You know, all good intentions and all that stuff. When I started this blog, I fully intended to invest a lot of my free time getting it started and keeping it growing. You know what? It’s not just that life gets in the way. Blogs are friggin hard! It’s not just the story….I can crank that out (whether it’s good or bad) that part’s easy. Like Mr. Sugar Buns says when he gets home “Talk like Twitter, only 140 characters…” So, ya, I talk a lot. So that  part’s easy. The part that is difficult is thinking about putting it all together, editing the photos and putting in the recipes. Top that all off with getting dinner ready for my love, relaxing from a stressful day at work, dealing with a crappy foreclosure, and you’ve got a lady who says “Blog? Screw the blog! Where are my Real Housewives??”

What I’m trying to tell you…you who are mostly spammers and a couple of friends and family is “I’m sorry”. My life and my agenda has gotten clogged and unruly and I wish that I could start anew. I wish that I could never disappoint anyone and blog till my heart’s content. I see many of my comrades (and seriously, how arrogant is that to say that those I admire are my comrades? I haven’t even scratched the surface of the greats i.e. The Pioneer Woman, Mommy Wants Vodka, Hyperbole and a half, Orangette?) blogging several times a week, and I feel guilty for leaving this blank.

Was I unprepared for the demands of a blog? You betta believe that! Was I unrealistic on what I could accomplish with the life I have? Absolutely. But you know what? I’m still here! I’m still gonna do it and I’m still going to provide all of you the lessons I have learned in the kitchen and in life! This isn’t going to just be about recipes. Although largely it will still be that. You will get the real me. The real Miss Sassy Buns…Melissa….the lady who is living life, affianced to Josh, Mr Sugar Buns, and working at a bullshit job (like we all are) and pushing myself to something greater. I will do it. And even though I may not be consistent, I will be here. I will let you know what I’m doing and hopefully you can relate to what I’m going through (because, seriously, who isn’t going through foreclosure these days and stressing like crazy?).

I’m here to express and impose myself on your hospitality. I s’pose it doesn’t matter if you listen to me or not, I’m going to yell at you until you pay attention!!!

syke….if you get solace from my words, then I’m doing something right.

By the way….I haven’t stopped baking…just slowed down. Tonight I made banana chocolate chip muffins with rum. I needed the rum, the dark rum. I had the day off today and I spent it as a housewife. And it’s all I wanted…to be a housewife…with dark rum. Rummmmmmmm.

So, what can I promise you? What can I tell you that is true and you can count on? That I’ll pop up, here and there and most random. That I’ll give you what I want and when I want.

Au revoir for now!

Sugar and spice and everything nice of course! My Nana had a book of nursery rhymes (probably still does somewhere in her scary attic with her scary lifesize doll…that’s another story) when we were little and that rhyme always made me nod my head in agreement. What could be more true? Nothing I say! And that bit about boys being made of snips (what the hell are those?) and snails and puppy dog tails? True, true and more true! ESPECIALLY my little brother. He was a nightmare so I was sure as anything that he had snails and tails rolling around in his body. Still do actually.

My favorite cookie to bake when I was a little girl made of sugar and spice and everything nice were snickerdoodles. I ordered this cookbook, The Cookie Cook book through our book fair when I was 8 years old and the only thing I ever made out of it were the snickerdoodles. I remember it being really easy and fun rolling the dough into balls and then rolling it around in the cinnamon sugar. And the taste was buttery and soft and something that I still remember to this day.

These cookies are very reminiscent of snickerdoodles. In fact, they are exactly like what you imagine snickerdoodles are but the dough itself is resplendant with spice which includes sharp tasting nutmeg and it’s then rolled in a cinnamon/nutmeg/sugar mixture. You bake them until they are brown around the edges and then….mmmmmm….the lovely warm spicey smell in the house. I could just bathe in that everyday and never get tired of it! Inhaling that smell calms me. It does. Just like a big hug from Mama Sassy Buns. Love.

Basically, you need this cookie in your life and in your baking repetoire. It will make you a better person.

Sugar and Spice Cookies – ever so slightly adapted from The Complete Baking Book by George Geary

Ingredients

1.75 c unbleached all purpose flour

3 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp ground nutmeg

0.25 tsp salt

0.5 c unsalted butter

1.25 c granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tbs whole milk

Directions

In a bowl combine the flour, 2 tsp (of the 3 tsp called for) cinnamon, baking powder, 1 tsp (of the 1.5 tsp called for) nutmeg and the salt until thoroughly blended. You will want to whisk for about 30 seconds to ensure that everything is all incorporated and you don’t have any cliques in the group talkin’ smack about the other chicks at the party.

