Bone Octopus Hat

A few months ago, I experienced a sudden and inexplicable urge to make a leather hat with an octopus on it. This nebulous idea rapidly evolved into a goat leather steampunk-inspired top hat (using this tutorial) with a bone octopus as decoration.

Orange Soda Cupcakes

And we're onto the final cupcake recipe in the wedding cupcake competition -- Orange Soda Cupcakes.

Woodsy Outfit -- Chain mail and leather

Let's mix it up for a change, shall we? Today, I'm sharing some leather and chain maille that the boy made for me. I really love shiny things, so I occasionally request that my terribly talented husband-to-be make me something pretty to wear. In the past year, I started craving a "woodsy" outfit with a hard leather corset. And my goodness, did he ever deliver.

Goat Liver Curry

We recently signed up for bi-weekly delivery from a nearby dairy. They sell happy chicken eggs, happy cow milk, happy cow cheese, and lots of happy animal meats. While browsing through their happy animal meats, I found something that I knew I had to try: Goat organs. I've never eaten organs before -- except in pate -- and I've been on a mission to be brave and eat foods that scare me. I even started eating shrimp, scallops, and mussels in the past year. Ridiculous, I know, but it's a big step for me. I figured, since I love goat cheese, surely I will also love goat organs, right? Flawless logic. So, our goat organ exploration began today with goat liver curry.

Egg Cups

If you are a big fan of egg-in-a-basket, want a similar flavor in something vaguely muffin-shaped--and have an extra 30-40 minutes for breakfast--I recommend these delicious egg cups.

Cupcake and Wine Party, Round 2

Obviously (or not so obviously, depending on your love of cupcakes and wine), we needed to have some food at the party besides cupcakes. Since we were serving wine and mini-cupcakes, we decided that we would have two themes when picking out the food: 1) it would all feature cheese, and 2) where possible, it would be as tiny as the cupcakes.

Cupcake and Wine Party, Round 1

A little while ago, we hosted a wine-and-cupcake tasting party to evaluate potential wines and cupcakes for our wedding. The wines were pretty horrific (3 buck chuck, good heavens), but the cupcakes were pretty awesome.

Eggs in a Basket

Three and a half years ago, the boy and I went to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and shared a beach house with some dear friends of ours for a week. We went boat fishing, did some karaoke, walked along the beach, read good books, and just spent time together. To save some money, we split up making meals. One morning, our friends introduced us to the easiest and tastiest breakfast, which  changed the course of our lives in a delicious and eggy fashion: Eggs in a basket.

Red Wine and Chocolate Raspberry . . . Cupcakes

I have -- or may not -- have mentioned that we tried out 10 cupcake recipes for our wedding. If I haven't mentioned that yet, let me correct that now: We totally tried out 10 cupcake recipes for our wedding. And I learned that making cupcakes is: a) always delicious, both before and after the baking, and b) a whole lot of fun. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of roughly half of the cupcakes I tried out. Whoops! I did, however, find some pictures of two delicious cupcakes: Sangria Cupcakes and Chocolate Balsamic Raspberry Cupcakes.

Butternut bisque

I really am not a huge fan of soup. Not that I hate soup, but most soup recipes are just far too insubstantial for my tastes. I am much more of a fan of hearty soups and stews like black bean, split pea, and (deliciously bad for me) cream-based chowders. Once in a very rare while I see a soup recipe -- such as a recipe for butternut bisque with cider syrup -- that looks simple, delicious, and totally worth trying.

Way Late Christmas Cookies

I love baking. I learned to bake long before I learned to cook "proper" food. Of course, when I was really tiny, "baking" meant helping mom or dad gather the ingredients, and then diligently licking the bowl clean once the real baker was through with their work. Over time, I learned the non-dough-licking joys of baking. The actual combining of ingredients (so that's where the dough comes from!), shaping or rolling cookies (not all of them making it into the oven . . . ), fighting with yeast (possibly the most spiteful helpful organism with which a baker interacts). I knew I "graduated" with my beginner-baker degree the day I was first able to successfully make our family's yeast-based dill bread.

Despite my love of baking, I rarely actually make baked goods anymore. For one, it's much harder for me to clean out a bowl without losing all of my appetite for dinner. It's also much harder for me to eat 5 -- let alone 1! -- post-oven cookies without gaining roughly 20 pounds. Yes, my body defies the laws of physics and biology. So, baking now just means I end up with more cookies than I know what to do with. Unless, of course, it is Christmas. One of the reasons why Christmas has remained my #1 holiday is that I get to bake for days on end, and then give all of the beautiful cookies away before they do too much damage to my waistline!

So what do bake-a-holics do when they break their baking fast? Last Christmas, I made candy cane cookies, cinnamon sugar crispies, molasses spice cookies, candy cane biscotti, chocolate-dipped toffee, and inside-out peppermint bark.

Super Easy Pumpkin Grilled Cheese

It's been awhile since I featured a Hungry Girl recipe on this blog, so I thought I'd share an oldie-but-goodie: pumpkin grilled cheese.

Chicken with Apples and Depressed Cream Sauce

I am always learning new things about ingredients in my quest to lighten foods. Today, I'm sharing with you one such experiment gone somewhat awry. While the chicken with apples and cream sauce tasted okay, my cream sauce change-out resulted in a less-than-dreamy sauce appearance and texture.