I have declared the summer of 2015 as the summer of travel for our family. It took me a while to figure out why I just kept feeling like I was playing a never ending game of catch-up this summer and then it dawned on me --- some or all of us have been traveling for 6 weeks out of an 8 week summer! We have been blessed with the opportunity to visit some amazing places and to reconnect with some long lost friends and family this summer. One of our trips was to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We had a great trip but rather than post the hundreds of pictures that I came home with, I thought I would share a short video of highlights from our week. I love sharing the pictures from our vacation but I treasure the memories that were made even more. Having the opportunity to spend the week together as a family was absolutely priceless. It's been a great summer and it's hard to believe that the kids will be heading back to school soon. We are doing all we can to soak up our last few days of summer vacation - AT HOME. Tonight I made a batch of Sweet Glazed Peaches for dessert. They were really good - they tasted like the epitome of summer. Sweet Glazed Peaches 2 Tablespoons lemon juice 1 Tablespoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 6 firm, ripe peaches 1/3 cup water 1/4 cup apple jelly 1 Tablespoon butter 1/4 cup pistachios, toasted and chopped Add peaches and toss to coat all sides. Combine jelly and butter and microwave 30 seconds.
Remove peaches from oven, brush with half of jelly mixture. Return peaches to oven and continue to broil until spotty brown. (7-9 minutes) Remove peaches from oven, brush with remaining jelly and transfer peaches to serving platter. Bring accumulated juices to in skillet to a simmer and cook until syrupy. (about 1 minute) Pour syrup over peaches. Sprinkle with pistachios and serve. Fresh, ripe, juicy Georgia peaches in the height of summer are hard to beat. They're sweet and delicious that they make the perfect dessert after any summer meal.
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I was home from vacation for exactly 10 hours (8 of which I was sleeping) before my beloved Kitchen Aid mixer was whirring at full speed. I took a little bit of a break from cooking while I was on vacation but once I got home - I was ready to fill my kitchen with sweet treats again. It might be hard to believe but the fact that cooking and baking has become my source of income, hasn't taken any of the fun out of it - I'm still in my happy place when I'm making a mess in the kitchen. I love the fact that I get paid to do a job that I love. I don't realize how much I miss my daily baking tasks until I quit doing them for a while. Baking is my creative outlet - it's my source of creativity - and it's my stress relief. | think it's actually therapeutic for me to be in the kitchen. It doesn't matter whether it's healthy meals for my family or sweets for the cafe - cooking keeps me sane. My first dessert after a week of being away from my kitchen - frozen strawberry pie. FROZEN STRAWBERRY PIE!!! Frozen Strawberry Pie 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs 2 Tablespoons sugar 5 Tablespoons butter 1 pound frozen strawberries, thawed 1 Tablespoon lime zest juice from 2 limes 14 ounce can condensed milk 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
While crust cools - prepare filling. Place strawberries, lime zest, lime juice and condensed milk in food processor and blend until smooth. Spoon filling into crust and freeze for at least 4 hours. Decorate with additional whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Frozen strawberry pie is a perfectly refreshing treat for hot summer days. If you prefer something a little neater and easier to serve - make mini strawberry pies in muffin cups. No matter how you serve it - you just can't go wrong with frozen strawberry pie. It's super easy to make - it's deliciously refreshing and it's pretty. That makes this dessert a trifecta of summer perfection.
Ciao! Summer road trips are an annual event for my family. We travel miles and miles in the car every summer on adventures to the beach, to visit grandparents and to all sorts of wonderfully warm destinations. I must admit that I'm not a big fan of riding in the car and I find myself having to constantly remind myself to enjoy the journey instead of focusing on the destination. I do however, LOVE the fact that we have uninterrupted family time while we're in the car. I think we've had some of our best family discussions while traveling in the car. I never thought I would say this but over the years, I've actually learned to appreciate a long car ride. I attribute my change in attitude about car rides to the fact that my "kids" are teenagers now and able to not only entertain themselves but also participate in some of the driving. (Hang in there mom of littles - it does get easier to travel.) I treasure all days that I have with them - even if it means that we're just riding in the car together. I still have to find things to makes car rides interesting and for me that answer is -- Snacks!!! For Ben - no car ride is complete without a package of twizzlers. For me - my snack of choice is chocolate chip cookies. For our latest road trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina - I made a double batch of Chocolate Chip Biscuits. This recipe was introduced to me by my friend from New Zealand. I don't quite know how to describe them so I will simply say that they are "awesome." These little chocolate studded biscuits are perfect for dunking in morning coffee, nibbling on while riding in the car and snacking on for dessert. Chocolate Chip Biscuits 2 cups butter 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup condensed milk 2 teaspoons vanilla 6 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 teaspoons salt 10 ounces dark chocolate chunks
Use a cookie scoop to portion dough into rounds. Flatten slightly with hands. Bake cookies 24 minutes at 350. Cool on wire racks. I would eat these biscuits in the car and I would eat them in a bar. I would eat them with a cup of tea - I would eat them in a tree. I would eat them here - I would eat there - I would eat these ANYWHERE!