In a bowl for your stand mixer (heart stand mixers!) with the paddle attachment, beat your butter soft! I never subscribe to the whole butter softened thing. I have a stand mixer to help with mixing up the goods quicker and easier and that includes cold hard butter. For instance…check how cold this butter is in the mixer.

See how the butter is still in clumps and not clinging to the side of the bowl? Now check this trick out…

Add a warm hand on the side of the bowl and voila! warm butter! And trust me, this method takes about, oh, 30 seconds to perform, whereas bringing butter up to room temperature takes about 30 minutes? No thanks.

ANYways…

After the butter is all warm and creamy and fluffy, toss in 1 cup (of the 1.5 c) of sugar and mix on medium for about 2-3 minutes to get all the sugar crystals well incorporated and cutting into that butter to make little air pockets. Air pockets = bubbles. You want bubbles for the baking soda to make larger where you will get your rise and lightness in a cookie/cake etc. Once that’s done, put in the egg and milk and whip for about 1 minute.

Turn your mixer off and fold in with a wooden spoon the dry ingredients you whisked together earlier. Folding the ingredients in will help create the right amount of gluten with the flour so you have beautifully buttery cookies and not rocks. Once done, put the bowl o’ dough in the fridge to cool and stiffen for easy handling (about 30 min).

While waiting, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with pam for baking (or what you can find at your grocery store) or use parchment paper or a silicone mat. I used the Pam for Baking, but either method will work. You will probably get different baking times and browning of the cookies if you use parchment paper or silicone mats though, so if you use that, please let me know what happens!

Now you have some sugar and spice left over, mix them together on a plate. I used much more sugar than what was called for. I used about another cup of sugar for the dredging of the cookies. I wanted to have a generous coating for my cookies and since there was already a good amount of spice in the dough, I felt that a little less spice to sugar ratio when rolling the dough balls in would be better (and I was right!)

Now with all that prep and watching TV in between, you are probably at 30 minutes by now and you can take the dough out of the fridge. If you have a mini scooper to scoop out measured dough balls, use it. It’s SO much easier and as I have before, I highly recommend them. Scoop a scooper full, roll in between your palms to get a nice even round ball, roll it in your sugar/spice mixture and then set evenly on the cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until the edges are slightly set and golden brown and take out of the oven, wait about 5 minutes for the cookies to cool and firm up a bit then transfer them to cool on a rack.

Ooooh yummy! They were so so good. Transported me right back to my little girl snickerdoodles! Although my little girl glass of milk that used to go with my snickerdoodles is now a grown up snort of homemade baileys. DEEElicious!

Does everyone remember the Nursery Rhyme “Little Jack Horner”? He’s that kid who sat in the corner stickin’ his thumb in pie. I think of that little kid, being a little brat stickin’ his thumb in pies when I see thumbprint cookies. And I just think, too bad he didn’t make these cookies because he wouldn’t get in trouble for stickin’ his thumb in them!

You all know that I have failed on the classic cookie front. I need a well rounded (ha ha pun SO intended) education on the classics and I have never EVER made thumbprint cookies. Here’s why. They are bland and awful.

There, I said it and I don’t feel better having said it. I don’t feel better because one of the earliest thumbprint cookies I remember eating were made by my Nana. And I love my Nana fiercely. And traditionally she’s a great baker. You really can’t beat her pies, they are the best. But her thumbprints….well…..ya.

I’ve eaten only a couple others and never went back. Be it chocolate thumbprint or jam thumbprint I’ve had the same reaction. Bland bland bland! Do you blame me for turning away from each recipe or cookie offering I’ve received with these?

But these! These are heaven! They are Raspberry Thumbprint bar cookies, which really switches them from rounds to squares. Genius! Just like Wendy’s square hamburger. I love innovation!

What really had me jonesin’ for these cookies was the dough. It was NOT bland! I did change up the recipe a tut by adding some almond extract and boy did that make all the difference for me. And it was buttery and melt in your mouthy and stunning. I omitted the white chocolate drizzle since I don’t have any white chocolate, but the addition of the almond extract married so well with the raspberry jam you never even missed it. I’m telling you, it’s one of those eyeball rolling in the back of your head good!

I brought them into work for Christmas and my coworker avoided them like the plague stating that she did not like jam in her baked goods. You know what I did? I put my arm around her and said “I know how you feel. I felt the same way about raisins and red licorice. But let me tell you sister, these are awesome. Take one little bite and you will be transformed!” Reluctantly, with a puckered up expression very similar to a 4 year old having to apologize to their sister after they pushed her in the mud (and was SO not sorry!), she took a small bite. Guess what happened? Her expression cleared and a small smile creeped across her face and she mumbled “I guess it’s alright.” (Because really, what petulant 4 year old ever admits you were right, hm?) I caught her grabbing a few more throughout the day.

