Mogwai Soup

Chef War - Battle Pork Ribs

2011-02-01T11:07:00.000-08:00

Last week was the first of hopefully many Chef War battles, battle pork ribs. The concept is inspired by the Iron Chef that all of us have seen on the Foodnetwork. Mastermind behind Utah's Chef War is Chef Jonas Otsuji. I have taken several classes that Jonas held at Gygi and all I can say is that sushi will never be the same after that. Before, I could actually go to my local grocery store, and if in a mood for sushi, buy one of those packages of California rolls or whatever they offer. Not anymore. I just figure, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right. No more prepackaged sushi for me! Thank you, Jonas!

I wasn't sure what to expect from volunteering on this event, I was a bit nervous. Because of that, I cut my finger within the first minute I grabbed a knife. I felt like a total idiot! But everyone was really nice and soon I was in my grove. I just get lost in this world of food. It is what I think I'm good at. I love learning about it, and I love preparing it so people can enjoy it. I feel like it's that one place where I really belong.

Chef Giovanni Bouderbala and Chef Raul Mendez, both local chefs to Salt Lake City, were the first two chefs to battle each other. The dishes that came out were amazing. Watching them create them on the spot was even more amazing, and all this was spiced up with fun leading from Jonas. A very relaxed and fun environment, and I was a part of it! I hope there will be another battle organized soon, and until then, I leave you with some pictures...

Chef Wars-Battle Pork Ribs

2011-01-23T20:14:00.000-08:00

Guess where I'm going to be this Tuesday? :o)

Date : 25 January 2011
From : 6:30pm To : 8:00pm
Where: Orson H. Gygi Company

HOW IT WORKS:
Two professional local chefs are chosen to compete in making 3 dishes from a single theme ingredient.
The audience tastes the dishes and votes for their favorite chef. A panel of five culinary guests will also taste and vote on the dishes. The total scores are added up and the winner is announced.

Our goal is to provide a unique and memorable food experience while helping local restaurants and chefs improve their business.

To view more details visit chefwar

Atichoke and Parmesan Filled Wonton Cups

2011-01-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I volunteered at Gygi again. This time the teacher was Kim Warren, and many yummy foods were cooked! Roasted asparagus, Hollandaise sauce, Italian style chicken Cordon Bleu, Filet Mignon...but my favorite was the simple but genius appetizer, warm artichoke and parmesan filled Wonton cups.
Kim is a really cool and relaxed person so it was fun to work with her. For me a huge plus was that I basically got to make this. She was around the whole time, available for questions, but I love that she had faith in us to really do stuff. At one point I thought I over-salted them, but she was so cool and calm about it, it helped me not to freak out. I thought I just messed up the whole appetizer for a huge and important group of people! But, in the end they turned out perfect. I tend to overreact. I am not overreacting though, when I say these are awesome!

Artichoke and Parmesan Filled Wonton Cups
by Kim Warren

1 package fresh square Wonton Wraps
1 14 oz can Artichoke Hearts (not marinated), and quartered
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese, plus more for topping
1 cup Mayonnaise
1 cup Sour Cream
1 small Shallot, finely minced
1 Garlic cloves, finely minced or pressed
1/4 t. Tabasco sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Place one wonton skin in each cup of 2 mini muffin pans and gently press to form a cup. Bake 5-7 minutes until just starting to turn pale golden color. Remove from oven and alow to cool a bit.

In a food processor with steel blade attached combine artichoke hearts, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, shallot, garlic and Tabasco sauce.

Process on pulse setting until combined but small chunks of artichoke remain.

Spoon about 1 T. artichoke mixture into each wonton cup then top with more freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Return to the oven and bake until cups turn nicely golden brown and warmed through.
Carefully remove to serving platter and serve warm at room temperature.

Bento Boxes

2011-01-10T16:42:00.000-08:00

I found a new thing to be obsessed with! Bento! These adorable little boxes for lunches are everything I love in one. Boxes. I love boxes, any size, made out of anything! LOVE! I also love food, believe it or not :D! And, I love, love, love playing with it. I love pretty things, I love cutting out shapes and making something out of almost nothing. This was made for me, people!

