Win a trip to Paris!

I'm just posting a link to a blog offering a contest...

http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris

Strawberry Sorbet & Cantaloupe Sorbet

Fruit sorbets are so easy. I just need to keep my ice cream bowl in the freezer at all times, so I'm ready to whip it out for the ice cream maker. I was expecting guests, one who is lactose intolerant, so I was pretty excited to make something I knew she could eat. Well, my son got sick and I canceled the Oprah party. I have all of this sorbet around the house and no one is eating it. (My husband likes his sweets but I think he'd rather have chocolate something-something. Oh well, more for me!)

I cut back on the sugar a bit in the recipes, knowing that the fruit was already pretty sweet. The strawberries were some of the most perfect, ripe strawberries ever- well, next to the pick-your-own at berry farms, and the cantaloupe was also very perfect and delicious. Such great fruit for sorbets!

The strawberry sorbet was smooth and creamy. Perfect! The cantaloupe sorbet was a bit icy, good though. I think it was because the cantaloupe sorbet called for a bit of white wine. I used a bit of vanilla vodka in the strawberry sorbet, which keeps it from icing up. I think next time I would use vodka in both. Who knows if that's what made the difference?

Anyway, refreshing and wonderful!

Of course these ice cream recipes came from The Perfect Scoop but I've found them online as well.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Strawberry Sorbet.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Cantaloupe Sorbet.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Happy Mother's Day! It's actually the day before but my Mom came over tonight for dinner. We made a feast of Ginger Soy spareribs, (Souped up) Baked Beans, Broccoli Buttermilk Slaw, Ginger Tea Lemonade, and then the Cake for dessert. (The dinner recipes may be posted tomorrow. Can you believe I didn't take any pictures? It's kind of awkward to pull out a camera when you have guests...)

I've never made PUDC but I think traditional versions use canned pineapple. This baby had an ENTIRE fresh pineapple baked into the bottom of the cake, with gooey browned butter and brown sugar. I used a springform pan so that the cake would slide easily out of the pan. I was worried about sticking but I didn't need to. All of the pineapple stayed put and settled prettily on the top. Yay!

I was concerned that the cake was uncooked in the middle, but really it was the gooeyness seeping into the cake. It was just fine. The cake was sweet but not too sweet- a great end to our meal tonight. It must have been good- my step dad requested some leftovers to go home with them :)

Here is James saying: "Haha. You don't get any!"

Please click here for the stolen recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I actually found the recipe in my own cookbooks, but of course it's already been blogged about by other foodies.

Wedding Shower Cupcakes

I was asked very nicely to make cupcakes for a wedding shower for two teacher friends. I asked each bride to request a cupcake flavor.

Sandy chose Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Naomi chose White Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream.

These weren't new recipes so I am going to link to my existing blog posts. Naomi's choice was a bit different, mixing and matching from different recipes for her perfect combination.

Click here for my post about the Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Click here for my post about the White Cake. (It's actually a very flavorful, fluffy almond cake.)

Click here for my post about the Salted Caramel Buttercream.

Happy Weddings!!!

Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread

This recipe has been all the rage on the various food blogs that I read every day. It has looked so pretty and I knew I had to try it. It has staple ingredients so I could make it whenever I had time. That's the hardest thing about this recipe- the time waiting for the dough to rise, two different times.

I thought it would be a good treat to make for future overnight guests. But maybe not. It would take a good long time to shape, let rise, bake, and then cool. I guess it depends on how much time you're working with.

The pieces really do pull apart easily. The bread isn't too sweet, but the sugar that I sprinkled on top of the bread became crusty and sweet. It is delicious.

I hope it freezes well!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread.

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatball Sandwiches

My husband was very happy with this meal. The mozzarella stuffed meatballs were a new recipe for us, and I decided to buy bolillo rolls for the sandwiches. I love them. They aren't quite the Mexican rolls that I remember from my childhood, but they are good.

I used a bottled pizza sauce and it was just fine.

Sides: the wonderful buttermilk broccoli slaw recipe that I will never stop making and fresh corn on the cob. The first of the season and surpisingly good!!

And some great Ginger Tea Lemonade.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs.

Ginger Tea Lemonade

This was pretty fantastic! Jim loved it. It was easy but took a while. You need to brew tea, and let it cool. And simultaneously you can make the ginger simple syrup, and let that cool too. Then juice the lemons in a pitcher. Strain the ginger bits from the syrup, and add everything together.

I wish I had made a double batch. This was was 5 glasses of tea. I'm thinking of making this for a girls' dinner or summer grilling party. YUM.

Jim has the great idea of adding his ginger liqueur to this.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Ginger Tea Lemonade.

Coconut Chicken Salad with Warm Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Fancy lunch today! This was an easy recipe to whip up today for lunch.

The coconut chicken was great. The breading was easy enough to mix up, and dipping the chicken pieces in egg whites and then the breading, and then spraying lightly with cooking spray. Easy.

