Foodbuzz Tastemakers...This is a good one!

I love being a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program. I can't even describe how much fun it is to get a package in the mail of some new yummy food to try. I know, I need to get out more, huh! But really, it's such a fun little treat.

This month I was so excited to get to try Quaker's new True Delight granola bars. These are like, gourmet granola bars too. They come in 3 flavors including...are you ready for this... Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond, Honey Roasted Cashew Mixed Berry, and Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut. I know, those are a lot of flavors packed into a little granola bar, but they were all amazing.

I decided to bring my samples into work where I could cut them up and let everyone have a little sample to see what they thought. Afterward I wasn't so pleased that I had shared though. These granola bars had such an intense flavor to them. You could taste berry or banana in every bite. They were fresh and chewy and the best part is that they taste so much better than the original granola bars but have about the same number of calories. Seriously, I can not emphasize enough have good the flavor was in these.

Look for them now at your local grocery store. They are a little more expensive than the original, but worth every penny.

Are you ready for some football?

There is nothing I like more than a party with good food. I love having parties and I love preparing for parties. I especially like eating at parties, so I'm sharing some of my all time favorite party food recipes that are all extremely simple but always a hit.

BACON WRAPPED LITTLE SMOKIES WITH BROWN SUGAR

That's exactly what they are. Get some bacon, cut it in thirds and wrap a piece around a little smokie sausage. Hold it together with a toothpick. Line them up on a foil lined tray and dump at least 1 pound of brown sugar over all of them. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. The brown sugar will caramelize and you will get some goodness. Take them off of the foil while they are still warm so they don't stick and serve them warm. Be sure to get one quick because they go fast!

BACON RANCH DIP 16 oz sour cream
1 ranch dip packet
1/4 C bacon bits
1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese

mix together and serve with chips and veggies. It's even better the next day so make the dip ahead!


7 LAYER DIP

I love how everyone makes their own version of the 7 layer dip. Here's how I do mine:
2 cans refried beans
1 C gaucamole
8 oz sour cream mixed with 1 packet of taco seasoning
2 C shredded cheese ( use the mexi-blend and I like a lot of it!)
1 can sliced olives
2 roma tomatoes
1/4 C green onions
a little more shredded cheese on top

Layer in 9x13 pan and serve with tortilla chips.



I'm pretty sure I know who is playing in the super bowl this year, but I really don't care who wins. All I know is that we will be eating good and having fun with some friends and I love any excuse for a party!

My First Wedding!

I have been too busy to bake or post anything for the past week or so because I have been very busy getting ready for my first wedding! My friend got married last night and I was lucky enough to make the wedding cake all by myself! After lots of baking, filling, stacking, frosting, more stacking, and more frosting, along with some stressing, I ended up completely satisfied with my cake.


The cake was a 3-tired hexagon cake. It was chocolate cake and the bottom and top layers had a chocolate truffle filling. The middle layer had a white chocolate truffle filling with a layer of fresh raspberries. The bride wanted a chocolate buttercream frosting and ribbon around each tier. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, I will have to do a whole tutorial post on just the ribbon portion. It was a challenge but I finally got it!


I had a lot of fun doing this cake and learned SO much! I am excited to start taking some classes so I can learn some good tips and techniques and learn how to use fondant and other fun things. I am almost ready to do another one!


I also found out when I got there that I would kind of be in charge of the catering part. But that was a lot of fun too. We had 3 different chocolate fountains going with dark chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate. To dip in we had platters of marshmallows, pretzels, sugar cookies, strawberries, apples, pineapple, and bananas. It was beautiful and delicious!


Thank goodness for these girlies who stepped in to help me! We all work together at a local Technical college, so we already are good at helping each other out. We all kind of decided we should quit working where we are and start our own catering business. How fun would that be?! I honestly couldn't have done it without them though! Thanks guys!

Tuesdays With Dorie: French Pear Tart

The good news is...I found my camera! It was hidden in the pocket of my snow jacket and had been there since Christmas Day when I was outside taking pictures of a few of the neighborhood dads driving 4-wheelers down the street with kids being dragged behind on sleds hanging on for dear life and having a blast doing it. The bad news is...I found my camera! I was hoping to use this as an excuse to buy the really nice one I want, but I guess I'll keep saving my pennies for another day.

