My family’s favorite bakery has the most amazing cookies, cakes, tarts and cheesecakes and our favorite treat to get there is the classic black and white cookie. It is a moist, cakey, not-too sweet sugar cookie as big as your hand with yummy icing. They can be pricey though, at $1 each. One year I made the mistake of letting one of my kids bring these cookies in for their class birthday treat and without thinking, I agreed. Well, $50 later, I vowed never again. For a fraction of the cost, I made black and white cookies a few days ago with a recipe from my old friend Joy the Baker’s blog and they were just as good as the bakery’s (and others shared my opinion). Here is Joy’s black and white cookie recipe - be sure to be generous with the icing.

Black and White Cookies (from Joy the Baker)

For the Cookies

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk (I substituted 2/3 cup milk combined with 1 TB cream of tartar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs

For Vanilla Icing

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Chocolate Icing

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

3 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir together buttermilk (or substitute) and vanilla in a cup.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then add eggs, beating until combined well. Mix in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately in batches at low speed (scraping down side of bowl occasionally), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Spoon 1/4 cups of batter about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet (I lined my pan with parchment paper). Bake in middle of oven until tops are puffed and pale golden, and cookies spring back when touched, 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack and chill (to cool quickly), about 5 minutes.

To make the icing-

For vanilla icing, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon of corn syrup and 2 tablespoons hot water, until smooth. For chocolate icing, in a separate bowl, melt the butter and the chocolate in a microwave for about 1 minute. Add the corn syrup and stir until smooth.

Once the cookies are cooled, face them all bottom side up of a clean surface. Spread half of the cookie with vanilla glaze and the other half with chocolate glaze. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to set. Store in a sealed container - they last for a few days.

Ok, so the Oscars are around the corner, literally, hours away and counting, and while I am scrambling around trying to fix a few festive things for me and Stephen to enjoy (he is a HUGE film buff), I figured I would just let you guys know what we plan to do.

After sending off this blog I am going to run out to our closest liquor store to buy a few bottles of champagne, to toast the Oscars on with, Moet is the official champagne of this years Oscars, but I will probably pick up whatever is on sale. When mixing cocktails with Champagne it’s not really necessary to get the top of the line champage, the good stuff is meant to be drunk naked, only chilling is required.

Recently I have been all about the Champagne cocktail. It makes a less tasty champagne taste delish and it stretches your buck. Here are the few that we plan to try tonight.

Black Velvet
Mix in a 4:1 ratio Champagne to Guiness or black Irish stout of your choice

(Stephen’s All About the Black Velvet. It sounds crazy, but a mixologist friend of mine highly recommended it.)

Classic Champagne Cocktail

INGREDIENTS

* 1 dash of angostura bitters
* 1 sugar cube
* Cold, dry champagne
* Twist of lemon peel

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add the dash of bitters to the sugar cube in the bottom of a chilled champagne glass, and slowly pour in the champagne. Garnish with the lemon peel.

Champagne ‘rita

* 1 ounce tequila

* 1 ounce triple sec

* 1 ounce lemonade or limeade

Shake tequila, triple sec and lemon/limeade with ice. Strain into margarita glass and add bubbly to fill.

Here are my tips for making sure your Champagne Cocktail is delish!

- Chill your sparkling wines. Keep them about 42-45° F.

- As most sparkling wine drinks are on the sweet side, try to find a dry sparkling, like many Bruts to mix with, the final flavor of your cocktail will be cleaner.

- Chill the glasses or flutes ahead of time. Champagne cocktails could never be too chilled!

- Pour small amounts of sparkling in at a time to prevent foam over. Repeat until the glass is filled.

And since we don’t want to be complete champagniacs tonight for a delicious Oscar Night snack I turned to my pal Katie Lee for one of her delicious Chex Mix recipes. Seriously, when do you go wrong with Chex Mix?

Katie Lee’s Spiced Nuts ‘n Chex Mix

Start to finish: 15 minutes
Makes: 16 Servings (1/2 cup each)

Ingredients:
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
¼ cup butter or margarine
2 cups Corn Chex cereal
2 cups Rice Chex cereal
2 cups Wheat Chex cereal
1 can (11.5 oz) mixed nuts

1. In small bowl, mix sugar, chili powder, and red pepper; set aside.

2. In large microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on High about 40 seconds or until melted. Stir in cereal and nuts until evenly coated. Stir in sugar mixture until evenly coated.

3. Microwave uncovered on High 5 to 6 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes, until mixture just begins to turn brown. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container.

