RecipeMuncher

Well, after some pretty busy work weeks I found myself with a free weekend night (a rare thing for me) and so some friends and I planned a last minute summer BBQ. We all love good food so instead of buying in lots of stuff we all brought dishes…it was so much fun!  I made a total of four things with the help of my friend Kate. I tried a new recipe from Food & Wine magazine and absolutely loved it.  The recipe is from Sue Zemanick, who was voted “Best New Chef” by Food & Wine magazine a few months back.  The recipe was Chile-Lime Crab Salad with Tomato & Avocado.  I highly recommend trying it out and not skimping on the the quality of the ingredients.  This salad is so fresh and tasty, but must have top quality ingredients for you to get the full experience.  

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Cooking classes are definitely a huge passion of mine.  As some of you might know, before I went into the pastry field I was actually studying to be an elementary school teacher.  All of my life this is the job I thought I was going to go into and was blessed to be able to work as an aide for many years.  I absolutely loved teaching, but felt that God was leading me into a new passion and I jumped head first into it and have never turned back since.  However, God knew He didn’t give me the love for teaching and sharing my passions with others for nothing and has helped me find ways in this new field to share and bless others.  I feel so honored to be able to help and guide others that share my same passion for desserts and food and inspire those that never knew they had it within them.  I have loved being able to teach classes at Prep Kitchen Essentials in Seal Beach and at my church<a href=”http://www.ro…

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Last Friday night I taught a class at Prep Kitchen Essentials and we had a great time.  The class was on Fresh &amp; Easy Dinners and it turned out to be a fabulous night!  But before I share all the delicious details from the class with you I wanted that thank you all for you for your great inspirational ideas. I loved reading each and every one and couldn’t pick a favorite, so instead I let the random number generator choose the winner (I know…I’m pathetic)!  Anyways, the winner is BRANDI!!! Congratulations Brandi and I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do!  

Well, onto the menu…

Caribbean Shrimp Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

Panzanella 

Rigatoni with Grilled Summer Vegetables &amp; Feta Cheese

Bake Pork Chops with Radicchio Slaw

Creme Fraiche &amp; Lemon Sorbet

Here are some photos from the class&amp;#8…

Hello everyone!  Hope everyone’s week is going great!  I have finished two more cake designs and I thought I’d share them with you.  These cakes are a hexagon shape as you can see in the photos…I think this is a fun shape to play around with and it produces a “different” looking cake that might just be the look a bride wants. The first cake it a fun and funky design that is easy to execute.  Simply cut out fondant dots with a circle cookie cutter and glue them onto your fondant cake with a little water.  As you can see in the photos I used a stamp impression to create a flower design on the yellow dots to give them a different kind of look. You can see this process in a previous post.  I feel like this would be a good cake for a beginner to try out since the look cake be easily duplicated and come out crisp and clean looking.  

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Lots of exciting things have been happening for me these last couple months and so I do apologize for the lack of posts, but I am happy to share my news with all of you!  I am so ecstatic to announce that my new business website is finally finished!  There are still some things that need to be added, but overall I am really happy with it and couldn’t wait any longer to share it with you.  My new site is Sweet & Saucy Shop and I would love for you to check it out and give me any feedback you have. My sweet husband, Tim, and one of my best friends, Karrie, created my site for me and I am so blessed to have their love and support for my business.  If you are looking for a great blog or website definitely check out their sites…24 Medium &amp; Karrie Pyke Designs. Some other exciti…

Thanks so much everyone for the comments you left on the last post…you are too kind!  I am so glad that you all enjoyed Beau-Coup and I loved reading about your favorite finds!  The winner of the gift certificate is Landa from the All-Purpse Blog!!!  Congratulations…hope you buy something fun!

