So, who doesn’t love the 11th doctor?

I certainly do (even though I’m still a 10 fan at heart! <3 you DT!), and his quirky charm just gets even better as he grows into the role. One of my favorite scenes of Matt Smith’s was his introduction to the show really, where he experiences the side effects of a brand new regeneration: new tastebuds.

Here’s the youtube link to the clip, but you can watch the whole episode on Netflix, if you haven’t already gotten into the show…which you should do…like, now.

Anyway, as you can see from the clip, the doctor’s new tastebuds are very picky. Yogurt is just stuff with bits in it, beans are evil, and are you trying to poison him?

What he needs is…fish fingers and custard.

Gross.

But, in honor of tomorrow night’s season finale where we might actually learn his name (!!!), I whipped up some delicious boozy pudding with faux fish fingers for you to munch on while you watch. 

For the fish fingers:

This recipe was adapted from my Doctor Who Cookbook, Dining with the Doctor. While unfortunately a lot of the recipes look pretty unappetizing, these faux fish fingers came out great!

You simply take a store bought pound cake, and cut it into fish finger sized strips. Mix an egg with a few tablespoons of whole milk or heavy cream, and dip the strips into this to cover them. Then, coat the strips in graham cracker crumbs to make them look like the crumbly fried outside of a fish stick!

Spread them out on a lined baking sheet and bake them at 350 for 10 minutes, flipping halfway through.

For the custard, I adapted this recipe for vanilla pudding shots from Paleyellow.net. You will need:

• about 1.5 oz vanilla instant pudding (roughly half of a box)
• 1/3 cup cold milk
• 4 tablespoons cake vodka
• 2 1/2 tablespoons whipped vodka
• 4 oz cool whip

Whisk together the pudding and milk in a large bowl, then add the vodkas and fold in the cool whip. Transfer to containers and let sit in fridge for about an hour. (I didn’t let mine sit enough, as you can see in the picture. It was too thin)

*Note: For a fun twist on a martini, I dipped the glasses into some milk and then into the graham cracker crumbs to line the rim.

Use your fish fingers to scoop up the custard, or just drink it!

Geronimo! 

We’ve already established I’m a giant nerd. We all know how much I love to read, and how much I love tv/movies. So is it any surprise that, like half of the world, I am obsessed with George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones?

Of course not. As a writer, I am amazed at his ability to weave so many characters’ stories together in a cohesive, yet always surpassing way. And who can help but admire the cohenes it takes to kill off so many of the main characters? The result is that us, the reader, the avid watcher, is left on the edge of our seat. Because we cannot trust the man to protect our favorite characters, and so we become overly invested in their fictional lives.

But enough rambling. For the series premier in March, Kevin and I made a giant Game of Thrones meal to celebrate the show’s return. We visited the public market in downtown Rochester, where we were able to procure a wild boar mini roast.

And unless you’re Robert Boratheon, I’m pretty confident you’ll enjoy this meal.

The recipe was adapted from the amazing cookbook, A feast of ice and fire, which Martin has even endorsed as being incredible. The original recipe called for 4 boar tenderloins, but since we only had our boar roast, we made do.

You will need:

• 1 wild boar mini roast (about 1.5 pounds)
• 2/3 cup red wine
• 2/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 cup apple cider or white grape juice
• 2 teaspoons poudre forte (see below)
• 15-20 whole cloves

Poudre forte, or “strong powder,” is a clovey spice mix used in the middle ages. Again, Kevin and I had to adapt the recipe because some ingredients (like grains of paradise) weren’t easy to come by.

• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground mace
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp grains of paradise (optional)

To start, open up a bottle of Game of Thrones beer, or make yourself some spiced cider (I’ll share that recipe later) and mix up your marinade. Combine the wine, vinegar, and cider with 1 teaspoon of the poudre forte, and marinate the boar for several hours to overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 300.

Pour the marinade into a saucepan and set it aside for later. Using a paring knife, cut small holes into the meat and shove whole cloves into it. You’ll see them sticking out a little. Since we were cooking a roast, instead of the tenderloins as the recipe used, we seared each side of the roast using a large skillet on medium-high heat. Once it had a decent crust, we sprinkled the remainder of the poudre forte over the meat, pressing it down so that it stuck.

