Baby It’s Cold Outside…

Must see tv, mark your calendars...

Poor Cher, she got caught with her tape on...

I've always been a Cher fan, and think she looks pretty darn good for her age, despite her surgical enhancements.  But, now I just feel sad for her.  This picture is from the London premiere of Burlesque, and if you look closely at her chin line, next to her earring, you will see tape.

Apparently, she has taped her chin to try and make her jawline look firmer.  Okay, you might argue that this is no different than firming up the mid section with Spanx or body shapers, but somehow this just looks desperate. :(

Maybe she would have had better results with this method.  V, remember when we saw Katharine Chancellor do this on the Young and the Restless, we were horrified.

Sw-eet......

I've been checking out the Keurig Single Cup Coffee Makers, andI'm thinking this Cuisinart model looks even better!  I've had pod makers before, and haven't been impressed, however, they've come a long way, baby and this looks pretty awesome.  Do any of you have this yet?

Christmas baking, this is SO simple, why didn't I think of this before?

Last weekend at Ryan's we were baking gingerbread cookies.  I'm never a fan of rolling cookie dough, it always seems to give me problems.  First you chill the dough, then you try and roll it out, and it's so cold, it doesn't roll evenly, then you cut the cookies and they spread too much when you bake them.  It's a royal pain in the patootie.

That's what we did, and it was a pain, and they did spread, but they were wonderful cookies.  Not that heavy, biting bitter gingerbread taste, just a wonderfully mellow great taste, tender and moist, they were super, except for the procedure it took to cook them and their out of shape bodies once they were baked.

And since this isn't my first rodeo with formed cookies, I know that the key to having them bake without spreading is to have really cold dough, and thus the problem, that darned chilled dough and making the cookies quickly to bake.

So, in the middle of the night, when my brain seems to work best, I had a moment of clarity.  Forget chilling the dough, roll them immediately, when they are pliable and easy to work with, cut out the cookies, put them on the cookie sheet, and then chill them in the refrigerator before you bake them.  Why didn't I think of this years ago?  Maybe some of you already know to do this, yours truly had to have a senior moment to figure it out.

We haven't tried this yet, but it has to work better than the way we have done them in the past.

And the recipe for these great cookies - it's Betty Crocker, and she's tried 'n true for recipes that turn out.  Here's the link, the flavor of these cookies is vundebar>>> (We used milk instead of water in the recipe)

I picked up these cutters for Lindsay last weekend in Cincinnati at Williams Sonoma.  They are just adorable. Yeah, I know you want the link.  Here's the click>>>

I found the most AWESOME gift...

Okay, ladies, I found it, the elusive "great" gift, but since certain people read this blog who will be getting it, I can't tell you what it is until after Christmas.

But, if you're interested in a really super gift, for not a lot of money, just email me and I'll fill you in.

It's a winner.  Pinky swear it is. ;o)

~ jan

Guess where I've been?

We had a quick weekend trip to Lexington.  Lindsay had Abby all dressed up for Grammie, a bow in her hair, with her little tutu on, it was a fun time.

I have some new recipes on Jan Can Cook, including an eggnog quick bread that looks killer, and a yummy sounding cranberry pear, apple salad.  You might want to take a peek when you have a chance.

We went to Cincinnati shopping on Saturday, ate in this great burger joint that was featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, check this video out, awesome burgers, seriously some of the best ones we've ever eaten.

These guys know how to have fun...