New Things

Well, I don't know how new these are , but the other day I was shopping through the clearance at the Navy Exchange and found these



They are insanely yummy. I also bought the dark chocolate covered blueberries. Emily's Chocolates has tons of goodies you should check out!! I think I should go back and buy more!

Round Up of All Things Holiday!

Welcome to the holiday round up blog! Now that I have been able to upload all of the Christmas photos, I am going to put all of the holiday food I created in this one blog.

These are the Egg Nog Cookies , I made as a secret santa gift for my co-worker. She loved them (yay) The middle is basically a rum buttercream. I thought it was very very strong. but like I said she loved them!


These are the millions of Truffles that I made.. they are covered in... candy cane , almonds, toffee, powered sugar and cocoa!

The closest plate is all everything I made ( my mom's plate is behind mine) In the center Chocolate Covered Almond toffee , there are truffles right around those. Next is Cinnamon Fudge ( this was my favorite) and then on one half of the tray is Cinnamon Bun Cookies, and the other half is Pistachio Cookies. All of this was a BIG hit. In fact my cousin said my cookies , and goodies were better than my mom's! He actually said this aloud to the whole table. I think he is on the naughty list now hehe

Well, I thought this post was going to be alot longer , but I managed to squeeze a few days of baking all in 3 pictures. Whats up with that?! I will say I found some favorites I will definately be making through out the year, and again for Christmas 2009!

Herb Give-a-way!!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!! I wish I had my laptop working so I could show you pictures of all the fantastic food we enjoyed!

So I just entered myself into a great frozen herb give-a-way!! Its over at Elle's New England Kitchen . You all should check it out!! and enter yourself!

I promise I will add pictures soon!! Oh! and look for my next Tuesday's with Dorie adventure!! Dorie picked it herself!!

TWD Grandma's All Occasion Sugar Cookies... NOW with PICTURES!!

Seriously , where has this month gone?? I had every intention of doing this recipe the correct week , however my computer had other plans. So I waited and waited till i could get it fixed , and its still not . So needless to say there are NO pictures. but I did make the cookies on Sunday

I made the Sugar cookies with my 3 year old cousin Abby , we had a BLAST! we frosted them, and dyed some of the dough red . The red cookies Abby decided were Santa's cookies. Man did they turn out tasty!! Abby and I made Santa's , bows, christmas trees, stockings, and snow flakes. I had to share the batch with Abby , and the rest will be eaten on Christmas !!

As soon as MY laptop is functioning again I will edit the post and add them to this blog. Please check out the Tuesday's With Dorie Blog Roll to see how the other bloggers did with this recipe!!

Homemade Gifts

So I have decided that I will be making some Christmas gifts this year. My family is always going on about how I have taken after my mom with making sweets . So I feel I should share the things I love with the people I love. At first I was thinking , man I am really cheap , but who wouldn't want yummy treats!

So I have decided to make.... Pistachio Cookies from The Italian Dish
Chocolate Covered Almond Toffee from Savoring Time in the Kitchen
and lastly Chocolate Truffles 4 ways from Chocolate Shavings


They all sound so yummy.I hope I have enough will power to give them away! I really hope I do these recipes justice!!

Next I will need to find creative ways to wrap them!

New York City

Yesterday TM ( this is what I've decided to call the husband from now on. TM is his job in the Navy) and I ventured to NYC (for my first time). We stayed mostly around Times Square and Rockefeller Center . The tree is AMAZING. and the ice rink is everything you'd think it would be. I really really wanted to head to the Food Network Studios,
but alas there was no time.

I did however make it to Magnolia Bakery (yum) where I had a red velvet cupcake , and brought home the Hummingbird Cupcake(banana and pineapple with butter cream frosting and pecans on top) TM got a Peanut Butter Toffee Blondie.

We also headed to the Hershey's Store in Times Square, and got some really neat stuff that I haven't seen in any stores here .We saw Pumpkin Hershey Kisses,and I got some really great(at least I hope ) baking chocolate, and some extra dark organic chocolate to try!

Sadly I did not try any fantastic New York restaurant. TM wanted to go to Hard Rock. I know there are TONS of better places to eat than Hard Rock , but I had to make him happy too!!

I'm trying to find my niche in this blogging world .So in addition to Tuesday's With Dorie( which I will be posting about NEXT Tuesday) I'm not terribly sure what to post.Mostly my thoughts are scattered. Please forgive me if my bloggings are few and far between. I am trying my hardest to find content and to be creative.

TWD Arborio Rice Pudding, White & Black

Well , this was my first stab at Tuesday's with Dorie the recipe I made was Arborio Rice Pudding, White, Black or Both, it was chosen by Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa.I did make both varieties though Vanilla and chocolate . For the chocolate I used Ghirardelli bittersweet.

I followed the directions exactly as stated , except I had already seen on the TWD website that Dorie had said there was a typo in the recipe. Instead of cooking the Arborio rice for 30 minutes she said to cook for 55 minutes. I cooked mine for about 65 minutes. It was still a little soupy. It did thicken up as the recipe stated it would. It tastes SO yummy! It came out okay. I probably would not make it again, I wasn't a fan of the texture.