Then we lined a roasting pan with foil and baked that sucker for what felt like forever, and was probably close to two hours. We used a low temperature to roast it slowly, snacking on bread and cheese while we waited.

The bread is homemade as well, and that recipe is also forthcoming. Hopefully I post it before he finishes the sixth book, amiright?

When the boar is done, the internal temp should be between 155-160 degrees. Set it aside and cover it to keep it warm. Pour the juices from the pan into the saucepan containing the marinade and simmer for 15 minutes, or until it has reduced slightly.

I took a bunch of asparagus, quartered a yellow onion, and tossed them on a baking sheet with oil, balsamic, lemon, garlic, and apple cider vinegar, to make an acidic side dish that nicely complimented the sweet and spicy flavor of the boar.

We felt pretty cool, eating our wild game, breaking off hunks of homemade bread, cutting slices of cheese with a big scary knife, using the bread to soak up the marinade that got all over our plates…while we watched Doctor Who…

That’s right, we cooked this on the Saturday night before season three of Game of Thrones premiered, so that we could enjoy it together before he had to leave to drive back to Schenectady.

But if you’re a total dork like we are, and enjoy slaving over a hot oven for hours to create an authentic meal from the middle ages, you should probably buy this cookbook. Or just find a cut of wild meat and wing it.

So, I love me some fresh herbs. And if you cook with them as often as I do (which isn’t even that much) you realize how expensive they can be to purchase from the grocery store.

Last year I bought an Aerogarden. Fresh herbs all year long with minimum work on my part? It was a definite win. But then my plants outgrew their tiny little garden, and I hated being limited to just 7 varieties. Granted, I mostly use basil, and my cat, Pippin, ate my chives before they even had a chance to grow, but I knew I needed to expand.

Thanks to pinterest, I got the idea to make a backyard container garden. And to make it even easier, I would make it a hanging portable one. This way, I can easily take the plants inside for the winter, or bring them with me when (starting to feel like if) I move out.

I found an ancient screen door in my garage, and knew right away what I wanted. I had the vision in my head, and last weekend (to take a break from book editing) I went to work executing my plan! Here was what I did to make it, so you can be inspired to make one yourself.

Saturday evening, I went to Home Depot to get the herbs for my garden. I wanted to grow them from plants rather than seeds, to avoid any disasters from my lack of green thumb. I also went to the moulding section and had a guy cut some simple wood moulding into 25″ sections, which was the width of my door frame. I got some screws and some little hooks too.

I propped the doorframe up on some bricks after my mother yelled at me for drilling directly on the porch, and I drilled two pilot holes on each side of the crossbar.

Then I switched out the drill bits and screwed the moulding to the doorframe.

Here are my buckets! I knew from the beginning I wanted an eclectic collection of metal buckets and watering cans, and luckily, Michaels had exactly what I wanted. I added a few buckets that I got at Target, and began modifying them to become planters. Holes were drilled into the bottom of them all for drainage, and more were drilled into thicker handles or ones without handles, so that I could hook them onto the door.

I fitted the drill with a smaller bit, and drilled more pilot holes along the horizontal wood beams.

Hi plants!

I placed the plants into the buckets and moved them around to see which ones would best suit each container, then I planted them and hung them on the little metal hooks that I screwed into the pilot holes.

 Here is the finished garden! I leaned it against the back of my house, and it’s light enough that I can pick it up and move it if it’s getting too much or too little sun. I made plant markers out of clothespins.

The whole project took me about two hours, and cost around $120, though you could make it for a lot cheaper if you use less expensive buckets. For example, the one on the bottom left, with the cilantro in it, cost me $1 dollar at Target. The one next to it, with the out of control mint, was probably around $5. So it’s up to you how much you want to pay for your containers.

Eventually I’ll stain the whole thing so it isn’t two-toned, but for now, I’ve got other things to do.

Like enjoy the weather with my kindle and my hammock. And relax, because I just published another book!

