Yes, another food holiday- National French Toast Day!

I LOVE FOOD HOLIDAYS!

Here’s to the amazing food-French Toast! And even better, a French Toast cupcake! 🙂

For the recipe, go here.

To watch me make the recipe on Good Things Utah, go here:

Happy Baking!

Tis the Season- Egg Nog Cupcakes are here!

This is such a great, easy, fast cupcake… that bring in the holiday season.

One of my favorite creations, the Egg Nog Cupcake really takes the cake- (haha!)

Happy Baking!

Egg Nog Cupcakes

1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup egg nog
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon rum extract (optional)
Whipped cream, sweetened
Nutmeg for garnish

Mix together cake mix, eggs, vanilla, egg nog, rum extract(optional) and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. Batter will be thick. Pour into paper liners filling 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes, or until cake is lightly golden and springs back when lightly touched.

Allow cupcakes to cool completely. Garnish with a dolop of whipped cream and sprinkle with nugmeg.

Happy Peanut Butter Fudge Day!

Here’s a recipe to celebrate peanut butter fudge day- from 101 Gourmet Cookies for Everyone. If you may remember, it’s famous among my neighbors- and I even teaded a batch for new shoes for my husband! Enjoy this recipe… No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars.

Moonlight Madness….

I am so excited to be invited to Moonlight Madness at Gardner Village! I’ve tried to attend- and go there often with my kids….. and witchy friends…..

Here’s a reason to come on Saturday, November 20th!

I will be at the Country Furniture shop with plenty of cookies……. come by, grab a book for a Christmas gift or two and taste some yummy cookies!

I will bring No-bake Peanut Butter Bars, Christmas Cherry Bars, Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies….. hundreds and hundreds of samples and I don’t want to take them home.

See you Saturday!

Garnder Village

1100 West 7800 South

West Jordan, Ut 84088

Happy Baking-

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…..

For all you Utah County peeps, come to the UVU Bookstore Tuesday, November 16th from 4-7 pm- for the Christmas Preview Sale!

I’ll be there signing both Cookies and Cupcakes and I will have some awesome samples….

Happy Baking!

My first Thanksgiving dinner…..

By first, I mean, I made everything. All by myself. I’ve never had to before- we rotate Thanksgiving dinner between my family and Brian’s for the holiday. I usually take the dessert, stuffing or appetizers. So, this year- even though it’s not Thanksgiving yet, I decided that I would make my own Thanksgiving dinner. And it was delicious- here’s picture from the dinner- we were so excited to eat what I had been making all day, I forgot to take a picture of the whole meal before we ate!

This is what I served…

Onion marinated turkey breast

Apple Stuffing

Gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Spicy Cranberry Sauce

Almond Bacon Green Beans

Rolls

Spiced Peaches

Sweet Potato Pie

Lemon Blueberry Pie

My mouth is watering again…. I will need to go have some seconds for lunch.

Happy Baking!

Cupcake products at Bath & Body Works

My friend Maryann saw this cupcake hand sanitizer and thought of me!

Thank you Maryann!

Then while playing around on the Bath and Body Works website, I found these…

Yeah, Cookies ‘N’ Cream cupcake lip gloss. I’ve died and gone to cupcake heaven.

Other lip gloss flavors are Coconut Cream. Red Velvet, Lemon Glaze, & Pink Chiffon.

Happy Baking!

Happy National Vanilla Cupcake Day!

In honor of National Vanilla Cupcake Day, here is a new cupcake for you to bake! I love having reasons to bake- this is a fantastic cupcake for all you vanilla lovers out there.

Happy Baking!

Very Vanilla cupcake

1 box french vanilla cake mix
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup milk

Mix together cake mix, eggs, vanilla, yogurt, cream and milk. Batter will be thick. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes until top is slightly golden and cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Top with vanilla buttercream frosting.

(My kitchen helpers)

Little Miss C- always looking for a reason to eat the frosting.