Note: The large bowl may become warm in the microwave—use hot pads and handle with care!

Will you guys be watching the Oscars? What are your picks? Rach and I would LOVE to know!

SEE WHAT EVETTE IS UP TO! FOLLOW HER ON:

Hey, Sarah Copeland here from Food Network Kitchens. Last weekend, we spent 48 hours in a little land of green. Our latest Good Food Garden was a part of the South Beach Wine and Food Festival in Miami. It was an absolute pleasure to bring another garden to South Florida since the one we built there last year is now a thriving force that has inspired the kids of the South Beach Boys & Girls Club and their family food co-op that the community has come to depend on.

For two days, our garden sat smack in the sunny center of Jungle Island Fun Park, greeting kids and parents with lush patches of strawberries, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, squash and fruiting temple orange trees among a dozen other varieties of fresh foods. As always, wherever our gardens go, they invite the little ones to taste, touch, smell and learn.

Whenever I talk with someone who has not experienced the Good Food Gardens through the eyes of a child, I talk about the magic that happens there—the lure of the plants that are a world of wonderment to a child who may or may not know that the food they see on their plate started as a tiny seed. The magic was at work full force this weekend as kids tucked their noses into the orange blossoms, felt the furry sage leaves and tasted spicy, vibrant arugula.

But the real magic happens in the homes and lives of the families the garden will touch now that it has been relocated to its permanent home, the Naoma Donnelley Haggin Boys & Girls Club in Delray Beach. We hope the things they will grow, taste and cook because of their exposure to fresh fruits and vegetables in their own backyard will inspire generations of healthy eating. It’s the magic of a movement that believes Good Food is for everyone.

- Sarah Copeland

Spokesperson, Good Food Gardens

Burgers, beaches, bubbly, BBQ, Bobby Flay—what more could you want in a weekend? All of the Food Network stars came out for the 2010 South Beach Wine & Food Festival, and we caught some of them on camera during the whirlwind of parties, seminars and grand tastings.  

Check out our favorite video highlights from the festivities as recorded by FN ClipChick.

The Rachael Ray Burger Bash (at least that’s what I call it. The actual name is the Amstel Light Burger Bash, but it will always be the Rachael Ray Burger Bash to me) happened Thursday night, as you probably know. It gets bigger and bigger every year, with more and more publicity. This year’s People’s Choice prize was won by Michael Symon, the Cleveland-based chef whose “Fat Doug” burger — basically a pastrami burger — moved the awe of the crowd. The judges (and don’t think it doesn’t pain me that I wasn’t one) awarded their laurels to Michael Schwartz, a local chef whom the Miami feinschmeckers know well enough to want to vote for him. Bobby Flay was the runner up for the People’s Choice prize. The fact is, there was such burger parity at play that I couldn’t even summon up much outrage at my personal favorites not getting more play. I got to hang out, eat hamburgers, say hello to people; what do I care who the crowd voted for?

And yet, I do. It’s like the Oscars. You know it’s stupid, you know the best movie never wins, you know that the history of Academy injustice is legendary, but you still want it to be fair. You want the right movie to win. And that’s how I feel about the People’s Choice award. On the other hand, this just goes to demonstrate my anti-democratic bias. The truth is, I only like crowd sentiment when it ratifies my own judgement. But this was one case where neither hometown boosterism nor Food Network brainwashing can be blamed. The judgeds like Bobby Flay and Michael Schwartz the best, but the crowd got behind a bald guy from Cleveland with pastrami on his burger. Go figure. I don’t know who to blame for this, other than Symon himself, who used one of the best prepared meat products in the world as super-charger for his burger. If everyone else used bacon, and lost the contest, who do they have to blame? I myself was in awe of the models pimped out by Bill’s, Spike Mendelsohn, and most of all Zach and Jeffrey Chodorow, the good-natured father-and-son restaurnant moguls who spared no expense in competing, despite the fact that they had no restaurant to promote. The Chods had both boy and girl models, and they were wearing less than anybody present on that chilly night, but they lost to Symon too.

The lesson here, if there is one: you can’t ever pick the winner of the burger bash. I would have bet my weight in Black Label burger meat that Symon didn’t stand a chance. And in fact, I was already writing (at least in my mind) a narrative in which innovation had been punished and the old verities vindicated. But then Symon won and I had to start over. It’s hard to resent Mike Symon, who is conquering the world as much through sheer likability as anything else (who has actually been to his restaurant in Cleveland?) Still, I still feel like the old hamburger orthodoxies are in place, and said so in Time. Rachael doesn’t agree with me, but this conflict is one of the things that keeps our relationship so enjoyable.  What do you think?