But you know what was hard? Deciding on THE box. So after almost two months of not being able to decide...while researching things about bento, I found it. IT! Exhibit A:

For so many reasons this was THE box. First, it looks awesome, retro and modern at the same time. Second, it is big enough and so functional. Third, its cheap. Fourth, (and most important one for me) it reminded me of a cartoon I grew up with (Baltazar) and a can of sardines made into a bed and a big flower above it pretending to be a lamp. Not following me? Never mind. It is THE box, and that is all that matters.
So I got it...and then I realized, I can't eat soups with it. It doesn't make it any less perfect in my eyes, but it did give me a reason to get another one. Exhibit B:

This gorgeous box had to be ordered from Japan. But how could I resist? :)
Here is another shot of it:

So much cuteness! And again, funcionality! The first meals out of these beauties were unfortunately not recorded. Something with happines in my brain and my son seeing TOYS! ME EAT TOYS! I barely saved my soy sauce frogger!

Did you notice the little stand on the bunny bottle? And the little funnel for easier filling of them? Perfection! Want more perfection? Look at these food pics and cutters:

I am sorry, I have to show you something else. Onigiri rice molds and egg molds, bunny and bear. My son loves it as much as I do!

So now I am a proud owner of these boxes and I can't wait to start creating little edible art lunches! My husband wants them too. The lunches. Not the boxes. When asked which box does he want for himself, he categorically refused a real bento box and decided on a $3 default grocery store plastic one. Whatever floats his boat. :D

Picture of my collection, with DH's respective box on the bottom. :D

Homemade Ravioli

2011-01-03T16:34:00.000-08:00

Today I was shopping around for some things and I saw a very cool looking ravioli making machine. I had to work very hard on leaving the store without it, but in all truth, I just couldn't justify buying it since my kitchen is already overflowing with a ton of stuff I have, and I make fresh ravioli at least . . . uhm . . . never?!

So I said to myself, let's try making them without the machine first, see how hard it is, and then go from there. And I did. I went and found a recipe from the Food Network website and I had a perfectly nice dinner made in no time!

Ravioli dough:

450g all purpose flour
4 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup of olive oil
salt
about 2 T. of water

Make a little well out of the flour and add eggs to it, along with oil, water and salt. Using a fork, mix together the egg, water and oil, and slowly start incorporating the flour from the sides to the wet mix. When enough of flour is added to the wet mass (so if you mixed it with hands it wouldn't leak)start kneading it. This will take about ten minutes or until you end up with a very smooth dough.
While you are waiting for the dough to rest, make the filling.

Ravioli filling:

little oil
Ground pork or Italian sausage
1 medium onion
fresh spinach
2 T. freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 t. salt
a dash of ground pepper
1 to 2 t. of brown sugar

Cook spinach in a pot with boiling water. When the spinach is cooked, squeeze the excess water and chop it. In a pan, cook the pork with little salt and pepper. When it's cooked take it out of the pan and set aside. In the same pan, sauté onions that have been cut into little strips. You can add more oil if needed. Add a little bit of brown sugar too, it will help the onions get nicely caramelized. When they are done, mix them in with the pork. Add parmesan and mix again. Cover the filling while you are making ravioli.

Making the ravioli:

Take half of the dough and start rolling it. You need to get it very thin! :)
When that is done, take a knife or a pizza cuter and cut the sides of the dough so it makes a rectangle. You want it do be wide and double the height of the desired ravioli size.

The point is to spoon a T. of filling on the lower side of the rectangle, through the whole length every inch and a half or so. Once that is done, take a brush (or use your fingers) and sparingly brush it around the filling. This is our 'glue', what will hold the ravioli together so it doesn’t fall apart. Take the tops of the rectangle and cover the bottom of it. Use your fingers to seal the dough around the ravioli making sure to get rid of all the air pockets. This would also cause the ravioli to open when cooking. Cut out the ravioli with a cookie cutter, glass or pizza cutter, depending the shape you prefer best. Put them on a floured surface and cover with a dish rag.

Repeat with the other half of the dough.