Miss M- She loved every single sprinkle in my decorating box.

And a least one sprinkle of each jar ended up on her cupcakes. Adorable!

Miss A- look at her swirls of frosting! She is a pro at age 10.

I put sprinkles on mine for “Get out the Vote!”- you can do really what you want, or leave the cupcake with just plain vanilla frosting.

Signature Chefs of Utah

This year I am pleased and honored to be a part of the Signature Chefs Gala and Auction. I have compiled a basket for the silent auction…. it has everything you need to bake your way to success. It’s called “There’s Always a Reason to Bake with Wendy Paul.”

The March of Dimes invites you to join us for

Signature Chefs of Utah

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Hilton Salt Lake City Center

255 South West Temple Street

Gourmet Chef Samplings, Silent Auction

Live Auction

Emcees: Mark Koelbel and Shauna Lake, KUTV2

Special Entertainment by

KURT BESTOR

For more information: visit www. marchofdimes.com/utah or call 801-746-5540

In case you are wondering what great Chefs of Utah will be attending this event and giving their gourmet samples to the attendees, here’s the list.

Chef Zane Holmquist- Stein Eriksen Lodge

Chef Ann Giles- Pastry Chef, Stein Eriksen Lodge

Chef Phelix Gardner- Wild Grape

Chef Scott Monell- The Hilton

Chef KC Crandall- Spencer’s for Steaks and Chops

Chef Elio Scanu- Zuccas

Chef Michael Showers- Goldener Hirsch

Chef Jerry Liedtke- The Tin Angel

Chef TIm Nelson & Chef Logan Crew- Fresco

Chef Gabrielle McAffee & Chef Tim Weaver- Cafe Madrid

Chef Billy Sotelo- Faustina and LaSalle Group

Chef Aristo Boutsikakis- Aristo’s

Shef Justin Shiflett- The Metropolitan

Chef Matt Nelson- Schneitter’s Restaurant at Zermatt Resort

Chef Vinh- J. Wongs

Don’t you wish you were coming? Happy Baking!

Book review & NEW recipe inspiration.

This is a long post, but trust me you’ll want to read it to the very end!)

As I’ve said before, I love to bake. It’s a hobby, a passion, a stress relief for me. And when I’m not baking, I’m usually, painting, shopping, or reading. My husband would rather me be reading, he hates it when I get the itch to paint, however, I do feel a painting project in the horizon. After all, I haven’t painted my bedroom yet. And shopping, well, I don’t tend to stick to my budget. (I am getting better though.)

Back to reading. So, when I come across a great book, or series for that matter, I tend to shout it from the rooftops and tell everyone I know about how much I loved it. Which leads me to this post for today.

I found it! A great book, with true life emotions, friendships, trust, fears, and a love story! I’m going to shout it from the rooftop!

The Rhea Jensen Series by Sheralyn Pratt. The 4th book in the series Kays’ville is being launched at the beginning of December…. I am gonig to be the first one to buy it! I will get it signed too… of course.

A little about book #1- City of Angels

Rhea (pronounced Ray) Jensen is living a life most people don’t believe exists… or don’t want to know exists. She is a private investigator, making oodles of money, and always closes her cases- she does whatever it takes. She is a perfectionist, and in love with her best friend, Ben ( who seems to only want to be friends.) When the LDS missionaries stumble across her during one of her stakeouts, she agees to meet with them again. Little does she know that the case and the missionaries will turn her life upside down.

I decided to email Sheralyn for an author interview- I get to ask the questions. (This should be fun.)

(Wendy) Rhea is such a fantastic character. I felt like she was my friend, one I’d want to have around all the time. I’m sure when you are writing her story, she becomes a close friend to you too, and possibly part of you…. are there any similarities with you and Rhea? Any differences? Is there a character you can relate more to? Why?

