Silicone Baking Cups...do they work???

Have you ever wondered if the silicone bakeware was worth the money? I thought I'd do a little product review for you! I bought these cute little silicone muffin cups the other day; the manager at Sur La Table said I could bring them back if I didn't like how they worked, she claimed them wonderful. So I gave them a try. I whipped up my favorite banana pineapple muffin recipe on page 306!
As you can see they baked up nice and round, the true test was what happened once

I took them out..... They slipped right out, I just had to wipe them down and they were ready for another go round. I was pretty impressed at the cleanup! They even browned the bottom of the muffins which I had my doubts about. So, I would recommended them next time you see some on sale! I have never been a big fan of the paper cups, they take the bottom of the muffin off sometimes, and kids can't peel them very well themselves...and you have to keep buying them. This is a nice way to take the mess of muffin tin greasing and cleaning up out of muffin baking, so you can spend more time eating the muffins! --Carissa

Merry Christmas Sale!

Are you looking for a gift for the cook on your list? We have a few more cookbooks left from our last order and they are on sale during December for $30.00--a $5.savings off the regular price. This is a cookbook that can be used almost every day, unlike most of the cookbooks on our shelves that we only use a few recipes from! And if you buy a book for a friend or relative be sure to point them to the blog to get pictures of the recipes. Look under the "Order a Cookbook" tab to get our email addresses to place an order before Christmas! We will do our best to get books to you on time for Christmas.

Be watching for our Christmas cooking recipes on the blog this month!

Corrections Tab Update

We have a few new notes at the top of the list on the Corrections Tab, so be sure to have a look and make a notation in your cookbook on those recipes.  Our goal is to make our recipes as easy and foolproof for you as we can...so when we see things that could be tweaked or reworded for even better results, we want to let you know. ~Janice & Carissa

We've Been Hyjacked....or something...

Some of you have received some odd emails from our sweet little blog---it appears we have been the recipients of some sort of spam. I will get my computer hubby to look at it and see if we can get it blocked. I am so sorry to bother our wonderful followers with junk!

Don't worry!

Don't worry if you see posts from Carissa--true, she is supposed to be on light bedrest for a week or two, since Baby #3 has been trying to be an early bird--but some of Carissa's posts are things she cooked a few weeks ago and didn't get on the blog. Just didn't want you to think she is up cooking--mom (Janice) is at her house in Houston doing that now!

Chicken Piccata & Polenta comment from Sharea...

I made your chicken piccata and polenta tonight for dinner. Huge hit! I wasn't sure about the polenta.... I liked it, but should it be creamy or thick. Mine was pretty thick, I wondered if I should have added more water??? Stone said he loved the grits!

Comments from Sharea...

We had two wonderul dinners so far this week! I cooked Honey Pecan Chicken (wasn't sure what basmati rice was) and Nutty chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry. Both yummy! Can't wait to try out other recipes!
Sharea

Searching for an ingredient?

Did you know you can do a search on the blog for any word that is in a posting? Look at the very top left side of the blog, beside the red "B", and there is a space to enter a search word. This is helpful if you have, for example, an avocado that needs to be used up and you want a recipe for it--just put in the word "avocado" and it will pull up all the recipes on our blog that have that ingredient in it!

Spicy Hot Turkey Wrap

I've made probably 2 dozen of your recipes and enjoyed them all. Some have come into my rotation of meals. Here's one. This is quick and easy to fix and what a nice lunch it makes. Now that I know how to post a message, I'll try pictures.

Amazon Associate!

We just put an Amazon link on this blog that we hope you will find useful. As you have noticed, we love kitchen gadgets and appliances and often recommend different ones. Now you can go to the Amazon logo on the left side of the blog and actually order kitchen stuff right from our blog! Amazon will even give us a little referral fee when you order off the link on our blog, so that is kind of fun for us! You don't have to do anything special...when you click on the Amazon link from our blog, our name goes into the secret computer in the sky and a blessing comes our way...well, something like that, anyway! So stop right now and scroll down till you find the Amazon link and have a look. Thanks! (You can order anything on Amazon from this link, not just kitchen stuff.)

Chocolate Chip-Off

You have heard of a chili cook-off? Well here is a video of a chocolate chip-off that I think is so interesting, and totally agrees with what I had already determined in my quest for the best affordable chocolate. I think you will enjoy this...
http://www.americastestkitchen.com/video/index.php?docid=25138&Extcode=L0FN1BA00

New Comment...

Hi Janice, I will try this (cinnamon roll) recipe it looks wonderful. I've been meaning to e-mail you to let you know how much I'm enjoying the cookbook. I have used it several times already and yesterday I did Carissa's "Nutty Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry" and last night I did your "Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake", wow! they were both very good....Horst and I love the cake...such a tender cake, and all the lemon zest and lemon juice certainly satsified my lemon cravings. (Cook's Illustrated is a favorite of mine as well.) 

Thanks for sharing all the good tips on your blog, I just think they're great!
 Kathy Schapals 

Email from Lorrie~

Jan, 

I made the BBQ meatballs everyone was raging about last night and they were soo good!  David loved them and I am happy to have 3 or 4 more meals in my freezer. I made mashed potatoes with them as, I believe, Carissa recomended. 

   I'm taking Friday off to run errands and make the cream cheese twist bread......and maybe your cranberry muffins. This wedding shower baking is putting weight on us, I believe. I always figure some way for us to have a little of what I bake before it goes in the freezer.

