I Love the Internet,

Since the Penguins are stinking it up tonight, I decided to catch up on some of my blogs. I checked out Tyler Conium's podcast, and learned about March 14th, the "Valentine's Day for Men" where grilling steaks & bj's are expected. Ha! Fair enough. And then I spent some time browsing one of my favorite bloggers, Lake Jane. I am amazed because she always seems to find the coolest stuff on the internet (at least to me anyhow). Plus! She is Canadian & lives in Montreal (which I have a secret fascination with learning french & moving there.) So it's a win win all around. Here are some of my favorite blips...



How gorgeous is this upcycled doily lamp?! It makes me want to take some of my Grandma B's doilies & make one.

Being the baker that I am, I would totally take this tea towel, frame it, and hang it in my kitchen.

Doily lamps, conversion tea towels, & March 14th (the man's valentine's day, bj's & steaks), who knew! I love the internet.

xo bekah

Valentine's Day Cookies

Every Christmas I make cookies for my family members for a couple of different reasons.

a. I like to bake.
b. Everyone seems to get a kick out of it.
c. It is a budget conscience way for me to give gifts to the people I love.

Unfortunately, my sister's batch got lost in the mail, & she didn't get them until a month after Christmas. In the post office's defense, my sister at the time didn't have a mail box, and so they had no way to leave her the cookies. So, I was kind of bummed that my nephews didn't get their Christmas cookies, so to make up for it, I am sending them Valentine's Day cookies! I figure its fair, and when you're just a kid Valentine's Day actually means something.

I saw these super cute Valentine stickers on Design Sponge, which gave me the inspiration to do something for my nephews. If I knew that the fruit wouldn't get tossed around among my nephews, I would send it, but I think for kids under the age of 15, cookies would suit them better. That doesn't mean you can't do it though! (you like fruit!)

I also owe my folks back home some cookies, so I am gonna get it all done in one shot. Here is my line up ...
Oatmeal Raisin, my Dad's favorite. This recipe is great & always a big hit, but no one is surprise considering where I got the recipe.

Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich cookies, my Mom loves Oreo's so I wanted to try my hand at some homemade ones. She also loves peppermint, so this is a perfect match.

& lastly, April's Ever Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies. You seriously can NOT find a better chocolate chip recipe. Soft & chewy, they're just perfect.

What are you up to for Valentine's Day?!


xo bekah

Red Velvet Success!

I have a secret & since you partially know all of my other secrets I might as well share this one with you. Right?! Right.

While I would like to think of myself as this amazing baker ( & I'm sure in comparison to others I am ) I still feel very amateur. (or at least I think so ha!) Red Velvet is probably one of my all time favorites. I can remember as a kid being so memorized by the red cake, & the sweet & tangy icing! Mmmmm. I have tired several different recipes & some how I ruined them all. The only thing I could get away with was the boxed stuff, and even though I am definitely not an elitist when it comes to baking, it just wasn't satisfying.

In walks Glenda! Glenda is Margaret's (my mom, I know you know that, but for the sake of anyone else that might read this.) ex-husband's wife. Did you follow that?! Anyways, back on track! She gave me her famed Red Velvet recipe. I was alittle nervous to try it because of my past experience with red velvet but I was determined!

BOOM! There you have it. The recipe was flawless (awww) & the cupcakes turned out super light & moist. The red turned out so bright, that I am excited to show these babies off at work tomorrow. I feel accomplished, & ready to take on anything! At least when it comes to baking.

still the greatest birthday gift ever! my cupcake courier, you're the best!

Glenda's Red Velvet Cake

2 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 cup crisco (I used butter flavor because that's what I had)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 bottles of red food coloring
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

In a large bowl (or mixer) cream crisco, sugar, food coloring, eggs, & vanilla. In a separate bowl sift flour, cocoa powder, & salt. Add flour, alternating with buttermilk to creamed mixture. Beat well. In a small bowl, mix vinegar & baking soda. Fold in baking soda vinegar mixture. Bake at 350 for 30 -35 mintutes. (for these cupcakes, I only baked them for 22 minutes & they turned out great.)

more blog love

I also think you should check out the blog  Aunt Peaches. My friend Wendy sent me this link because she thought I'd like the craft tutorials Ms. Peaches posts. And I do. But I also like her style of writing. A lot of times if I'm checking my blog reader and I come across a long-winded post, I'll skip it, but I don't skip hers. My first favorite post of hers was around Christmas time, when she talked about making nativity scenes from old toys. It reminded me of my nativities up on Etsy, but hers has a sweet story behind it, whereas mine was just 'oh that'd be a cool idea... I bet I could sell those!' And then there was this lovely post when she talked about attending a Swiss cow parade, and also included a thematic craft tutorial. It's a lovely narrative, with a crafty payoff at the end.


photo by aunt peaches

Also, she has a cat, and she makes her wear hats. Gunther would never wear hats for me. But then, Gunther was an asshole, so there's that.

Pumpkin & Lidstrom

In keeping with the pumpkin cooking theme, as promised Grandma B & I baked Pumpkin Whoopie Pies for the NHL All-Star Game. They were fun to make, & super tasty! Not overly sweet, a good balance between the spicy pumpkin cookie & sugary cream cheese frosting. I use to be afraid of pumpkin but now I can't get enough. (I have a similar affection towards mustard, but that's another post!) I would recommend that you make these the day of, and maybe this was just me, but they didn't hold up to well the next day. I guess when you make 30 plus pies & only have 4 people over, some aren't going to be consumed. But over all very delicious & I can't wait to try some other recipes!


I kinda like how they ended up looking like burgers. Mmmmm! & I was happy Team Lidstrom won the game. A very lovely Sunday indeed. Next up, my "step-mother" Glenda's Red Velvet Cake for Super Bowl Sunday at Kenny & Liz's. ( I really like them! )

xo bekah

sugar derby!

I have this friend Melissa, and I sort of think you would really love her. (Although having said that in the past about, ahem, other friends... I'm hesitant to make assumptions anymore!) She's super fun, and she's an avid baker who just started a blog. She posts recipes and fun pics of the cool stuff she picks up at estate sales around town. Her blog is called Sugar Derby (adorbz) and youuuuu should go look at it.

Also, she has this cute baking themed tattoo- this pic was featured on Bakerella!


(photo from Bakerella)

How effing cute is that? I know that we both suffer from blog overload, but I think you should add her to your blog reader, stat.

it's the little things

I know that as a makeup artist, this will probably disgust you, but sometimes I just don't feel like washing my face at night. I have the little bag of wipes I keep by my bedside, for extreme cases of laziness, but they don't usually do the best job. I really ought to just get off my ass and wash my face with real cleanser and a real washcloth. But you know what annoys me the most? The way the water drips down my arms and gets on my sleeves and then I'm going to bed with wet pajamas. 9 times out of 10 I'd rather just take a bath, because then the water is warm (and it STAYS warm!) but sometimes that is just too much effort at the end of the day. So I have figured out the perfect solution to avoid the cold, wet, uncomfortable drip:




Don't I look athletic? Ha!

A $3 pair of sports armbands from Walmart. Duh! I drew the arrow to accentuate my teensy flash of brilliance and apparently I just kept drawing and ended up with the tennis racket too. I thought I'd make a joke about how now I am winning the tennis match against zits, but tennis scores don't make a lot of sense, and that joke isn't very funny anyway. Sigh.