Jennuine

I have to confess:  G rowing up, I was always a little more excited about the fun party foods at Super Bowl parties than I was about the game itself.  Since I no longer have the metabolism of a teenager, but have the capacity to still scarf down basket of buffalo wings before half-time, I decided to develop a buffalo chicken inspired appetizer that is low in fat and carbohydrates, but still big on taste. I experimented with ground chicken, lean ground turkey, and 99% fat free turkey breast.  To add moisture and a nutritional boost, I played around with cauliflower, zucchini and carrots.  Both the ground chicken and regular turkey were too heavy.  The turkey flavor was too intense.  The cauliflower added moisture, but left a vegetable after taste.  Ultimately, I came up with a formula using 99% fat free turkey breast, grated zucchini and grated carrot that is moist, delicious, low in fat, high in protein, and gluten free.  The celery stic k, aside from being a traditional bu

With its rich, seductive scarlet color, raspberry dust is the perfect natural garnish for Valentine's day desserts.  After discovering the secret to making raspberry dust back in November, my first confection to top with this gorgeous little powder was the Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Truffles that I included in my holiday candy boxes.  But I knew right away that for Valentines' Day it would be all about the cream puffs! BE MY VALENTINE? Who could possibly say no when presented with a box of these? You see, I've had a lifelong love of cream puffs -- the buttery, rich, yet airy pastry filled with ethereally light vanilla cream.  Add to that the classic marriage of dark chocolate a raspberry and.... be still my beating heart. A cream puff is all at once comforting and elegant.  They look deceptively complex to make, giving that " Honey, I slaved for hours in the kitchen to make this for you " impression.  On the contrary, the Pâte à Choux (t

Tiny kitchens call for creative storage and decorating solutions. My kitchen is a diminutive 5' x 5' ~ making decorating and storage a real challenge. By looking at a few old vintage pieces with a fresh eye, I've been able to pu t them into service doing double-duty as both fu nctional storage and fun decor. Here's a little tour of the small space solutions in my itty bitty kitchen : This poor matryoshka mama was all alone at a friend's yard sale.  I knew I could find a perfect place (and a new role) for her in my home.  She's turned out to be my absolute favorite piece in my entire kitchen since she serves the ever-important role of salt pinch bowl.  She holds an ample amount of kosher salt so I always have enough salt on hand to season a sauce, add to a batter, or pour into a boiling pot of water for pasta.  Because she has a lid, I don't have to worry about the salt getting dirty or d usty while I'm cooking.   When my girls ou

With the Christmas tree curbside, and the ornaments all neatly packed away, I'm thankful for my small collection of winter decorations that can be left out a bit longer to grace my home with their snowy sparkle and winter whimsy. I would have loved to have had the time to share this sweet little tutorial earlier in the season, but the holidays were busy (as they always are).  Now that things have slowed down, this may be, perhaps the best time of all to fix yourself a mug of cocoa or coffee and enjoy the process of creating a vintage style paper mache snowman at your leisure.  He is sure to bring smiles to all that behold him, all winter long! This is the snowman that my 7-year old made. The real stick arms were her wonderful idea! This is a fun project t o do with children as well. The process is very simple , versatile, and inexpensive.  The fram e for the figure is ma de from aluminum foil which can be worked into the shape of characters for any occasion .  I&#