I do think that the best part of the recipe was the vinaigrette. And wow, just a few ingredients to make that goodness. The recipe only made enough for two servings. After we ate our salads I promptly made a quadruple batch for the rest of the week.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Coconut Chicken Salad with Warm Honey Mustard Vinaigrette.

Pumpkin Cupcakes & Repeat

I baked four dozen cupcakes last night. It made me happy. My friend Jessica had her baby shower at work today and I knew that pumpkin is one of her favorites. These pumpkin cupcakes were fluffy and moist. Well received today!

Two dozen Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.





Two dozen Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting. I've made these before. I knew they'd be good!



And I have leftover salted caramel sauce in the fridge. Bonus!!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream.

Repeat Skillet Lasagna

Pretty darn good! We need to make this more often.

Click here for my original post.

Lemony Risotto with Asparagus and Shrimp

I can't believe I ever bothered with precooked shrimp. We much prefer the fresh(er) taste of cooking with uncooked shrimp, especially if you cook them just right! I kept a close eye on these shrimp so they'd be tasty!

Risotto isn't that hard. I don't know what Gordon Ramsey fusses about. Okay, I do really. I guess I just make sure that I have everything chopped and prepped so that I don't have to scurry around the kitchen during that crucial 18 minutes of stirring and adding, stirring and adding.

I wouldn't change a thing about this risotto. It was delicious! Maybe I would add a squirt of lemon juice on top to brighten it up a bit. Maybe. Personal preference.

Thanks Kristina and Ana (& Rich) for the recipe! It will be one of those that you keep handy for comfort food. Jim will love if this makes it into a regular rotation!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Lemon Risotto with Asparagus and Shrimp.

Pssssst! Do you see my artisan bread in the background? Third batch of bread! I'm still trying to perfect the master recipe. I think they are going well enough, but I'm anxious to try out something more exotic. It's amazing how yeast, water, salt, and flour come together to make such deliciousness!

Salted Caramel Rice Krispy Treats

These look like ordinary rice krispy treats BUT they have 1/2 cup of my most favorite salted caramel sauce mixed in. I told myself that I "had to" make these because I have rice krispies just sitting in my pantry, it would be wasteful to let them spoil. And then I had all the ingredients for salted caramel sauce (butter, cream, salt, sugar), so everything just lined up juuuuust right.


These made me happy today. After a long week it was either make these krispy treats or make myself five drinks (one for each day of the work week). For realz. I did have a dream of making salted caramel ice cream, but I'm still looking around for THE BEST recipe. Soon.


So I did use my favorite salted caramel sauce recipe. I guess I've only made TWO ever, but this was the best of the two. If it ain't broke...


Click here for the stolen recipe for Salted Caramel Rice Krispy Treats.

Pumpkin Spice Custards

I've made these delicious little desserts before. I have a recipe printed out from my dear BFF Christa. The recipe is at the bottom of an email that she wrote to me on November 5, 2006. She tells me how excited she is for me and how she can't stop thinking about me! It was the day before I was to have James :) :) :) It's a good memory, thinking about how exciting that time was. He's such a big boy now.

This recipe does not have a link then, so I'm typing it out below. It is a very simple recipe that tastes of crustless pumpkin pie. Mmmmm. I don't mess around when it comes to pumpkin!

Pumpkin Spice Custards, makes 8 individual desserts

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp nutmeg

2 large eggs

1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 can (12 oz) evaporated fat free milk (or you can use full fat)

Directions: Preheat over to 300 degrees. Mix sugar and all spices in a small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin, vanilla, and sugar-spice mix. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into eight lightly greased 6-oz ramekins or custard cups. Place ramekins on baking sheet. Bake for 55 minutes or until knife inserted in custard halfway between center and edge of ramekin comes out almost clean. Cool on wire rack for 1 hour. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with dollop of light whipped cream, if desired.

German Chocolate Cupcakes

I have a friend. Let's call him "Pal". His birthday falls on December 31st, New Year's Eve. Instead of thinking that the whole world celebrates his birthday, he thinks the party is just NEVER about him. Also, his birthday falls during our winter break each year so no treats from his work buddies. When I became friends with Pal I told him that I would make him cupcakes one day. I thought about his half birthday, but darn! That falls during our summer break. (We're not constantly on breaks at Anoka-Hennepin, it just works out that way... Well, unless you visit me at school. I'm constantly on breaks then, right, Pal?) So anyway, running joke that I would make him cupcakes. FINALLY today I knew I was going to see my Pal. I surprised him with these German Chocolate Cupcakes. He once told me that they were among his favorite kind of cakes. The recipe is from David Lebovitz, AKA the Ice Cream God. He is also a trained pastry chef. He knows his stuff. The cake was wonderful- nice and fluffy from the whipped egg whites and tasty from the Dutch cocoa and coffee. The frosting? Not like a normal German Chocolate frosting. It was more of a topping. Chocolate, toasted coconut, pecans, and a quick custard of evaporated milk and eggs. Mmmmm. Gooey. A six pack! To take home and share. Happy Birthday Hal! Thanks for giving me an excuse to make one of my favorites too :) Click here for the stolen recipe for German Chocolate Cupcakes.

Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce

The fresh basil really excited me. I can't wait to start growing basil again!

Jim really liked this dinner. I like when a new recipe really works. Some are duds and not worth repeating, but this one is a keeper. I think we're even going to add more vegetables to this recipe, or even switch up the chicken for shrimp. Yes, we are wild and crazy! The curry, the ginger, the jalapenos, the basil- all that came through and made a great dinner.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce.

Repeat & Pie Crust

This is a favorite. I didn't realize until today how much time it takes to make this darn pot pie. I enjoy making it though because it's full of vegetables and today I was really excited because I made my own pie crust. I actually made the crust a week ago but I froze it. I am weary of Crisco but now I realize that it really does make a crust flaky and buttery.

So yup, I'll be making my own crusts now. It was quite easy and it's pretty handy having those in the freezer.

The pie crust recipe is from my Baking Illustrated cookbook but here is the recipe online-

Click here for the stolen recipe for Basic Pie Crust.

Cinnamon Roll Bread

Seriously. One of the easiest recipes ever. This "bread" was a few ingredients mixed together, pour it in a pan, let it rest for 15 minutes, and then press in a brown sugar mixture on top. Bake for 30 minutes. Drizzle with icing.

I think this is the lazy (wo)man's cinnamon roll recipe. This would a great recipe for breakfast guests- something you can whip together and serve with coffee.



I took this picture to show you the brown sugar crusty goodness when it came out of the oven. It was bubbling and the house smelled AMAZING.

I'm going to keep this recipe handy. I can also see myself whipping this up for work peeps and their coffee.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Cinnamon Roll Bread.

Bread!!

I keep telling myself that I'm afraid of yeast. I thought I conquered it but I still steer clear of some recipes because they contain yeast. I put aside my hesitations, dug out my baking stone, and bought a pizza peel. These are all the necessary tools, says my book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

The idea is to make a large batch of bread dough, refrigerate it, and tear off what you need for up to 2 weeks. I made a loaf and it was easy enough! It looks a little rough but it was good!! It was still warm when I buttered it up. YUM.

I can't wait to make another loaf for a dinner. I want Jim to try it right out of the oven!

Oh, and about my fear of yeast? I made THREE recipes with yeast in one day!! This bread, pizza dough, and then Cinnamon Roll Bread. Wow.

Am I Irish?

Irish food and desserts invaded the food blogs that I read like a week ago. The bloggers were all getting ready for St. Paddy's Day and making their goodies, with enough time for the rest of us to bookmark and then prepare their recipes.

Originally I was going to make Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes again but I wanted to try something new. So I went with the same idea but in cheesecake form.

The Oreo crumbs are mixed with the Irish Whiskey, the cheesecake is actually two kinds- one with chocolate and Guinness, and the other with Bailey's. So you have three different kinds of booze to make these extra special and boozey.



I also made Milk Chocolate Guinness Ice Cream. This recipe was also circulating around the food blog world, and I was buying Guinness anyway so this ice cream was perfect. I make ice cream in this house and I usually am the one who chips away at it, James only likes plain chocolate and Jim is a fan but he's content with one taste and then moves on. I thought maybe maybe if this ice cream was good that Jim would have more than one serving.


I think he's going to have seconds :)

Click here for the stolen recipe for Irish Car Bomb Cheesecake.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Milk Chocolate Guinness Ice Cream. Originally from the Ice Cream God, David Lebovitz!

White Chocolate Coconut Cream Cheese Poundcake

Yeah, that's a mouthful! I followed a recipe for Cream Cheese Poundcake and it suggested adding a cup of chopped white chocolate in the batter. So I found my new favorite white chocolate at Target today and chopped that up. I figured that since it was White Chocolate Coconut I'd substitute coconut extract for the almond extract. Oh yeah...



The cake is very good but it stuck to the bottom of my bundtlette pans. Darn. And then I finished the rest of the batter in my Williams Sonoma Sunflower pan, and I even sprayed the hell out of that thing, but it still stuck again. Oh well. I broke the cake into large pieces and froze them. I figured I'd find something to do with it- cake pops or trifles.

I really was just making this recipe for the hell of it, not for any specific occasion so I'm glad it was a semi-fail when it didn't count for much.

I broke a bundtlette into pieces and layered it with cheesecake pudding (Jell-o, not homemade) and blackberries. Pretty good :)

I told Jim they were healthy because of the berries and the fat free/sugar free pudding. Nevermind all the butter, chocolate and sugar that went into the poundcake!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Cream Cheese Pound Cake.