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Around St. Patty’s day I decided to make a sweet Irish soda bread. I followed the recipe below but added a heaping 1/2 cup of cranberries and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Next time I’ll add a bit more sugar. Turned out super tasty. Tell me that doesn’t look good…
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, cooking, cranberries, food, irish soda bread, RECIPES, sweet | Leave a comment »
Have you been to a dim sum restaurant and tried the coconut jelly dessert from the cart? Well, if you have and you liked it …try this recipe. Who would have guessed Tyler Florence would have featured it on his TV show.
As usual the video and the recipe posted on the Food network site were not exactly the same. I chose wrong and decided to follow the written word… I have a feeling I should have gone with Tyler. In the end everything turned out fine but I had to cut the tops off all my jellies. For some unknown reason there was a layer of clear sugar water covering the top.
Recipe link
Tyler’s Ultimate
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: asian, coconut jelly, cooking, dessert, dim sum, food, food network, recipe, tv, Tyler Florence, Tyler's Ultimate, video | Leave a comment »
Something sweet for this special occasion. This was deliciously dense, chocolaty and moist. You won’t be able to eat more than a tiny square. Soooo rich! More like fudge than a brownie.
Note: hit the foil with some cooking spray to ease the removal.
Recipe link
Bon Appetit Magazine / February 2012
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, bon appetit magazine, Chocolate-Stout Brownies, cooking, food | 1 Comment »
Our St. Patrick’s day was spent as usual making corned beef. This year we made reuben sandwiches and for dessert I decided to make floats. I’m not a Guinness kinda gal, but my Irishman is, so this was my gift to him. It’s a pretty involved cocktail to make but he thoroughly enjoyed it so it was worth the time. I downed the ice cream and the whipped topping but most of the bitter stout remained in the glass. All that was left of Mike’s was a bit o’ cream on the tip of his nose.
Recipe link
Bon Appetit magazine / Feb 2011
reuben
Past corned beef recipes:
Guinness Corned Beef and Cabbage
Basic Corned Beef Sandwich
Corned Beef Hash with Fried egg
Filed under: Cocktails, Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: bon appetit magazine, cooking, corned beef, February 2011, food, Guinness float, RECIPES, st. patrick's day, Stout Floats with Cocoa Syrup | Leave a comment »
Here is the recipe for the famous pie seen in the film “The Help” …minus the special ingredient! This was super simple to make and really delicious with just the right amount of chocolate. Make it for your Oscar party this weekend and you will be WINNING!
Recipe link
Food & Wine Mag/ Aug 2011
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: dessert, film, food & wine magazine, Minny's Chocolate Pie, movie, ocsars, oscar party, recipe, the help | 1 Comment »
For holiday gifts this year I chose to make the 2011 Food & Wine magazine coconut macaroons because I thought it was going to be quick and easy. I was wrong. My first batch was a disaster. I tried to half the recipe because it said it made 40 and I only needed 20. What resulted was a bunch of coconut pancake-like cookies.
Round 1 = EPIC FAIL
I tried again and made the full amount because it was obvious I didn’t have enough coconut. Whoever “tested and perfected” this recipe at F&W mag didn’t do a good job.
Reason 1 – The recipe doesn’t come close to making 40 macaroons as stated, it was more like 25.
Reason 2 -Don’t bake for 25 minutes! If you don’t want badly burnt cookies watch them carefully once they hit 10 minutes in the oven …anything over 15 and you are in trouble.
Reason 3 – There was no mention that the macaroons may run during baking so if you want them to look like what you see in a store (round balls) then you will have to trim the edges.
Reason 4 – They say to stick the finished product in the fridge for about 5 minutes for the chocolate to set. It takes a good 20 min.
In the end they still tasted killer but in order to not have to doctor them up to look presentable they need either more coconut or less sweetened condensed milk.
Recipe link
Food & Wine magazine, Dec. 2011
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, Coconut Macaroons, cooking, danny cohen, december 2011, food, food & wine magazine, gifts, holiday cookies, recipe, RECIPES | 2 Comments »
Project Open Hand peanut butter is all natural, trans-fat free, and contains ONE ingredient – peanuts!
