by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 16, 2010 | Too Cute Tuesday
Sometimes, you have to change plans at the last minute. TCT will resume it’s regularly scheduled program next week but this week, we’re giving one of our own a little TLC and taking the day off. Jodi, a TCT fan who has her own blog Living the Road Less Traveled, was kind enough to share her cream puff triumph as a guest post.
If you are looking for a cocktail, may I suggest a pre-Saint Patty’s Day treat of green beer? Just sayin…
This is a recipe I’ve had sitting in my box for quite some time. It originally comes from my Great Aunt Violet.
Bring 1/2 cup of water to boiling point and add 1/4 cup shortening; stir until melted. Bring back to boiling point and quickly add 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 tsp salt; cook, stirring constantly for about 2 minutes or until mixture forms small, smooth balls.
Cool slightly. Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each. Beat for 5 minutes until mix is thick.
Shape dough into balls and place 2″ apart on a greased baking sheet (parchment paper would also work). Bake at 450 for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350 and bake another 20-25 minutes.
by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 3, 2010 | Too Cute Tuesday
Too Cute Tuesday involves fun friends, a cheap craft, and a cool cocktail. To get involved, check us out on Facebook or contact Nicole.
Something about this rainy gross weather in Maine has made me pretty ravenous. Good thing was this was the week for lava cakes at Too Cute Tuesday.
My friend Kate had sent me a link to what I thought were lava cakes until yesterday when I realized they were whiskey cupcakes. This is what happens when I don’t read carefully. Sorry Kate, we’ll definitely make them another time but I had been advertising lava cakes on the Too Cute Tuesday Facebook page for two weeks, so I sort of had to do them! Good news is I was able to cover my gaff by finding a recipe for lava cakes on Foodista.
The effort was coordinated over email today. Everyone was so contributory. “I have a port that was made for chocolate!” Jen said. “How about Frangelico for the cocktail?” Sue added. How about those being great fillings for our lava cakes in addition to being good things to drink?!
Materials
3-4 oz chocolate chips
3/4 of a stick of butter (for chocolate), rest of butter for ramekin greasing
4 eggs, 2 whole eggs and 2 yolks
2/3 c. flour
1.5 c. confectioners sugar
pinch of salt
ramekins
various liquors (for filling)
bowl and whisk (or mixer if lazy)
bain-marie to melt chocolate and butter (or microwave if lazy)
Cocktail of the Night: Frangelico and milk, served on ice.
1. Gather in kitchen. Preheat oven to 450 and chat about the day for a few minutes. Let’s bake!
by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 1, 2010 | Marketing Monday
Every Monday, the Breaking Even blog looks at a individual, business, or website promoting itself in interesting ways online. Have an idea? Do tell!
When I first began my blog in 2007, it was a hard choice between whether I would be talking about money or food. I decided that talking about money would force me to learn more about it but I still love food, follow several food blogs, and overall am interested in food-related issues.
My friend Sarah tipped my off to Foodista, a website startup from a few former Amazon.com employees. It was seeking to be an open source food encyclopedia, not just of ingredients but of recipes. Being the good friend that I am, I followed Foodista’s progress throughout Sarah’s internship there but continue to keep in touch now. (Sarah had to return eastward to finish her MBA.)
Foodista has done a few things well that I’ve noticed:
Foodista has a specific enough focus that it isn’t doing too much but a broad enough concept for it to grow.
As a website, you don’t want to pigeonhole yourself but you do want to give potential visitors an idea what they’ll find in relation to content on your site. Foodista tackles the expected ingredients and recipes but also discusses techniques of food preparation and cooking tools, which is less commonly found information. Having the focus of food (and food in the title of their domain name), however, gives potential web visitors an idea of what this site will be about. (If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, click here for an example of a much less clear website.)
Foodista allows users to submit content… without logging in.
As a web person constantly exploring new things, having to register for every website is a pain. Sure, it gives the website publisher/owner my contact information but for many people, having to register to do something simple like look around or even comment can be a deterent.
Foodista allowed me to upload my two fiddlehead pictures last spring with absolutely no issue. It also effortlessly connects to accounts you may have on other sites, like Flickr or Facebook. If I use the site a lot, I will no doubt create an account but for now, I feel the pride of being slightly famous in my own head, in relation to cookable ferns anyway.
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 19, 2010 | Social Media
Let me just say right off that I am far from being some kind of smooth lady on the relationship front. But I’ve recently did something where I accidentally encouraged my new boyfriend to do something nice for me, and then it kept happening.
Dan likes to cook. The second meal he made me, I decided to take out my digital camera and record him on video.
The next day, I watched it. What surprised me was that the video was actually good. I asked if I could post it on Facebook, thinking his friends would get a kick out of it. Almost immediately, he got phone calls, emails, and comments, mostly asking when the next video was coming out.
Next video?
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 12, 2010 | Blogging
Breaking Even blog is mostly business and money related but Fridays, I’m going to write about whatever I darn well feel like. Because aren’t Fridays supposed to be fun?
And when I think of fun lately, I keep thinking about the part of last weekend where I parked my butt on a couch. Instead of watching the Superbowl last Sunday, ie the most watched television program in recorded history, I watched ‘Jule and Julia’. It was a movie about cooking and blogging, two of my favorite things.
I actually enjoyed myself. Meryl Streep’s performance makes me wish I would have met the real Julia Child and Amy Adams makes an adorable blogger.
My first, eye-rollingly geeky first impression is that this movie makes blogging look easy. Within a few months, Julie’s blog gets over 50 comments in one day and by the end, the New York Times has featured her. I’ve been blogging going on three years. Honestly, I’m ecstatic when more than two of you reading this decide to comment.
