kim, Author at Lovin' From the Oven

Red Velvet Cookies

August 13, 2012 by kim 4 Comments

You know what I just realized? I spend 1/3 of each month living in different hotels. This month, it’s more like 2/3 because of this extra week I’ll be spending in downtown LA. How crazy is that? Even though I’ve been doing this for almost a year, staying at a hotel still feels like a mini vacation to me. I love having a freshly made bed with tucked corners every morning. I love leaving the room and coming back to a clean bathroom and bedroom. I love being able to walk downstairs to a gym 24 hours. I love having more pillows than I could possibly need.

But you know what makes this week extra special? My DB is staying here with me the entire time. He’s actually the reason why we’re here this week. Sure, the hotels are nice to stay in, but it’s even nicer having someone staying with you.

Just sayin’.

Alright, now onto the cookies. Can you believe these were from a box? They’re just doctored up cake mixes turned into cookies. I love using the red velvet box mixes when baking because that means I don’t have to deal with never ending bottles of red dye. I can keep my hands and kitchen red-free. I also think that there’s a stronger red velvet taste when you use the boxed mix. If you’re in a rush to bake dessert, I’d make these. They’re one of the softest and chewiest cookies I’ve ever made, and they were a hit with the crowd. Recipe adapted from the Duncan Hines Box.

Red Velvet Cookies

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix
2 large eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Melt butter; set aside to cool.
Mix the powdered sugar and the cornstarch together in a shallow bowl.
In a separate bowl, stir together the cake mix, butter, and eggs until well blended. It should have the same consistency as cookie dough.
Form dough balls and roll in powdered sugar mix. Drop onto an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until set.
I sprinkled some extra powdered sugar onto the cookies when they came out of the oven, but you can omit that if you'd like.

https://lovintheoven.com/red-velvet-cookies/

Janet’s Rich Banana Bread

August 8, 2012 by kim 4 Comments

Life has been busy this month, for me and my DB. I just finished a four day trip and my DB is currently going through EIW (early interview week). What does that even mean? It means he has 21 interviews in five days. How intense is that? They go room to room in a hotel and go on twenty minute interviews with different firms. I don’t know how they do it.

As you can tell, my blog hasn’t been a top priority in life recently. I’m focusing on work (both jobs) and supporting my DB to help him make it through this stressful week. Don’t get me wrong, I still love baking… I just haven’t had the time to do much of it or update.

Meanwhile, here’s a recipe to hold you up until the next one. More banana bread! This one was just okay. I may have over baked it, causing the crust to be thicker than I would have liked. The inside was moist, but the top was a bit crumbly. Recipe from AllRecipes.

Janet’s Rich Banana Bread

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 medium bananas, sliced

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Mix together the butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla.
Gradually mix in the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, and salt.
Fold in the sour cream, walnuts and bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake for an hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Wait 5 minutes before removing from pan and cooling completely.

https://lovintheoven.com/janets-rich-banana-bread/

Review: Norton’s Identity Safe

July 28, 2012 by kim 26 Comments

I was asked to review Norton’s Identity Safe program on my Mac and can finally do so after using it for about a week.

First of all, what exactly does the program do? Well, it saves passwords, autofills out forms and cards so you don’t repeatedly have to, stores notes, and it alerts you when it finds an unsafe website. It’s a fairly simple idea with a very small and easily accessible interface.

I was excited to give it a try because I have about a million different passwords to a million different websites. I find myself pressing the “Forget password?” button more times than I seem to care for. Even the answers to my security questions sometimes slipped my mind. I’d have to write my passwords down on pieces of paper, but how safe is that when you have your information laying out for everyone to see?

The downloading process was easy. I installed it from the app store and it downloaded within a matter of seconds. The setup was simple as well; a couple of clicks and it’s set up on your desktop. After tweaking with my computer settings, Norton’s Identity Safe was up and running.

It did it’s job and remembered passwords from websites I logged into, but I found the program to have more cons than pros. Sure, it has a lot of potential, but the pop-ups asking for your login information (username and password) after I logged in soon started to annoy me. Not only that, but I could only get the program to work with Safari, when I normally use Chrome. I did hear, however, that Norton plans to release versions for other browsers in the future. I look forward to trying that out when the time comes. It also didn’t remember every login password and didn’t fill in 100% of my forms.

One of the things I did like about the program was that it made browsing more secure. I knew when to avoid websites and when to refrain from putting any personal information in if the credentials weren’t verified. Norton’s Identity Safe also can sync with all your devices (PC, laptop, and mobile phone) so that you can access your information whenever and wherever you need to.

It made my life a lot easier by storing all my passwords in one place. I didn’t have to keep scattered post-it notes of my accounts all over my desk. It cleaned up the clutter and managed my information with a little button at the top of my screen. I felt that it was also secure because you couldn’t look at the passwords stored without putting in your “vault” password. Ironic, isn’t it? There’s no way of recovering that password if you forget it, so make sure you write that one down somewhere. The only way they have of reminding yourself of your password is a “password hint.” It doesn’t directly tell you your password, you just create a phrase that will help jog your memory of what you made your original password.

Want to give it a try? Head over to their website and download it for free today!

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Visit BlogHer.com to find other reviews of Norton Identity Safe.

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This sweepstakes runs from 6/21 – 7/31.

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