When you are ready to cook them, boil the water and add salt and oil to it. Fresh pasta needs less cooking time, just three to four minutes.
While they are cooking, make the sauce. I decided on a very mild sauce because I wanted the star to be the ravioli itself - with their filling. I just melted some butter in a pan, added a little bit of chopped fresh tarragon and some parmesan cheese. I added ravioli to it, and when I served them I garnished them with a bit of chopped pistachios.

All this probably sounds a bit complicated, but it is not! I just make it look like that with my awful writing! :) It is fun and easy to make them and it's really special to make it on your own. It’s totally different than bought pasta. The best part is that you can play with the filling so much. Prosciutto, basil and mozzarella, or tuna with capers . . . Have fun with it . . .

Conclusion to the ravioli making machine is that it is certainly not needed, but it would make the whole thing even easier. I will see if I will get the urge to make the ravioli often, so I wouldn't feel guilty about buying the machine!

Thai Cuisine with Meiling Dawson

2010-12-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

I said a few days ago that I was going to post about Thai class I took at Gygi. This class was really awesome. Everything we made that night was delicious, and it was a real pleasure to be taught by Meiling Dawson. Some of the dishes we made were Pad Thai, Panang curry over salmon and Thai beef salad. And no matter how much I love Pad Thai, my absolute favorite was spicy chicken with Thai basil. I made it many times since and everyone just loves it!
Here are some pictures of the class and on the bottom the recipe for the spicy chicken.

Chicken skewers ready to go in the oven.

>

Peanut sauce. All ready for the skewers!

Seared salmon fillets

The tastiest Panang Curry sauce for the salmon.

The Thai beef salad station.

Delicious salad dressing made with Thai chilies and no oil!

Salad ready to be served.

Pad Thai station

First we seared the shrimp

Adding the sauce to the noodles

Adding the egg

As I already said, all of the dishes were so yummy. The panang curry diserves a post on its own (and will be getting it in the future). But here is a recipe for my favorite Thai dish, and it wasn't easy to get there considering how much I love Pad Thai!

Spicy Basil Chicken
by Meiling Dawson

3 chicken breasts, cut into 2" long strips
3T. cooking wine
3T. soy sauce
2T. cornstarch

Marinate the chicken with all the ingridients above and set aside for 20 minutes. Drain the marinade sauce and add 2T. oil to meat mixture just before cooking, to prevent it sticking together during cooking.

Sauce:

3T. oyster sauce
2T. sugar
3T. fish sauce
1/2t. black pepper

To make the sauce, mix all the above ingredients in a bowl together and set aside.

4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Thai chilies, chopped
1 small yellow onion, sliced
1C. fresh Thai basil
2T. canola oil

Heat the wok and add 2T. oil to the pan. Be sure the oil is hot enough and then carefully add the marinated chicken to the hot oil. Cook until the meat is brown on both sides. Remove the cooked chicken on the plate.

Heat the wok again and add 2 T. of oil to it, then add the onions and garlic to the oil. Stir-fry for 3 minutes on medium high heat. Add the Thai chili pepper to the wok and mix all together.

Add the cooked chicken and fresh basil to the wok, and then pour the sauce over the top. Quickly mix them all together. Then place in a serving dish. Serve with warm rice.

Edible Christmas Gifts

2010-12-02T08:53:00.000-08:00

So guess what? I suck. I'm still not really back, but I am still really trying. I've been busy, aren't we all...? But! I found a place here in SLC where you can go for cooking and baking classes. It is Gygi and it is really awesome. It is a locally family owned and operated restaurant wholesale and kitchen supply store. Also, they offer fun classes like Thai Cuisine, Specialty Sushi, Christmas Eve Dinner all the way through six week cooking series: The Fine Art of Cooking. Me want.
My favorite part of all is that other than taking some of the classes, I started volunteering there. I really love doing it. I am learning how things work behind the scenes, and it makes me so happy that I like it. It is my happy place.
I will put some recipes and photos of the Thai class that I took in a few days. Today I wanted to share some Christmas gift ideas with you that I learned at Gygi. They are all so incredibly simple and affordable.

er>

Chocolate covered popcorn! Pretzel sticks dipped in caramel and chocolate! White chocolate peppermint bark!

And my favorite, the one I made last night for my little gifts, Chinese cookies dipped in Chocolate.