Today's recipe was chosen by Dorie Greenspan herself. I loved making the tart, mostly because I was excited to put the tart pans to use that my mom got me for Christmas! Thanks, mom! I had no idea they would come in handy so quickly! Isn't it beautiful though?!

As usual, I'm barely qualifying as midnight is quickly approaching and my bedtime has come and gone, but I can go to bed with my house smelling absolutely amazing while the tart is cooling and waiting for me to have a big slice for breakfast! I'll let you know how it tastes, although I'm pretty positive it will be devoured the second I walk into work with it. That is, if I don't fall and drop it in the snow on the way in. Is it ever going to stop snowing???

Alright, I'm way too tired and starting to ramble. Great recipe today! Check out the blogroll to see my fellow TWD bakers!

Apple Toffee Dip

Still no camera, but I will try later today. Here is a must try recipe for a fun dip for your apples. This stuff is delicious!

Apple Toffee Dip

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 C marshmallow cream
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 bag toffee pieces

Mix all together except toffee pieces until creamy. Fold in toffee pieces. Serve with sliced apples.

Happy New Year!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

I didn't post this on time because somewhere, sometime, over the crazy past two weeks, we lost our camera! I think it's a perfect excuse to get the nice camera that I really want, but for now we are going to have to do without. What is a food blog without pictures to show how good the food looks?! Well, I will try to describe it until I can at least borrow my neighbor's camera to take a few pictures. (please Steph, I'll share a bite!)

This is easily the best cheesecake I have ever eaten, and I've eaten a lot of cheesecakes including about 1 piece a week from The Cheesecake Factory when I was pregnant with my first! Yes, I'm still trying to lose that weight 5 years later.

But this cheesecake is so creamy and smooth and has such a rich flavor. Dorie says to beat the batter until it's satiny, and then you cook it for 1 1/2 hours in a water bath and then let it rest in the water bath in the hot oven for another hour. I just made the plain cheesecake, but I am so excited to try different flavors next time.

Definitely a great choice this week by Anne of Anne Strawberry! Here is the link to the TWD Blogroll.

Fish Tacos

If you don't like fish or fish tacos, don't bother continuing to read. There is just no convincing a person these are good. You either like them or you don't, and I really do! I'm big into coupons and seeing how much money I can save each grocery trip so I was really excited when I found fish shaped breaded fish sticks at buy one get one free. I thought for sure I could convince my kids they were chicken nuggets and get them to eat some variety, but I was proven wrong very quickly. I had to find something to do with these and I did.


Here's what you do:

Bake the fish sticks as indicated on the package
Heat some corn tortillas in a skillet for about 15 seconds on each side on medium high heat when the fish is done cooking.
Put two fish sticks on the tortilla and top with desired amount of coleslaw mix.

For the coleslaw mix:
1 T vanilla yogurt
1 T mayonnaise
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic salt
limes to squeeze fresh on the taco
1/2 cabbage, sliced thin

Makes 6 tacos

Tuesdays With Dorie: Buttery Jam Cookies

Baking so much this time of year has really gotten to me. I'm just not into the sweets as much, but I have to say that these cookies were a nice break from all the chocolate that has been going around. I chose raspberry jam for my cookies and they were great warm, right out of the oven. I added a light glaze of powdered sugar, milk, and more raspberry jam. They were amazing, but I wouldn't recommend adding jam to a glaze because they were way too sticky. They were gone in no time though. When I left for work there were about a dozen on the counter and when I got home, there wasn't a single crumb left. I will be making these again and I can't wait to try different jams!



Don't forget to check out the TWD blogroll and thanks to Heather of Randomosity and the Girl for choosing the simple and quick recipe this week! It's just what I needed!

English Toffee and a gift from Organica

First of all, I was SO excited to get home from work today to find a turquoise box that had arrived from Organica Deluxe with some cookies for me to sample.
I was so excited that I automatically ripped open the package and took a bite before I could even take a picture of it. I didn't need to read what kind of cookie it was either because as soon as I opened the box I could smell the sweet ginger. These cookies were amazing. Every ingredient down to the molasses is organic which makes it seem healthy too! These babies were so soft and almost melted in your mouth. Organica does some fun gifts and they have more than just food too (their baby blankets are adorable!) so check out their website to find a yummy and unique gift for friends and family this holiday season! They are even offering free shipping until Dec 15 so hurry and order!

