REWARDS

These cats get us up so early... it's kind of annoying on the weekends.  We are feeding them twice a day so they know when it's time to eat... well they kind of know when its time.  They let us know when when they are hungry and it's usually about 45 minutes before meal time.  On the weekends we just want to sleep in a little bit but it just doesn't seem to be happening.

Today Mr. D gets up to feed them, I'm also awake (it's tough to sleep with kittens meowing as loud as they can and climbing on youf head and chasing each other around the room like psychopaths) and at this point neither of us were going back to sleep (it's like 6:45, on a Saturday!).  So you know what... we went to the gym!  I was super proud of us and actually really surprised.  Now we can check that off the list for today.  After the gym we get home and of course I'm hungry.  But I'm still so proud of us so I think... I should reward myself.  With pancakes!

And that's how I negate my entire work out.  Blueberry buttermilk pancakes.

Sweets will be the end of me...

Here's the recipe I used.  I didn't make any substitutions,  but I didn't have exactly fresh ingredients... old eggs (which from what I've been reading about baking aged eggs can be a good thing) and really old buttermilk... that still smelled like buttermilk!  Lol!  So I used it and they were delish!  The perfect combination of sweet and sour, they were super fluffy (don't over mix!).  And the blueberries add a nice pop of juicy fruit goodness.  I often just jump into cooking with out thinking about it so we didn't have any syrup.  Mr. D likes naked pancakes, I settled on a little agave nectar.  Add a little fake bacon and second helping and bye bye workout!  

Unhealthy tip... use butter to grease your skillet... makes perfectly brown cakes.

Hope you all have had a great Saturday morning!

XOXO

FRIED GOODNESS

This morning, lets say late morning as I got started around 10:45, I decided it would be a good idea to make doughnut holes.  Once I set my mind on something I can't seem to let it go... drives Mr. D crazy.  Who makes doughnuts for lunch!?  I've made doughnuts with my mom a couple of years ago but she has all the right equipment so I searched for a super simple recipe... and Google chatted her a bunch of questions.

By 11:30 we had some super fresh homemade doughnut holes.  Delish!  Now this is a truly simple recipe with fantastic results.

I modified the recipe that I found here to make...

Cinnamon Sugary Buttermilk Doughnut Holes

1/3 c. sugar (plus more to coat)
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 egg
2 tbsp. oil
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Oil for frying
Cinnamon


In a bowl mix some sugar and cinnamon to coat your doughnut holes, set aside.  


Combine all ingredients until just moistened.  Fill a deep pot, about 3/4" full with oil.  Heat oil to 375°.  Oil your hands and a spoon and roll the sticky dough into about 1/2" to 3/4" balls (they will puff up when fried).  Place balls into hot oil and cook until golden.  Flip and finish other side until nice and golden.  Place doughnut holes on a plate lined with paper towels.  Let drain for just a few seconds and roll in your cinnamon sugar mixture.  


Eat warm and enjoy!


XOXO   

DAY OF LOVE DIN DIN

A few years ago (after many cocktails with a couple friend of ours) I took to calling Valentine's Day our "Day of Love".  Totally ridiculous but still so much less commercial than V-Day! Typically we don't really do anything big for this holiday... we seem to buy things when we want them and lets be honest... shouldn't you show that you love others every time you see them?  I mean a daily supply of diamond earrings and bracelets would be nice but not exactly fiscally responsible (if diamonds are your thing). But this year I really wanted to something sweet for my love.  And the quickest way to a mans heart is his stomach right?  So I planned a fantastic dinner.

I had informed Mr. D of our dinner plans but he didn't know the menu.  It was planned for Monday, February 14th but like you read earlier... something came up and my time was a bit consumed with other things.  And cooking all day long wasn't exactly possible.  The menu was as follows...

