Easy Peasy Alfredo Sauce

• 1 clove fresh minced garlic (or a tiny scoop from a minced garlic jar)
• ½ cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (gourmet or the pre-shredded in bags)
• 1/3cup grated romano cheese
• 1 pint heavy cream

In a saucepan combine butter, heavy cream

Simmer this until all is melted, and mixed well. Simmer this for a few minutes on low 

Remove from heat.  Quickly whisk in the Parmesan cheese and garlic.

--You may wish to season with a little salt and pepper.

Optional:  Add pesto for a great cream pesto sauce.  Add cinnamon, nutmeg, sage for pumpkin ravioli

I got this sauce recipe from a co-worker. He's Italian so obviously it's good. I like this recipe because it can be as easy as you want it to be. I used Hanaford's cheeses and shredded them myself but this step can be made easier by just buying the shredded cheese that comes in bags. I used Dreamfield's linguini pasta and chicken. When I use this recipe again I'll let the chicken soak in the sauce for a few minutes before serving. I'll also add broccoli to get that extra food group in.

Cupcakes for Kids

I made these cupcakes for Daughters and Son's Days at work. I used a 4B decorating tip and sprinkles. They're nothing special or complicated but the bright colors really gave them a kick. No one can resist a cute cupcake.

Easter Egg Cakes

I made these cakes with Dunkan Heinz's strawberry cake mix and buttercream frosting. I used a tip 21 for everything except for the leaves and I used my mom's leftover royal flowers. Good thing they keep for a long time. I have been wanting to make Easter cakes but all the ideas on the internet look more complicated that I was looking for.

Cake Decorating: Course 2

Cakes from course 2! The lattice cake was a little tricky just because the cake was so high. Are my roses getting better? The royal icing flower cake took three weeks to finish since we did a lot of prep work ahead of time. The basket weave wasn't nearly as hard as I though it would be, which means it's definitely a do-again. I bring all my cakes to work and this one was gone real fast.

Just for Fun

Here is a St. Patty's Day cake and some cupcakes I made for fun (and practice) and brought into work. My mom has a recipe for awesome chocolate cake with chocolate sour cream frosting so I took the opportunity to stray from the Wilton course recipes and used it for these.

Here is what I followed for the cupcakes:

http://www.wilton.com/idea/Bear-Hug-for-One

Cake Decorating: Course 1

These are cakes from my first cake decorating class I took with my mom. The courses are offered at Michael's craft stores and they teach Wilton's method. There are four classes in total and I totally recommend them if you have a little extra time. It's great to take in the winter when you can't get out much.

I'm not a huge fan of clowns but the clown cake was pretty fun. The rainbow cake came out cute and it wasn't too hard. The rose cake was a real pain in the ass, though. I made tons of roses but only three or four came out half decent. I still have a hard time with roses.

Chocolate Chip Cookies by the Snowvillage Inn in NH

My grandmother got this recipe somehow from this Bed and Breakfast in NH. It has lots of butter and makes lots of cookies.

1 pound butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 pound dark brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
6 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
4 cups real chocolate chips (largest pkg. 24 oz.)

Place the butter in a large bowl and stir until fluffy. Using an electric hand mixer, beat in the sugars, eggs, and vanilla.

Mix the baking powder and salt into the flour. Gradually stir the flour into the cookie batter. Finally, add the chocolate chips (and nuts if you want to). Batter will be quite stiff; you may have to finish the mixing with your hands on a pastry board, as if you were kneading bread. (I use my Kitchen Aid Mixer and it works fine).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop a heaped tablespoon (we use the smallest ice cream scoop) of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes. Cookies will still be soft but become firm while cooling. If 12 minutes does not bake them right, turn up the oven to 375 degrees. Let cookies cool completely before removing from baking sheet.

NOTE: These cookies freeze beautifully, so you can make a big batch and always have them on hand. Or you can divide this recipe in half (using 1 egg). In that case, you could use a stationary mixer with a dough hook for the final mixing – a lot easier!

Makes about 100 cookies.