Glazes, drizzles, and any confectioner’s sugar based frostings have become the bane of my sugar free existence, so we’re just going to ignore the fiasco of an attempt at an orange glaze on what is otherwise a very nice cake. Okay, now that we’ve gotten that unpleasantness out of the way (and, hey, if you’re on a sugar free diet and have come up with a nice glaze or drizzle recipe, I’d love to hear it!), I want to talk about my new favorite flour blend.

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photograph by Lisa Rigby

Do you remember the secret project that I hinted about a while ago as my excuse for being absent from this place for a while? Well, I realized that I never did tell you about the project. Yeah, my memory’s not what it used to be.

My new (or new-ish, at this point) project, a collaboration with Maddy Hague of The Inspired Bride, is a wedding-centric online magazine called Nonpareil. The magazine focuses on the DIY details of weddings, though many of the projects found in the magazine can be used for all different types of occasions, not just weddings. So far, we’ve featured everything from felt flower boutonnieres to budget centerpieces, and we also share many free printables that can be used to recreate the projects shown in the magazine.

We just launched the second issue this week, and I’m super excited about all of the cool projects from the awesome contributors that worked with us in both this issue and the premiere issue. My feature from the current issue is a “dessert table” that features bath and body products instead of food, and it was so much fun to put together. I also loved working with Lisa Rigby, who perfectly captured the mood that I was going for in her photographs.

You can get directions for making all of the bath and body products that I used in the feature, and you can download all of the labels, signs, and other printables if you’d like to make your own dessert table with a twist. And be sure to check out all of the other pretty tutorials and downloads while you’re visiting!

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and though I’m not going to be posting about something traditionally Irish, I did manage to come up with something that’s technically green, or served on something green, at least. Hey, I told you that I have a backlog of recipes, and I’m still back around Christmas. At this rate, you might see a St. Patrick’s Day recipe in July sometime. I should just have a two week marathon posting session so I can get caught up on the recipes.

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Irish or not, everyone deserves some love on St. Patrick’s Day! Be sure and get a kiss when you give these mini “Kiss Me, I Might Be Irish” cards, which can also be used as gift tags. I designed the cards to fit my favorite little envelopes at Paper Source, but envelopes aren’t necessary. Happy St. Patty’s Day, and hope you get lots of smooches, preferably not the slobbery, drunken kind (unless you like that sort of thing).

Download the St. Patrick’s Day Mini Cards (141 Kb PDF)

You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to download and use this file. Download the reader for free here. These templates are for personal, non-commercial use only.

A few months ago — yes, this is how far behind I am on posting recipes — I was chatting with a friend who mentioned that he was planning on making a big batch of Asian chicken soup. After the conversation, I suddenly had the urge to make a pot of Asian chicken soup for myself. I wonder why?

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Alright, so I know that I should ban bacon from my diet. It has sugar and all those nasty nitrates, but I just can’t (or won’t) give it up because it’s just too tasty. If I knew that eating bacon would bring dire consequences, then maybe I’d consider giving it up, but for now I stick to using it sparingly in dishes where I feel the flavor is truly enhanced by its presence. And sometimes I just munch a whole piece or three.

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