Create Your Own Cake Pop Stand

Cake pops are pretty popular these days especially during the holidays.  For those of you who do not know what a cake pop is, it is a mixture of baked cake combined with a binder such as frosting to make a dough the consistency of play dough.  Dough is scooped (I use a small cookie scoop) and rolled into little balls.  You then take a lollipop stick and dip just a small part of one end into melted chocolate and then press it into the cake balls and set aside to set up.  Once these have hardened, dip the balls into smooth melted chocolate (using almond bark or candy melts).  You need to have the melted chocolate quite liquidy and smooth.  There are so many tutorials on YouTube on how this process is done as well as many blogs.  One of my favorite tutorials is Candy Quik on how to make cake pops.  My other favorite tutorial is Hungry Happenings tutorial on chocolate  By giving you this information from my peers, I can go into making a lovely display for your cake pops or anything on a lollipop stick.
 

Cut Out Cookies, Simplified

I don't know if you have the same opinion of cut out cookies as I did but they were not my favorite thing to make.  What a hassle.  Make the dough, refrigerate, roll out hard stiff dough and is not uniform in thickness.  Well, not any more!  I found the "Tidy Mom" way and it changed my opinion of making cut out cookies forever! 

Mis-Shapened Fried Egg Problem Solved

I love fried eggs, but in my house, fried eggs are a lot like snowflakes, no two are alike.  Problem solved!!!  Again, I was "thumbing" through Pinterest and found a blog where a wide mouth canning ring was used to make the perfect fried egg.  Low and behold, it worked!

Bacon Breadsticks

A few years ago, I found a recipe for appetizers while surfing the net and was quite intrigued with the idea of bacon wrapped breadsticks.  I was strolling through The Dollar Store last weekend and saw the skinny breadsticks and remembered I had a mental note tagged inside my head that I wanted to try them.  Well I did and they were good! 

Packaged Brown Gravy Tip - You Won't Believe This

I was at a friends house and she had served roast beef and gravy.  The gravy was unbelievable, I could have just drank the gravy it was so good.  I asked her how she made her gravy and she laughed at me.  She showed me that it was a brown gravy mix with a secret ingredient.  "What could this secret ingredient be?" I thought to myself, I need to know.  After a little prodding, I wriggled it out of her.  Balsamic vinegar.  Huh?  How could that be?  I didn't believe her, I thought that she was pulling my leg.  So the next time I made a package of brown gravy, I tried a little balsamic vinegar and low and behold, she was right.  I had to experiment with it a little and found the formula to be this:

1 package of brown gravy mix (prepared as directed) + 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar.

Sounds odd, but nobody will believe you that you are serving them brown gravy mix from a package.  Or, they will want your recipe.  It will be up to you if you want to dilvulge the secret.  It could be just between you and me.