Project Open Hand, a San Francisco non-profit food relief organization that provides meals and groceries to the city’s most vulnerable residents is now selling their popular homemade peanut butter to the Bay Area masses. Check out their story…
Purchase it at Project Open Hand – 730 Polk Street or SF Whole Foods markets.
Also, find the peanut butter featured in Humphry Slocombe ice cream flavor “Open Hand Fluffer Nutter” and Dynamo Donut’s “Open Hand Peanut Buddy” donut!
Project Open Hand provided me with a sample of the honey roasted peanut butter and, WOW, it was the best I’ve ever tasted. I decided to use some of it in a peanut butter milk chocolate pudding dessert. It turned out wonderfully creamy and soooo flavorful. If you can get your hands on some of this stuff you will be a happy camper and supporting a great cause.
Recipe link
Bon Appétit | January 2009
Website: http://www.openhand.org/
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES, REVIEWS OF PRODUCTS | Tagged: Bon Appétit, food, homemade, natural, Peanut Butter, peanut butter milk chocolate pudding, Project Open Hand, RECIPES, review, San Francisco non-profit food relief organization, short documentary | Leave a comment »
For the first time we received a few stalks of rhubarb in our CSA. I had never cooked it before so went on a search for a recipe. There was a trend to use it in a compote or baked good (pie/cake) and almost always with strawberries. I decided to go with the easiest and fastest …. a crumble.
It turned out really tasty and super sweet. Rhubarb looks like red celery and I didn’t taste it raw but it’s supposed to be tart, so to compensate the recipe used a lot of sugar. With a dollop of whipped cream or ice cream (we tried both) it makes for the perfect summer dessert.
Modifications we made: we used walnuts and added a little corn starch to the filling to keep it from getting runny per the comments others made.
Recipe link
Bon Appétit | May 2010
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, Bon Appétit, dessert, food, may 2010, recipe, RECIPES, Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble | 1 Comment »
As soon as I saw Rick Bayless’s avocado ice cream on Top Chef Masters in 2009 I knew one day I would make it. When I received a box of lovely ripe avocados from the California Avocado Commission this recipe instantly popped back into my head.
I decided to cut the recipe in half and initially used two avocados but when I tried the final product it was more of a icy sorbet and the tequila was a bit over-powering. Not what I was going for so Mike suggested that I add another blended avocado to the mix. I did and the result was perfect…creamy, sweet avocado with a hint of tequila. This ice cream would be great as a “palate cleanser” during a multi course meal.
To ensure you are getting the best most nutritious avocados INSIST ON CALIFORNIA AVOCADOS!
Note: I received these avocados courtesy of the California Avocado Commission as part of the Foodbuzz tastemaker program.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: Avocado Ice Cream, California Avocado Commission, dessert, food, foodbuzz, recipe, rick bayless, Top chef masters | 3 Comments »
Mike’s childhood friend, Claudia Pruett, dropped off samples of her new product called 5 Minute Focaccia Mix. We received all 4 flavors (original,rosemary,raisin,choc chip) but decided to go with rosemary for our first time.
only 3 ingredients needed: mix,sparkling water,oil
Here is a video of us making the fragrant and yummy rosemary bread.
The process was fast & easy but the end result although tasty was a little thinner than expected. Along with the mix Claudia gave us some focaccia she had prepared and it was wonderfully thick and spongy. We are attributing the difference to the rising time because she said she lets the dough rise overnight and we only let it sit for 4.5 hours. It probably needs 7-10.
Focaccia can result in a very oily texture. We wanted to try and make it a little less so we used half the amount of oil called for. The dough did soak up a lot of the oil so next time we will probably use a little more than half.
Buy the A Tavola Together 5 minute focaccia mix here! If you’re local I’ve also seen it at the Los Gatos NapaStyle store.
Check out her cookbook too!
Website: http://www.atavolatogether.com/
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES, REVIEWS OF PRODUCTS | Tagged: 5 Minute Focaccia Mix, A Tavola Together, baking, food, Italian home cooking, RECIPES | 1 Comment »
Whoopie! Mike gave me this Red Velvet whoopie pie mix for xmas. We decided to wait and make them for a party we were attending because I didn’t want to be tempted to eat them all… which I would have easily done.
