February 2015 – Long Distance Baking

The past month my roommate and I have been taking a cake decorating class (more on that later…), meaning we each have to make a cake and frosting every week for this 8 week class. Meaning we have TWO cakes sitting in our house at all times. While we’ve been giving a lot of it away, can you blame me for not craving any sweets lately? There is one thing I never get tired of though. And that is carbs. And cheese. Put the two together? I think that’s what heaven tastes like. These … [Read more…]

Guys, I made mint chocolate chip ice cream this weekend. It didn’t quite turn out… The mint flavor was great! And I have a thing about mint chocolate chip ice cream needing to be green (I don’t like white mint chocolate chip ice cream- I don’t care what you say, it does not taste the same!) so I got the right shade of green! However, the chocolate chip part didn’t quite turn out. In fact, it didn’t turn out at all 🙁 Mint chip is my favorite ice cream flavor and I like it best from … [Read more…]

I just love coffee cake. It reminds me of lazy Sundays, drinking coffee and planning out the day. While traditional cake is not seen as an acceptable breakfast item, add the word coffee to the title and it’s suddenly a-okay, encouraged even. My sugar cookies use sour cream, which I know is what helps keep them so soft and moist. So when I saw a version of coffee cake using sour cream I just had to try it. The sour cream worked miracles once again! This coffee cake is so light … [Read more…]

Long Distance Baking is primarily a baking blog but we like to occasionally spice it up and include non-desserts. Yep, we’re rebels like that 😉 About a few weeks ago, my Aunt Paula gave me an early birthday gift of old-fashioned kitchen tools (which I will highlight with a post next week!) and one of these tools was designed for making hard boiled eggs. So naturally I got a hankering for hard boiled eggs and decided that I needed to make some egg salad. It seemed like the logically choice … [Read more…]

Once I finally made my own homemade granola and saw how easy and delicious it was…I knew there was no going back. I’ve had ideas in my head for all different kinds of mix ins and variations of granola, just waiting to finish up each batch so I can make some more. Can you be obsessed with granola? Maybe. If you can I’m well on the way there. I’ll just nibble on this stuff plain if I need a quick snack. It goes on yogurt at lunch time. I’ll eat it as cereal for breakfast. I haven’t put it … [Read more…]

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day! If I had planned better, I would have made this recipe prior to Valentine’s Day so you could have made and enjoyed them too… Sorry! Good thing Nutella can be enjoyed year round! As in, good thing you never need a reason to eat Nutella because it can and should be enjoyed everyday. Ok, maybe not everyday but I definitely will not judge you if you do 🙂 So I am ashamed to admit that I have never made homemade pie crust. Ever. The only time I ever made … [Read more…]

Let’s get this out in the open: I love wine. We always have wine in the house and I don’t believe it needs a special occasion to be opened. I have an overflowing shelf of corks, just waiting for a craft night. My family constantly posts wine related things on my facebook page (a sink faucet that wine comes out of?? Where do I sign?!) and my aunt even made me an apron with wine fabric on it. Needless to say…it’s a bit of an obsession. This is where Bright Cellars comes in. They are a … [Read more…]

I remember when I was in high school and my sister, cousin and I had these massive all-day movie marathons. We would go to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video (I swear we aren’t that old…) and rent about 5 movies and just lounge in our pajamas all day and eat. Now that I am an adult and work 9-5, I miss summers when we could do this. One of the things I miss the most about these movie days was the mini brownie bites we would get from the store covered in powdered sugar. Soooo good! Because … [Read more…]

Pop quiz time: which two states grow the most garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas)? Answer: Idaho and Washington. The Palouse region, to be specific. Which, fun fact, is where I grew up! When Mom gave me a bag of dried garbanzo beans grown in my hometown of Colfax, I knew I needed to make something delicious out of them. Sadly…that was probably close to 5 years ago. Sorry Moms! Don’t worry though, I finally got around to doing something with these garbs (Garbanzo beans. Chickpeas. … [Read more…]

Ya, try and say that five times fast. Sorry for the long name but it perfectly explains what these cookies are and what’s in them. We’ve got all the good stuff: chocolate, chocolate chips, and cookie butter. What could be better?! Trader Joe’s is one of my favorite stores. I walk in and automatically feel healthier and like I know what I am doing with my life (I feel this way with Whole Food type stores too, fyi) and one of the many gems found at Trader Joe’s is cookie butter. Until … [Read more…]