Handcrafted Mushroom Ravioli with a Roasted Tomato Coulis
Roasted Asparagus with a Pistachio Yogurt Sauce (I served the asparagus warm...)
Buttery Bread Sticks and Aioli (Totally skeptical of eating raw eggs... YUM... and no food poisoning!)
     and for desert
Gingerbread Whoopie Pies
Chocolate Gelato

Can I just say that it was fantastic!!!!  Everything was made from scratch and I will also say that it took for freaking ever!  I think I cooked from 8:00 in the morning to close to 8:00 at night.  I took a mini break to eat a hot dog for lunch and I did forget one crucial desert ingredient at the store so we took a break to walk to the market.  Mr. D was on kitty patrol keeping them occupied so he was pretty clueless as to what was going on.  I think at one point he guessed I was making some sort of Indian dish... so it was fun I was able to keep him guessing.  By the time I needed to make the ravioli I had printed off the recipe and he was super hungry!  We were both ready to eat the food as we had been smelling all of the yummy flavors all day.  It really was so good and we even had some left overs to munch on the next day.  And we have desert for the rest of the week for sure... the gelato is TO DIE FOR!  It has the best recipe so if you are looking for a chocolate sweet treat and you have an ice cream maker... this is the recipe to try.

SUCCESS!

I wish I could have taken process photos of the whole thing but that would have just been way too much to handle!

So when you cook all day... do you want to eat the goodness or are you just sick of looking at it?

XOXO

WHAT WOULD MacGyver DO?

Hello, my friends call me V and I am addicted to sweets.

Yesterday (while making a delicious dinner of stuffed peppers and chorizo), I decided it was time to make Raspberry Marshmallows.  YUM!  The last few months have definitely been defined by the many batches of marshmallows that I've made (successfully I might add!) and well, it's time to switch it up a bit.  Raspberry was just the flavor!  I found the recipe from the Not So Humble Pie Blog.  My success in the marshmallow world is all thanks to Martha's no-nonsense recipe which can be found here.  It is seriously so simple and the perfect little sweet treat!

I had some time before Mr. D got home so I decided to get everything out and get the process started.  I am a habitual skimmer when it comes to reading recipes.  Which often leads to some pretty thoughtful solutions to problems that could have been avoided if I'd have actually read the short recipe.  I had one little problem that arose from my skimming and it has to do with that little rascal know as a raspberry seed.  They are sneaky little suckers and can be really annoying when stuck in your teeth!

To see more of the process and MacGyver like solutions (that may or may not work)...

I'M BANANAS FOR THIS BREAD!

After a successful attempt at cinnamon rolls (admittedly with significant help from my mother), last Friday I thought it would be fitting to tackle the monkey bread recipe I found. Mr. D has occasionally over the years brought up how much, as a child, he liked the monkey bread his mother made.  So that was the plan!

Here is the recipe we started with... I spied it on Brown Eyed Baker.

Now I'm just going to follow this with some pretty images... things started off strong!  We mixed the the ingredients as directed until the dough came together and looked smooth. The electric mixer really works wonders!

Then you want to kneed the dough for about 5-ish minutes on a lightly floured surface.

In a lightly greased bowl you want to roll your ball in the oil so it is just slightly coated and you are going to cover with a towel an place in a warm spot.  This is where the yeast works it's magic.  Come back in and hour and a half or so and if all goes well it will grow to double it's size.

So now you want to pat down the dough into an 8"x8" square and divide the dough in to 64 one inch balls.  This is where my smarts come in!  I suggest you use a sharp pizza cutter.  This worked wonders for me and all the dough was cut in a matter of seconds! You can make a quick guide by lightly rolling over the dough and making an indention and then go over it again with a little more pressure and it's done!  No fuss! 

Roll these squares in to one inch balls.

So now we've got our melted butter and our cinnamon sugar goodness all ready.  And we've also got our 'bundt' pan all buttered. What you will do is dip the dough balls in the butter and let any excess drip off.  Roll the dough in the sugar mixture and align them in the pan.  Just keep stacking until they are ready to go.  Since we did all of this on Friday night and we were cooking on Saturday morning I covered the pan with plastic and put in the fridge until the morning. 