The directions were easy to follow and they turned out like expected (although a bit stingy with the filling mixture – I could have used a tad more). They were a hit at the party.
You can pick up a batch at Sur la table
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, dessert, everyday, food, RECIPES, Red Velvet Whoopie Pie, stonewall kitchen, whoopie pies | Leave a comment »
We spent Valentine’s day at home again this year but I didn’t mind because we made S’mores from Recchiuti Confections. Mike and I picked up a S’mores kit last time we were at the Ferry building in San Francisco and this was the perfect occasion to break it out.
Inside the fancy box you will find 9 handmade Marshmallows, 8 Recchiuti Grahams and a Recchiuti Bittersweet 85% Chocolate Bar.
It’s a grown up version of the classic dessert that is out of the world. The homemade graham crackers are sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and the pillowy marshmallows are made with vanilla beans. You can make them in the oven (like we did since it was rainy and cold out) or you can do it the old fashioned way over an open flame.
Either way, you’ll be super happy with the results.
It’s the perfect little package. I plan on giving these out as birthday/holiday/hostess gifts this year so if you want one… invite me to a party :wink:.
Mike liked the sandwich
I preferred open face
Get yours here: http://www.recchiuti.com/109.html
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, Northern CA, PLACES TO EAT/DRINK, RECIPES, REVIEWS OF PRODUCTS, San Francisco | Tagged: dessert, food, Recchiuti Confections S'mores Kit, RECIPES | Leave a comment »
We had an end of the summer BBQ and needed a dessert. S’more pie immediately came to mind. I had seen a couple versions online and I ultimately went with Smitten Kitchen’s take. I was limited in time so I did get some help from the Keebler elves for the pie crust (which I wouldn’t recommend because it was too thin and you could barely taste it). The marshmallow topping was grand but took much longer than the 5 minutes written in the recipe –more like 15. I almost gave up after the majority of the hot sugar got stuck to the side of my mixer but I just let it beat on and it turned out perfect, but maybe a little less sweet due to the loss of sugar on the bowl. I was amazed at the outcome.
The pie was a hit at the party although next time I would use a milk chocolate to get a more campfire Hersey like feel… this was rather dark in flavor.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, food, marshmallow, RECIPES, S'more Pie | 1 Comment »
Everyone under the sun has swooned over the “crack pie” from Momofuku Milk Bar in New York. When I saw the recipe in Bon Appetit I thought I better make it since I have no plans to visit NYC in the near future. I gotta say I was a bit worried about the lack of ingredients. All it really called for was butter, eggs, sugar, oats and cream. How could that be a pie? It sounded more like a cookie so I looked around the web to see how other people’s pies turned out. The only thing I found was a bunch of inconsistencies. There are many recipes on the net and none are the same. Baking times & temp to ingredients differ. I think pastry chef Christina Tosi doesn’t really want us all to know how to make her addictive pie! But in the end it turned out fabulous. It smelled and tasted like a gooey buttery caramel oat bar.
Tip: I read that some people complained that the pie was a runny pool of butter. You have to cook it for at least 30 minutes AND let the pie rest 2 hours then sit in the fridge preferably overnight. Don’t be impatient…it’s worth the wait!
Also, the BA recipe said to bake for a total of 50 minutes. I did it for 45 because the online comments said it was a bit overcooked. Next time I’ll probably bake for 35 (25 min on 350° & 10 min on 325°) just for a tad more gooeyness.
Recipe link
Bon Appetit Magazine / September 2010
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, Bon Appétit, bon appetit magazine, Christina Tosi, crack pie, food, Momofuku Milk Bar, new york, RECIPES | 4 Comments »
Mike adores anything lemon. So when we needed to use up 10 lemons from our new burgeoning lemon tree I decided to make Ina Garten’s lemon cake. I had bookmarked the recipe eons ago due to its stellar reviews. The cake turned out delicious. It’s a cross between cake and pound cake. It was tangy and sweet. Most of the cakes zip came from the glaze so if you want to tone down the tartness use less lemon juice in the glaze or omit it all together.
Tip: Don’t make this too far ahead of when you want to serve because it did dry out after a day.
