labor of love

in honor of mother's day i am making something WAY out of my comfort zone.

i hope it turns out well...more to come soon.

i love you momma!

when life gives you kisses...

...make peanut butter kiss cookies!


now i'm sure these have some fancy name and that they have some sort of story behind them...but to me they just taste like home. i've made these with my mom before my brothers and sisters were born, with my grandmas on various occasions and just this evening with victoria.
they are so simple to make and are always a hit.

here's the recipe we use:
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup of peanutbutter
2 cups bisquick
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 tbsp granulated sugar
and a bag of hershey's kisses

preheat the oven to 375F. in a large bowl, beat the milk and pb. add bisquick and vanilla; mix well. shape into 1-inch balls. roll in the granulated sugar. place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. bake 6-8 min or until lightly brown (this is where i always mess up! check the bottom of a cookie while the sheet is still in the oven. the bottoms are your best indicator...by the time the tops are brown, the bottoms are burnt!) remove cookies to a cooling rack and press a kiss in the center immediately.
enjoy!

new frontier...

one of my favorite places in salt lake is Les Madeleines Patisserie. they have the most amazing baked goods and it really feels just like a cafe in paris. if you go there, you HAVE TO try the kouing-aman. it is absolutely to-die-for!

so inspired by this local muse, i decided to try my hand at the baked good for which the cafe was named--madeleines!

i bought a beautiful pan at williams-sonoma...

i made two different recipes...one just a plain cake and the other was jasmine.

after a few set backs i ended up with a few pretty good ones.

i learned a lot and had a great time making them.

of course the best part was eating them though!

i can't wait to make them again!

on your mark. get set. GO!

i've toyed with the idea of starting a blog for quite some time. and to be completely honest, it intimidates me a little. i've decided to put all that aside and just go for it.

so...without further ado....here it is!
make love. bake love.
by yours truly