Just in case you didn't get enough chocolate overload from the Texas Sheet Cake, this recipe should definitely send you into fudgey orbit!

Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Outrageous Brownies are my go-to brownies.  I love them with walnuts and chocolate chips (cause there isn't enough chocolate in them already!), but on holidays I love to make them with Oreos instead.  It's an idea that came from Joe at Culinary in the Country.  For the SPCA Bake Sale last December, I made them with Christmas Oreos and they looked adorably festive.

So here we are at Halloween.  I don't celebrate Halloween, other than taking photos of the furkids in hats; when they let me. This year, they didn't let me.  I found the cutest little pirate hat with black ringlets for them, but would they wear it?  Heck, no.

Oh, yeah, and I like to bake.  Just give me an excuse…holiday, Monday, rain, sun, whatever.  Any reason.

This recipe makes a huge amount of fun, crunchy, rich, and cutely Halloweenie brownies.  Go make some friends.

~BigSis

Posted under Food

So are you looking for a unique, meaningful Easter gift for your kiddos, or maybe another family member or a friend? Are they animal lovers?  I have the perfectest idea for you!  Sponsor a homeless bunny this Easter!

Eddie Rabbit 2

Best Friends is the most incredible animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, and they are one of my top 2 favorite charities (the SPCA is the other one).  If you don't know about the wonderful work they do, please check out their web site.  This Easter, you can sponsor a bunny who is at Best Friends waiting for a furever home.  For $25, you can sponsor one of these little bunbuns.  Your gift will go toward updating and expanding their Bunny House at Best Friends.

Ellie

A $25 gift sponsorship comes with a personalized e-card from you on Easter (or any other day you like), along with a photo and story of the bunny you’ve sponsored. How about printing out your sponsored bunny's photo, and placing it in your child's Easter basket?  How fun would that be?

Dakota

Thank you for considering a bunny sponsorship with Best Friends!

~BigSis

Posted under Holidays

Hey LilSis, and Happy New Year!  How funny that many of your resolutions were mirrors of my thoughts.  Not so surprising after all though, I suppose.  We do have a lot of similar experiences with similar responses to them.

We haven't talked about this offline, but I can give you some of my thoughts on what I'd love to talk about in BigSisLilSis in 2009.

• More MAC, more skin care, more beauty product info! I think we're all looking for the thing that works best for us, and if we put our heads together, we can compare notes and maybe save each other some time and money,  I have some leads on some interesting products that I'm working on already.
• More food and more recipes! I've got a bee in my bonnet to try some baked goods using agave nectar and coconut oil, since these two are touted as healthier alternatives to traditional ingredients.  Overall, I want to bake more and post more recipes and photos.  I have a whole bunch of new baking cookbooks that I need to break in, and baking just makes me happy!
• More tips and thoughts on achieving the healthiest state we can reasonably attain, as opposed to just trying to look good. Not that there is anything wrong with looking our best; I'm just focusing like a laser beam on getting healthy healthy healthy this year, God willing.
• More cats in hats, of course! My furkids didn't get a new chapeau this Christmas since their Meowmy was busy with the SPCA bake sale (sorry, kitty pies, sometimes you have to sacrifice for the good of your fellow felines).  But I promise more hats on more cats in 2009!  And that isn't just an empty campaign promise!  Since we agree that we need to laugh more, one of the best ways I know of is cats in hats!
• In the category of “materialistic”, I'd like to talk more about shoes! Buying shoes, organizing shoes, wearing shoes…you know, just talk about shoes.  I REALLY want to share my love (obsession or fetish may be better terms) for t-strap shoes!
• Last but not least, I'd love to do more Sister Showdowns, Sunday Suppers, and What the “L”s. I get a kick out of doing those, and I hope I'm not the only one who does.

Those are my off-the-cuff thoughts, LilSis.  What are your thoughts for the year ahead?

~BigSis

Posted under Holidays

Posted under

We're back home now, and our long week of celebrating Thanksgiving and BigSis' birthday in Las Vegas is winding down. Here's how it all went.

First, in Vegas:

• LilSis had a smooth flight in on Tuesday, but BigSis and SisMama got stuck in Amarillo on Monday for over 4 hours due to mechanical problems. There was a problem that caused hydraulic fluid to spill out all over the runway as the plane was about to take off, and the jet had to be towed back to the gate. Southwest doesn't have mechanics in Amarillo, so the part and the mechanics had to be flown from Dallas to Amarillo, and then it took them a couple of hours to fix the plane. Thankfully, they did a great job and BigSis and SisMama got to Vegas safely, although they lost half a day of their time there.

• Once we all got there, Vegas was fun fun fun! And no, we didn't get into any trouble. There was no reason for you to worry, Big T. It was a very “G Rated” trip. Although we were very much looking forward to a fun night of indulging in gambling (something we don't have much experience with) and scoring some great casino bonuses. How that turned out, well, it'll be revealed in just a bit.

• We were not thrilled with the service at our usual favorite hotel so we decided to check out as many others as we could on this trip. We really liked Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino and love that The Miracle Mile Shops are attached to the casino. We tried to get out to look at the “infamous” pool on the 6th floor but it was closed due to the weather. We loved Caesar's Palace and The Forum Shops and just might stay there on our next trip. We each fell in love with a purse from the Coach store at The Forum Shops but we resisted buying them. (It took every ounce of willpower.)
  