My job was complete that day. Another soldier on the side of Miss Sassy Buns.

Thumbprint Cookie Squares – slightly adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications – Christmas Cookies – 2009

Ingredients:

1.25 c salted butter

1.25 c powdered sugar

1 egg

1 tsp almond extract

3 c unbleached all purpose flour

1.25 c raspberry jam

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and grease a 15x10x1 inch baking pan (jelly roll pan). In a standing mixer, beat the butter on medium-high until fluffy (about 2 min if the butter is straight from the fridge), then turn the speed down to low and slowly add the powdered sugar until combined.  Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat in the egg just until combined (about 7 seconds) add the almond extract (or any extract you want really). Turn the speed up to med-high for about 7 seconds o fully incorporate, then back it down to low again and add the flour, 1 cup at a time just until mixed.

Once the dough is done, scrape it into the prepared pan and press the dough into the bottom of the pan. Make sure to cover the bottom and get into the corners. Then, using your thumb (or knuckle) press slight indentations all along the dough (nine rows of 6 indentations each – like above) and fill each indentation with a scant tsp of the raspberry jam (you can pick whatever flavor you want here too, just make sure it’s going to pair well with the extract you use).

Bake in the oven for 20 min or until the edges are light brown. Take it out of the oven and let cool completely. Once cooled, cut into squares, making sure that each little jewel of jam is smack in the middle. Smack lips together in anticipation, get a glass of hot cocoa (preferably with homemade baileys – those of us of drinkin’ age) and enjoy!

Until next time!

When I was a young girl of 16 a craze erupted at my highschool involving stuffed Sesame Street dolls and/or Sanrio character paraphanalia. Being young and 16 and a girl, you can only guess how impressionable I was, so after the initial wave of girls with their cartoon accessories flooded the school hallways, I knew I just had to have one too.

Let’s keep it straight though! I may have been impressionable, but I didn’t want to be a complete copycat, just a follower of course! So when I ventured into the Sanrio store, staring at all the Keroppi and Hello Kitty characters staring at me I rejected everyone. I bought lonely Pochacco. He’s adorable and I loved him.

When I went into Toys R Us for my Sesame Street character, I scanned over the millions of Grovers, Big Birds and Oscar the Grouches and my little heart went pit pat pittta patt for Cookie Monster. I knew even then that cookies (and cuteness!) would be in my life forever.

Cookie Monster is obsessed with cookies. Chocolate chip is his favorite and mine too, truth be told. They are simple and classic and make everything better. Someone sad, mad or just bad? Hand them a homemade chocolate chip cookie and they are transformed into gladness.

When you think of classic cookies, it’s always chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, thumbprint, sugar and peanut butter. Can you believe that I have never, not once, made oatmeal raisin or thumbprint cookies? There must be something wrong with me and I must correct such wrongness immediately!

So here we are ~ Oatmeal Raisin cookies.

There are a couple of reasons I have avoided this cookie. Quite simply put, these were the enemy growing up. I could not stand raisins in my baked goods nor could I stand red licorice, but that’s another story. Given the option of Oatmeal Raisin or Chocolate Chip, we all know the winner was my dearest chocolate chip. Raisins represented poison as far as I was concerned. And consequently so did red licorice. But that’s still poison. yuck

But I am grown now. My palette is sophisticated (ya right!) and I’m adventurous (in a controlled environment!) so I must create this classic cookie. And wouldn’t you know, I AM grown, my palette IS sophisticated and I AM adventurous! (Ok, so maybe not so adventurous as this is a tried and true cookie, but you catch my drift) They were delicious! Chewy and spicy with the great zing of raisins (no longer poison!) and a tiny hint of salt to keep you salivating for more. This recipe came from my trusted  cookbook The New Best Recipe All New Edition cookbook by Cook’s Illustrated. I have never had a recipe fail from this book. Granted, I haven’t baked or cooked my way through it yet, but I will!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – recipe from The New Best Recipe – all new edition

Ingredients

1.5 c unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

16 tbs (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 c packed light brown sugar

1 c granulated sugar

2 large eggs

3 c old fashioned rolled oats

1.5 c raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 large baking sheets. Whisk together the flour through the salt and set aside. With an electric hand mixer or with your beloved kitchenaid stand mixer, beat the butter until creamy (if the butter is cold out of the fridge, this will take some time, I’d sit back for about a minute – unless your house is hot! then it’ll be quicker). Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat until fluffy (this will take longer than you think – about 2-3 minutes….if you aren’t sure if you’ve achieved “fluffy”…beat another 30 seconds before quitting). Then beat in the eggs one at a time. Since I have a stand mixer, I typically crack the egg, dump it (minus the shell!) into the batter while the mixer is running at medium, turn away to put the shell in the garbage and by the time I’m back (my garbage is on the other side of the kitchen) it’s time to put in the next egg.

