Tag: cooking

My First Attempt to Make Alcohol Free Pretzel Bagels from The Cottagecore Baking Book

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Two years ago, I decided to try to make an non alcoholic version of the Everything Bagel Beer Pretzel Knots from The Cottagecore Baking Book. At that time, the book was full of recipes I wanted to learn how to make. Most, if not all, the recipes in the book are made from scratch the way I’m most familiar with. (Such as cinnamon rolls that have to go through three rises to create the perfect texture) Back then, I needed to learn how to make more recipes from scratch, so this book was a perfect book for me to try.

Today, The Cottagecore Baking Book has become one of my most favorite cook books. I have made cinnamon rolls, cakes, breads, and many other foods using it. Everything I make using the book requires time and effort, but the taste of the food is completely worth it!

Back when I purchased the book, I discovered a recipe for pretzel bagels. At that time, I needed to omit bagels from my diet due to certain ingredients used in commonly available in bagels sold in my area. I missed eating them, so I decided to use the pretzel bagel recipe to see if I can create my own bagels at home.

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Attempting to Make Brioche Bread Again

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Last December, my mixer broke while making a new bread recipe. This recipe was for brioche bread.

Today, I have a new mixer that is stronger than my old one. Even though it is stronger and far more reliable than my old one, I still was worried about how well it would do making brioche. A few weeks ago, I decided to try to make the bread again.

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Murder by Cheesecake’s St. Olaf’s Cheesecake Recipe Review

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Earlier this year, a new murder mystery novel was released. There are many murder mystery novels that get published every year, but this one was different. This one is called Murder by Cheesecake and is inspired by the TV series The Golden Girls.

I bought the novel after a suggestion from a friend of mine who just so happens to be a huge fan of The Golden Girls. Months after it was released, I’m still working my way through it (I started it a few weeks ago and I’ve been quite busy since then.) so I can’t write a review about it. So far I like it and it is written the same way the TV show would be.

Even though I’m still reading the book, there was something about the book I can review now: The St. Olaf’s Cheesecake Recipe.

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Discovering New Alternatives for Hard Apple Cider in Recipes

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Ever since I discovered I have food allergies, I have tried my best to adjust any recipe I use to avoid my allergies. Over the years I’ve become more adapted to recognizing recipes with ingredients I can’t use and how to still use the recipe anyway.

Last year, I decided to try make a new bagel recipe. It called for hard apple cider or beer for it. I don’t like to make recipes with beer in it because beer normally plays an important role in the recipe. In fact, the role is so important that I find it is hard to use the recipe with alternative ingredients.

Even though the recipe called for beer or hard apple cider (Both of which I am allergic to) I still decided to give it a try. I thought that if hard apple cider can be used instead of beer, then I could use another apple-based juice as it’s replacement. That’s when I began to learn about why apple juice isn’t a good substitute for beer or hard apple cider.

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I Have a New Tomato from My Tomato Plant!

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I have happy news! I harvested my first tomato from my tomato plant!

Here it is!

My tomato plant was able to grow two tomatoes since I brought it home. This one is the first one to become ripe. I am having some problems with my tomato plant with bugs, but it is still growing, putting out blooms, and otherwise doing fine.

The plant I own was purchased from Walmart. The tomato plant is called “Patio” and is from Bonnie Plants. It will grow about 2 feet tall and is supposed to grow well in containers. The type of tomatoes it produces are not big, but are not like cherry tomatoes. They are more like slicing tomatoes, just smaller.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

Kate Spade New York x Target Collection Favorites: Homewares

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While browsing the new Kate Spade New York x Target collection, I discovered a lot of things I liked in the homewares section of the collection. Since the collection is so large, I was not surprised I would find things I liked in every category. What surprised me is that I liked the homewares more than the other categories! Stand out products are the vinyl record player, the tent, and umbrellas.

Everything in this post (And all other posts in this series) will be available to purchase online on April 12, 2025 at 3 EST and in store on April 12th.

All the photos in this post are originally from the media pack available for free on Target’s website. I edited them for this post.

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Kate Spade New York x Target Collection Favorites: Food

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When I found out about the Kate Spade New York x Target collection, I was very surprised by the large amount of items in the collection. Out of all the items in the collection, the items that surprised me was the food.

Although I’ve been a fan of the Kate Spade brand, I never thought about including food in the Target collaboration. Since the food was such a surprise to me, I decided to browse the food and see if there were any food items I liked.

I assumed if there was food in the collection, there would be a lot of drink options. (Kate Spade New York has a lot of references to alcoholic drinks such as martinis, champagne, ect. in their products) Especially alcohol drinks or mixes for alcoholic drinks. Although there are mixes in the collection, they could be used for non alcoholic drinks. Instead, there are a lot of snacks.

When I went through the food options in this collection, I picked my favorite foods based off what I would actually like to eat. I have food allergies that show up in many ready-made foods, but I did not take that into consideration when I picked my favorite foods in the collection. Even though I cannot eat everything on this list, I am happy to see the ingredients listed on Target’s website. This made it easy for me to decide if there are food items I can eat or cannot.

All the photos in this post are originally from the media pack available for free on Target’s website. I edited them for this post.

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5 Plants I Want to Grow But Haven’t Been Able to Yet

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It’s spring, which is the ideal time to begin to grow new plants. So far I’ve failed in growing all but two plants: An amaryllis bulb and a decorative cactus. I think my ability to grow these two plants is a major success for me. The cactus turns three this year and the amaryllis is 16 years old! Even though these plants are still alive and growing, I have failed in growing other plants.

Right now I’m trying another round of plant growing and so far I’ve been more successful than in a previous attempt. Even though it is doing well, I still wish I could grow certain plants in my home. Since I’m in the process of trying to grow plants again, I decided to list five of my top plants I want to grow but haven’t been able to yet.

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Making Potato Rolls- How They Turned Out and Opinions of the Recipe

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In a previous post, I talked about how my mixer had died and that I purchased a replacement for it. The mixer problems forced me to reconsider posting about my baking progress for a while. Now that I have a new mixer and it works very well, I decided to start talking about some of the foods I made using it again.

While browsing my copy of The King Arthur Baking Company’s All-Purpose Baker’s Companion, I discovered a recipe called Amish Potato Rolls. It looked similar to an old and nearly completely lost potato bread recipe I grew up eating (And not liking very much because it was always over baked, dry, and the top of the buns were brunt.) I always thought the recipe was good, but the baking of it wasn’t. Since the original recipe was destroyed and can not be found anymore, I decided to give this new recipe a try and see if I liked it.

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5 Favorite Things I Cook from Scratch to Give as Gifts for Valentine’s Day

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Valentine’s Day is the time of the year to give someone a gift to show how much you love them. Making something to give is a great way to show how much you love someone. One of my favorite things to create as a Valentine’s Day gift is to cook something for someone!

Although I don’t enjoy cooking and baking all the time, it is my favorite way to create a gift someone will enjoy. Sometimes I can’t do this, but overall anything I create is well received. Since I am currently in the process of baking food for gifts, I wanted to list my top five things I cook (and bake) to give as gifts for Valentine’s Day.

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