(Sheralyn) Oh, that is SUCH a good question. Rhea really does seem like a friend. Sometimes when I talk about the stories, people stop me to tell me how cute it is that I talk about my characters like they’re real. I’m sure I’m not the only author to do that 🙂

As for similarities and differences… I think both Rhea and I are less social than we need to be, and we both don’t necessarily understand fear in the same way most other people do. She needs high stakes to feel alive, and I would say that my threshold for adventure is a little higher than most of my friends.

In the area of differences, the number one thing is how hard Rhea pushes herself. I SO don’t do that. She’s good on 5 hours of sleep on a regular basis. No way. She’s always pushing herself past the next threshold–every day. I love that about her, and wish I could say we have that in common, but nope. Totally not. Also, Rhea is like a pit bull when it comes to goals. Once she latches on, that goal is going down. I’m a little more easily distracted. *squirrel*

Those are just some main differences, I guess.

(Wendy) You’ve said before you write chemistry, not romance. However, I’d love to see a witty and sassy romance novel from you. Any romance novels in your horizon?

(Sheralyn) Lol. Your timing is impeccable. I’ve just recently risen to the challenge to write a clean romance novel. I’ll be doing it for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and it will be officially done on 11/30/10. Sassy it will be. I don’t think I could write one any other way. Balancing that with a heart-tugging romance will be fun!

(Wendy) When I was done reading City of Angels, I was so exited there was another book, Welcome to Stalk Lake City. And when I finished that book, I couldn’t wait to get City Limits. With Kay’sville coming out in less than a month, which book in the series was your favorite to write, and why?

(Sheralyn) That’s so hard to say, but as the writer, I pretty much like each book better than the last. I like One for the unlikely way it sets up future books. I like Two for how it establishes and grows relationships as Rhea tries to lay low and fails. I like Three for the action and the dynamics it introduces. And I like four because it’s got that balance of sass and heartache that just puts little hooks in my heart. It deals with an issue without brushing it off or looking away, and that was difficult to write in many ways.

(Wendy) Kay’sVille is the final book so far in the series. You say this book is “heavier” than the other Rhea books. Was it hard to write the same story, but from another point of view?

(Sheralyn) First off, I hope Kay’sVille’s not the last book in the series. I could easily write 2 more, but it is different in that we get the “sidekick’s” POV and a lot of secrets that Rhea would never share. Rhea and Kay are opposites that way. Rhea skims over personal details, while Kay knows that even though it may not be fun to share the details of the past, it’s important for establishing motive for future actions.

(Wendy) I simply can’t wait for another book from you. What are you writing now? Any possibility of more Rhea books?

(Sheralyn) More Rhea books would be fun, so I HOPE that my publisher requests more. Right now I’m writing the romance for NaNoWriMo, and also a YA urban fantasy that I l-o-v-e. The NaNoWriMo romance is about a guy who falls in love with his best friend’s fiancee and the comedy and not-so-funny drama that ensues. It will be fun, with an unpredictable romantic ride 🙂 You’ll have to let me know how you like it!

Well, Sheralyn, you can bet that I will be reading more of your books- I can’t seem to get enough!

As a little treat, I thought I’d come up with a great dinner based on the main character Rhea. She is a vegetarian, who wants lots of protein and something quick. This is what I came up with. I hope you all will try it- it’s delicious!

Vegetarian Black Bean Burger with Avocado and Pico de Gallo

(makes 4 patties)

1 16 oz. can black beans, drained

1 egg

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 teaspoon cumin

2 tablespoons milk

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons minced onion

Thin whole wheat buns- or serve with no bun.

Avocado

Pico de gallo

Add bread crumbs to your bowl, with milkand egg and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes. Add onion, cumin, salt and pepper. On a plate, mash black beans until thick and sticky. Add beans to bread crumbs mixture. Divide black beans mixture into 4 equal parts. Shape into patties with your hands. Place patties on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve wtih pico de gallo and sliced avocado.

Happy Baking!