More shirts!

While watching TV there was some sort of reference to Taylor Swift and Shake it Off and the husband hadn't heard it so I pulled it up on youtube and threw it on the TV. Instantly the baby was mesmerized. Ever since he will literally freeze it whatever position he is in when the video is on. I've been trying to figure out what he loves about it. Is it the beat? I tried Hollaback Girl, no response. Was it the dancing? I tried Single Ladies, no response. Maybe it was just the pop vibe in general? I tried Katy Perry (a favorite of his cousin), no response. I even tried other Taylor Swift videos and nothing. So, when the day is long and challenging, I'm stuck with Shake it Off, on repeat. He's such a weirdo sometimes.

The only saving grace is that he also loves Johnny Cash. We think it's the deep voice and simple music. After getting shots at his 1 year doctor appointment he was very unhappy to be in the car. He was crying and despite whatever was on the radio, he wasn't going be happy. Sure enough, I put my phone on the Johnny Cash channel on pandora and he suddenly stopped crying and was quiet the rest of the ride home. So while he seems to have a fondness for Taylor Swift, at least he balances it with a little Johnny Cash. In support of the less obnoxious choice, I made him some shirts. I'm especially fond the It Ain't Me shirt because I can think "who is that little boy who ate all of his lunch?" and then look at his shirt and not only is it true but it makes me smile. 

I also made myself a shirt for our other blog. You might remember the same design but in a stencil failure. I'm much happier with the vinyl and will wear this one with pride. 

Frozen Dress

I don't know what I was thinking but I asked my 4 year old niece what kind of dress she wanted for christmas. Naturally, she wanted a Frozen dress. Since she's blonde, I was expecting Elsa (and had actually purchased sparkly blue vinyl in anticipation) but instead she asked for an Anna dress. So instead of a few snowflakes here and there, Anna's dress is chalk full of detailed embroidery. I made a dress out of solid blue fabric using the below pattern which is more of a long top than a full length dress. The fabric wasn't the most comfortable so I lined it with white muslin (first mistake, I should have used a darker lining).

I wanted to make it look like Anna but not to the point where it was a costume. There was some kind soul on the internet that posted detailed files of the embroidery. At first I used vinyl to cut out the stencil on my Cameo but as it turns out, vinyl doesn't stick to fabric. So I did it all over in freezer paper. There was some bleeding but even still, it turned out way better than what I could have done by hand. I left the back of the dress plain but I did a hack job at the hemming and the fabric was fraying so I used some special glue to stop the fraying, you know, something quick so I could just wrap it and be done. Fast forward 20 minutes later where the glue bled through and discolored the fabric. Ughhhhh. I did some quick hand painting to cover the discoloration and I was finally done. So, to the designers at Disney, your overly detailed Anna dress nearly made me crazy but I made it out on the other side so the joke is on you. Better luck next time.

http://shwinandshwin.com/2014/09/modern-baby-doll-top.html

Birthday Cakes!

Long story short, I was going through my 'baked goods' folder on flickr and fell in love again with some of the cakes I've done. Consider this a "best of" list. Post for wedding cakes to follow.

The inside

The outside. Seriously probably one of the coolest cakes I've done. I think I might do it again for the baby's birthday.

This is marshmallow fondant and the black was hand painted with watered down coloring gel.

Seeing how it's for my sister, I'm 99.8% sure this cake was lemon.

One of my husbands coworkers asked if I could make this cake. Apparently his wife had tried twice and failed miserably both times. I'm not positive of the cake flavor but it's covered in chocolate ganache and the mouth and eyes are marshmallow fondant.

This really isn't a birthday cake, it was a just for fun cake. Every year my sister does a christmas wrapping party where you just sit around, gab and wrap your christmas presents. I'm fairly sure the cake was chocolate. I do remember it being way too much cake.

I made this for someones 60th birthday, I believe. The cake was lemon and there was a smaller one that was stacked on top. It's hard to tell in the photo but it's a subtle ombre effect in the color, maybe a little too subtle.