Thank to the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program for introducing me to this awesome company!


Now on to my world famous English toffee. Well, let's be honest. It's not world famous yet and it's not "mine" either. My mom has been making this recipe every year for as long as I can remember and our family and friends always look forward to it. Every year I try to make it and once in awhile I get a batch that can compare to hers. This was one of those batches.

It was perfectly crunchy instead of chewy or crumbly. The butter didn't separate from the rest of it and it didn't burn. I have had many other outcomes from trying to make toffee as well.

Here's the recipe:

2 C sugar
1 C water
1 lb butter (4 cubes)
4 large chocolate Hershey's bars
almonds (optional)

Heat sugar and water in a heavy saucepan on high heat until it boils and reaches the thread stage on your candy thermometer. Do not even stir it during this stage. Just let it do it's thing. While it's getting there, get a cookie sheet with raised edges ready by rubbing the entire thing with butter to grease it up. Get a bowl of ice water close by to test your candy, and fill a near by bathtub with a few inches of cold water. Strange, I know. You might want to get a cold drink and short sleeves on too because it gets really hot standing there stirring.

Once it gets to the thread stage, add the 4 cubes of butter (don't think about it, just do it!) one at a time, stirring constantly in a figure 8 motion with a wooden spoon until each cube is completely melted before adding another. You don't want the temperature to get low while doing this part. Stir constantly until it reaches the hard crack stage, or 300 degrees, on your thermometer. Drop some candy into the bowl of ice water and bite into it when cool to make sure you get the right crack from your toffee.

When it's gotten to where you like it, pour the candy into your prepared cookie sheet and using hot pads, shake the cookie sheet to spread the candy as you walk to the bathtub. Don't forget to shake as you go. (that is a little joke for my mom. She would tell us that as we followed her to the bathroom every time she makes it.) Put the cookie pan in the bathtub to float on top of the water. Let sit for about 10 minutes until completely cooled and removed from bathtub. Honestly, that whole bathtub step is probably not totally necessary, but that is how my mom has always done it and her toffee always comes out perfect!

Loosen the toffee from the pan so you can pick it up all in once piece. Frost one side with 2 melted Hershey's bars and frost the other with the remaining 2 when the first side has hardened. My mom likes to add whole almonds to the candy before it hardens and then crushed almonds on top of the chocolate, but I'm a no nut kind of girl, so I leave that out. It's an option for you though.

Good luck!

Tuesdays With Dorie: Sugar Cookies

I know, boring right? Sugar cookies? Come on now! I tried to make it as fun and different as I possible could in the extra 3 minutes I had today, but my brain and my body are giving up on me. My kids sure loved them though. I just have to say that I've never met a sugar cookie recipe I get along with.

No, these cookies aren't wet. I used the Wilton Color Flow mix, which I just love. You just add a little of the mix to powdered sugar and some water and this is what happens. Some day I will do a whole post just on this stuff because you can do so much fun stuff with it. Today I added peppermint extract and piled 3 different sized cookies on top of each other for something a little fun.

These are especially for my 5 year old daughter. She wanted more and more sprinkles so I rolled the dough into balls and rolled them in as many sprinkles as I could get to stick to the dough. Festive, don't you think?!

These ones were really fun. I rolled the dough into balls and rolled them in candy canes that have been through my food processor. They were perfectly pepperminty and cute too!

Dorie's sugar cookies were pretty good, but I think I'll stick to my Betty Crocker packaged mix the next time I do sugar cookies. She just never fails me with her sugar cookies! Thanks to Thanks to Ulrike at Kuchenlatein.

Don't forget to check out the blogroll and buy Dorie's book for her recipe.

MIA

This is what happens when I leave town for a week. I had 3 posts set to show up on my blog while I was away, but they didn't, so now I'm playing a super quick catch up. Unfortunately I had to start working full time again today. I was lucky to be able to be home with my 3 kids for the past 4 months, but now it's back to work for me. Hopefully my baking habit doesn't suffer too much because of it though.