Recipe link
Food Network, Barefoot Contessa / 2001
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, barefoot contessa, food, food network, ina garten, lemon cake, RECIPES | 1 Comment »
Rice pudding was a lot easier to make then I thought. The vanilla beans looked so pretty and the flavor was outstanding. We used an entire vanilla bean instead of half — what a waste not to. We served it with strawberries as suggested the first time but the next we used ripe banana slices and I gotta say I liked it even better. Tasted like a banana cream pie. The consistency was thick and creamy, not at all runny like grocery store pudding can be. A wonderful, fast, easy treat.
Tips: This was sweet even by my standards so I would recommend adding the sugar slowly and tasting to see how much you like.
The rice also could have been a little softer so I would leave it on the stove for 30 minutes instead of 20.
Recipe link
Food & Wine magazine /Sept. 2004
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: dessert, food, food & wine magazine, Gale Gand's Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding, RECIPES, rice pudding | 1 Comment »
Mmmm Mmmm good! I needed a fancy dessert for a Valentine’s day at home. The milk chocolate Soufflé in the February issue of Bon Appétit called to me. It was insanely easy to make and more importantly could be done ahead of time. The end result was light, airy, puffed perfection. I passed on the whip that was supposed to go with this and instead made a baileys cream (heavy cream,powdered sugar,baileys). This recipe is a keeper!
Note: I used my complimentary supply of farm fresh eggs from Eggland’s Best to prepare this. Their eggs are so healthy that I didn’t feel bad eating two Soufflés…
Recipe link
Bon Appétit | February 2010
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: Bon Appétit February 2010, dessert, eggland's best eggs, food, Milk Chocolate Soufflé, RECIPES, valentine's day 2010 | 1 Comment »
Yes, I thought this would be gross. Mike finally decided to use the 6 kiwi’s that had been sitting in our fridge for 2 weeks. He transformed them into a uniquely creamy Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
It was surprisingly good and very sweet. It had a fresh, clean taste that reminded me of a sorbet. A small scoop is all you need to be satisfied.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: Ben & Jerry's, dessert, food, Kiwi Ice Cream, RECIPES | 1 Comment »
It was time to test the new chocolate ebelskiver mix from WS. We used three different fillings and they all turned out wicked awesome but the caramel was the best!
Nutella, Peanut Butter and Caramel Filled
If you want to see the full process of making an ebelskiver check out my Cinnamon-Bun Ebelskiver post.
The recipe for Chocolate Ebelskivers is on the mix if you buy it. If you don’t, I’ve attempted to give you a recipe below…
For the pancakes:
For the filling:
We used Nutella, Peanut butter and Caramel sauce right out of the jars (placed them in the fridge for 10 minutes b4 so they would be easier to work with). You want it to be a paste like consistency not soft and runny.
Directions:
To make the pancakes, in a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and granulated sugar. In another bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the milk and the 4 Tbs. melted butter. Whisk the egg yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the batter will be lumpy. Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whites into the batter in two additions.
Put 1/8 tsp. melted butter in each well of a filled-pancake pan. Set over medium heat and heat until the butter begins to bubble. Pour 1 Tbs. batter into each well. Spoon 1 tsp. of the filling of your choice into the center of each pancake and top with 1 Tbs. batter. Cook until the bottoms are golden brown and crispy, about 3 minutes. Using 2 skewers, flip the pancakes over and cook until golden and crispy, about 3 minutes more. Transfer the pancakes to a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter and filling. Dust with powdered sugar.
Makes 35 to 40.
More ebelskiver recipes:
Strawberry Blintz Ebelskivers
Cinnamon-Bun Ebelskiver
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: chocolate ebelskiver, chocolate filled pancakes, Chocolate Nutella Ebelskiver, dessert, food, RECIPES, williams sonoma, williams sonoma ebelskiver mix | 9 Comments »
Happy holidays everyone! For the first time we decided to make sweet gifts for the family. To our surprise everything turned out perfect. I thought making toffee and fudge were recipes for disaster but they were really easy to prepare. Add some tins from the dollar store and you have a very festive gift.
Tip: after smoothing out the chocolate on top of the toffee don’t just toss it in the fridge. Let it sit for like 10 minutes to make sure all the chips melt completely. We didn’t, which just meant when we broke it up there were some chips still in tact. No biggie.
This fudge was made with mostly milk chocolate so it was not super rich which is my preference.