Ciao! Sometimes I get asked to make very specific cakes. Clients will email me pictures of cakes that they want me to recreate and tell me what flavors, icing and colors to use on the cake. Other times, clients give me only a general theme or color to work with and the rest is up to me. I recently received an order for a small cake and cupcakes for a Dr. Seuss party. It was up to me to choose the design of the cupcakes so I headed to the internet for inspiration. Wow. I guess it goes without saying that Dr. Seuss cupcakes were over the top - just like the books. The cupcakes were bright and colorful and playful and fun. I knew immediately that this was going to be a FUN project. I ended up creating my own version of hat cupcakes based on the ideas that I found on the internet. To make the hat cupcakes, you will need the following supplies:
Melt chocolate in a mug. Holding end of marshmallow skewer, dip each hat into melted chocolate and then place in a styrofoam block to dry. You could still see the color through the chocolate after the first dipping so I let them dry and then dipped them again. Much better coverage the second time. Cut fruit roll ups into strips and wrap around dried chocolate.
Add hats. For the fish cupcakes, you will need the following supplies...
Bake a batch of red velvet cupcakes.
Thing 1 and thing 2 cupcake supplies: paper to print labels and blue cotton candy Bake a batch of vanilla cupcakes. Frost with blue buttercream. Top with cotton candy hair. Attach a Thing 1 or thing 2 sticker to each cupcake liner. (I printed mine on the computer, cut them out with scissors and hot glued them to the paper liner.) What child could resist a cupcake topped with cotton candy? My goal was to use child friendly ingredients to make the decorations. Starburst candy, marshmallow sticks, fruit by the foot, melted chocolate and cotton candy seemed like much better decoration material than fondant or gumpaste for a children's party.
Ciao! It's official - I have a new favorite chocolate cupcake. (I do feel some pangs of guilt over the dethroning of my old favorite - the dark chocolate ganache cupcake - but I'll get over it.) I ran across this recipe on bakersroyale.com. This deep, dark, rich, coffee infused cupcake is the base for her double chocolate mocha crunch cupcake, her toffee crunch cupcake, her biscoff and Kahlua cupcakes, her caramel cappuccino royalle cupcakes and several others. It is really great basic chocolate cupcake that you can transform into all sorts of great cupcake creations. (By the way, I've tried almost all of her other cupcake recipes that use this same cake recipe.) Mocha Cupcakes 1 cup flour 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar 1/3 cup plus 2 Tablespoons cocoa 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter. melted 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 Tablespoons instant coffee 1/2 cup hot coffee Chocolate Sauce 2/3 cup dark chocolate 2 Tablespoons heavy cream 4 Tablespoons powdered sugar 2 Tablespoons water
Bake 18 minutes at 350. Cool completely on wire racks. Frost with chocolate buttercream. Put in freezer for 10 minutes. Chop whoppers, reserving 1 for the top of each cupcake. To make chocolate sauce: Heat chocolate and whipping cream in the top of a double boiler, without stirring. Stir melted chocolate. Stir in powdered sugar. Stir in enough water to make pouring consistency. Spoon chocolate sauce over frozen buttercream. Sprinkle with chopped whoppers. Finish with another dollop of buttercream and a whopper. I was afraid that these cupcakes would only really be appreciated by coffee lovers but the truth is, they have universal appeal. My non coffee drinking husband, who is always willing to be a cupcake taster, thought my new cupcakes were super delicious. By the way, kids are also big fans of these yummy mocha cupcakes. (That is bad news if you wanted to save a few cupcakes for a rainy day - they are not going to last very long.)
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