Valentine's Day Treats!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!! I'll keep this post short and sweet, because I know you all are spending time with your sweeties right now. I made a couple treats for this Hallmark holiday (If you couldn't tell...I honestly think Valentine's Day is stupid). The first treats were for everyone, and...they weren't exactly what I had planned. Actually, my final product wasn't even Plan B, it was more like Plan C or D. Looks like Plan A is going to have to wait til next year. BUT. I did like how they turned out. I made mini cookies, iced them white, then used my favorite food color spray technique. All I gotta say is...thank god my mom is a scrapbooker and has random heart punches lying around. 

As my mom so kindly pointed out (AFTER I had finished spraying all of my cookies, mind you)...the ones that have the two hearts on them as opposed to three....look like...bras. Oops. What started out as innocent lacy heart cookies turned out to be Rated R  boobie cookies. Look at the red one in the back. I apologize if they offend...Bwahaha!

Next up are my Golden Oreo truffles I made for the daycare kids. Every year my mom throws them a little Valentine's party, where they get special treats and they give each other little Valentine's cards that they picked out themselves. The whole thing is actually really cute. Anyway, these were super simple. Take a box of Golden Oreos, mix with 3/4 brick of cream cheese, add some red food coloring, dip in chocolate and BOOM! Easy Valentine's treats.

That's all for now- told you I'd keep it short and sweet!!

Everybody have a fantastic Valentine's Day/Singles Awareness Day!! ;)

Lemon-palooza Trilogy Episode III

The time has come, my friends. The end is upon us. For my lemony desserts, that is. This is the final installment of lemon-palooza. I'm not gonna lie, I more or less heaved a sigh of relief when I finished off the lemons with this recipe. I loved every one of these recipes I tried, but man...I could really use some chocolate. Although this last recipe hit the spot because it had another one of my favorite foods: cream cheese. Mmm...I love just about anything with cream cheese. And with that, I bring you: Lemon cream cheese pie!!

I found the recipe here at a site called Midwest Living, and it was the perfect one to finish off the last of my lemons. I tried making my pie shells with butter instead of the shortening that the recipe calls for, but I'm not sure it turned out right. It's been so long since I've made a pie shell from scratch, so as we were eating it, we all asked, "Is this right? Is it SUPPOSED to be sort of...chewy?" Yeah, I think I did something wrong. It was hard to cut into, but then took on a different consistency when we were eating it. Next time I'll try a different pie shell recipe from the one given with the pie recipe.

The recipe makes TWO pies, so you can make one for yourself and share one! I made one for us, and brought the other to Jill, so she could try something made from her lemons (The other lemon goodies didn't last long enough to make it to her house. Heh heh) .

Or, you know....you can just eat both pies. I wouldn't judge you. :)

These are a Few of my Favorite Things- An Intro

AKA: The blog post I've been meaning to do for a few months. What a loser.

I've gotta say, I love my blog. I love sharing the goodies I make both literally and virtually. I love that people actually get to see my stuff from all over. And I love you, the readers. But I have to admit, sometimes I do kick myself over the fact that I made a blog for such a limited topic. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE baking. As I write this, I'm itching to bake something, as it's been about a week. However, sometimes I wish I made a more generalized blog. Unless I'm mistaken, those of you who follow me are here for the treats. It's not like I can just hop on my blog and talk about the Disneyland trip I'm counting down to (13 Days!!), share my dismay about how much Glee is starting to suck, or share my 10-year work in progress craft project (There's a good explanation for this, I swear). This is Lovin' from the Oven. It seems inappropriate to talk about Dance Moms.

So, after a long time coming and a long internal battle on the subject, I decided to make this new feature. These are a Few of my Favorite Things. You know, just so you guys can get to know me better, and I can get to know you guys better. Just every once in a while, nothing excessive.

What do you guys think? I'll be launching my first edition of TFFT soon- leave me some feedback on what you think!

New additions to my addiction

So, I've mentioned that my baking stuff is taking over my house. Total exaggeration, but seriously? I have TONS of it. And every year it gets a little bit worse. It's freaking Christmas's fault, man. Every year, when I get asked that dreaded question ("What do you want for Christmas??") I totally freeze up. I usually just shrug and giggle and turn to the person next to me and start talking about something else. Don't put me on the spot like this! I can't handle the pressure! *Ahem* Even though I HAVE had all year to think about it... I just don't want for anything. My old standby has turned into baking stuff these past few years. Uh, HELLO! Cupcake wrappers are the PERFECT stocking stuffer!! That being said, I wanted to share with you guys some of the awesome baking stuff I got Christmas of 2012. AKA, more crap that's taking up space in my room/closet/baking cupboard. Jeez.

1. You don't even know how hard it was for me to wait for this book! This is the lovely Bridget of Bake at 350's book, and it's certainly a must-have for any cookie decorator out there! This book came out in October of last year, and it was so annoying forcing myself to wait until Christmas. Bridget was my inspiration to start decorating cookies (and still is my inspiration), so one way or another I was GETTING. THIS. BOOK. 

2. Mickey Mouse cookie cutters! We're huge Disney fans at our house, so these are a perfect addition to my cutter addition! I may have to make these for our trip in a couple weeks!