Well everyone, it’s here. 8 months of hard work and worrying…and it’s finally here.

My second book is available for purchase on Amazon! I’m so proud of this story, and the feedback I’ve received so far has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s only $2.99, and you should definitely buy it, because, well, I need the money.

And it’s a super fun, easy beach read with a surprising amount of tenderness and romance. Here’s the description from Amazon:

Drifting through life with no direction, Bree is sick of her dead-end job, her dull boyfriend, and her crappy Boston apartment. But when her grandmother dies in a hang gliding accident, leaving Bree a small fortune and a house, she uses the opportunity to reinvent herself.

Despite her family’s disapproval, and the fact she can’t boil water without a fire extinguisher nearby, Bree enrolls in a culinary course, taught by the dreamy Chef Simon. After a rough start, she is shocked to discover that she is actually enjoying herself…and Simon!

When things start to heat up outside the kitchen, Bree is faced with the difficult task of figuring out what she wants…before it’s too late.

And in other news, Congratulations to Ashley of Quarterlifecrisiscuisine as she is the winner of the FlirtyAprons.com giveaway! All the extra entries she got from liking me and flirty aprons on facebook, and following me on twitter gave her a statistical advantage, and when the random number generator picked her, I knew she’d be thrilled. 

Oh, and speaking of Ashley, I can’t gush enough about how proud I am of her. She was my first blog friend, and we learned a lot from each other. For awhile she expressed her jealousy that I had more time and money to spend on photography and food styling, but that was because she filled her spare time with being in several plays and musicals at once! Now that she has a book deal on the way she’s really stepped up her game, and her blog has flourished. The pictures are gorgeous, the writing is funny, and the recipes all sound so delicious. So go check her out and follow her, because she is gunna be famous one day.

So yeah, I’ll be getting back to the recipes soon, but in the meantime, buy my book and go check out Ashley. Both should keep you well entertained until I’ve recovered from post-publishing nap time.

I have some awesome news! My book, Baking Bree, is coming out very soon. As in May 1st.

For anyone who is just tuning in, after the success of my first book, Passion’s Tide, I decided to write a second (and totally different!) book. It was a NanoWrimo book, meaning I diligently wrote 50,000 words in November, then finished it up in December. Three more months of editing and cover design, and it’s finally ready!!! I’m so proud of it, and as it takes place at a cooking school, I think you will like it!

And if you don’t…well…here’s something you might like:

 A free apron from Flirty Aprons.com!!!

As soon as I started writing this book, I had a vision for the cover image in my head. I wanted equal parts serious and silly, Stepford Wives meets Kitchen Nightmares. With a rigged home studio set-up, help from Beth, some photoshoppery, and two very burned pies…the cover is finished!

The awesome people at Flirty Aprons supplied me with the fabulous apron to use for my book! And they want to give one lucky reader an apron as well!

These aprons are adorable. It took me a long time before I finally decided on the aqua damask, because there are a bunch of really cute prints. I personally love the Venetian Rose and the Frosted Cupcake. And I loveeeee the little ruffle at the bottom, and the super long fabric ties allow you to tie it in the front, giving you a cute, girly figure. The huge pocket is also helpful to keep your cellphone close at hand but safely out of the way.

They also have high-quality matching oven mitts, which are so comfy and awesome. I use mine all the time, and I feel so chic in my matching ensemble.

I used black oven mitts for the cover, so that the apron would really POP!

How to enter:

Step 1: Go to Flirty Aprons.com and pick out an apron you’d love to wear.

Step 2: Comment below (wordpress or facebook is fine) and list the name of the apron you want, and what would you cook wearing it!

I will randomly select the winner, and they get their apron of choice!

For extra entries you can like me on Facebook, like Flirty Aprons on facebook, and follow me on twitter.

Can’t wait until May 1st to see if you’ve won? They are currently having a 40% off megasale for Mother’s day! Use code MOMSDAY40.

This pie smelled terrible

I’m so excited to be working with this awesome company. They have really made a great product, and the people I’ve interacted have all been so supportive (even as I struggled like an idiot to insert banners onto the site).  And when I’m done with the sequel to Baking Bree (coming this fall!), I’ll be using another apron from them to make my cover.