For her 4th birthday my niece asked me to make her a Frozen cake. Specifically an Anna cake. I remember my mom making us barbie birthday cakes growing up and we LOVED them. Unfortunately, someone in our family had some pretty serious medical issues around the same time as the party so I didn't get to dedicate as much time as I wanted to in decorating it. The cake was vanilla, vanilla frosting with some strawberry preserves in the layers. The cake itself was dyed BRIGHT PINK (upon request, of course). Funny story, at her party we had to go around cake eating time and the birthday girl asked if she could give my baby a kiss before we left. So sweet, right? So I held the baby down to her level and right as she planted the sweetest kiss on his cheek, he grabbed a fist full of her pink cake right off of her plate. 

Macaron disaster of 2014

Ok, so the title might be a little dramatic. For thanksgiving I decided to make some lemon macarons because my sister loves all things lemon and it was super easy. I put a little lemon zest in the actual macarons and the filling was lemon curd with a circle of white chocolate to keep it from gushing out. They were quite tasty and successful. I bake each year for christmas gifts for the husband to hand out at work. Usually it's easy; caramel corn, quick breads, candied nuts, etc. Since the macarons were so easy to the first time and people are generally impressed by them, I decided to make them for this years gift. Since they were most likely going to sit on peoples desks and not be refrigerated, I decided on chocolate macaron with ganache filling and a gingerbread macaron with a caramel filling. The first batch of chocolate macarons went fine, they were beautiful. I made some caramel with sweetened condensed milk in the oven and it was beautiful. It all started to go downhill with the first batch of gingerbread. The tops cracked and the feet weren't too big so I scrapped them and decided to start again. The day before the husband wanted to hand them out. Ugh. The second batch turned out worse, cracks everywhere and virtually no feet. I moved ahead and made a second batch of chocolate since the yield on the first wasn't enough. I don't even know what happened but they were flat, full of bubbles, just all around terrible. At this point I lost my composure. I wanted to scrap the entire idea but I had spent days on this already. I stepped away, went to the store to get more almonds and came back and tried to be very precise in making the 3rd batch of chocolate. Again, more cracks and minimal feet. I was over it so I assembled and packaged all the macarons and decided to call them "meringue cookies" because it was just downright embarrassing to call them macarons. Lesson learned about being cocky in the kitchen. Also, making sandwich cookies for 15 people means you'll be making too many cookies.

Happy Birthday Cousin!

Today is my nieces 1st birthday. Having an older sister, I knew that she didn't really need anything so I went the crafty route. I decided to make a quiet book. Mostly used to keep kids quiet in church, but I thought it would also be helpful for appointments and such when little ones seems especially squirmy. Don't let the simplicity fool you, these things take time! I doubled up and made each page twice, one for cousin and another for baby E since his birthday isn't too far off. Sewing 18 cupcake cups, 18 pieces of velcro to the tops of the cupcakes and the corresponding piece onto the page...it was a lot. There were little pieces of felt everywhere and the husband was quite happy when I finished. I actually planned on 2 more pages but my patience ran out and we can always add to them down the line. Some of the pages have pieces that are a little small for a 1 year old to play with but I figured that her 4 year old sister could enjoy them and pages can easily be removed and stashed away. I think my favorite page is the apples.

Under each shape is a foam animal sticker.

The water is divided into pockets so you can stuff the fish in. The ribbon to the side of the hair is for hair clips and whatnot.

I also made her a flying squirrel using the below pattern. I made a tester one for baby E which he didn't really care for but I know that cousin is way more into squishy things. And by "is way more into" I mean that she likes to bite and suck and anything squishy.
http://wildolive.blogspot.com/2014/09/guest-project-abby-glassenbergs-flying.html?spref=pi

HTV and more cameo love

Historically I've been the freezer paper queen when it came to making shirts. But after the smashing failure of my beehive shirt, I figured that there had to be a better way. I started looking into vinyl and thought that vinyl might make a better stencil and then I realized that duh, I can just get heat transfer vinyl and then I wouldn't have to deal with paint at all! I got white, black and 2 glitter vinyls in blue and copper. I'm not a glitter person but I figured that it would be good for making stuff for the cousins. 

