Following Rabbits Blog — make it

Wouldn't it be silly fun to have a mini-me? Well for about $20 you can make your own this weekend. Yoodoo designer, Sarah Lu, will help you create a little Yoodoo doll in your (or your boyfriend's or cat's) likeness. Sarah will be on hand from 2-4p on Saturday at the International Center of Photography Museum. (They also have a Paris photo exhibit going on. Woo!) Once your Youdoo has a cute little mug ironed on, you get to be crafty and sew, paint, and draw to your heart's content. (Make a fun dress for yours, don't forget your boyfriend's tattoos.) It's too quirky to not go check it out... can't decide if mine will be sporting an L2R tee or Johnny Cupcakes. Might have to do a sick collabo and incorporate 'em both. Send me photos of yours if you go!

This is one of my very favorite dinners to make. It's super easy and tastes great! The tropical flavor makes it good for summer, but it's hearty enough for cold weather, too. I like to buy individually wrapped chicken breasts since I'm usually cooking for one. You can toss the rest in the freezer without making a fuss defrosting them later. Make sure the chicken is totally thawed before putting it in the oven. Usually I'll move a piece from the freezer to the fridge before work if I have that much foresight. If I'm extra hungry I'll up the rice to 1/2 cup uncooked to make myself a full cup of cooked. I prefer jasmine (sticky) rice, but use whatever suits your fancy.

I actually made this for a date one time who was coming to my little Brooklyn apartment for dinner. I made a salad of spinach and mixed greens, mandarin orange slices, craisins, shredded carrots, candied walnuts, and a sesame ginger dressing. Was amazing! (The date was good too!) 

I had a most unproductive weekend... relaxing, fun, just-what-I-needed, but unproductive. Last night I managed to do something "blogable"- I made chocolate-dipped coconut biscotti. Yum! I know, another coconut recipe... I couldn't help it! I'm sure you could get creative with the recipe and substitute something else if coconut doesn't suit your fancy. The recipe above is for plain biscotti, but I sweetened it up a bit and dipped them in chocolate since I had two containers of Baker's dipping chocolate that Brian found for me. This recipe is fairly easy to make, it just takes quite a bit of time (baking time alone is a total of an hour!). I didn't eff up these cookies, as I've made them before, but as always I'll share a few tips. Once all ingredients are combined, the dough is very (very!) sticky. You'll need quite a bit of flour to manage to knead the dough and get it dry enough around the edges to pat it into a loaf shape on the cookie sheet. You can see from my photos the consistency of the dough and also how it is shaped to bake. Also, I cut mine a bit thick, which makes them a small challenge to eat (helloooo crumbs!). If you're looking to be polite or have these at a tea party, cut them into thinner, more manageable pieces. Without the chocolate they have just a small hint of sweetness. I like to have them with my tea (which I take with milk and sugar) so the chocolate was an indulgent little addition on my part. Enjoy!

When my dad came down to help me move a couple weeks ago I was lamenting over not finding girl scout cookies in NYC. Yesterday I got a package at my office- he sent me FIVE boxes! Holy sugar overload. After work I went over to the library to return The White Queen (read it... I thought it was better than the Other Boleyn Girl). After that I went over to Duane Reade and got some nail polish and ice cream. These shakes are super quick to make and absolutely delicious! 

 I used vanilla ice cream, I don't like chocolate ice cream (gasp!). I've seen some recipes suggest mint ice cream, but I think that'd be overkill... the cookies made it perfectly minty. I also used soy milk, which tasted no different from a regular milkshake. (I'm the pickiest eater evvver... I'd tell you if the soy wrecked it.) Anyway, definitely whip one of these up! I may kill my pint of ice cream making another one tonight while I watch Paper Heart.

This is one of my favorite recipes! So easy to make, and you get great little desserts. There are a few options on the chocolate. I prefer to use Baker's brand dipping chocolate because it comes in little tubs that you can pop in the microwave. You can always melt chocolate over a double-boiler, but I don't have one and would rather not deal with the mess. I couldn't find Baker's, so I used Nestle Tollhouse chips and added a little vegetable oil to make it smoother and thinner. 

White chocolate is my favorite. So I wasn't disappointed when a couple of the stems fell off while dipping the white, making it difficult to dip again in the semi-sweet. I solved that problem and ate them. 
 

Dipping the semi-sweet chocolate is a bit more difficult, since you want to dip at an angle and leave some white showing. I was using a pretty small bowl, making it a little harder to get them dipped all the way. Once they're all double-dipped and lined up on your foil, put the rest of the melted chocolate into a ziplock and trim off a little bit of the corner, making a one-time-use pastry tube. I make my bowties by making little figure-eight shapes then filling 'em in with 2 dots of chocolate, but do whatever is easiest for ya. They look most impressive when they're done, and they're super delicious! Just be sure to refrigerate them, and eat 'em up within a few days or the strawberries go soft. No one wants a leaky tuxedo.