3. This rainbow whisk is the coolest whisk. EVER. I mean, it's just rainbow silicon, but I love rainbow colors! Actually, any bright colors in general...I'm easily amused. Broc got me this whisk for Christmas as a bit of an inside joke. We like to watch Feast of Fiction on YouTube. Anyone seen it? If you're a fiction fan (I think it appeals to my nerdy side, honestly), then you'll love this YouTube channel. I mean, they make mushroom stew from Minecraft. So. Much. Awesome. Anyway, they usually use this rainbow whisk, and I've always loved that. Now I've got my own!

4. These nesting dolls are absolutely freaking adorable!! What you see here aren't just your run of the mill nesting dolls...although I wouldn't complain if they were. I heart nesting dolls. These are in fact measuring cups!! Gaaahhh, so cute! My friend Shannon got them for me (along with numbers 1 and 2), and I LOVE using them!! 

Look at all this! So much cuteness for one kitchen. I'm on cuteness overload here. :D

Super Mega Delicious Ginormous MONSTER Lemon Cookies

Well, technically, the recipe calls them "Lemon sugar cookies with lemon buttercream frosting." Well, I mean, it's to the point, but I like my name for them better. Because let me tell you two things about these cookies:

1) As I said in my title, they are delicious. And not just plain ol' delicious, but SUPER MEGA DELICIOUS.

2) These cookies are ginormous MONSTERS. I'm not even exaggerating on this one. You wanna know how many cookies this recipe yields? Twelve. Freakin' twelve. These suckers are HUGE. I think if I made these again, I'd make them slightly smaller. That way I can also get more out of them. I mean, I love me some giant frisbee-sized cookies, but come on. These are like a freakin' small meal apiece. I need limits.

So needless to say, this is part 2 of my lemon-palooza trilogy (If you missed part 1, you can find it here) that my neighbor Jill made possible by bringing over 3 bags of lemons. Uh, what are we going to do with three whole bags of lemons? Damn right, we're making goodies with them. What else? This is a recipe that my dad actually got from a co-worker who brought these to work. My dad raved about them until I agreed to make them. His idea of subtle hinting is printing out the recipe a few days after we got the lemons. Real subtle, dad... =) You can find the recipe here. I have to admit, although the recipe calls for cake flour, I used AP flour and it turned out just fine. I know there's a difference between the two, but... *shrug* I don't own cake flour, and I'm lazy, what can I say.

I just realized that looks like an orange back there. It's a lemon I promise.

All I can say about these are YUM. Just...YUM. Seriously though, these come out super soft, like the cookies you buy at the store (which we LOVE at my house). If you love those and you love lemon, you'll just absolutely DIE when you try these. 

Stay tuned folks! I've got new stuff coming up soon, along with the final part of my lemon-palooza trilogy!! :D 

Strike that, reverse it.

Stop. Halt. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. REWIND.

Do you ever have those *facepalm* moments? When you all of a sudden realize, "Holy crap. I forgot to do _______. I should've done this months ago!!" Well, this happened to me recently. Actually...this happens to me all the time. Not even exaggerating. All. The. Time. I am SO forgetful, and often scatterbrained. And it's getting worse as time goes by. Lost my phone? Better check the pantry. Keys? Check the bathroom. And you can just FORGET about asking me to do ANYTHING. I mean, unless you physically see me write it down to remember later, you can pretty much assume I won't remember it down the road. Something as simple as, "Go outside and get a loaf of bread out of the freezer." One step into the garage, and I have no clue what the heck I'm doing out there. I AM good at remembering birthdays though. That counts for something, right? Right?

Anyway, while going through some old daycare pictures from last summer, I came across some pictures of a tea party we held for our girls. That was when it happened. *FACEPALM* "I made cookies for this!!" And lo and behold, there it was. A picture of the teapot cookies I made. So without even FURTHER delay, here's my teapot cookies!!

I promise you, I'm usually pretty good at remembering blog-related stuff. This is a first. I have NO idea how that happened. I'm just a ditz, I guess. I swear, if I weren't twenty-something years old, I would think I'm going senile.

The next post will be current, I promise! Well....I hope so.  =/

When life hands you lemons...

You make lemonade. Or so they say. And I say when your bonus grandma, or the sweetest long-time neighbor you could ever ask for, hands you three GIANT bags of lemons, you say eff the lemonade, I'm makin' something friggin' delicious with these bad boys. So I present to you: friggin' delicious lemon bars. OH YEAH. I found the recipe here.

I must admit, these are a lot of effort. I mean...I hadn't made a lemon curd since my baking/cooking classes. We're talking 2009 here, people! And while these are a lot of work, compared to what I usually make (easy peasy is my mantra, after all), they were TOTALLY worth it. I mean...GAWD. I've never really been a huge lemon fan, but these may just have converted me into a HUGE fan. And my favorite part? Besides the lemony, curdy goodness? THE CRUST. It tastes like a shortbread cookie, and I could nom on it all. Day. Long. 

I'm asking you, no, I'm begging you: if you're a lemon dessert fan, hell, even if you're not a lemon dessert fan, make these. Please? And make sure you send me some? ;)