Well, two days before that huge cookie order was due I actually had a cooking class scheduled that I would teaching at Prep Kitchen Essentials.   The class had been scheduled a while back and while at first it didn’t sound like I would be able to make it through it with a smile on my face (since my legs were about to go out on me) I ended up meeting a lot of great people, cooking some fabulous food, and enjoying the night. Here are some photos from the c…

Well, I survived this week, but barely…I just finished catering a wedding for 200 people!!!  I did the wedding cake and all the appetizers (pictures will be up soon).  This was my first time catering a wedding for so many people and boy was it a lot of work.  I was absolutely exhausted, but I thought that I owed my loyal blogger friends a good post and another giveaway, so here it is!!!  For this tutorial I thought I would show you how to make easy sugar flowers that are simply gorgeous.  You just need a few tools of the trade and your flowers will turn out beautifully.  The giveaway book, Sweet & Simple Party Cakes, by May Clee Cadman has a lot of great photos and techniques for decorating cakes and I thought that this book in particular would be a great tool for any baker/cake decorator to have.  So to enter the random drawing for the book just leave a comment before …

So sorry it has taken me so long to announce the winner…life is busy as normal. But before I congratulate the winner I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the contest. I was absolutely blown away with how many people left comments. Not only did I get a lot of comments, I got really nice comments…THANKS!!! I was so happy with this last cookbook giveaway that next week I will be doing another one so make sure and check back with me. Well, I have delayed enough…the winner from the random drawing is MANDY SESSLER!!! Congratulations Mandy! Please email me your address and I will send the book off to you so you can start the baking!

Today my friend from pastry school is having her 40th birthday party and she asked me to help out. For the dessert she wanted cupcakes of course. She said she wanted to keep it simple so we went with vanilla …

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, but life have crazy.  Fun, but crazy.  Last week I took on the roll Super Auntie and watched my sister’s three little girls for 3 days while she vacationed in Mexico.  Right when she returned I had a dinner party that I was catering that very day.  I worked for 12 hours straight and although I was beat tired I had a lot of fun.  I have been doing dinner parties for a group of three couples for their date night out.  We choose a different theme for each dinner party and this one was “A Mexican Fiesta”.  I had a great menu planned and the night was a hit!  We started the night off with Blue Corn Blinis that were topped off with Crab, Pico de Gallo, and Avocado crema.  Next I pulled out a hot Mexican layer dip that had refried beans, group beef and onions, green chile, cheddar cheese, taco sauce, and homemade guacamole.   

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Today was a lot of fun as it was the day of my cupcake class at Prep Kitchen Essentials. We had 13 ladies ready to bake, decorate, and eat their way through tons of yummy cupcakes. It was a tight schedule with lots of things to bake, many cupcakes to frost, and lots of decorations to make. I taught them how to make Vanilla, Chocolate, and Carrot Cake Cupcakes. They also learned how to make Vanilla Buttercream, Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate Ganache Filling, and Peanut Butter Filling….like I said, it was busy. In addition to cupcakes and frostings, I showed them how to make modeling chocolate roses, use chocolate transfer sheets, texture fondant accents, and pipe flower…

I have been having so much fun teaching classes at Prep Kitchen Essentials!  They have a wonderful store, staff, and kitchen…plus they do all the dishes for me!  What more could a girl ask for!  These past two weeks I have taught two classes there. The first class was “Elegant Italian Entrees”.  Yes, although I am a pastry chef I do really enjoy cooking food too and love sharing my passion for it with others.  This was a great class with a lot of fabulous food.  The menu for the night was Italian Herb &amp; Cheese Pork Rolls, Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken with Homemade Pesto, Parmesan Chicken Over Angel Hair Pasta with Pine Nuts, Feta Cheese, and Tomatoes, and Grilled Cilantro Lime Shrimp with Saffron Orzo.  

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Here are some photos of two recent orders I did this past week. One order was actually for a client I met through my blog. I got to know her even more when she attended one of my classes at Prep Kitchen Essentials. She was throwing a shower for her niece who was having a little boy and wanted me to do the cake and cookies for it. When she showed me the invitation I fell in love with the color scheme. It is so fun doing orders that have beautiful colors to work with! The cake was a variation of one that I made for my sister-in-law for her baby shower. Instead of a tiered cake, I just did a 1/2 sheet cake. The cake was a fluffy white cake with lemon cream and fresh raspberries and was covered in swiss meringue buttercream. Overall I was pretty happy with the cookies and cake!

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