Don a lampshade and prepare to be the life of the next chocolate-tasting party. The Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks team has some tips for you—none that we’ve actually tried ourselves, but Ghirardelli recommends them, and that’s good enough for us—to try later. If you happen to have a bunch of good-quality chocolate lying around, now’s… Continue reading Raise the Bar: Chocolate Tasting
Avalanche of Home Repairs
Screeching and other unsettling noises shook the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Headquarters yesterday. No, I was not baking a pie. And no, the house was not temporarily besieged by ghosts (that I know of). Instead, we had three “blizzards” of home repairs and improvements converging at once. First, on the coldest day of the year… Continue reading Avalanche of Home Repairs
New Year, New Air: Portable Air Purifier
Hoping to create cool blasts of mountain-fresh air, while my hair swirls in a breeze of music-video slow-motion effect—I requested a portable air purifier for Christmas. And I got one, which I promptly took to work to prevent sudden sneeze attacks. While it won’t produce super-model, swoon-worthy gusts of wind for photo shoots, it will… Continue reading New Year, New Air: Portable Air Purifier
A Roaring Good Time: 2023 in Review
Bear sightings increased by 100% this year, which was not a goal the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Team expected to set, but we hit it! One or two bears wandered into our neighborhood this fall and continued to wander around other neighborhoods, parks, and the Safeway lot. (See the picture below, which someone from our… Continue reading A Roaring Good Time: 2023 in Review
New Christmas Cookie Ball Game
Sugar cookies get plastered at my house this time of year, and I’m tired of it. Not plastered in the sense that they raid the liquor cabinet (though I do usually set them right next to the rum balls, which give off heady fumes). No, they stick to the sides of the clear cookie jar… Continue reading New Christmas Cookie Ball Game
It’s-a-Marshmallow-World-in-the-Kitchen-Cookies
A floofy flurry of festive marshmallows invaded the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Headquarters, and I knew just what to do with them. I stuffed their cute little faces inside hot melted butterscotch chips and peanut butter to create a cookie for the holidays. The cookie is actually called a confetti square, and the recipe I… Continue reading It’s-a-Marshmallow-World-in-the-Kitchen-Cookies
Dashing Through the Dough: Candy-Cane Sprinkled Shortbread Cookies
The merry blob of cookie dough in my refrigerator just received a festive festooning of peppermint sprinkles. And the Fixin’ Leeks and Leeks Team approves. To make the merriest of shortbread cookies, I used Ina Garten’s recipe. I shaped the cookies using a cookie dough scoop, placing them on a cookie sheet, and lightly flattening… Continue reading Dashing Through the Dough: Candy-Cane Sprinkled Shortbread Cookies
Fruitcake Cookie Kickoff to a Cookie Countdown to Christmas
Splash away, splash away, bourbon and all! The fruitcake cookie is having a ball. Why? Rather than serving as a festive doorstop, gifted and regifted from house to house, the fruitcake is guiding the sleigh this year at the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Headquarters. I searched for a fruitcake cookie recipe that would be soft,… Continue reading Fruitcake Cookie Kickoff to a Cookie Countdown to Christmas
Craft Alert: Page-Turning Photo Plaque Project
When a tree-shaped chunk of wood meets the old pages of a book, romance sparks and develops into one fire of a holiday craft. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to go, according to the Instagram video I watched, which inspired a craft I’ve just now attempted. I figured that the resulting craft would call… Continue reading Craft Alert: Page-Turning Photo Plaque Project
Fall Leaves I Can’t Leave Behind
A riotous gaggle of leaves wouldn’t let me pass, unless I took a picture of them. So, I did. You always hear, “Look up if you want to see beautiful things,” but sometimes, you have to look down—often for practical reasons (dog doo, slugs that go squish)—but also because some very threatening fall leaves told… Continue reading Fall Leaves I Can’t Leave Behind
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