This is mostly because the actual "house" part came from a kit, and someone more dextrous than I was responsible for assembly.
But I did decorate it! And it wasn't terrible, considering that I'm fairly sure it's the first gingerbread house I've ever decorated in my life (it's the second one I've made, but the first one never actually reached the point where it was standing upright enough to allow for the application of things like icing).
The "After":
This post was created in collaboration with Bed Bath & Beyond.
You know how every year I decide that I'm going to actually put some effort into my Halloween costume, and then every year end up procrastinating and digging the cat ears out of storage? And then I swear that the next year will be different, and it's not?
Same thing with holiday parties. When the season starts up, I always declare that this will be the year that I will throw a lovely holiday cocktail party with thematic drinks, Christmassy music, pretty decorations, and possibly even costumes (I usually declare this to Kendrick, who is kind enough to support my enthusiasm while sidestepping the fact that I never follow through on these plans). And then I don't do it.
OK, so at Quaker Steak & Lube - the wings chain that we stop into every time we drive to Ohio - there's a huge menu of hot wings arranged according to something called "Scoville Units" (hotness. basically). The ones I would consider eating hover around ninety units, because I am a weenie and I don't understand why a person would want to eat things that incur pain.
Triple Atomic wings - the hottest ones on the menu - contain something called "ghost peppers" and have FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND units.
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND. That is a lot of thousands.
And if you want to eat them, you first must sign a waiver. And if you eat six, you get a t-shirt. Obviously I was not interested in doing this, but for whatever reason Kendrick (and the Man Vs. Food guy, apparently) was.
Q. What ingredients/cooking tools would you recommend for a beginner, mid-level and advanced-level cook?
- Jeannine
A. I'm going to answer this question from the perspective of someone who's firmly in that middle category: a decent-ish cook who's interested in moving slightly beyond the basics and experimenting a little. My feeling about cooking - beginner or no - is that it should be fun, not fussy...so I honestly don't think you just don't really need a ton in order to create delicious meals, regardless of how proficient you are in the kitchen.
That said, it's definitely nice to have a few little toys to play with.
1) After a solid five years of coveting, I am finally the owner of a KitchenAid stand mixer (pistachio seemed like the obvious pick), and it is everything that I dreamed.
2) For its inaugural outing last night, I made the New York Times' Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookies (again), for the sole reason that I wanted to eat the raw dough.
