Cookies ready for a cookie exchange. Photo credit: Taken by Stephen Moyer and used with permission from The Hershey CompanyThe first time a neighbor invited us to her annual Christmas party, I arrived with a plate of sugar cookies in hand. As soon as I walked into her dining room and saw hundreds and hundreds of cookies -- ranging from linzer tarts and gingerbread men to cocoa-dusted truffles, I wanted to melt away faster than a stick of butter in a saucepan. This is a woman who takes baking seriously. She begins in October and doesn't stop until the New Year.
So when I found myself in the Hershey Test Kitchen with Hershey's Baking Expert Linda Stahl and a group of bloggers , including some who only blog about cookies, I decided it was an opportunity to pick up a few tips.
1. You don't need a fancy stand mixer. Being of the generation of brides who dutifully added KitchenAid stand mixers to their bridal registries (I didn't receive one), I, along with the other bloggers, gasped when we were informed that the majority of home bakers use handheld mixers instead. This came as a surprise to the
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User post: Roast a Thanksgiving Turkey They're Sure to Gobble Up
By JavaMom | Yahoo Motherboard – Tue, Nov 16, 2010 8:18 AM EST
roasted Thanksgiving turkeyEvery year I think I will try something fancy with my Thanksgiving turkey -- perhaps brining it, or cooking a turducken or maybe even frying it in peanut oil -- and every year I make my turkey the exact same way. Why? Because it always turns out perfectly and it tastes so darned good. For anyone interested in a juicy, tasty, simple-to-cook turkey, I'll share my big secrets.
My turkey cooking days began my first Thanksgiving away from home when my mother sent me a sage, yet humorous email, with instructions. I printed that email out and pulled it out year after year and managed to keep it despite moving cross-country twice since then. I've also picked up a few tricks of my own along the way and have written them in the margins over several years, and one day finally got smart and typed everything up so I wouldn't lose those precious notes.
Turkey Prep (notes written for myself and future generations)We buy a local brand of turkey, Shady Brook Farm, rather than a national
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