Anyway, here is my trial run. We call baby E the billy goat baby because he tries to eat anything that he can get his mouth on. He specifically likes to suck on our jeans which is pretty gross. At thanksgiving the cousins were showing off their turkey shirts and they were pretty surprised and confused when I unzipped the babies jacket and he had a goat on his shirt. It was pretty funny. The image is fairly detailed and worked out great! It's been through the wash half a dozen times and still has held up. Success! 

Diaper bag

I knew it would happen, but I fought it for a long time. Having kids means becoming a pack mule and hauling around your entire house in a bag. I was using a Vera Bradley bag but the handles are too short for me so it never stayed on my shoulder. Then I started using a reusable fabric shopping bag that I got in Japan but it was just one giant bag where it was impossible to find anything.  Eventually I got to the point where I was carrying my wallet (wristlet actually), had a binky in my front pocket and a burper tucked into the band of my pants, phone and car keys in the back pockets. Pretty ridiculous.

For my birthday my sister gave me some fabric that I've been lusting over. I put them in my craft room and would just lovingly gaze at them. I wanted to just cherish and pet the fabric until the end of time but that was just silly so I decided to make myself a "diaper" bag. The blue fabric is from Joanns and it's a heavier almost canvas and the lining is a mustard yellow that I got from Hobby Lobby.
I used the below pattern. Overall I'm pretty happy with the bag with the exception that the back pocket is too big and I'm going to put a snap on the top so it doesn't flop open all the time and you sew the handles directly to the inside of the bag which seems a little tacky after going through all of the effort of making a lining and everything. I also extended the straps by maybe 2-3" and they're a tad too thick, it makes it easier to turn them inside when making the bag but overall the thick bands feel a little "homemade" in my mind. The bag is large and in charge and organized.
http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/free-diaper-bag-pattern.html

Front

Back

The flower fabric is below. It's a medium weight, between a quilting cotton and a canvas. If you love it, buy it, it's discontinued. 

http://www.hawthornethreads.com/fabric/designer/joel_dewberry/notting_hill_sateen/primrose_in_midnight

The pinterest trap

Before attempting to make cupcakes for a friend (see below), I had pinned a recipe for lemon pull apart bread that looked AMAZING. I decided to give it a go. First I nearly left out the eggs which means that I added them later in the game and while it wasn't a deal killer, it was pretty annoying. Secondly, I didn't roll out the dough thin enough. I have a habit of going too thin and making life difficult for myself so I went the opposite direction. I feared that the pieces were too thick and would be dry so I decided not to give it to the friend, I have a reputation to protect after all. I "sampled" the loaf and it really wasn't bad. In fact I had to toss it in order to keep myself from "sampling" the entire thing. It is quite pretty and doesn't taste bad but I just don't think it's worth all the effort.
http://www.barbarabakes.com/2012/10/lemon-pull-apart-bread-a-giveaway/

It was the husbands birthday this week. His favorite thing is breakfast, french toast specifically. There is a french bakery downtown that makes the most amazing cinnamon bread but I didn't want to bother with it since it was around Halloween and all so I decided that I would bake some myself. Bread is a huge pain in the butt. Mixing it is nothing but I started at 6:15pm and didn't pull the loaf out of the oven until 9:30pm and that was with a cheat in the rising process! It turned out well, it was beautiful and tasty but didn't touch the bread from the bakery. Wahhh wahhhh. If you're in the mood to spend the day watching bread rise, this might be a good recipe for you.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/08/homemade-cinnamon-bread/

Imperfection

I would hate to present the image that everything I do turns out well so I'm proud to share some of my recent failures. This is a shirt I thought of; get it....Utah..beehive..all things bee. I had intended to put the name of our furniture blog on it but it turned out so crappy that I don't want to associate the two. The paint bled under the freezer paper and getting a bright color on top of a dark color was also a poor decision. I was able to touch it up that it's not an outright embarrassment but yeah, a few lessons learned on this one. 

