Raspberry Seven Minute Frosting

First of all, this takes more than seven minutes.  If you're in a hurry, make buttercream.  However, this is an amazingly fluffy alternative, plus it's fat-free!  Though it's loaded with sugar and goes on cake, so I wouldn't make any health claims. 

This frosting is wonderfully fluffy, with a kind of marshmallow-y or meringue-y texture.  Plus, it's pink!  (It would be pinker if I'd used redder jam... next time I'm using Smuckers instead of Polaner.)

Yellow Cake

This tastes so much better than using a mix, and not that much more difficult.  It was somewhat similar to the vanilla cupcake recipe I posted ages ago; I think I may like that one slightly better, but it may have been the buttercream. 

This recipe is from How to Cook Everything.  It makes 2 layers (at least 10 servings); in the picture above, I halved the recipe, made one layer, and made a half-layer cake. 

Sardines sandwich

Yes, sardines.  I'm trying to get more seafood into my diet, and sardines are a low-mercury source of those Omega-3's so beloved of nutritionists.  I figured it was worth at least trying.  

This was my first experience eating sardines; although I found the smell off-putting when I opened the can, they were really tasty.  However, if you don't like fishy-tasting fish, don't bother. 

Chicken Parmesan

This is probably not a weight-watchers approved recipe (chicken! breaded! and fried! with cheese!), but is a delicious week-night treat.  If you pound out the chicken cutlets beforehand, this takes about a half hour start to finish but tastes like it required hours in the kitchen.   

Adapted from How to Cook Everything.  Full disclosure:  I did not make my own bread crumbs or sauce.  It was still awesome. 

Bosco's Biscotti

This year, I decided to make cookies for the four-legged members of my family.  They inevitably prefer treats to, say, grooming tools.

I wanted to do something that looked like chocolate chip biscotti, but with dog-friendly ingredients.  I was kind of making it up as I went along, but used a ideas from recipes here and here.  Happily, my taste-tester approved.

Molasses Spice Cookies

Finally back to blogging! Sadly, I didn't write my 'I'm going on vacation' post because we left a day early to avoid this.  The 'largest one-day snow in 70 years.'   Washington doesn't handle a couple of inches of snow very well; we weren't about to stick around and try to leave when there was TWO FEET of it.

Anyway, I made these for Christmas and brought them to my in-laws.  These are now my husband's favorite cookies of all time (I still prefer these). Not to oversell them or anything.  They have a sort of festive feel, a la gingerbread, but without the cardboard texture.