Puppy Love- a valentine\’s treat
When it comes to cooking, baking, crafting and creativity my mum\’s imagination is endless. One of the many reasons I love coming home is being able to spend time in the kitchen with her. This weekend much of our time was spent doing just that – creating confections in the kitchen. One of my favorite confections is this adorable puppy for Valentine\’s Day.
Buy a loaf of pound cake. Cut into 1/4 inch think slices. Use a heart cookie cutter to cut out one to two hearts(per slice) depending on your cookie cutter size. Turn the heart upside down and insert a lollipop stick that has been dipped into melted chocolate. Place in the freezer and allow for the pound cake to become firm.
Once you remove the upside down heart shape from the freezer frost the top and sides with chocolate frosting.
To make the ears: Place Tootsie Rolls in the microwave for five seconds (this makes them pliable). Form each Tootsie Roll into a floppy ear shape. Frost the ear and attach it to the sides of the heart. Note: I did some ears just using the Tootsie Roll for some of the others I put caramel in the center to give the ear some dimension.
Attach a pink candy heart(conversation side not showing) where the mouth would be. Pipe on a pink nose, black eyes, black whisker dots and a black line to the mouth.
That\’s it! So simple and so cute!
You can find other versions of this super cute pup in \”cupcakes, cookies, & pie, oh my!\”, plus lots of other adorable kitchen confections. This is actually my favorite book from the \”Hello Cupcake\” line as it provides some of the prettiest confections – all of which are simple so any skill set you have will go perfect with this book.
How to: Fold a Fitted Sheet
Do you know how to fold a fitted sheet? I always would bundle mine up into a ball and shove it into a college somewhere – until my senior year of college when one of my friends taught me how to properly fold a fitted sheet. Note: Since I am only 4\’11 and my wing span is not very long I have to lay it on the bed to fold mine. 
Step 1: With the sheet entirely inside out, place your left hand into any corner, and your right hand into the next closest corner.
Step 2: Placing your fingers into the seam corners match up the adjacent corners and place one corner into the other so the sheet is now folded in half.
Step 3: You now have two corners in each hand. Bring your hands together and flip the corners from your right hand onto your left hand, making sure all the seam corners are touching.
Step 4: Grab the right edge, and gently shake the sheet, allowing the elastic edges to fall toward you. Lay the sheet onto a flat surface. Note: make sure the left and bottom edges are straight and square.
Step 5: Fold in thirds length wise. 
Step 6: and into thirds once again. 
Step 7: Smooth out, and be proud of your awesome work!
Note: I always fold my flat sheet with the wide edge showing so I can tell them apart.
Neon and Neutrals
Let\’s Talk About Bangs
I was recently talking to one of my friends (who is a hairstylist) about getting bangs. I told her I was going to go to Sally\’s Beauty Supply and pick up faux bangs to see if I liked them before taking the plunge. She informed me that in 2011 so many celebrities got bangs. I did a search and she was right it seemed like in 2011 everyone was rocking bangs whether they were actually cut or faux. So my question to you is what do you think of bangs? Do you currently have bangs?
Southern Lemon Straws
In the south straws such as cheese straws tend to be very popular – while here in the north no one would probably even touch them at a party. For Easter I am planning on having a \”lemon luncheon\”, and since the food will be lemon themed I took time this weekend to try out a couple of recipes. So I took a spin on my traditional lemon cookie and combined it with the same concepts used to create cheese straws and the southern lemon straw was born. They are absolutely addicting!
Southern Lemon Straws
Ingredients
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg; beaten
• 2-5 tablespoons lemon juice (I used organic); depending on taste
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1-2 tablespoon lemon zest; depending on taste
• 2.5 cups cake flour
• 3 ounces cream cheese; at room temperature
• a couple drops of yellow food color
Directions
• Blend together butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and cream until fluffy. Combine egg, lemon juice, lemon zest and yellow food coloring with the butter mixture and mix until well combined. Sift flour and baking powder together; add to creamed mixture. Mix until well blended. Cover dough and place in your refrigerator and allow to chill for at least 15 minutes.
• Using your cookie press force 2 inch ribbon strips onto a baking sheet.
• Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Place on a cooling rack and dust with powdered sugar. When cooled roll in powdered sugar.
Fashion meets Food 