So check out their website, and comment below for your chance to win! Good luck!

This is one of my favorite recipes. I’ve made it several times since acquiring the recipe from Kevin’s mom last summer, and each time I’ve promised myself I would photograph it and blog about it. And each time…I’ve stared at it in defeat.

Because in all honesty, it’s a difficult dish to capture in a photo.

See? It just looks…meh. But let me describe the flavors for you, so that you can get an idea of why this is so awesomesauce.

You take quite a bit of melted butter, add rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic, throw in some tabasco, worcester, and lemon juice, toss it all into a baking dish with lemon slices and bake.

What you end up with is the most incredible spicy, buttery, messy dish ever.

You serve it with a giant hunk of bread to soak up the sauce, a bowl for the shrimp tails, and lots of paper towels. Because this isn’t a meal to use utensils with. It’s a yummy one-dish meal, and I looooooove dunking my bread into the sauce.

This is also one of Kevin’s parents’ favorite dishes. Apparently, they used to order a pizza for their 4 boys, and then the two of them would share the shrimp in the kitchen while the kids watched tv. 

Here’s the original recipe, stained with worcester from years of use. I pretty much do everything the same, but I dont even add the margarine, and I only make 1-2 pounds of shrimp. Because A. Shrimp is expensive now. And B. I’m usually only feeding 2 people.

Even these less-than-exciting photos are making me crave it again. I do have another half bag of shrimp in my freezer…

Enjoy!

 I had wanted to post these last weekend, but because of the cake, I found I had very little time to be on my computer. Besides, getting my electronics covered in a layer of sugar was not at the top of my to-do list.

And for the past few days, I haven’t wanted to look at fondant, let alone blog about it. But truth be told, these buggers are too cute not to share.

I made these for the season premier of Doctor Who, but they’re adorable for just about any occasion. Make them for your next Doc themed party, or pin this page for the 50th anniversary special this fall

You will need:

• Cookies (store bought mix is fine)
• Fondant (see below)
• Buttercream frosting (see below)
• Gel food dye
• Various cookie cutters and fondant tools (I will do a blog post about my tools and tips soon, I promise)
• Vodka
• paintbrush

The sugar cookies are from a mix, not going to lie. But it saved me a bunch of time! And I used a leveled 2″ cookie scoop to make them all even. I had some fondant left over from making a cake with Beth a few weeks ago, and so I just used that. Otherwise, use the recipe on the wilton website.

I also whipped up a quick batch of buttercream, so use your go-to recipe, use mine, or buy a container from the store. A thin layer on the cookies to act as glue for the fondant should work fine.

Using your food coloring, dye a ball of fondant Tardis Blue. Roll it out using powdered sugar so that it doesn’t stick, and using a circle cutter roughly the same size as the cookie, cut out circles.

Smooth them onto the cookies (use crisco on your fingertips to smooth out cracks)

Color a ball of fondant dalek grey and make a dalek-y shape for the bottom half. Paint the back of the grey fondant with a thin layer of vodka, and press onto the blue cookie. With your favorite tool (a straight-edge ruler works in a pinch), indent 5 lines down the dalek body. Press dark grey sugar pearls into the fondant. They don’t stick as well to the fondant as they do frosting, so you have to push them in pretty far so they don’t pop out.

Add strips of black to the top and bottom.

For the Dalek head I used a smaller circular cutter to make a circle, then split it in half. This became his helmet. Thin strips of alternating black and grey fondant, and then a black body. The eye stalk, entenna, suction cup, and blast gun were constructed using tiny pea sized balls of fondant, shaping them with fondant tools, and gluing them down using vodka. 

As you can see, I probably should have rolled the fondant much thinner, as each cookie ended up being like an inch thick. But I love the dismembered look of having tops and bottoms. Much easier than trying to fit an entire dalek on one cookie. Plus, they somehow feel safer not being in one piece.

P.S. I AM SO EXCITED FOR DAVID TENNANT AND BILLIE PIPER TO RETURN FOR THE 50th ANNIVERSARY!!! Like, hopping up and down like a little girl excited.