   David is liking your cookbook! ~Lorrie

Cook Book

I was so excited when I heard that Janice and Carissa had put together a cookbook.I know that Janice is an awesome cook and that she is really good at all she does and Carissa is so much like her. Even more excited when the very next week Janice came in the store and I was able to order 4 of them. One for me and one each for my girls. I got them a couple of weeks later and the very next day I sat down and made a list of the things I wanted to try first. I then made my grocery list and off I went to get it all so I could get started. I had a really hard time finding one ingredient (Chile oil) I had never even heard of it but someone at Wal-Mart said that they sold it at Super One. I tried there and Brookshires and noone had it and hadnt heard of it either so, I decided to call Janice. I found out that it was in the Asian section of the store so I headed staight to Albertson's and sure enough that is where I found it. Probably could have found it at the other stores had I looked in the Asian section but I had no idea. So, now that I have it I still havent used it but I will soon and let you know how it turns out.

New Shipment of Cookbooks!

A large shipment of cookbooks are expected to arrive at Carissa's house on Thursday. I will be in Houston this weekend and will pick up half of them to bring back to Tyler. If you are on our list, you will be getting your book soon. If you haven't already told us, but want one from this order, please let us know. We have plenty of extras. Thanks to everyone that ordered! ~Janice

Nutrition Info

I have an idea! I'm really excited about it and I hope you're equally as excited, but if not, it won't hurt my feelings.

Leave it to the one with the degree in marketing to think about how to better "sell" your cookbook...when really it truly doesn't lack anything because it does sell itself! I believe it has the potential to be a huge hit!

However, I had the thought this morning that if there were nutrition information included for each recipe, it could really have the potential to be a key selling point for the cookbook. People want recipes they're going to cook every day that don't taste so ordinary--well, this cookbook already has that. Fast, easy, yet healthy, hearty and just enough of the unusual tastes to test our normal cooking boundaries and cause us to step outside our comfort zones in the kitchen. But a lot of people also want the nutritional information without the hassle of calculating it all up. Since your recipes are already on the healthier side, it would be nice to utilize that as a selling point.

Now, it would be a daunting task for one person to calculate the nutrition facts for all the recipes, but with so many of us making the recipes at home, if we take the time to calculate the ones we make and post it with our pictures, it could be done in no time. Plus, I'm also not opposed to the idea of single-handedly taking on the task.

We could just include calories per serving or calories for the entire dish (which would be fairly simple and easy)...or include, calories, fat grams and protein (the main important ones).

What do you think? Is it doable or is it way too much work?

What We Cook ~ now on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=373606747405&ref=ts

We put our cookbook on Facebook this past week. It has been fun to get a larger response all of a sudden!  We also started getting more orders, as we announced our 3rd. and final printing of the cookbook. Some day, down the road, we plan to write another cookbook, and we will be finding another less expensive printing option, but for now we want to make available this book, still sort of in progress, to anyone that would like to cook from it! 

We will be placing our last order in the next week or so. Let us know if you want us to reserve a book for you (or another one!). And let us know any corrections you have noticed, as we will be able to go in and fix any problems we have discovered thus far before we print again.

We have a new tab on the blog: Order a Book....so check out that page to find all the details and ordering info. 

Need Some Help Posting on this Blog?

We received this email, and thought we would share it on the blog...

I can not find the place to just send a message on the blog.

Tommy and I have been trying your recipes- Pesto Tomato Soup, Chicken Spaghetti, and today we are trying the Lasagna.  They have all been wonderful.  I also share them with a girl from work and she thinks the same thing I do, she loves recipes that have been tried and passed down.  Thanks for putting this book together.  We will be trying new recipes weekly.

Thanks again,

Trish James

Hello Trish and Tommy! (Tommy is Janice's dad, and Carissa's grandfather!)--Thanks so much for your comments! You are encouraging to us! We thought others might need help with posting, so we are making this a posting tutorial! Hope this answers your questions:. 

1. Anyone can comment on a posting. Simply look at the end of any "post" and you will see the word "comments." Click on that word and a box will come up for you to add your comment. Write your comment, then just click "publish your comment" at the end of the form. 

2.To be able to write a posting on this blog, you first must become a blog author...this is done by responding to the invitation you have been sent by us...you will just click on a link in the invitation, and sign in, and you will be an author, ready to make a posting! If anyone needs another invitation, email Carissa or Janice, and we will send out the author invite to you again, no problem. 

3. Once you are an author, after you sign in each time, a tan bar at the top of the blog will have the words "New Post" on the right. Click that, and another box will come up for you to put a post on. If you have a comment unrelated to another post, you can just put that comment on New Post. Just be sure to write some kind of title on your post. If you are writing about a recipe you have made, put the recipe title and page number in the title area. 

4. Don't worry that you will mess anything up...if your posting needs to be edited or changed up in any way to fit the format, Carissa or Janice can go in and fix it up for you even after it is posted.

5. One more thing--if you are not getting email updates when something new is written on the blog, then click on "Subscribe Via Email" (top left hand) and put in your email address...and you will get emails to look at the blog for something new on it!

New Tab: Fun Gadgets

We love gadgets, and wanted to share our favorite ones with you! So check out the new Fun Gadgets tab on the top left of the blog. We will be adding more as we get the time. If you have a gadget we need to know about--post a picture and tell us all about it!

Panko-Bread Crumbs Identified!

http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/ingredients/panko-bread-crumbs/
For those who are not familiar with panko (used in some of our recipes)--here is here all you ever didn't know!