So here is what I have been up to in my kitchen:

Chocolate Cranberry Cupcakes- this was supposed to be for the Iron Cupcake Challenge, but since it didn't post, I missed out on that one. Whoops! Basically, I made my Surprise Cupcakes, but added 1/2 cup cranberry sauce to the cream cheese filling (I made the cranberry sauce using the fresh cranberries, sugar, and water following the recipe on the back of the cranberry bag) and another 1/2 C to a very rich buttercream frosting. I topped it off with some sprinkles of cranberry rimming sugar that I found on clearance at Target after Halloween. Absolutely AMAZING! I would say it was probably one of the best cupcakes I have ever had, and I just sampled 6 different cupcakes from Sprinkles while I was in AZ for Thanksgiving. My cranberry cupcake was totally moist and the frosting was so fresh tasting. I recommend eating them chilled.

Next was the caramel cake for Daring Bakers. For some reason when I read the recipe at the first of the month, I thought it was for a chocolate caramel cake so that is what I had my heart set on all month. When I made it for my mother in law's birthday I added 1/4 C of cocoa to the batter to satisfy me. This cake was dense and rich and moist and I loved it, but still way too much work for a cake. I have had plenty of very good cakes that didn't involve so many steps. I absolutely loved the frosting though and licked that bowl clean.

Check out the Daring Bakers blogroll for the rest of the details. Sorry I'm so late with this!


Last but not least is Tuesdays With Dorie. I missed last week. I feel awful. I should have been more prepared and done my recipe ahead of time, but because it was for Twofer Pie which sounded perfect for Thanksgiving dessert, I waited, but forgot to bring my recipe with me. I'm still going to make it sometime because I was really really excited about it.

I just finished this week's recipe for Linzer Sables and I still have 30 minutes of it still being Tuesday, so technically it's on time! It was a lovely little sandwich cookie perfect for the holidays with all of the great spices in the dough. You can fill them with jam or chocolate and if you can believe it I filled them with my leftover cranberry sauce. Yum! Cranberry is just a flavor I don't think I can get sick of.
See the TWD blogroll for all the beautiful cookies my fellow Dorie bakers have made. Thanks Dennis from Living the Life for choosing the recipe. See his blog for the recipe or go get the cookbook. Are you sick of my saying that yet, because I'm kind of sick of writing it every week.

That's all for now. I'll get on top of things now that I'm caught up with laundry and everything else that comes with skipping town for a week. I've even started my holiday baking and can't wait to share when I've been making. I have such lucky neighbors!

some dang good pumpkin recipes

I don't know where this recipe came from originally, but it's so amazing! I first had it at a friend's house last year and I make it frequently now. This time I made it with my mini bundt pan. The plan was to put two of them together and make it look like the shape of a pumpkin. I frosted it with a maple frosting and had really good intentions of making it all cute and stuff, but it didn't happen. It still tasted amazing though. I love the pumpkin bread and maple frosting combo for sure! It was really good with a powdered sugar dusting as well though.

Best Ever Pumpkin Bread

1 1/3 C vegetable oil
5 eggs
15 oz can pumpkin
---beat well---
2 C flour
2 C sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
3 oz vanilla pudding mix
---add to pumpkin mixture---

Bake at 350 for 1 hour in a greased loaf pan.


I also made some good pumpkin fudge truffles. Basically, pumpkin fudge rolled in balled and dipped in chocolate. I normally don't like the pumpkin and chocolate chip mixture much, but these were actually pretty good!
Pumpkin Fudge

3 C sugar
3/4 C melted butter
2/3 C evaporated milk
1/2 C canned pumpkin
2 T corn syrup
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 12 oz package white chocolate chips
1 7 oz jar marshmallow creme
1 C chopped pecans, toasted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir together sugar, butterm milk, pumpkin, corn syrup and pumpkin pie spice in a sauce pan over medium high heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Continue to cook until you get to the soft ball stage, about 12 minutes.

Remove pan from heat, stir in remaining ingredients until well blended. Pour into a foil lined greased 9 inch square pan. Let stand 2 hours or until completely cool.

If you want to make truffles out of it, roll it into balls before completely hardened and let harden on wax paper on a cookie sheet. Melt 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and pour into a deep mug. Dip fudge balls in chocolate and let harden back on the wax paper.

Chili and Cornbread

I don't have enough photography skills to take pictures that would justify how good this meal is. I'm actually quite embarrassed by the pictures so you'll just have to take my word. I crave this chili and especially the cornbread and it hits the spot like no other food does in the cold winter months. I usually make the chili in a crock pot a few days before I'm actually ready to eat it. The flavor just gets better with time. It makes a lot too so we eat what we want the one night and freeze the rest. You can just imagine what my freezer looks like right now. I have about 12 quart sized bags of frozen soups and chili now.