Toffee recipe link
Fudge recipe link
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: coffee toffee, Creamy Chocolate Fudge, dessert, food, holiday gifts, RECIPES | 1 Comment »
I’ve been c-r-a-v-i-n-g lobster. The kind of lobster I had growing up in Massachusetts when my family would hop in our station wagon and drive to New Hampshire in search of the ultimate lobster meal. Since moving to California, long gone are the days of cheap, simple lobster eats. Lobster tends to be insanely expensive and come in extreme forms. I don’t want lobster sliders, sushi rolls or mac & cheese. I’m going back to basics…I want a lobster so fresh and tasty all it needs is a little drawn butter to make my mouth water. Head, tail, legs and guts. I wanna get my hands dirty and maybe even my shirt. Lobster Gram to the rescue!
Thanks to Foodbuzz and their monthly blogging event where they sponsor 24 people to create 24 meals in 24 hours Mike and I were transported back in time to one of my fondest childhood memories. We had LIVE Maine lobsters delivered to our door from one of the top lobster delivery services on the net…Lobster Gram.
WOW! what a day…the lobsters arrived right on time and were alive and kickin’, well actually they were a bit jet-lagged initially but they perked up. I was amazed to find that they were so fresh that there was no fishy smell at all. Not even the shipping container smelled. The box comes with everything you could possibly need to create the perfect dinner: 
a great detailed cooking guide, lemons, butter, bibs, crackers, picks and hand wipes. The entire process of ordering online to cooking was surprisingly simple. Lobster Gram makes things fool proof. The end result was FANTASTIC! The lobster was super tender and sweet. It didn’t even need butter… but that didn’t stop us from using it!
Here is a video that shows the delivery, prep and the plunge into the pot:
To complete our crustacean feast we prepared the following sides:
Cheddar Biscuits with Garlic Butter
Corn on the Cob with Shallot -Thyme Butter
The only modification to the biscuit recipe we made was to double the amount of garlic. They were really fast and easy to make. Awesome right out of the oven. The corn had wonderful flavor. The only change next time would be to use corn off the cob so we don’t lose all the buttery shallot goodness on the plate!
and for dessert…
Apple Galette with Caramel Sauce and Vanilla cream
This treat consisted of sliced apples on top of a 5″ circular puff pastry and what you can’t see is what makes it taste so unique – under the apples is a half dollar size disc of pure almond paste. We’d never used almond paste before and a little goes a long way. Yum!
If you’ve ever considered having lobsters delivered — JUST DO IT!! This was a totally fun and rewarding experience! I can’t wait to do it again and again and again…
Beauty shot!
Recipe links:
Apple Galettes with Caramel Sauce
Corn on the Cob with Shallot-Thyme Butter
Cheddar biscuits
GET YOUR LOBSTERS HERE — Website: http://www.livelob.com/
$10 off coupon code: COOKMAN9 — expires 12/31/09
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, Main Dish, RECIPES, REVIEWS OF PRODUCTS, Side Dish | Tagged: food, Foodbuzz 24 24 24, fresh, lobster gram, lobsters, maine, RECIPES, review | 7 Comments »
When I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it. It looked sooooo good. The end product was more bread-like then the usual moist buttery pound cake consistency but still wonderful. When nutella is cooked the potent flavor of hazelnut transforms into a lovely light chocolate. As suggested we served this with homemade coffee ice cream that Mike made. Scrumptious!
Note: The recipe says use the entire container of nutella… it will seem like a lot but it really isn’t.
Recipe link
Food & Wine magazine /Oct 2009
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: dessert, food, food & wine magazine, nutella pound cake, Nutella-Swirl Pound Cake, oct 2009, RECIPES | 6 Comments »
Yum! I was looking for a way to use up some peaches and this is what I found! Ice cream covered in lemon marinated peaches, buttery graham cracker crumble and a cinnamon syrup. The little crunchies make the sundae. If you’re smart you’ll double the recipe. Honestly, you really don’t need the syrup. It’s grand with or without.