WE WON!!!!

Well, we tied for first place with the Charlottes web cake, which was so stinking cute I’m not even mad.

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s2989790.shtml?cat=566

Wanna see what it looked like all stacked and pretty?

It was not as clean as I would have liked, and I planned to do about a million more details, but for a three day cake, it’s unbelievable. And I couldn’t have done it without Beth, the Pinch to my Dash!

Our awesome Roll’s Royce, and according to my mom, the librarians loved Gatsby’s silhouette in the window.

After working on Daisy’s layer at hours on Saturday night/Sunday morning, I’m thrilled with how it ended up.

There are of course problems with it, but I think it’s a beautiful cake, and tells a story. It’s a little more “literary” than some of the other entries, but it’s a representative visualization of the setting, characters, time period, and a few of the major plot devices.

And the pool/ fountain was mind bogglingly awesome. It was such a thrill to watch people pointing out the water and trying to guess what it was.

Having professional food writers and chefs compliment my work ethic and vision was an indescribable feeling, and I’m excited for what comes next! Although I plan on taking a nice long break from cake decorating…my house is still covered in a thin film of sugar.

So what do you think of the cake?! 

***As it is now Tuesday and the competition is over, and I have caught up on sleep, I am going to recreate a live play by play of my cake weekend through pictures and texts I sent. The next post will be the results and finished pictures!***

So on Thursday I was sitting at the dining room table editing some game of thrones and doctor who blog pictures for a nerdy blog post, and my mom sent me an email. When I opened it I found a link to an “Edible Books Competetion” held by Friends of the Rochester Public Library. The goal was to create a book inspired sculpture made entirely out of food.

Perfect for me, right? Only one problem:

The competition was this sunday. As in two days. Two days to plan, bake, construct and decorate a HUGE cake. Luckily Beth has agreed to help me, and with the help of some Mountain Dew I am powering through the baking process. Kevin suggested I live blog my progress, so we can see if it’s even possible to make something this elaborate in such a short period of time. Updates probs will be short, I don’t have the luxury of spare time, but we’ll give it a shot!

Friday, 12:12 (49 hours until competetion) 

Home from work, got new tires today. $600 poorer, I begin cake construction. The planning stage is just about complete, texted a picture of my plan to Beth. She likes it.

Friday, 3:07 (46 hours until competition)

I have successfully baked a total of 8 cakes and 6 sheets of rice crispies. I have about 2 pounds of fondant all finished, and I’m starting on another two. Then it’s onto the buttercream, and hopefully I have enough ingredients to make it!

Also this happened.

Oops

 3:50

I am starting to crash, which isn’t a good sign because I’m going to be doing this all night. I’m worried my latest batch of fondant doesn’t have the right consistency, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’m starving, but there doesn’t seem to be a good time to stop and eat. besides, there’s nothing in my house besides empty marshmallow bags and powdered sugar. Somebody bring me a pizza!

4:00

Success! Mom is getting me a pizza for dinner. And I am going to take a break and play some Lego Indiana Jones on my Wii!

5:30

Beth is on her way with more ingredients, because of course I ran out. And the quadruple batch of rice crispies did not go very far.

I had just enough to cover the board and sculpt the house stairs.

Oh, the best part about this? The fact that I’m getting a cavity filled on Monday! So I’m trying to stay away from too much sugar…which is difficult when I’ve used 8 bags of marshmallows and 5 pounds of powdered sugar!

11:10 pm

Making a GIGANTIC batch of rice crispies. Again.

Beth and I have been crazy hard at work for hours now, she’s been working on the car for the top of the cake, doing an awesome job sculpting it out of rice crispies.

I have been working on the Daisy cake, as we call it. Light and feminine and pretty, just like Daisy. The lace impressions were made by literally rolling a piece of lace onto fondant and then cutting out the design. There are easier ways, but not when you don’t have time to order impression mats online! It’s rough, and I’m not thrilled with it. But it’s time for bed now, and I’ll fix it tomorrow (hopefully?)