While visiting a friend he presented a box of baby clothes to go through. It was odd because he has no kids but once I got to it, I noticed that it was all 80's clothing. Sweeeet! As a form of payment I offered to make him cupcakes. Wanting to try something new and knowing that he loves coffee, I fiddled with my chocolate cake recipe and replace the water with espresso. Obviously something went wrong. I was using a new setting on the oven, I overfilled the cups and I think that the coffee messed up the chemistry of the batter. As if it's not annoying enough to toss out 2 dozen cupcakes but I also had to scrape the overflow off the cupcake tins. Today I made a recipe specifically for coffee cupcakes and they turned out lovely.

Nursery basics and some baking

We had family out for the blessing and since my mom was driving, I offered to return her surger. Borrowing it has been fantastic but made Michael think that I need one of my own (not necessarily a bad thing). He couldn't keep a secret so he gave a surger for Christmas. In October. I was able to whip out the babies Halloween costume (to come) and a crib cover. The baby has been teething on the edge of his crib and while I don't care about the damage, the idea of him essentially eating paint was less than ideal so I made a quick cover out of flannel. I FINALLY made some changing pad covers, previously we were using disposable sheets and it was just silly. I also cut out the alphabet with my cameo and made a garland to decorate the nursery. I'll have to sneak a picture tomorrow.

My birthday was the weekend before the baby blessing so we celebrated with all the family in town. Of course I wouldn't let anyone BUY me a cake so I made some boston creme cupcakes (yellow cake, center cut out and filled with vanilla bean pastry creme and topped with chocolate). I found them to be very tasty. For the baby blessing I made chocolate oatmeal bars, apple cinnamon rolls and gluten free chocolate brownies. 

First, the apple cinnamon rolls are divine. We had tons of apples from our backyard but they are only really good for baking so I was searching for recipes. I haven't been terribly successful with cinnamon rolls in the past but I followed the recipe near exact (for the filling I just cooked the apples a little in some sugar and butter and then did the usual butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and apples for the filling). The caramel icing is essential, and this coming from someone that doesn't usually care for icing. I made a batch for neighbors and they were so good that I made another batch for the party.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/12/caramel-apple-sweet-rolls/

Second, when most people think of gluten free baking, usually the idea of fancy flours and ingredients come to mind but this recipe for gluten free chocolate cake/brownies is seriously the easiest thing on the face of the earth. There is minimal room for messing it up and it's one bowl (for me anyway. I melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave and then add the eggs and dry ingredients). For the ganache I just melted some chocolate chips and cream together, super super simple. This is a tiny cake I made for a friend who is gluten free. It's so cute. 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Flourless-Chocolate-Cake-14478

cork letters

Ok, so this one is really old. I was going through the picture folder of my crafts and saw this. I'm really proud of how they turned out so I thought I'd share. I have some friends from high school that got married and I couldn't make it back out for the wedding so I wanted to make it up to them. I think I asked people to collect their wine corks for me but it ended up being like 1/8th of what I needed so I ended up buying some on ebay. I got the letters at a craft store and painted them white. And then I hot glued the corks on. It was A LOT of hot glue. I ran into the problem of the sides and curves and eventually learned how to slice through a cork with an xacto knife, a skill that I am not too excited to ever use again. Turns out that it takes a lot of corks to fill in 6 letters but the result was worth it, in my opinion. I don't know if the pictures capture it but some of the corks had UNITY down the side of them and that's where my love of the word came from. It just seems so tough.

More completed projects

I made this shirt earlier this week. With a v neck shirt I wasn't sure where to place the whale so I went for the side. When viewing the picture I took I realized that I put a whale on my muffin top, how appropriate and funny. I traced the whale image in my cameo software and the geometric print was downloaded offline. I layered the two pieces of freezer paper and I think that is why there was so much bleeding. Lesson learned, I'm sure I could have easily layered the two images in the software. I'm thinking about adding a 2nd whale but sometimes simplicity is best.