But was pretty good for my first TWD adventure. Make sure you check out how my other bloggers fared with this weeks recipe!



Next week...... Thanksgiving Twofer Pie I haven't even read the recipe yet so i can't wait to see what it says!

p.s Arborio is a fancy way to say risotto rice!

TWD Arborio Rice Pudding, White, Black (Or Both)

Hey Everyone!!

Look for my First Tuesday's with Dorie Post tomorrow!!!

I'M BACK!!!!

Ok, I'm back and I am very very excited . I just joined Tuesday's with Dorie , a baking club I guess you could say. I will be purchasing baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.


If you'd like to join the group you have until FRIDAY to join , and then thats it!! its closed!


so look for lots of baking posts from me ( its part of the rules) hopefully I will ROCK them haha

until then


-allison

Long time no post!

... I was really discouraged with my cake endeavor . I took a break for a few reasons. trying to figure out the best way to photograph the food . and I've been experimenting with some recipes, that I will start to post as soon as I get back from vacation ..

see you on the flip side!

White Cake w/ Nutella Mousse and Hazelnut Buttercreme

My cake adventure started Saturday night I have a feeling I will finish on Sunday

I started with making the white cake from allrecipes.com I only made two 6 inch cakes , basically I’m just experimenting and didn’t want a huge cake to come out icky and then throw it away. For the nutella mousse, I took 1 cup of whipping crème and whipped that adding a touch of sugar.Then I folded in about a half cup of nutella to make the mousse.Its super yummy.

The recipe I used for the buttercreme frosting was from the Yankee Magazine, it came out great. Now its just time to assemble! It’s so hard to stay patient and let the cakes cool!!

First cake = disaster the top kept peeling off as I was putting the buttercreme on. Even though it didn’t look pretty I still tasted it. That part was icky too. WAY TOO SWEET!! The cake tasted yummy by its self. But with everything on it, ick.

I think for the next one I will try something fruity. This one definitely did NOT work....

The horrible finished product.

...... to be continued...

Red Velvet Cupcakes!

My aunt hosted an end of the summer cookout for the family , and I always feel challenged to try new recipes. Its my not so secret goal to impress them each time. I also try and compete with my mom who is an amazing baker! So I attempted to make Red Velvet cupcakes seen on the firefly pie blog. I followed the recipe to a T. My only regret was using silicon bakewear for the first time. It was awful. I won't ever use it again. I am not so handy with the piping , actually its the first time I really used it .I think I did a pretty fantastic job . Before I frosted the cupcakes I piped some of the frosting into each one so when you bite into it there is a little surprise!
I think they were awesome. I would definitely make them again. I had a lot of frosting left over so I think I would use a different (bigger) tip with the piping bag. Overall, if there was a contest .. I think my mom would have won... She is my mom afterall :)

Dinner for One

I've been meaning to post this for a few days now , but I was unmotivated , and then I got sick . Boo.

So I was experimenting taking inspiration from Rhodey Girl who got her idea from Kath Eats Real Food I made Pistachio and Goat Cheese crusted chicken Breast I followed her directions , but used only pistachio's and used alot more goat cheese. I also used dijon mustard instead of honey mustard . I didn't want the sweetness.


I also roasted some veggies , I'm big into yellow squash right now so I did that and some onions . I used some left over potatoes for another side dish. The whole thing turned out wonderfully . I think this is something I could make again and again , it was so insanely easy , and super tasty

The finished product!

Week Day Lunches

I got a wild hair up my butt the other day and decided that I was going to make myself lunch for the week. I wasn't sure what I wanted to make myself , but knew I wanted to use items my picky husband wouldn't eat or want. I went to the supermarket (Oh how I wish there was a Whole Foods near me.) I came up with what I call

Pasta with Roasted Chicken and Veggies

2 Cups (whatever is on hand) cooked chicken

1 whole yellow squash

1 whole zucchini

1 Vidalia onion

2 cloves garlic

1lb asparagus

1lb small egg bowties (its better with orzo)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup Gruyere cheese

I started with left over chicken from the night before. I didn’t really care if I didn’t have enough for the week. The veggies that I bought would more than make up for it. After I tore the chicken into small pieces, I chopped my veggies into the same size pieces so they could cook evenly. In the mean time I preheated my oven to 400 degrees. To the veggies I added 2 cloves of garlic (I looove garlic) and some olive oil. I spread the veggies, garlic and olive oil and salt and pepper on a cookie sheet and roasted them for 20 minutes. In the meantime my bow ties were cooking after 20 minutes the veggies were PERFECT!

Then in a giant bowl I added the veggies, (after slightly cooled) chicken, and pasta and mixed. I added a little more oil olive so the pasta wouldn’t dry out. I separated lunch for each work day and had plenty left over for a night where I had no husband!

Finally to each serving I added shredded Gruyere Cheese. The dish heats up perfectly, and is super yummy!!!

The Final Product

First Blog

OK , I've taken up a new hobby. I've always loved food , and cooking , being in the kitchen . So now I will blog about it. I make a lot of things. I experiment. I follow recipes. I'm getting to the point where I am trusting myself and thinking outside the box. This has been exciting. So I hope you enjoy the things I will share. Bon Appetit!!