I realized the other day when I was looking at stats that it has been quite some time since I have updated this page! I hope that you have still been enjoying looking through recipes and laughing at some of my misfortunes and activities from along the way, but if you’d like to follow where I am now, I have brought my baking, fitness, tech, photography, and other posts into one place at sharonstrands.com, where I have a ‘food’ category, and a sub-category of that for Serial Baker posts. I opted not to do a redirect in order to avoid any potential issues with bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc. but you can easily search for recipes there, for example, the amazing brown sugar cookies can be found at both http://www.serialbaker.com/brown-sugar-how-come-you-taste-so-good/ and http://www.sharonstrands.com/brown-sugar-how-come-you-taste-so-good/
Oh! And for those of you that would be interested, I compiled an e-book of some of my favorite recipes here: http://store.blurb.com/ebooks/364992-pretty-please It is optimized for iPad, but can easily be converted for Android/Kindle or PDF. I intend to eventually make a book, but I have a lot more experimenting to do before I have enough at least semi-original recipes to include.
If you aren’t using Google+ yet, what are you waiting for? Use this link to sign up: https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3DbxovNO1yMvU%3A1Xg9pfhy5PE
What is Google+? Quite simply, to quote Mike Elgan:
“Instead of saying, “I’m going to write a blog post now,” or “I’m going to send an e-mail” or “I think I’ll tweet something” you simply say what you have to say, then decide who you’re going to say it to.
If you address it to “Public,” it’s a blog post.
If you address it to “Your Circles” it’s a tweet.
If you address it to your “My Customers” Circle it’s a business newsletter.
If you address it to a single person, it can be a letter to your mother.
I’d say this is pretty revolutionary.”
last week was my annual conference for work, which meant 7am-11pm or later every night… of course, i had committed to baking 3 dozen cupcakes for a bridal shower on saturday. what does this mean? i snuck out during the time i should have been getting ready for the awards dinner, quickly baked the cupcakes, went back, threw myself together, and then woke up early on saturday to make the icing. if i were a normal person, i would have stuck with one variety, but no, i couldn’t do that; i made: vanilla vanilla, chocolate vanilla, vanilla raspberry, chocolate raspberry, chocolate chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, and my favorite, vanilla lemon (which seemed to be a fan favorite as well!). i did keep it fairly simple though– for the vanilla was dorie’s perfect party cake, the chocolate was ree’s best chocolate cake ever, and the icing was magnolia’s vanilla with flavors added. i heard a rumor that i am wonder woman… it might be true!
every day is an opportunity to learn new things, and we are constantly faced with challenging situations that do not always work out the best. in the past week, i have learned many lessons… some easy, some hard… some that will have a big impact on my life, some that were comical. in the end though, at least there were cupcakes. and now, for your learnin’ pleasure, this week’s lessons:
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no, there is nothing involving olives in these cookies, but they are a peace offering at work for a group that has been doing a whole lot for me, and i have inadvertently ruffled the feathers of. i won’t get into the situation, but it isn’t good, and cookies certainly won’t fix it, but baked goods are a good compliment to a thank you card in my humble opinion.
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as you read last week, i love coffee, and am celebrating my birthday… so i took the opportunity to combine these two things– and i am glad i did! i spotted this recipe last year and for some reason never made it. i will not be making that mistake again.
in one week, i turn 30. let’s take a walk down memory lane in preparation for saying “so long!” to my 20s. i obviously couldn’t include everything, but here are some highlights. a decade, in photos….
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when you think of memorial day, the first though that pops into your head is most likely the barbecues and the unofficial start of summer… some of you may think of the parades… but hopefully everyone took a moment to reflect upon the brave men and women that have given their lives in our honor. while memorial day is to remember those lost, i would like to give a big thank you to everyone who has fought on our behalf, whether i agree with the battles or not. for those of you not from the states, or perhaps some of you who just never took the time to think about it, here is the history of the holiday. and now… MUFFINS!!
a lot of people i know substitute ingredients to make recipes healthier, or to replace something they do not have on hand, but how much of a difference does it really make? today, i will show you the major difference made between margarine and butter.
this will be a short post…mainly because i just became a foster mommy to a cat a couple hours ago and i have no idea what i am doing (other than freaking out). while i waited for her to arrive, i decided to make cookies– not only to take my mind off of it, but also to potentially lure in some friends to help me out.