Stir in the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula followed by the oats and raisins. Now it’s time for divvying up the dough on the sheets! Grab your small scooper if you’ve got one and if not, just a spoon and grab enough to roll a 2 inch dough ball and place on the sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 20-25 min or until golden brown on the edges. Once out of the oven, let cool for a bit to firm up and then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Once cool, eat with zeal a la Cookie Monster! Please give this recipe a try and let me know how it turned out in the comments section!

The epic and promised eggnog….

Before we begin this days posting adventure, I must, simply must tell you about the book I’m reading. Now, you don’t know this yet, but you will discover that I love romance novels…you know, smut. Not the cheesy smutty smut a la Harlequin novels, but the fun, quick witted kind of smut a la Johanna Lindsey, Nora Roberts, Sherrilyn Kenyon…you get the gist.

This is not one of them. This book was loaned to me several months ago by my bestie, Holy Frijole. It’s written by Christopher Moore titled “A Dirty Job”. It took me a long time to pick it up. I was distracted by my smut and honestly, Holy F has a lot of great qualities, but one of the most annoying is trying to make me smart through her smart books. So I resisted…and resisted….because I like being comfortably average in intelligence…and then I couldn’t decide on my next smut-tasticness and I relented. Seriously, I don’t believe that Death has made me giggle…out loud…while reading about it….ever. If you love irreverent humor as much as me, pick this puppy up! You won’t be disappointed! Soooo….funnny!

Meanwhile….back at base….Eggnog base that is!

Remember last time (just scroll down) when I tried that other eggnog recipe, and although decent, didn’t plummet me headlong into passionate love? Well this one totally di-..ahem..ok, got realllllllly close! It was still just a smidgeon thick, but boy was it ever damn near being what I can buy in the store. Which, as I have no other basis for comparison what constitutes good eggnog, we’re going with.

You might not be able to tell from the angle of this pic, but this glass is HUGE. This eggnog deserved it. And the recipe came from my good friend, Texas B. I’ve newly built a relationship with Texas B, but she’s one hoot and holler and I miss dancing with that lady! Texas is just SO far away! And can you believe, they have DRY counties!? Who ever heard of no booze?! My heart would shrivel up and die with no booze! At the very very least, you wouldn’t get this post! Not to mention it’s full of…say it with me folks….BOOZE, but I’m drinking a glass of merlot while typing. That being announced, any typos or factual errors are not my fault. It’s Merlot’s-  that saucy bitch.

Speaking of…there she be! RUMMMM!

Ok, so this recipe actually has eggs in it. I know I said that raw eggs = yucky, but I can learn. I’m maturing in my old years and spreading my wings and horizons. So real eggs it is!

Here’s the recipe…thank you Texas B!

Ingredients

12 eggs, separated
1 1/2 c sugar
3 T sugar
4 1/2 c milk (whole or 2%)
2 t vanilla
2 c heavy cream
6 whole cloves
Cinnamon, nutmeg or pumpkin-pie spice to taste.

1. Heat the milk, cloves, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg or spice and 1 1/2 c sugar over low heat stirring constantly until steaming. Keep heating for two minutes after you see steam. Remove from heat, remove cloves and let sit.
2. With a mixer, on high, beat egg yolk with 3T sugar until thick and pale, about 10 minutes.

Goes from this….

To this….

3. Slowly add a small portion of the hot milk to the yolk mixture and mix. Add more, a bit at a time until about 1/3 of milk is added. Go ahead and add the rest at a regular pace and mix all together. Let chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
4. Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form and fold in to the milk mixture. I find it easiest to use a wisk.
5. Whip the egg whites in to stiff peaks and fold in to mixture.
6. Sprinkle with nutmeg before serving.
7. Brandy, rum, wiskey, bourbon… – she leaves the amounts here open to interpretation….pour in oh, a cup at a time until you like the taste…or until the bottle runs dry, whichever floats your boat! And with a whole bottle of rum, you’ll be floatin’ alright!

Enjoy everyone and cheers to the New Year! 2011 is already better even 5 days in!