Saturday, 10:00 am (28 hours until competition)

Kill me now. I was up until 12:30 this morning with Beth working on the cake, and I slept like crap. After trying to pour my cat a bowl of Fruity Pebbles for breakfast, I realized I should get some more sleep. So I’m getting a late start this morning. Just gotta keep forging ahead, and try not to collapse from exhaustion.

12:39

Beth is here now, and we are happily watching Tangled and working. She’s back at work on her car, and I quickly cover the backyard (made of rice crispies) with a green grass fondant, and cut out the pool. Then I marble some pink and white fondant, and hand lay the individual tiles to make his awesome pool.

2:16

Pool with rock patio and marbled fountain. We’re still uncertain what we would use to fill the pool at this point, but hoping something easy that I can use to sculpt falling water that leaps from the fountain into the pool…but we’ll see.

3:51

Beth is gone again, and I’m about to frost Gatsby’s house, and use a wood textured impression mat to make the walls of his house. Watching the Great Gatsby on Netflix for inspiration. Making me rethink the color scheme…

6:30 

Starting in on covering Beth’s awesome car in fondant!

6:58

9:30

Car is just about done! You can see Gatsby’s house in the background, along with the photos I was using for inspiration.

2:39 am

I feel like death. These windows were a pain in the ass, as well as the architectural detail on top of them. At least Gatsby came out successfully, and I’m digging the little potted plants.

Sleep will not come easily, as I had about 2 liters of mountain dew. ugh.

8:00 am

Slept restlessly from 3-6:30 am, but it was not enough. And yet my brain was too nervous to let me sleep anymore, because there’s still SO MUCH TO DO! Made three trays of jello, which are cooling in the fridge. Making my last batch of fondant.

Proceed to cover his yard in darker green grass, to better represent the night scene.

11:25

Beth is here, finished Gatsby’s car with an awesome license plate, and together we filled the pool with the clear jello. I’m loving it.

We did a happy dance, finished up all the rest of the details, I showered, and then we loaded the car…

See the next post for the “real” pics, and to see the results!!!

 Disclaimer: I have been attempting for some time now to keep my blog from falling into a single niche…one of geekiness. But I cannot hold back any longer, I will be posting a lot of nerdy things in the upcoming weeks, and if that’s not something you’re interested in, well, maybe just appreciate the amount of work that goes into creating these dorky meals!

Doctor Who has, and will continue to be, my favorite show for a long, long time. I was first introduced to it by Netflix, when it kept recommending it to me based on my preferences. Within episodes, I was hooked.

Like the X-files (an old favorite of mine, I own all 9 seasons and both movies), the show has everything. Danger, adventure, monsters, aliens, romance, humor, and of course, attractive male leads

I am in love with the current doctor, played by Matt Smith. But my doctor has always been David Tennant.

 Ironically enough, when I started working with Kevin, he was too shy to initiate conversation. And, being the newbie, I was too intimidated by his lush beard to talk to him. I mean, he could have been like 40 or something. But then he showed up to work wearing a Matt Smith shirt, and I pretty much refused to leave him alone after that. And we’ve been dating for over a year now, so thanks Doctor Who!

It was perfect that his spring break coincide with with the start of this season of Doctor Who! And we decided that in preparation for the big night, we would whip up some awesome themed goodies. I’ll spread the rest of them out to last the season, but here’s one that will certainly whet your appetite…

Sonic Screwdrivers!!!

Deliciously green cocktails that almost glow with sonic energy…and they taste pretty great, too. Making them is quite simple, and in fact, you could make any glowing cocktail and call it a Sonic Screwdriver, provided that you have the correct accessories.

But to make my version, you need:

• 2 oz midori 
• 1 oz plain vodka (I use UV or Pinnacle, nothing too fancy)
• 2 oz pineapple juice
• juice from 1/2 a lime

Pour all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake, and pour into a fun martini glass of your choice. I added some colorful swizzle sticks in the colors of the 10th AND 11th doctor’s screwdrivers, mine being the blue one because that’s David Tennant’s screwdriver in the picture there.

So Allons-y, or Geronimo, whatever floats your boat. Make a cocktail and settle in to watch a 1000 year old alien travel through space and time in his little blue box.