Oat Raisin Balls

I used to love baking. And when I baked, I only used pure butter and real sugar. But then I stopped baking, mainly b/c I would gain too much weight from sampling all the treats I would make! So it was either all or nothing for me. Lately, I have been in the mood for [...]

Green Tea Cookies

These are the easiest cookies in the world. This recipe uses boxed cake mix (minus the water) and voila…you get cookies. I originally saw this recipe (using lemon cake mix) on allrecipes.com. You can use any box cake mix..the lemon cake mix kinda tasted like fruit loops….not sure if that is good or bad. I [...]

Banana Walnut Chip Muffins

Another boxed muffin day. I used a Williams-Sonoma Banana Walnut mix that was given to me as a gift. The ingredient list didn’t look too bad, but I still tweaked the recipe a bit. I always use egg whites instead of whole eggs and I use minimal butter. In this case, the recipe called for [...]

Mini Green Tea Cakes

The overcast weather put me in the mood to bake today. I pulled out Trader Joe’s Green Tea Cake Mix. Trader Joe’s has great cake mixes…the mixes bake up dense, just like homemade ones, and they don’t have that artificial aftertaste or that odd fluffiness of other boxed mixes. Also, read the labels on the [...]

Poached Pears & Puff Pastry

I like the simplicity of Poached Pears. They are casually elegant and yet so simple to prepare. Poached Pears are wonderful plain, but to make them a little more fancy, puff pastry is a great complement. I always keep a box of puff pastry dough in the freezer because it’s great for a last minute [...]

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Everyone seems to love carrot cake…or at least everyone loves the cream cheese frosting! Made some cupcakes for a co-worker’s b-day. Used the recipe found in the Williams-Sonoma cookbook. Made a few changes: less oil, less sugar, and more carrots. And for the frosting: less butter and less sugar. The overall consensus at work: soooooo [...]

Lemon Bars

Got a new microplaner from williams-sonoma and wanted to put it to some good use….so i made lemon bars! i really loved the way this recipe turned out (from barefoot contessa, of course). it had a cup of fresh lemon juice and 2 tbs of zest…so it was really lemony! all on top of a [...]

Scones

I am really not a fan of breakfast foods. First thing in the morning, I’d rather eat some grilled chicken over a bed of greens tossed with balsamic vinegar. But it would be fun to make a huge breakfast spread one day … creamy scones, banana crunch muffins, blueberry muffins, french toast, waffles, lox and [...]

Pistachio Cookies

mmmm! these were so yum and fun to make! another recipe from the williams-sonoma site . crisp and gingerbready . next time, i wanna add some chopped cranberries to give it some chewiness .

Pumpkin Cookies II

these are pumpkin cookies from williams-sonoma . raisins, toasted walnuts, cream cheese frosting . i’ve tried quite a few pumpkin cookie recipes . they all look similar, but these were the best . not too sweet . soft and full of flavor .