DIY Life

We love making homemade pizza at my house. We do it up right: homemade crust in the bread machine (easy!), gourmet toppings, and if weather permits, we cook it on the grill.

For three of us, though, we make two huge pizzas, which means a lot of leftovers. We haven't yet found the ideal way to reheat it, although about 350 degrees in a toaster oven until the cheese begins to bubble is pretty close. My only complaint is that there's sometimes still a cold spot, even when the crust is beginning to overcook.

What to do? The Chicago Pizza Club has some answers on the best way to reheat pizza.

What better way to add spice to your summer table than a cool, sassy wasp cake! This scary looking creature is an original creation by Cloth and Fodder, and while it certainly involves quite a few steps, the end product is definitely worth the effort.

The wings on this bad boy are made of toffee, and the legs, eyes and antennae are dark chocolate that has been melted and formed. The cake shown is a zesty lemon flavor, fitting for a summer evening, but could be made from your favorite: chocolate, yellow, carrot....

This cake might not be for the beginner baker, but it sounds delicious and well worth all of your hard work. I think it would be fun to fashion a few of them for a small swarm of cake wasps on the table.

My favorite fortune, read after dinner at a Chinese restaurant, says:

Nothing says Happy Father's Day like a new tie, right? You can surprise the special dad in your life by presenting him with an artistically created necktie cake. A skinny necktie cake is a lot more fun to bake, frost, and embellish than shopping for the perfect tie. Everyone will enjoy this necktie -- with a little dip of ice cream -- and there will be no sense of disappointment from Dad.

MailJust4me provides simple Father's Day projects, including directions for making a necktie cake. I took liberties with their pan recommendations and used two 9 x4 bread pans. When thinking of a design, I checked out some Armani ties to see what's new.

What you need:

• 2 9x4 baked cakes or 1 large rectangular cake cut lengthwise in half
• white frosting
• food coloring
• ziplock bag
• scissors
• M & M's or other candy
• Large tray or platter to hold finished cake

Check out the gallery to see how my cake turned out, then follow me through the break for the decorating instructions.

Who doesn't love personalized goods? (I'm sure that some people will respond, "Anyone over the age of eleven," but that doesn't explain the appeal of vanity plates on cars.) Customizing an item just for the intended recipient is likely to make them feel special no matter what their age is... particularly if it's their birthday.

Sure, if you have something to say, and you want to eat your words, you can buy sugar letters for birthday cakes at almost any store that sells baking supplies. There are more creative ways to personalize treats, though: Craftster user Jsully03 made cookies that use American Sign Language manual alphabet letters to spell out a message to her young daughter, who was born deaf.

To duplicate her creation, all you need is a sugar cookie recipe (premade cookie dough is just fine), a hand-shaped cookie cutter with relatively well-defined fingers (you'll be shaping them into different positions; try local stores for the Wilton version), knowledge of the ASL manual alphabet, and, of course, an oven and a baking pan.

More impish bakers may be unable to resist using this idea to show the world how they feel about rock 'n roll; I certainly wouldn't blame them for doing so.

If one of your New Year's resolutions is to avoid the drive-true and eat healthy home-cooked meals more often, then you're probably going through burger withdrawal right about now. We're a week into 2008 and if you're like me, you're already running out of ideas and nearly running to the next fast food joint. Don't do it. You can create that succulent burger at home.

I'm the only vegetarian in a house full of meat eaters. I'm always looking for recipes with quality ingredients that can please all of us. I want fresh ingredients that I can put a veggie patty on while the others want a perfectly grilled hamburger patty. These instructions for the perfect burger cover the homemade bun and all the delicious things in between. From grilling perfect onions to marinating hand diced relish you'll never turn back to greasy, processed burgers again. You'll also find important information on choosing the right meat, making the patty and grilling it like a pro.

Save yourself the fast food heartache (literally!) and make your own gourmet burgers at home. Once you have the key burger pieces, have fun with the toppings. Get creative and see what culinary creations you stumble upon.

Although foam-stuffed felt gingerbread houses have their allure, nothing compares to a real, edible gingerbread house. Who cares if it's ephemeral, or if it's a potential target for pets and pests? It's all about the prettiness. And the wonderful smell. And the sugar. (Mmm, sugar.)

You could just buy a kit... and maybe, if it's your first time, that's what you want to do. But if it isn't, you will probably appreciate Gingerbread Lane (a.k.a. Ginger Lane Kitchens), a site with lots of ideas and advice for budding cookie house architects. Everything you need to know to be a successful builder is right there.

You'll find gingerbread and icing recipes, suggestions for which decorative candies to use, a pattern for a "beginner's" basic 8"x8"x12" house, construction and preservation tips, a gallery of creations by the site's owner and others, and plenty of links. While you're there, don't miss Ginger's Parisian street scene... featuring a gingerbread Eiffel Tower!