  BigSis wanted this one!

  

  Lil Sis wanted this one!

• We did see Luciano Pavarotti, Elvis, a girl who looked like Sarah Jessica Parker, two hookers, and two drunk Europeans.

• The weather in Vegas was not great, especially on Wednesday…BigSis' birthday! How dare it be rainy and cold and windy! Still, it would have made a great time to admire the beauty of some of the most beautiful casinos in the strip.

• BigSis came away with about $60 in winnings against around $80 total in losses, so a net loss of $20 in slot machine fun isn't too bad! You can't even see a movie and buy popcorn for that! LilSis and SisMama didn't fare quite as well, but none of us are big gamblers so we can't cry about our small losses. We've been told you can win money without depositing any money while gambling online, so perhaps to avoid some more losses, we'll take a look at some online slots in the future instead!

• If anyone EVER recommends to you that you take the Deuce mode of double-decker transportation, DON'T DO IT! Let us just say that we had a terrible experience with it, and lost about 2 hours out of Wednesday. Nuff said. Don't do it. Take a ding dang cab.

• We had some fabulous meals in Las Vegas! On Tuesday, our dinner at The Palm at Caesar's Palace was by far the best! They had the best creamed spinach that any of us had ever eaten. The recipe is also in The Palm Restaurant Cookbook. Wednesday, we had a great birthday lunch for BigSis at Taqueria Canonita in the Venetian (delicious mushroom tacos). And The Studio Cafe in MGM Grand actually has one of the best breakfasts in town (excellent omelets and hashbrowns).
  

  The Palm in Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas

Then, back at home:

• LilSis made her first homemade pecan pie. She made the 2008 Thanksgiving Pecan Pie from Cookie Madness and the Eagle Brand Basic Pumpkin Pie . They both turned out great!

• LilSis and her family had an excellent Thanksgiving dinner, in spite of her flying in that afternoon and spending 2 hours in traffic getting home from the airport. The turkey was perfect and the Refrigerator Mashed Potatoes were the big hit, as usual. Thanksgiving dinner was great and everyone was thankful to be together.

• BigSis and SisMama also flew back to Texas on Thanksgiving, but opted for the Furr's Cafeteria buffet instead of cooking, since they'd done the family meal on the previous Sunday. The pros: no cooking, no clean-up, and only $9 per person. The cons: it was good but not like homemade.

• On Black Friday, BigSis and SisMama braved the crowds at Galleria Mall to see the lighting ceremony for the largest indoor Christmas tree in the country. Can you say “crowd control”? Great googly moogly there were bajillions of people there!

Ok, girls and boys, start your engines! The Christmas season is now here in full swing! Since we had a late Thanksgiving, we have a short period of time until Christmas. In the coming weeks, we're going to focus on Christmas, of course.

BigSis is organizing a bake sale on December 15th at her office building to benefit the Dallas SPCA, and her team's goal is to raise $3000. She will have much more to share about that project in the next couple of weeks.

LilSis and SirHoney have to get busy putting up the exterior Christmas lights. It just hasn't felt like Christmas yet in California since it's been 75 degrees and sunny almost every day. LilSis also has to get busy on shopping since she has to ship all their Christmas gifts.

We hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving week, and that you'll stay with us throughout the Christmas season! We love Christmas, and we'll be talking about shopping, decorating and merry-making!

Posted under Holidays

I said the other day that Easter required chocolate, and I meant it!

These are my favorite chocolate cookies right now, since I made them for the SPCA Bake Sale last December.  They're Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and they're delicious!

They do need to be dolled up and decorated just a touch for Easter though, don't you think?  I thought!  And this is what I came up with.

I found these cute Easter stencils at Hobby Lobby.  If you have a Hobby Lobby near you, you know that no one does adorable holiday food packaging and goodies like they do!  Most of our decorative bake sale packaging comes from Hobby Lobby.

Back to the Easter stencils.  For just $1.99, I got 6 reusable plastic stencils that can be used with cookies, cupcakes, or anything else that is flat.

All you do is choose a cookie or cupcake with a level surface.

Place a stencil on the cookie.

Sprinkle it with powdered sugar, as heavily or as lightly as you like.

Carefully remove the stencil and admire your pretty image!  How fun is that!

I experimented with colored coarser sugar on a cookie, and it didn't work out too well.  So I had to eat that one.  Oh, darn.  This blogging thing is rough.  🙂

Powdered sugar looks pretty on a cookie, but it doesn't stick so you have to be careful not to disturb the image.  I bet it would stick better if you sprinkled the sugar on a frosted cookie or cupcake.

I already showed you the “Happy Easter” cookie close-up.  Here's the Easter basket…

the Easter Bunny…

the flowers…

the butterfly with tulips…

and the chickie!

This was a fun and super-easy project to do, and I bet your kids would love to help with it!  You may be cleaning up powdered sugar til next Easter, but at least you'll have great memories to show for it!

We're still hatching up more Easter fun, so check back with us soon!

~BigSis

Posted under Holidays