In the morning I got up and started the oven.  I made a quick powder sugar frosting (which you can find here) and got the monkey bread out of the fridge.  As soon as the oven was all heated in they go!  

The smell of all of that cinnamon and sugar and baking dough fills the air.  It's really heavenly!  It came out looking fantastic.  And I was so ready to eat.  But I knew... I need to wait.  To see the final product you've got to read more!

A BLIZZARD IS COMING!!!

And I make Popsicles (or better known as flavored ice on a stick because Popsicle is apparently a brand)!

This was my second attempt at making them with my Zoku and they really are super easy.  This one is Mango juice with a pretty star fruit on either side.  What the star fruit lacks in flavor it makes up with interest because this would be a pretty boring frozen treat without it!  I just used some store bought mango juice (pretty sure we picked it up at Whole Food's but I've also seen it at Target... Bolthouse Farms Amazing Mango) and a pretty star fruit, that was also purchased at WF's.  All I had to do was slice the star fruit, get out my super frozen Zoku and stick the sliced fruit to the sides.  Then you shake up the mango juice and pour it in.  It's seriously that easy.  In minutes it's frozen and ready to eat!

My first attempt at making pop's was when Mom was in town.  We made Raspberry Lime-aid and they were delish!  Super tart... which I'm down with and so pretty!  If you have a Zoku... here's the recipe.

The Zoku makes frozen treats in minutes... it's fantastic!  But maybe not the best thing to be making in the dead of winter... with what is being called the blizzard of a lifetime in our near future.

XOXO

I FOUND MY APPETITE

Well, my mother helped me find my appetite.  I'm not sure how it came up but during her last day here in Chicago cinnamon rolls were put on the menu and hello sweet tooth! They have all been devoured and I must admit that I was the one that ate them all!  (That is not usually the case in this house.)

We made the dough the night before and let it all settle in and absorb all the flavors overnight (covered in the refrigerator).  Here they are... the smell of the dough and cinnamon just filled the condo with the most delicious smells!

Here they are post-bake and smelling up the house even more on Saturday morning.

While they were baking we made the frosting... which I must have with my rolls (Mr. D prefers his frosting-less... huh?)!  It's a little butter, a lot of powder sugar and a splash of milk and vanilla.  So easy and so sugary.  And this is what you end up with.

This was something that I'd never made before and am really surprised how easy it was.  I'm glad to know how simple it was because those will be on the menu more often now.  Mr. D mentioned monkey bread so that might be the next sweet treat to tackle. This looks like a great monkey bread recipe to start from.

Leave it up to your mama to help you get your appetite back!

XOXO

**Recipe Update -- Read more!**

CULINARY ADVENTURES

This December I'd like to make a few things that I've never attempted before.

For my birthday my mother bought me a pasta maker... because of all of the craziness of life associated with our move it's really just sitting there.  This weekend I will be brining it up in hopes of making some delicious fresh pastas.  I'd like to make some sort of pesto filled tortellini but should probably start with something a bit more simple like spaghetti and meatballs!

Photo from Our Best Bites Blog - Single Serving Pie In a Jar

I'd also like to make a pie... crust and all.  I planned on doing that for our first Thanksgiving here in Chicago (the plan was to go eat some good BBQ and then devour a pie at home). We instead decided to surprise the family with a visit to KC.  But pies are totally a winter food and can be enjoyed at any time, holiday or no holiday, in my opinion!  Last year I found these cute mini pies which are presented in those small Kerr canning jars... maybe I will work on making those too!  

More desserts are on the list.  Mr. D asked for some sort of Heath Bar ice cream... which sounds delish!  (The ice cream maker was also birthday gift, from my in-laws, and has gotten much use!)  And I'd like to make some festive holiday cookies that I spied in Martha's Everyday FOOD magazine.

Oh! And also some chicken wings... which I've made before but not for awhile!  An assortment of flavors of course.

This list could go on and on for sure!  Stay tuned for an update... will it be a catastrophic failure or a joyous success?

XOXO