Dress It Up!!!

Hello my fellow foodie friends. Chef Izabella here. I'm also known as "Chef Izzy". I turned 3 recently. Oh, the sage that comes with age. I'm feeling more wise every day. With this newfound wisdom, I can safely say that my most sagacious advice that I can impart to you today, is that it is vitally important to have fun while cooking in the kitchen. One way I like to have fun in the kitchen is to "dress it up". First, dress it up - meaning wear your best gown, tiara and glass slippers, while you cook. Wear an apron of course! It's always more fun to impersonate a princess while baking or cooking with loved ones. Secondly, dress up your food with accessories, flare and fun as well. I recently helped my mom bake a jelly roll cake with a strawberry fruit and freshly whipped cream filling. We made a cream cheese frosting. We transformed the frosting into my three favorite colors, purple, pink and aqua (using food color gels). We also purchased fun candies in which to decorate my birthday cake. The one thing my mom said was "there are no rules when it comes to decorating". She let me put all three frosting colors on the cake.** She let me place the candies wherever I wanted. I had such an absolute blast helping my mom make my own birthday cake. We laughed the entire time. In fact, she asked me "what do you want to do for your birthday today?". We could have gone to the beach, to the zoo, to the movies... anything. My reply was, "let's bake my strawberry cake". We wore dresses, tiaras and jewelry with pizzazz and flare! We dressed up our cake with vibrant colors, candies and lots of love! So what are you waiting for? Grab a loved one,  pick out a fun recipe, put on a fun costume or gown, accessorize your outfit and your food*. Play some funky music. Have fun. Laugh a lot. And, as my mom always says, "Cook Out Loud".

*Note, you can accessorize your food dishes with fresh herbs, edible flowers, creative candies, pinches of ground spices or dried herbs, fun sauces with multiple colors, and more. Get creative!

** Note, We decorated the cake with frosting and candies with carefree abandon. We decorated on a preparation tray and then transferred the final cake to the pretty serving tray. You can also wedge pieces of wax paper under the sides of the cake. Frosting will fall onto the paper (not the serving tray). Once finished decorating, simply pull the wax paper away, leaving a beautiful cake and a clean serving tray underneath. Either method works great!

I'd love to hear your ideas and input on how you like to "dress it up" in the kitchen. Write a comment on my blog, www.CookingWithIzzy.com

Salute and Cheers, Chef Izabella

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