. dash of food .

I revised an old recipe I had to freshen up the holiday classic of making shortbread cookies. I simply fell in love with the dough... ice cream like texture flecked with ruby red dried cranberries.... hmmm maybe La Casa Gelato could make a new flavour of gelato to add to their 208+ flavours... Photography by *kaishin* So, you'll need the following to get started: 2 cups sifted flour 1 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt 1 cup unsalted rm temp. butter ½ cup confectioner's (powder) sugar ½ cup chopped dried cranberries 1 Tbsp flour (to coat cranberries) I n a small bowl sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In medium bowl, cream butter with electric beater on high, until ver soft and creamy. Then add sugar and beat until completely smooth. On low speed, gradually add dry ingredients in, scrapping bowl with spatula and beat until smooth. Mix the Tbsp of flour into the chopped cranberries, this is to prevent them from clumping up in the dough mixture. Then put cranbe

Photography by *kaishin* Well, the holidays are soon to be here, and thus the holiday baking begins... First off, I want to convey the fun that is to be had when especially baking and decorating with friends. This year I decided that I wanted to make Gingerbread houses and gingerbread cookies. For the Houses, I had decided to focus on the fun part, thus used graham wafer cookies instead of baking gingerbread. My friend Rachael and I, spent about two hours making our houses and decorating it, while we gabbered and had many laughs. For the cookies... see next post ;-)

Originally uploaded by *kaishin* I recently hosted an AMU gathering (Artists Meet Up!)and the theme was Christmas and crafts. Each person could bring whatever art media they wanted to work on OR join me in decorating gingerbread cookies. It was so much fun, as all of us being creative and crafty, it was soon apparent that our gingerbread men/women in particular, were going to be differen than the average stuff. To see more photos from the session, click here The decorators: Jason Rachael Kirsti Susie myself

Photography by *kaishin* Okay, here's my working recipe (I just came up with this recipe and have yet to work out any tweaks it might need in the write up of hte recipe.) Crunch Potatoes Take 2-4 medium russet potatoes, washed and cleaned. Poke holes for steam to escape with fork on 4 sides and top and bottom, then place inside a bowl large enough where a cover/plate or another bowl can cover on top, and cook on high for 4 min + 1-2 min per extra potato ( if 2 med. potatoes, then 5-6 min). Test with fork for doneness, add more cooking time if needed. Take potatoes out and slice in half with a wet knife lenght wise, careful not to cut through entirely, then cut it crosswise in the same fashion into fourths. Take a loaf pan and and line with foil, shining side out, grease bottom of foil with a bit of olive oil, then place potatoes in. Dressing: take 2 cloves finely minced garlic & 3 tbsp. Olive Oil, heat up until garlic aroma comes out and garlic is softened. Use back of spoon to