I have 2 smaller totes of outgrown clothes and the collection started because of this sweater. I'm not sure why he bought it but the husband wanted to get rid of the sweater because it was too big. I had been reading craft blogs and saw posts on making pillows out of old sweaters so I stashed it away. While unpacking after the move (many many years later) I came across the totes and the sweater. Saying that the sweater was too big was an understatement. I think it was XXXL. Either way, I knew it belonged in the nursery so I hacked it up, threw on a side zipper and made a quick pillow out of muslin and stuffing.

We've been quilling for a few years. It was an inexpensive hobby and something to fill our time. I wanted to make something for the nursery and after viewing a few quilling samples online, I wanted to make it more intricate than anything else I've made before. Below is the result. It's like a weird sample of every quilling shape possible. I don't love it but it will do. I reviewed pictures of quilled gifts I've made and well, I think I've improved. If you were so *ahem* lucky enough to receive one of these and actually display it, please let me know so I can have the chance at a do over.

Reviving the beehive

Hello!
Over 4 years of hibernation and man, do things change. Although I have started multiple blogs during this time; I like the name of this one the most, so, here I am. Since I've had my dedicated craft room situated, I've been cranking out projects left and right. And I want to brag. Facebook didn't seem like the best venue so back to blogger I go. Honestly, the other half is anti google these days and might convert it to tumblr but until then, I'll keep it simple and go with the established route.

For my birthday (3 days ago) I got a cameo silhouette from the husband. Truth be told, I was giddy. I LOVE it. There are a few die cut machines out there but I like the cameo because it doesn't require me to purchase cartridges and it cuts fabric. IT CUTS FABRIC!
In the past I've made onesies and tshirts for friends and family and with the cameo it SIGNIFICANTLY cuts the time. I used to find the image online, size in photoshop, print, cut, trace onto fabric or freezer paper and cut again. Recently I skipped a step by buying tracing paper, whew, big spender right? Now with the cameo, if I don't already have the file I load the image into their software, use their tracing feature and send it off to be cut.
For instance, I made this in about half an hour. I've been keeping an eye out for something to put in the hall bathroom and last night I thought of this. I traced the platypus image from an online source and just cut and layer. I would never attempt to make something this intricate by hand and it was so easy with the cameo.

Ok, enough of my cameo gushing. Little E is getting blessed this weekend and since he doesn't need to wear white, I scoured the internet for cute outfits. If he was a girl, it would have taken me 15 minutes but cute (and somewhat affordable) formal boy outfits are surprisingly hard to come by. I found the pants and hat first at Janie and Jack. They also had a beautiful vest but it was over $30 and I couldn't bring myself to spend that much money on a simple vest that surely I could make myself. At the fabric store I found something that was good enough but price was covered and really, I wasn't paying attention until I had a half yard cut and it was like $37 a yard! Good thing I had my trusty coupon in tow. I started drafting a pattern, cut it out of muslin and tried it on Little E. Naturally, it was way to small. Guys, I edited and sewed over 6 little muslin vests, no exaggeration. Then I did what the husband referred to as "throwing good money after bad" by buying a pattern at the store. Except I didn't notice the size and the smallest was 3T. I tried scaling it down myself but after yet another muslin vest, it still looked terrible. So I finally did what I should have done in the first place, use a free pattern/tutorial that I found online. Made ANOTHER little muslin vest and it worked! Finally! Between the cost of the fabric and the pattern that I didn't even use, I maybe saved $10 and considering how much trouble it was, it would have been $10 well spent. But, nonetheless, here is his adorable little outfit.

Bees again? Seriously?

