Monthly Archives: December 2011

DIY Marzipan

DIY Marzipan

On the third day of Christmas, my kitchen gives to you…homemade marzipan! More specifically, homemade marzipan tinted with Christmas colors and molded into adorable Christmas-themed shapes. Did you know that in Italy, marzipan served over Christmas is painted with fruit coloring and shaped to look like miniature fruit? That’s actually how I remember eating marzipan as a kid — someone would usually gift us with a box of the stuff during the holidays, and I always thought they were too cute to eat. I considered making banana and peach-shaped marzipan this year, but I didn’t want to spend hours tinting candy to just the right colors to look like fruit. Besides, how cute is that little Santa? Even if I were a marzipan fiend,...

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Panettone Muffins

Panettone Muffins

When I think of Christmas foods, a lot of things come to mind — sugar cookies, ham, egg nog, mulled cider, etc. But, one thing that really sticks out as being quintessentially Christmas-y is Panettone. When I was a kid, my parents would always buy a big loaf of Panettone a week or two before Christmas, set it up in the middle of the breakfast table, then for the rest of the week any time one of us passed through the kitchen we’d stop and cut off a sliver to snack on. Before we knew it there would only be a pile of crumbs left in the box, we would all be just a little sick of Panettone, and it would time to start...

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Triple Delight Cookies

Triple Delight Cookies

A lot of food bloggers have started their days-before-Christmas count downs already, and the result has been an explosion of posts featuring all kinds of different Christmas cookies, egg nog, gingerbread houses, and the like. Talk about peer pressure! I had originally wanted to wait until exactly 12 days before Christmas to start my list, but quickly realized that if I did that, I would have to cook/blog every single day for almost 2 weeks. I love my blog, and I love my readers, but…that’s just not going to happen. So, I hereby declare that today is the first day of Christmas here at Just Putzing Around the Kitchen; and on this first day of Christmas, I give to you…super rich, super chocolate-y, so-good-it’ll-give-you-chills,...

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DIY Marshmallow Fondant Pumpkins

DIY Marshmallow Fondant Pumpkins

OK, so I kind of missed the boat on cute pumpkin-themed treats for the months of October and November. I mean, I made pumpkin spice cake a few weeks back, but that was it. It’s not that I don’t like pumpkin — I was just too much in denial about the changing of the seasons. Looking back, it’s kind of a shame, because I missed out on all kinds of great pumpkin goodies.   For example, these little fondant pumpkins would have been perfect for topping Halloween and Thanksgiving-themed desserts. Can you imagine biting into a pumpkin cupcake with a fat little edible fondant pumpkin perched on top of the frosting? Adorable. But, it would probably be kind of a waste because don’t think I could bring myself...

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Sugared Cranberries

Sugared Cranberries

So, last week Dan and I flew up to Boston to spend Thanksgiving with his family. It was probably the most stressful trip of our lives, including the time we got robbed in Costa Rica. Why? So many reasons. But let me just say that missing a flight during holiday season is the worst thing ever. We missed our flight by seconds, got stranded in the airport for about 9 hours, and missed Thanksgiving dinner. Yeah. While most of you were feasting on turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, Dan and I were picking at greasy airport pizza and kung pao chicken. Sigh. I know we have a lot to be thankful for — each other, wonderful families, the cats, a roof over our heads...

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