teacher by day - chef by night
I won 3rd place!! I have always said that I am a chef and not a baker AND decorating has been my weakest area. BUT over the past year or so of this blog I’ve obviously gotten better at my decorating and have been inspired …
If you are looking for a quick, fast, easy, tasty, and ‘healthy’ breakfast muffin – than you’ve come to the right place! Now, these are not “the healthiest ever” because they still do have white flour and sugars but they do have peanut butter and …
One of my Best Friends (Miss J.W.) loves Nutella. For the past three (I think) years I have given her Nutella for her birthday (and possibly even some as Christmas gifts in there too). I think she has come to expect it (when she opened her present this year she said “yes, I almost bought some at the store the other day”).
For her birthday recently I knew I wanted to make Nutella something! I was running out of time as it got closer and couldn’t go all-out like I really wanted to. BUT, I knew that I still wanted to make her something special (in addition to the brunch I was making to celebrate the awesome person that she is, her requests of a veggie frittata & bagels with lox – a friend with the same taste in food as you, is the best kind of friend) to celebrate her day. (P.S after brunch we headed to an awesome tasting & tour of Franklin Hills Vineyards – check it out)
So I asked myself – what goes best with Nutella (besides more Nutella)? I decided that Double Nutella might be too much, but that BANANAS are the perfect match for Nutella!! AND since I was short on time, I even cheated and used a doctored up box mix to make her cake and cupcakes.
The cake wasn’t too fancy looking and the cupcakes were just classic simple decorated cupcakes, perfect for a simple birthday celebration… Happy Birthday Jess & we can celebrate any day!
Make cake mix according to package directions. Once your liquid is mixed in, add your mashed bananas and continue to mix until smooth(2 minutes) Mix in your chocolate chips (if using). I made one 9×9 cake and 10 cupcakes – but feel free to make whatever you want. With the cupcakes – feel free to add a Hershey Kiss into the batter before frosting and then just follow baking instructions on your box. Let cool & then frost
In the bowl of a large mixer, whip butter and nutella until creamy. Gradually add in icing sugar until desired consistency is reached. Add cream if needed. Frost cake/cupcakes & ENJOY (I needed to make slightly more in order to frost everything, so feel free to double the recipe)
And I leave you with this, Today’s Question of the Day… What is your favorite flavor to go with Nutella (or are you one of those Nutella haters)!?
We went to Easton’s Garlic Festival last weekend & enjoyed many tastings of local goodies. We enjoyed taking part of a tasting in which we enjoyed 8 different raw garlics (chopped up) in order to vote for our favorite (we both really like “Music” – a garlic …
We all have lots of things going on and life is busy, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t time to sit down for dinner. According to research, less than 10% of families eat together more than 2 times a week – that blows my …
I might have mentioned before that we had a lot of habeneros (and by “a lot” I mean we only planted 2 plants but even 1 of these plants would have given me ten times more than I needed, so with 2 plants you can only image the amount of hot peppers that are going to waste). After making my Red Pepper Flakes I figured how hard could hot sauce be…
There are TONS of different recipes for hot sauce out there (ok, maybe not tons – but at least tons of variations). I decided after careful review that I was going to base my sauce after one that I found on Chow & make it a lightly cooked hot-sauce (I know that cooking lessons the heat a bit and figured it might be more edible that way).
Now here is some interesting information as well as a story for you…
Remember when I made Red Pepper Flakes & I mentioned that the house felt a little spicy? Well, compared to this process the drying of the flakes smelled like roses and chocolate!!
After about 2 minutes of the peppers being in the boiling water I started to sneeze and didn’t really think anything of it. Then after maybe 5 minutes or so I could not stop sneezing and my nose and eyes were watering and burning. Rich asked me what was wrong and I said it must ‘just be a little spicy from the peppers’. A few minutes later and the coughing can’t stop. Rich comes out of his office and is immediately overtaken with fumes and tells me in a very assertive voice to “get outside and bring the dogs with me because their noses are even more sensitive”. Finally after feeling like I had created war-grade pepper spray that was filling the house, the boil time was over. I brought it outside to set for a while and once the house was clear (a few hours later) I finished the process.
This whole experience just might have scared me off from ever making my own hot sauce again. I even asked a local hot-sauce company their advice on the heat, they said “open windows” and “face masks” and “yeah, you kinda just have to deal with it”.
SO – if after all of this you still decide that the store-bought sauce isn’t good enough and you have the urge to make your own hot sauce, I have some suggestions. They are: use milder peppers, use a no-cook method, be sure to have lots of windows open with fans, or have a face mask ready to protect yourself from this (and let me know if you come up with a better method).
adapted from Chow.com & makes about 16 ounces
Take the stems off your hot peppers. Throw them with the carrots and garlic in a small pot & cover with water. Boil for about 15 minutes. Let set/cool. Drain off the liquid then place the peppers with the liquid & salt into a food processor. Process until smooth. Transfer to a container (I used an old Frank’s Hot Sauce container) & let set for a few days before using.
IMPORTANT WARNINGS: Wear gloves when cutting raw peppers, avoid touching your face/eyes during any step of this process, wash your hands well & often
Oh yeah, here are some other great sites I found online for Habanero Recipes (even if I didn’t use most of them): Habanero Recipes Blog, Habanero Madness, Chocolate Habanero Muffins which were tasty, & a recipe for Chocolate Habanero Ice Cream that I never made
And I leave you with this, Today’s Question of the Day… what food have you always wanted to try making but upon making it realized it wasn’t worth the process?