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Thursday, December 27, 2012

2013 Challenge!

Happy December 27th everyone!  I hope that you have made it through the holiday season without any major kitchen catastrophes.  I got to spend a few days in the original Wilde Kitchen, my parents home.  We baked dessert, prepared a French toast casserole and waited for five pounds of stollen dough to rise. 

I'm back in my adopted (for now!) state of New Jersey and enjoying some much needed time off.  Boyfriend still has work this week, which means I have run of the entire kitchen for the whole day.  I've been using this time to fight off the last of the bronchitis that I picked up a while back and make plans for next year.

This year was the year of Why Bother.  My 2012 challenge had me making some of the things that I would usually only buy from the grocery store.  We had fun making bagels and nut butters and had a little less fun with homemade coconut milk and potato chips.

Now that 2012 is winding down, it's time to starting thinking about 2013 and the challenges that await.  Due to my recent streak of bad luck in the cold/flu department, I have three Why Bother challenges that have been pushed into the new year.  Once these are completed, we begin the new 2013 challenge, Restaurant Wars

See it up there in the header?  This coming year is all about recreating the restaurant experience in your own kitchen.  Boyfriend and I will be eating out and then heading home to make it ourselves.  I still need your input!  I've filled in the first few weeks of challenges with restaurants that popular, nationally reaching and near my apartment.  I need your help to finish scheduling the rest of the year!

Do you have a favorite restaurant or dish that you would like to see featured in the Wilde Kitchen?  Drop me a message either here or on the 2013 challenge page.  Let's have a delicious year, at home.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Brownie Cupcake Sundaes

We are only days away from Christmas.  It's been really easy to tell how many days are left before the holiday weekend begins because of the following.  Each day this week...

My morning train has been emptier and emptier.  Friday morning promises to give me a three-seater all to myself!

There have been fewer and fewer people in the halls at work.  My company is closed next week for our winter shutdown and some people choose to extend this vacation by taking a few days this week as well.  I'm pretty sure there will be 10% of the people in the building and maybe 1% of them will be doing actual work.


My evening return to the city each night has become more packed with families.  They are all dressed up in their winter best, heading to the city to see the Rockefeller tree, shop at Macy's and view the holiday windows.  Oh yeah, and be loud and noisy on the train.  Shhhhh...

T minus five days - Boyfriend has fled the cold weather to visit his parents in Florida.  This is a good thing.  While we will be spending Christmas apart (I'll be heading to Buffalo this to visit my own parents), I get to use this time to shop and wrap for the guy. 

I finished my holiday shopping last night after work.  My antibiotics have helped me kick the bronchitis that took up residence in my chest.  And Perry's Ice Cream sent me two containers of holiday flavors.  It's time to celebrate!


Actually, the container of ice cream pictured is not the original one that they sent me.  I accidentally ate all of that one.  All by myself.  Don't worry, it took me almost two weeks to eat the whole container.  BF and I had to make our way to the New Jersey Wegmans and buy the last container of peppermint ice cream.

Before I ate all of the ice cream, I had plans to make these little brownie cupcakes.  These dessert treats are really simple and perfect for a complicated holiday dinner.  Make some brownie cupcakes, top them with your favorite mint/peppermint ice cream and add a dallop of whipped topping.  Hello delicious.

Happy Holidays everyone!  I hope that you get to spend some time with the ones you love.

Many thanks to Perry's Ice cream for helping it feel like home, all these miles away from Buffalo.  I've also found that if people know about Perry's Ice cream, they love it.  If you can find it, give it a try!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Eggnog Mallomars

Happy Holidays everyone!  Can you believe that we are less than a week until Christmas and two weeks until we bid adieu to 2012?  This year has gone by so quickly, I'm not quite ready for 2013 just yet.  I haven't really had a chance to enjoy the holidays and the end of this year!

Over the past four weeks I have been struggling with the cold that would not leave.  This past weekend I headed to the doctor who told me I had bronchitis!  I was hooked up with some medicine and have been crashing at home for the past few days.  I'm hoping to kick this out of my system before I head home to Buffalo this weekend.


The exact same thing happened last year, I got sick just before the holidays.  I was laid up for weeks and missed out on so much fun while I was napping.  I think that BF and I went to sleep around 10:30 on New Years Eve. 

After three days on my medication, I'm feeling much better.  Hopefully I'm on the mend for real this time.  I was feeling healthier this Saturday and made some holiday mallomars!  Last year was peppermint, this year I made you some eggnog flavored sweets.  Though I am concerned about feeding them to anyone, what with my bronchitis diagnosis a day after I made them!  I can tell you that these guys were tasty and I was the only one to have any.  Maybe being sick while making cookies is a good thing?  All for me!


Hope you are all enjoying these last few weeks of the year.  With my recent illness, the last few weeks of my 2012 challenge have fallen to the wayside.  I've pushed the final challenges into the new year, to be sure that I complete them all!  And don't worry.  A new 2013 challenge will be announced soon!  Stay warm and bright everyone!
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