Chili

2 lb cooked ground beef
2 cans kidney beans
4 large onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1 quart tomatoes
2 quarts tomato or vegetable juice
1 T cumin
1 T salt
3/4 tsp curry
cayenne pepper to taste; I'm not a fan at all of spicy food so I barely put any in for me.

Put it all in a crockpot and cooke until warmed through. Remove bay leaves before serving.
I'm not kidding when I tell you that this is the most moist and sweet cornbread you will ever eat. You really need to try it and you will never go back to any other cornbread!

Buttermilk Cornbread

1/2 C butter
2/3 C sugar
2 eggs
1 C buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 C cornmeal
1 C flour
1/2 tsp salt

Melt butter. Stir in sugar and eggs and beat well. Combine buttermilk and baking soda then stir into butter mixture. Add cornmeal, flour, and salt. Stir until well mixed. Bake in greased 8x8 pan at 400 for 30 minutes and lightly browned on top.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Rice Pudding

What? It's Tuesday already? I almost forgot to post today's recipe. Before making this recipe, I really didn't like rice pudding, but it was good for me to make it since my husband likes it and it's a tradition in his family to have it on Christmas. Even though I don't like it, I had a lot of fun making it! We have this little place close by called Pudding on the Rice, and it's like an ice cream parlor with all different kinds of rice pudding instead of ice cream, so I made my rice pudding based on that place.

I made chocolate and vanilla just like the recipe called for, but then I also made mint chocolate by adding a little peppermint extract to the chocolate, butterscotch rice pudding by melting some butterscotch chips into the plain pudding, and cinnamon rice pudding by melting cinnamon chips into the pudding. We had a fun little tasting party with some friends. The mint chocolate and cinnamon were my favorite and it actually tasted really good. Maybe I'm not a hater afterall!

Good choice of recipe from Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa! Check out her blog for the recipe or go get "Baking From My Home To Yours" by Dorie Greenspan. Just a note, her blog is mostly in French, but there is some English and you can use the translator on the right hand side of her blog too. Don't forget to check out the blogroll as always!

Mint Chocolate

I heard the average person gains at least 5 pounds from Halloween to Christmas. Ummm, I'm going to have to say that I'm just not average. I'm pretty sure I gain a lot more than that each year and this one will be no exception!

I'm totally feeling the mint chocolate already this holiday season. Here are some of the fun products I have found in stores:

(to be fair, I couldn't find a picture online anywhere of these so I stole this pic from this fun blog)
These can be found at Walmart!

Only at TJ's which we don't have in Utah (poor me!) but I'm going to AZ for Thanksgiving and am totally going to stock up!

Can get these Fudge Mint Oreos pretty much anywhere

I got my mint miniatures at Walgreens because there was a $1 off coupon. The trouble is that I'm going to have to go back for more because I have eaten the whole bag by myself in a matter of 4 days. NO JOKE!

I haven't tried these ones yet, but I can't wait! I have so many memories of going to Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco growing up and I LOVE their chocolate! Sorry about the small pictures. Hopefully they enlarge okay if you click on them.

I can't wait to use these to make lots of Holiday treats like mint oreo truffles and milkshakes and lots more that I will surprise you with. For now, I'm going to go make my cream mint brownies that you may recall from brownie week. I've been craving them all week!

What fun limited edition treats have you found this Holiday Season?

Tuesdays With Dorie: Kugelhopf

Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl chose the Kugelhopf recipe this week. I have to be honest and say that I was really not a fan at all, but I'm glad I tried it anyway. It was a little dry and just not much flavor even with all the butter that you drown it in. I couldn't even think of any way to add more calories. I just wasn't feeling it this week with the recipe.


I guess it smelled pretty good though because I had a visitor at my back door when it was baking.

What do you mean is that really a peacock? Don't you have wild peacocks running around your neighborhood?


Back to the Kugelhopf...I even tried to make french toast out of it the next morning and it still didn't do anything for me.


I am sure there will be recipes that I love and some that I can do without and that's why this is such a great group to be a part of. Someone else gets to choose things for me to bake that I wouldn't otherwise pick myself. For the full recipe go to Yolanda's blog, or buy the book. You know the drill by now. Be sure to check the TWD blogroll and see the other opinions of Kugelhopf.