Food

For her son Logan's 5th birthday party, Katie Goodman whips up some solar system chocolate cupcakes and shares her recipe.

Katie writes:

Logan always likes to ask people what their favorite planet is. Most have never thought about it before and have to think for a bit before answering. I always tell him Earth is my favorite and he always asks why. I love this beautiful planet, especially now that I'm seeing a tiny evidence of the spring we will soon experience.

"Full of flavor and low in calories" ... yes please!

Sara at The Herb Gardener has a simple, delicious-sounding recipe for herbed yogurt cheese. We're getting some spring-like weather here in Northern California, and the chives in my herb garden are growing in a vibrant spring green. I'm going to make this! I just need to check if I have cheesecloth and a sieve. When I do - tonight or this weekend - I'll let you know what I think in the comments of this post. If you make it before me or you've made yogurt cheese before, please share your thoughts about this recipe. I'm new at making yogurt cheese. Or any kind of cheese. Thanks!

I didn't know such a thing as scientific cookies existed, or even that a round up (or two) were needed to show off all the flavors and possibilities that creative people have come up with. But now I realize I was living in the plain white flour and possibly moldy pantries of mundane cookiedom. Why make a star sugar cookie when you can make a sugar cookie atom?

Luckily, Ms. Humble of Not So Humble Pie is blogging about all the geeky baked goodies she can find, and she's gathered them up in two (so far) round-ups. Of course our inspired cooking pals over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories are included!

Science Cookie Round Up 1

Science Cookie Round Up 2

More:

Sierpinksi Cookies

This month at CRAFT we're covering all things recycled and upcycled. Food is no exception. We all have to get a little crafty using our leftovers and preserving what's about to spoil. So with that, I am pleased to introduce San Francisco's foodie and cooking extraordinaire, Jarod Hermann, who will be sharing some of his tips on making use of what's at hand in the fridge and pantry. This week we'll be talking about revitalizing stale bread, and some uses for bread that's beyond help.

We all do it ... We buy that yummy loaf of pugliese or sourdough baguette, swearing it will get eaten with that night's spaghetti, and then we leave it on the counter for 2 days. Whoops! Guess it's French toast time! But there is a quick way to revitalize your stale bread back to it's former goodness without battering it up. All you need is water and heat. This trick is good for loaves and buns alike.

*Note: Bread that is especially stale, like curling on the edges could be used as a rolling pin hard, is most likely beyond resuscitation. Though there are things to do with it. See "Uses" after the jump.

Nikol of The Thrifty Knitter shares her tips and lots of photos of how she organized her large kitchen. I love her idea of putting a weekly menu/grocery list on the freezer door. What a great idea to make sure you eat what you've bought.

You can also see more ideas on reorganizing your kitchen in our recent Kitchen 101.

I love these beautiful Mehndi-inspired cookies from Heather of Sprinkle Bakes.

With our busy lives, we may not have the time to practice this intricate art form, but we can reminisce about it over some delicious spiced roll-out cookies.

See the recipe she used and her technique for applying the Mehndi designs to the cookies over on her blog. [via Foodwhirl]

By Katie Goodman

Organizing can be a daunting task for anyone, but especially those who are limited on space. I don't consider organizing fun, though I love when my space is organized. Sometimes I'm just overwhelmed at the task at hand because there are so many questions to answer. Where should all these things go? How do I justify what stays and what will go if I just don't have room for it all? How can I make it more fun? How can I get the organization to last? And more importantly, how do you get started?

First, turn on some music, talk to a friend, listen to a pod cast, catch up on your favorite TV program and work during the commercial breaks, listen to a book on tape, basically anything that will make the task seem more fun. Maybe fun isn't the word you're thinking of, how about less boring?

Read the full Kitchen 101 article

Beautiful and delicious. [via hosteswiththemostess]

Cindy at Skip to My Lou shares her recipe for making homemade taffy and shows the fun afternoon of making taffy with the kids. I love the photos of them trying to pull and stretch the taffy. It's hard work!