Royal Icing Recipe

This recipe made AMAZING royal icing that went perfect on Christmas cookies. Of course, me being who I am, I was have freaking out the whole time that I was eating raw egg whites. Well, I did some research, and although it is not recommended to eat raw eggs, if you are going to it helps if they are from cage-free hens or from an organic market, since they live in healthier conditions. It is supposedly also safer to eat raw egg whites than raw egg yolks. Or if you can plan ahead, just buy pasteurized egg whites - then you are completely in the clear :) 

Royal Icing
2 large egg whites or 5 tablespoons meringue powder
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
Food coloring, if desired

For Royal Icing:
With a hand mixer, beat the egg whites with the lemon juice or extract until frothy. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined, smooth, and shiny. Turn to high and beat approximately 5 minutes till stiff and glossy. Add food coloring, if desired, and transfer to a pasty bag to pipe onto cookies.

Merry Christmas

It's been a while since I posted. Two big food holidays have passed and much food has been made.

There were carrot cake cupcakes...

There was a cake for Thanksgiving...

And some mini holiday fruit pies...

As well as a "College" Thanksgiving...

...and two pre-Christmas dinners with friends...

One of my roommates gave me a HUGE Martha Stewart Cookbook for Christmas, and Christmas Eve Dinner consisted of her glazed carrots and striped sea bass...I still have to upload those...

At first I was unsure how much I could really use Martha's book because a lot of recipes seemed unapproachable, but now that I have tried two of them...Glazed Carrots with Whole Spices and Rosemary:

and Roasted Sea Bass:

The carrots are definitely going to be repeated, and the Sea Bass was pretty good too - although the fennel and white wine did little to add to the flavor. I think the cookbook is just right of amount of challenge to help me learn new things.

I have said before how I am a fan of going to company websites to find recipes... well while we were snowed in last weekend we made white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies with the ghiradelli recipe and they were delicious...