view from the top
For the vanilla ice cream we used the Williams-Sonoma Ice cream starter. The few egg based ice creams we’ve made have not impressed me. They are overly creamy and have a milky taste so when I saw this mix I snapped it up. It was fantastic and does not skimp on the Madagascar Bourbon. The flavor was bananas – not literally… I will use this again and again even though it’s a bit overpriced. Need an ice cream maker? This one is awesome.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: Cinnamon-Crunch Peach Sundaes, dessert, food, ice cream, Madagascar Bourbon, RECIPES, vanilla, Williams-Sonoma Ice cream starter | Leave a comment »
OMG! These are just like the real deal. I didn’t think Chef Keller would put his name on a product of poor quality. He teamed up with Williams- Sonoma to produce the iconic chocolate Bouchon mix and mold. The mix easily made 24 sensational corks.
Tasty tip: If you want big Bouchons fill the molds to the top, if not fill them just a tad under the lip. The mold works great and the little bad boys slide right out.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, REVIEWS OF PRODUCTS | Tagged: baking, Bouchon Bakery, chocolate bouchons, dessert, food, RECIPES, thomas keller, williams sonoma | 13 Comments »
This has to be the easiest bread recipe in the world. It contains 5 ingredients and no yeast and no waiting for rising. From start to finish it took 35 minutes. I have to be honest I had doubts that this would be edible. I was envisioning a big solid rock emerging from the oven. To my surprise it did turn out. It was dense but still soft and chewy on the inside and tasted just like rye bread. I truly enjoyed it.
Tasty Tip: we used reduced fat buttermilk (2 cups) and it was all good.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, Bon Appétit May 1996, Caraway Seeds, cooking, food, irish, RECIPES, White Soda Bread | 2 Comments »
This year we again stayed home for Valentine’s day. We feasted on fresh Dungeness crab and then indulged in this….
Chocolate fondue with a shot of Baileys Irish Cream
To accompany the chocolate we had strawberries, apples, bananas, pirouette wafers and rice crispy treats. Good stuff! The cute sweetheart fondue set was my “V” day gift from Mike last year.
Flashback: Valentine’s day 2008
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods | Tagged: chocolate, cooking, dessert, fondue, food, RECIPES, valentine's day 2009 | Leave a comment »
Christmas dinner was at our house this year. Here was the menu:
Filet mignon with port sauce and horseradish cream, radish apple and onion salad, sherry vinegar and molasses glazed carrots, potato mushroom gratin and caramel banana bread pudding. It was a meal to remember!
Pics…
Everything turned out fantastic. I would make any one of these recipes again and again and again…
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, Main Dish, RECIPES, Side Dish | Tagged: baking, Bon Appétit, bon appetit magazine, caramel banana bread pudding, cooking, food, horseradish cream, port sauce, potato mushroom gratin, Radish Apple and Onion Salad, sherry vinegar molasses glazed carrots | 1 Comment »
This is a fancy looking dessert without much work. The crumbled amaretto cookie was the ingredient that brought the WoW factor. Delish!
Tasty Tip: Next time I would add some vanilla to the marscapone to sweeten it up a bit.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, Caramelized Pears with Rum Raisin Mascarpone, cooking, food, RECIPES, Tyler Florence, Tyler's Ultimate | Leave a comment »
Mike made this all by himself… the Liberty apples from our produce delivery worked wonderfully. Serve with a big dollop of ice cream!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!
Tasty Tip: Mike used this pie crust mix from Williams-Sonoma. It worked perfect.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, cooking, Dutch Apple Pie, food, food & wine magazine, RECIPES, thanksgiving | 1 Comment »
I have no idea where my mom got this recipe for zucchini bread. All I know is she made it a lot growing up. This was my first time making it myself. It came out like I remember but I left out the nuts. My favorite way to eat it is covered in cream cheese. I can transform anything healthy into something bad. Continue reading
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baked goods, cooking, food, RECIPES, Zucchini Bread | Leave a comment »
What to do with a huge ripe melon? Make sorbet! Summer is supposed to be over, but the last 2 weeks we had some fiery days down here in the South Bay. Beat the heat with this…
We looked to Emeril for the recipe.
