curly locks one might contemplate just going bald?! Love, my friends. Love brought me here.

Richmond, Va. -- home sweet home

Yes, in the summer of 2009 I left the fine state of Virginia to live along side my bestie a.k.a Andy Bitter (Yep, that's bitter as in bitter pill to swallow). I'm far away from my friends and family (and what sometimes feels like civilization) but I'm happy and I'm looking forward to our June wedding. Life is pretty good, even if I am somewhat bitter over the fact I live in the "Heart of Dixie." Google it, I'm serious.

That's all for now. Stay tuned. I'll have the deets on those tasty cookies and the best pizza dough recipe EVER coming up soon, plus map art. Maps are cool, trust me. The fun has only just begun!