The Adventures of a Frustrated Baker

As  we all know, Halloween is this Sunday and as a result, many schools are having parties and my daughter's preschool was no exception.  I had tons of ideas of what I wanted to make, but in the end, me being me, I decided on cupcakes.  I went back and forth, from red velvet, to cream filled, until I finally decided to go with some of my all time favorites and make the pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes from Love and Olive Oil .  I made these last year in October and brought them to my best friend's house and she fell in love with them, so much so that I made a cake version of them for her party. I had one problem though this time, the frosting listed with the recipe just never turned to frosting.  I have made it before and it is delicious and has turned out well both times, but this time I just couldn't get it to work.  I don't know if it was because I tried to double the recipe, if I over-heated the egg whites or if I didn't have the mixer speed ...

Let me start this post by saying that I LOVE pasta...pretty much all pasta.  I would eat pasta for every meal if I could, truly.  Sometimes however, plain old spaghetti is just not enough to do the trick.  I first saw this recipe for Cowboy Spaghetti on the Rachael Ray show a couple of years ago.  It looked pretty good so I decided to try it that night and it was an instant hit.  I love the fact that it is quick and easy and that it is pretty family friendly in that it is close enough to regular spaghetti that it will please pretty much anyone but it also adds a new kick. Now for those of you up in good old North Bay, you will probably not be able to find the fire-roasted tomatoes the recipe calls for, don't worry I have used plain old diced tomatoes for years and just added a bit of extra hot sauce and it still came out super yummy. Cowboy Spaghetti from Rachael Ray's website 1 lb spaghetti Salt & pepper  3 slices smoky bacon, chopped (I used...

So as some of you may have noticed, I have been on an unanticipated hiatus for the last month and a half.  What can I say, life got busy for a bit and I got lazy.  Not to worry, I have still been taking pics and experimenting with tons of recipes so I have lots of meals saved up and ready to go, all I have to do is get off my butt and write them! With that thought in mind, I figured it was only fitting that I chose these very special grilled cheese sandwiches to make my triumphant return from the dark side!  (Haha, I know, that was bad...stay with me!!)  I have been eying these Star Wars sandwich cutters from Williams-Sonoma for a long time and I finally gave in and bought them a few weeks ago.  And then they sat still in the bag unused, until this afternoon that is.  When we began debating what was for lunch it hit me, make grilled cheese Tie Fighters and Millennium Falcons!  So here they are people ...basic plain old grill...