Josh Ozersky is a James Beard Award-winning food writer, as he will tell you immediately upon meeting you. His most recent book, The Hamburger: A History (2008) is available in paperback. Listen to his “The Mr. Cutlets Show” radio program at Heritage Radio Network, or via iTunes. He writes a weekly column on food and dining for Time.

On the website of the People’s Garden NYC, New York’s stately City Hall building is depicted with a brightly colored vegetable garden in front of it being worked by happy school children. When I first saw the picture, I thought it was real. It turns out the “photo” is an artist’s rendering, and the garden is only a fantasy, but it’s a dream that could become a reality, like the now famous organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn. If enough people sign the petition on the People’s Garden website asking Mayor Bloomberg to put in a public vegetable garden, it just might happen.

The idea of a produce garden at City Hall might seem silly at first, but the People’s Garden project is an effort to achieve something like what Michelle Obama has done in the nation’s capital, that is, create a teaching garden where children can learn about healthy eating and the source of fresh produce by growing it themselves. The First Lady has brought our national epidemic of childhood obesity, disease, and lack of affordable nutritious food for kids to the forefront. Many kids live in neighborhoods where fresh produce isn’t available, or they are so far removed from where food actually comes from that they honestly believe it originates at the supermarket, rather than growing out of the soil. It’s both sad and a bit scary that so many of us have lost our connection with one of life’s most fundamental building blocks-namely, where food comes from.

Because we want all future generations of kids to start their life’s journey in good health, and to help them maintain it through proper eating habits, the idea of an urban garden in a high-profile setting like City Hall makes a lot of sense. In a time when poor nutrition and food scarcity are on the rise, the goal of helping kids to learn the connection between food and health seems worthwhile. Here are some reasons I think a public easy-to-access teaching garden for school children is an exciting idea:

• It would teach kids about the cycles of the seasons and how to grow their own food in a very direct, hands-on way, so that they understand which vegetables and fruits grow at what time of year; important knowledge in an era when transporting goods across the world and the country may become unrealistic with rising fuel costs

• By deepening their connection to the growing process, the garden would help to get kids more excited about eating fresh, healthy food, rather than the calorie- and chemical-laden chips and soda that are so cheap and widely available

• In the spirit of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to combat childhood obesity, a teaching garden would provide an excellent way for kids to improve their health through outdoor exercise, especially for those in schools where Physical Education has been eliminated due to budget cuts

• Many Americans, including New Yorkers, are going hungry, and the fresh produce from a public garden would be a small but important source of healthy, natural food for people in homeless shelters or otherwise in need

• A public garden would help to beautify the city

Some cities already have their own City Hall produce gardens, such as Milwaukee, Baltimore(see photo up top), and Portland, Ore. What do you think about putting a garden at City Hall, in New York or elsewhere?

To learn more about the People’s Garden NYC project, see their website

Rendering and photo from the People’s Garden NYC website.

Continuing on with Fashion Week, the other big trend of this season was beautiful, long, feminine hair with a strong part. This always looks good on the runways especially with the clothes being so detailed. Simple hair was the perfect compliment! Noticeable variations in the hair’s texture were seen, whether it was blown out to be soft and bouncy, backcombed for that rock n’ roll texture or just allowing the hair to dry with natural movement. Fall 2010 was the season for simplicity!

Mara Hoffman

Blow dry hair with a round brush for extra body, and finish with a curling iron. This gives the hair that casual glam look! Add a center part emphasizing that fresh youthful look.

Thuy

The creative briefing for Thuy was for the hair to look simple and have a NYC downtown vibe. After blow-drying the hair we backcombed the underneath sections adding some frizzy texture that gently pushed through the top layer to give the hair an overall dry feel.

Tadashi

For Tadashi we went with shiny, beautiful and bouncy hair! After blow-drying each section we pinned the hair up allowing it to cool down. This helps to maintain all the bounce and body needed to complete this look. For extra hold, bounce and shine use Cutler Volumizing Spray and finish with a little Redken Workfoce 09.

Tory Burch

The natural hair texture and strong side part really complimented Tory Burch’s uptown style! Apply Cutler Definition Cream, loosely dry the hair with your hands simultaneously twisting small sections of hair. Then, pull apart these sections for an overall loose finish.

Another NYC Fashion Week completed! The clothes really took center stage and we’ll see if any of this translates on the red carpet for the Oscars!

Cheers!