I've started a new food blog that I will update with the baking that I do in my spare time. It's still has it's training wheels on and will eventually see a face lift but for now it's up and going. I tried to post some cakes that I haven't had a chance to post on this blog. I also realized that I tend to type A LOT so I kept to a format that will hopefully keep my rambling to a minimum.

http://bakinginthebeehive.blogspot.com/

I leave and heave a sigh and say good bye

Hey all,

Obligations that require our attention and time have come up and we are no longer able to continue with The Bumbling Bee project. This has been a once in a lifetime learning experience and we are grateful for the opportunity. Thank you to everyone so very much for their support. I will always be a baker and will continue to make some super tasty stuff and work on refining my recipes. I plan on starting a food blog soon - I'll post the URL here when that takes place. Thank you all again, it's been fun.

tips and Tools Tuesday: Pastry Cream!

Ok, first things first, what the heck is this stuff? To simplify, pastry cream is the best tasting vanilla pudding you'll have. It's basically just a custard. Here's a fabulous recipe from Epicurious:

• 2 1/4 cups whole milk
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
  

preparation

In medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup milk, egg yolks, 1/3 cup sugar, and cornstarch.

Transfer remaining 1 3/4 cups milk to heavy medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add pod. Sprinkle remaining 1/3 cup sugar over, letting sugar sink undisturbed to bottom. Set pan over moderate heat and bring to simmer without stirring.

Whisk hot milk mixture, then gradually whisk into egg yolk mixture. Return to saucepan over moderate heat and cook, whisking constantly, until pastry cream simmers and thickens, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, discard vanilla pod, and whisk cream until smooth. Transfer to bowl and press plastic wrap directly onto surface. Chill until cold, about 4 hours. (Pastry cream can be made ahead and refrigerated, wrapped well with plastic wrap on surface, up to 3 days.)

I wouldn't change a thing except maybe use potato starch instead of corn starch. When heated a lot or overcooked the corn starch can give off a slightly metallic taste so I like to use potato starch just in case.

Ok, so now you have a fabulous bowl of pastry cream. What to do?

Puff pastry fresh fruit tarts or even just mini pies will pastry cream filling and fresh fruit on top

Eclairs/Cream Puffs

Filling of a cake

Parfait cups

Trifle cake

Don't forget to mess around with the flavoring! The last batch of pastry cream I made I added just a hint of almond extract and it blew my socks off.

Overload on cakes!

I've been doing some trial and error runs for cakes lately. I've been taking pictures of my success and quickly eating the evidence of the failures. Case and point; yesterday I turned out a very successful pumpkin spice cake but then had the failure of my first coffee flavored cake. I was attempting to use actual coffee beans and apparently they need to be ground to a fine dust - otherwise it's like eating tiny pieces of coffee flavored plastic bits .. gross!

Last weekend I made 2 cakes. A small lemon curd cake and an almond pear bundt cake. Both were tasty but I enjoyed the option of not eating lemon for once and had a hearty slice of the almond. The pears couldn't keep up with the almond flavoring so I guess my almond cake is best suited with berries.

Today over at Design*Sponge they posted a recipe for a mini boston cream pie (which is really a cake). Just looking at it I knew I could do a very tasty version and if it wasn't friday afternoon with no one to eat it over the weekend - you better believe I'd be in the kitchen. Pastry cream, vanilla cake and ganache. Doesn't get any better than that.

Tips and Tools Tuesday: Vanilla Beans

I've been baking for quite awhile but I always avoided using real vanilla beans because those little suckers are EXPENSIVE! I used to hate recipes that would call for expensive and exotic ingredients because the whole benefit of cooking and baking at home is to cut the cost down. I didn't like the idea of finding one particular ingredient for just one recipe so I either didn't use the recipe or found a reasonable substitute. Just about everywhere I looked for vanilla beans it was about $7-10 for 2 beans. In my mind they either need to be filled with liquid gold or vanilla extract would just have to be a good enough substitute.