If you're thinking of putting together your own edible house, why not check out the Flickr Gingerbread House Showcase pool for ideas? Better yet, check out our gingerbread house gallery: it starts right here.

Chicagoan Thomas MacEntee has a wealth of fabulous seasonal decorating and baking ideas to share. Meet Thomas by visiting any one of his three blogs -- count 'em: three! First is A Catskill Christmas, in which Thomas comes up with handcrafted Christmas decorating concepts, all inspired by his childhood in the Catskills. Second is And I Helped!, a site for lovers of food and baking. Here, Thomas offers up tempting recipes of his own design and those learned from his beloved late mom. Finally, there is Destination: Austin Family, a family history blog.

Right now, all three sites are overflowing with creative and heartwarming ideas for celebrating the holiday season. I love all of the ornament ideas at A Catskill Christmas, but wanted to share one in particular: Gilded Dried Pomegranates. Aren't these beautiful? Don't you agree they'd look stunning on the Christmas tree? Not to mention arranged in bowls, strung on ribbons, or tied in bunches. Full instructions are on the site, so I won't repeat them here, but note that Thomas says there's one drawback: dried pomegranates can be expensive!

UPDATE 12/12/07: check out Thomas's finished tree, all decked out with his many homemade ornaments. It's a beauty!

Have you ever indulged in a Twix candy bar and wondered how they create such a delicious cookie, caramel, and chocolate creation? Maybe the Almond J or the Snickers bar are the ones that you steal from your little guy's Halloween bag. Now you can duplicate these famous recipes at home. You can use higher quality ingredients and transform a convenience store chocolate bar into a true delicacy. You'll probably need some candy-making experience, or at least be a confident baker before you take these on. The art of tempering chocolate or perfecting a caramel recipe are beyond me, but I'm ready to learn after finding out that I could be making my own candy bars!

I wouldn't suggest handing out homemade candy on Halloween. Instead, make these tempting chocolate bars and indulge in them while you sit at the door and hand out the store-bought stuff to your trick-or-treaters.

Pressed for time? Need sweet treats for serving at a Halloween party or other seasonal get-together? Here's a terrific no-fail idea I spotted in the October issue of Country Living magazine: Candy Corn Cookies.

Here's what you don't need: candy corn! That's right: these yummy goodies look sort of like the famous Halloween candy, but you don't use them in the recipe. Here's what you do. Step 1: mix up some sugar cookie dough or use some ready-to-bake store-bought sugar cookie dough. Step 2: mix in extra flour and a couple of drops of orange food dye. Step 3: roll the dough and cut into triangles using a cookie cutter. Step 3: bake according to your recipe or the instructions on the pack, depending on what you're using, then let cool. Step 4: dip one end of each cookie in melted dark chocolate and the other end in melted white chocolate. Chill in the freezer for a few minutes until chocolate is set.

I will be trying this recipe out for myself next week. They look really pretty. (Click here to see a photo.) It's also a fun idea for people who love chocolate, don't you think?

Sadly, the traditional homemaking craft of baking does not come naturally to me. If I can get the goods out of the oven without setting fire to anything, I'm pretty happy. As for my last homemade cake, the rounded top and slightly too-soft frosting both contributed to an unenviable "cow pattie" look. Oops.

With a little practice, even lost causes like myself can learn to frost a cake like a pro, according to the site SheKnows.

Good morning, boys and girls! This post is brought to you by the letter C and the number 50. C is for cookie and 50 is for the 50 best cookie recipes on the Internet.

Trolling for recipes on the Internet can be dangerous, especially when it comes to baked goods. If an ingredient is inadvertently left out of a recipe, an adept cook can usually still stick the landing. But baking requires precision before creativity, so accepting cookie recipes from strangers is risky behavior. You're better off sticking to recipes that have been vetted by a trusted source - in this case, Marye Audet of Baking Delights, a Home & Dining Channel blog.

Some of the more unusual offerings among her 50 include:

• Meyer lemon and black pepper cookies
• White chocolate peppermint pistachio bars
• Potato chip cookies drizzled with chocolate
• Malted milk ball cookies
• Earl Grey tea shortbread
• Homemade graham crackers
• Orange dark chocolate chip cookies
• Whoopie pies
• Chai tea cookies (But I must say, the redundancy of this last one drives me bonkers! Why are so many people unable to leave it at just chai? We don't say "pasta noodles," do we? Grrr.)

For those of you who wish every month were December, Marye is also posting a new make-ahead Christmas cookie recipe each week until the holiday. She already started her Christmas baking (and freezing) in August. So, what are you waiting for, slacker? Hop to it!