Candy

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,...

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...

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...

You know what’s great about the week leading up to Thanksgiving? Nobody works. Most people take the whole week off to spend time with family, and the people who do stick around for work either take it easy or head home early. In my case, I’m home all the time anyway, but this week I get to have Dan home with me most of the day for company. It’s been a fun couple of days. Dan got to put in extra hours with a new video game he bought, I got someone to cuddle with on the couch (and help coach me through the new Zelda Wii game), and the cats got an extra pair of hands for belly rubbing. Everybody wins! Cuddling, gaming, and cat-rubbing can...

A lot of people love chocolate and peanut butter, but my friend Emily really loves it. Like, “possibly bordering on an unhealthy addiction” kind of love. She actually refers to Reese’s peanut butter cups as “crack,” and goes out of her way to avoid the stuff because if there’s any of it around the house, she’ll keep eating and eating until she wants to puke. OK, I know what you’re thinking — lots of people love chocolate, and pretty much everyone has at some point or another eaten so much candy that they want to die. Trust me when I say that this is different. I’ve seen this woman demolish a one pound, jumbo-sized Reese’s peanut butter cup in 30 seconds and then reach for more. If...

So, Dan and I just got back from a week in Costa Rica. We’re a little more tan, a little more relaxed, and approximately $1200 poorer. No, that’s not how much our trip cost…it’s the combined value of all the stuff that got stolen from us on the beach at Playa Grande, Montezuma. Yeah. Don’t you just love petty thievery? Anyway. Other than the bag-snatching incident, it was a good trip. The weather was beautiful, the food was delicious, and we even managed to squeeze in an exhilarating zip-lining tour through the canopy before racing home a few days early to take care of bank account stuff. Even so, I was more than a little bummed when we got home (I could still be on the beach, you...

The first time I heard about Turkish Delights was probably fourth grade, when I was reading “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” The White Witch gives Edmund Pevensie some Magical Turkish Delights, and he gets so hooked on the stuff that he betrays his siblings later in the story just to get another taste. I remember reading that and thinking the fourth grade equivalent of “that must be some good sh*t!” The book didn’t really describe how Turkish Delights looked or tasted, but I just always assumed that they were chocolate. I mean, a magical candy good enough to cut through bonds of blood loyalty? Must be chocolate. Maybe with some caramel and mousse cream and candied nuts. Imagine my disappointment when I...

I meant to make these for Dan’s mom on Mother’s Day, since turtle chocolate is one of her favorite candy treats. But, things got busy and I didn’t have time to whip up a batch of truffles before our trip to Boston last weekend. I ended up buying her some Godiva chocolates, but I really wish I could have given her some of these turtle truffles. Maybe next year. Word on the street is that grocery stores actually sell bags of crushed graham crackers. I don’t know which stores these are, but I’ve never seen one that sold graham cracker crumbs. Every time I make cheese cake I have to crush my own frickin’ crackers. FYI, crushing crackers with the bottom of a glass...

So I’m going to a wine and cheese party tomorrow night, and I’ve been put in charge of making something chocolate-y to go with the dessert wines. Something chocolate-y? So many things come to mind, but I’ve been dying to make these chocolate chip cookie dough truffles since I saw them posted on my friend Lucy’s blog last summer. No matter how you look at it, these truffles fit the dessert specifications of the wine and cheese party perfectly. They’re chocolate-y on the inside and out, they’re just the right size for individual consumption, and they’re going to be delicious with port. Plus, they are egg-less, so they can be eaten freely without the usual fear of salmonella poisoning associated with raw cookie dough....

I was in Boston the last two weeks, visiting Dan. Unfortunately, while I’m done with school already, he’s still got weeks and weeks of classes and final labs left, and a thesis project to work on. Which meant, of course, that I was left to my own devises at home all day while he did complicated engineering stuff at school. I was bored. A lot. Like, really really bored. So I made fudge. As it turns out, fudge is not exactly a complicated thing to make, but it’s also not easy to make good fudge. The ingredients are simple, and the steps are straightforward, but a lot of monitoring and stirring and temperature-measuring are required. I don’t have a candy thermometer. Dan definitely doesn’t have...

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Candy

DIY Marzipan

DIY Marshmallow Fondant Pumpkins

Sugared Cranberries

Candied Pecans

Peanut Butter Cup Bars

Dulce de Leche

Turkish Delights

Turtle Cheesecake Truffles

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Chocolate Fudge

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