BTW – this melon was from our first shipment of organic produce from Farm Fresh to You.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: cooking, dessert, Emeril Lagasse, food, Honeydew Melon, RECIPES, sorbet | Leave a comment »
Apple crisp is one of my favorite desserts. My mom made one growing up that was outstanding. Of course when I asked her for the recipe she could not find it so off to the food network I went. I found a recipe from Rachael Ray’s sister. As many of you know Rachael doesn’t bake. I have made this two times and both turned out remarkable. Those sisters know how to cook!
Tasty tip: Double the topping mixture (not the cinnamon mix) for extra sweet goodness.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: 30 minute meals, apple crisp, dessert, food, Rachael Ray's sister, RECIPES | Leave a comment »
I’d never heard of Eton Mess before watching Nigella Lawson whip up a batch on her show Nigella Express. Eton mess is a dessert of English origin consisting of a mixture of strawberries, pieces of meringue and cream and was first created at Eton College in Britain. Although I find meringue nests unappetizing, Nigella made them look divine.
The meringue crumbled in the cream was awesomely sweet. This was one of the best strawberry desserts I’ve had. It was a tasty mess, indeed.
Note: The only modification I made to the recipe was use balsamic instead of pomegranate juice. Nigella mentioned on the show that you could use that as an alternative.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: cream, dessert, eton mess, food, meringue, nigella express, nigella lawson, RECIPES, strawberries | Leave a comment »
Every year we spend the 4th of July at home with our dog Edison. 
Our 105 lb black lab mix is deathly afraid of fireworks. Most of the evening he is cowering in our closet as our neighbors light off M-80’s loud enough to rock our foundation. This year in between consoling Mr. Ed we made S’mores. I decided I wanted to do something different so instead of a chocolate bar we used Nutella. I also toasted some coconut to toss on top because I like it. The Nutella was a brilliant substitution. Instead of the usual semi melted chunk of chocolate we had creamy chocolaty hazelnut. Give me S’more! I’ll never use a chocolate bar again…
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: dessert, food, nutella, Nutella Coconut S'mores, RECIPES, smore | Leave a comment »
While in Mendocino Raquel made the deep dark chocolate cookies from the bon appetit June 2008 issue. Wow, these were sinful. They were great right out of the oven but I think I preferred eating the balls of dough. They tasted like dark chocolate truffles! Made without butter or flour you can pretend they are healthy.
Tasty tip: watch the oven closely or these bad boys will burn. Recipe link
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: bon appetit magazine, deep dark chocolate cookies, food, June 2008, RECIPES | Leave a comment »
With summer comes homemade ice cream. Our ice cream machine is super easy to use. No ice or hand churning necessary…just set it and forget it.
This weekend Mike made Peanut butter ice cream to go with the Barefoot Contessa brownies I made. Chocolate and peanut butter is a classic combination. I found the ice cream recipe on a fellow food blog called Kitchen Chick. It turned out fantastic. This was the best ice cream we have made and we’ve made a lot! The flavor and consistency was perfect. The brownies also turned out terrific. They contained a chocolate triple threat (chocolate chips, melted chocolate and chocolate mix). These bad boys were flaky on top and ooey-gooey in the middle. Awesome summer treat!
Mix: Barefoot Contessa Brownie Mix
Tools: Cuisinart Ice Cream machine
More photos (click to enlarge):
Since this turned out so well I’m submitting it to the “You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Frozen Desserts!” Food Blog Event hosted by Mike’s Table (btw, not my Mike).
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: barefoot contessa, chocolate brownie, dessert, food, homemade ice cream, peanut butter ice cream, RECIPES | 1 Comment »
The Sprinkles cupcake shop is still not open in Palo Alto so I had to bake up a batch myself to hold me over. I picked up the red velvet mix from Williams-Sonoma. They turned out terrific… If I say so myself!
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: baking, cupcakes, food, red velvet, sprinkles cupcakes, williams sonoma | Leave a comment »
There is an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G chocolate cream pie in the February 08 issue of Food and Wine magazine. It actually has you sieve the chocolate filling before you add to the crust. This process makes the pie extra silky and creamy. Since you can prepare this up to a day in advance it is great for when you are having guests over. This got me some rave reviews at our last dinner party.
By the way the whipped cream that goes along with this is scrumptious …I could of eaten a bowl of just cream! 😯
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: chocolate cream pie, dessert, food, food and wine magazine, RECIPES, whipped cream | Leave a comment »
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