When planning out my sisters wedding cake I decided that I need to splurge and buy vanilla beans for her vanilla raspberry cake layer. While compiling resources and doing extensive research I discovered that Costco has amazing prices on vanilla beans. I was nearly brought to tears as I read the sign. 10 beans for $12. You better believe that I stocked up and that the cashier thought I was absolutely nuts. The best part (aside from the price) about the Costco vanilla beans is that they come in glass tubes (5 in a tube). When you uncork them the smell is absolutely heavenly. They do have expiration dates on them but they can be frozen.

So, the question that is begging to be asked; is it worth it? In my humble opinion - for just a little over a dollar per bean, completely and absolutely 100% yes. I am still pretty stingy with the vanilla beans but always use them when the vanilla flavor is being showcased such as in pastry cream (vanilla custard) and in vanilla cakes. There is such a difference and I really don't think I'll make pastry cream again without using them. To make it even more valuable; vanilla beans can be used in 2 ways. The most common is to split the bean and scrape out the seeds and incorporate that into the recipe. But, if you save the emptied pod you can add it the milk you're going to use for the pastry cream and let it soak. I even take it a step further and leave the pod in while boiling the milk in preparation to make the pastry cream. People also put their emptied pods to their sugar supply to allow the flavor to be soaked into the sugar. Either way, the vanilla bean definitely performs double duty.

For the next tips and tools tuesday I'll post a recipe for pastry cream and provide some awesome ideas for how to use it.

Tips and Tools Tuesday: Prep bowl with lid

Pyrex has changed my life. I don't actually bake with any pyrex but I love LOVE LOVE my pyrex prep bowls. I bought a set at Walmart and for the life of me I can't find them online but here's a set so you can see the difference in size. I have the smallest size.

I love these so much because they're the perfect size for a prep bowl and for small storage. My favorite use of them is for separating eggs. I use two bowls, one for the whites and one for the yolks and whichever half I'm not using I just put a lid on it, label and throw it in the fridge for later use. I also have found them super useful for mixing small amounts of frosting that I wanted to color. For everyday use we love using prep bowls for snacks (pretzels, craisins) because the size limits our intake.

Since they're pyrex, they'll never break. They actually nest ok and they're microwave and dishwasher safe. The best part though? The lid is so snug that I could fill it with water and hold it upside down. It does make it a little bit more difficult to open but I'd rather have a tight lid than being able to open it with one finger. They're really affordable too. I got 4 bowls for under $9.

Tips and Tools Tuesday: Cookie Scoops

Today I present both a tip and a tool. I am so in love with using ice cream scoops for cookies that I don't even remember how I used to make cookies prior to owning a scoop. Sure, a spoon might work but it won't be consistent and you're going to get messy. With an ice cream scoop you can bet that your cookies will be identical and your fingers will stay clean.

I know there are TONS of various tools used to scoop cookies but I stand by LibertyWare's thumb dishers (I use the red size). Not a very exciting name, I know. I love these scoops because it honestly, not exaggerating, ejects the dough. A function that most cookie scoops struggle with. With a single flick of the thumb the dough pops out. When using it with stickier dough (gingersnaps..ugh) it can get gunked up overtime but a little hot water fixes that problem. There are similar scoops where you squeeze the handle together but I find those difficult to actually scoop with because cookie dough is pretty heavy. I also use the scoop as a visual cue as to the desired consistency of the dough. When the ball of the dough is slightly feathered when I drop it, it's perfect. Because of this visual cue I can add more flour if needed without having to bake any cookies off.

I have yet to break a LibertyWare thumb disher and with practice I can scoop at lightning speed. Technically, I don't know if they're dishwasher safe but I always throw mine in the utensil basket and have never had a problem. Locally, both Gygi and Standard sell these but I'm not which one has the best price. Or, they're all over the internet.

Ok, now the tip. To keep your hands clean and to get identical shape and weight of your cookies you scoop the dough and then bring it up along the side of the bowl. This way you can ensure that your scoop is full of dough and that the top is level. Here's a video that shows the technique.

PS-The scoop in the video is the same as the one I mentioned above. And I don't use the water trick unless it gets gunky because the water residue can change the appearance of the top of the cookie.