There really is no recipe. Just get some good chocolate, melt it in a microwave with a 30 seconds method (heat 30 seconds at a time and mix well in between until all the chocolate is melted). Get pretzels, popcorn, or whatever else you would like to dip and have fun with it.

I got a big bag of Chinese cookies with Christmas messages inside. I love it so much I will make extra ones to put on the table after Christmas Eve dinner, for all of us to open. I never ever compromised on my traditional Christmas Eve menu. But this is just simple and fun enough to include this year!

Paella Class With Debra Buzar

2010-10-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

I'm back? Well I am trying. But it's hard, and more time going by without me posting anything made it just harder to come back and do it.

I have not stopped cooking in this long pause I took, but life just got a little bit crazier. I went back to work and a lot of other personal stuff happened. I miss this. It made me happy and so proud when someone liked one of the recipes I posted...
So guess what. I am going to try to continue this blog adventure...I think it's been long enough of a pause now, plus, I had a very nice summer!
I fell in love! With California!

Our family took two trips to Southern California, one in July and one at the end of September. First one was with the whole family (sounds scary but it was really awesome) and we stayed at a rental house in Oceanside. The second one was just my hubby and me with our son. We stayed at a tiny resort in Laguna Beach and to say it was the bestest vacation is too little! Why is this relevant to my cooking blog? Because my bestest husband in the world decided I deserved to take a cooking class at Laguna Culinary Arts Institute that I found in a local magazine. I already felt really lucky we were able to take this vacation, and even happier we really did manage to relax and have awesome time. This was like a HUMONGOUS cherry on the top. So let me tell you a little about it.
It's the best. I felt excited, pampered AND I got some amazing advices. The best thing? I think it was a turn around. The one where I admit myself that maybe I wasn't born to have a cute cupcake store, and I kept screwing up while trying to decorate them and make them look (and taste) amazing was because my true love is cooking. I LOVE and enjoy baking, but I just don't feel comfortable in it as in cooking. Cooking is where I belong and what I am good at, without even trying too hard. (Or better to say that trying hard really doesn't feel hard because it makes me happy.) Now, if I could just mount an A/C on my head during the summer months in the kitchen it would be a done deal! :)

Anyway.
The class was in a professional kitchen with a wonderful chef Debra Buzar. She was very friendly and gave as a few great basic tips that help me every day, and just for that it would all have been worth it. But that was just the beginning and in the few hours I was there we made an appetizer - tomato and watermelon skewers with cherry vineyard, main dish - classic Spanish paella, and a dessert - lemon mousse with fresh berries.

The dessert was really nice, and paella was reeeeeeeally nice. Such a great entertaining dish, I recommend everyone to try to make it.

Paella pans are easily (and cheap) available online and I would recommend them to anyone who is ready to try this and wants to entertain with this dish. I ordered mine from Amazon.

The star of the night to me was the thing I was least sure of. The tomato and watermelon skewers. I don't know why it was so hard for me to imagine this dish being yummy, since I love similar combinations, like melon with prosciutto...but it was. Until I tried one. A-mazing!! Tomato with watermelon, with that sourness and saltines of the vinaigrette and some freshly grated lemon peel....it is amazing what they do to each-other. A must try!

After we were done cooking we all sat down for a family style dinner and enjoyed all of the dishes, we even took some home for our hubby's, wifes and such. It was such a great experience and ending to my vacation, I would highly recommend it to everyone if they are ever near Laguna Beach!

A big thanks to Debra for a wonderful night, I really hope I will have an opportunity to go to more of these classes there, it makes me happy just thinking of it and something to plan on and look forward to.

Some other highlights of the summer?
Fawesome brunch at Laguna Beach, smoked salmon eggs benedict:

Tour of a Russian submarine (very cool):

Trader Joe's!

...and cappuccino just like home!

Apple pie by Dorie Geenspan (in Croatian)

2009-11-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

I finally got Dorie's book recently, and after trying out some muffins I made this apple pie following her recipe. I actually made it for my sister-in-law's birthday. She wished for a pie, not a cake. Weird :o)
Anyway, I have been very busy lately, which is more than obvious from my posting, so because this recipe was already written and published on Croatian blog roza koza, for now I will leave it in Croatian. As I get more time, I will translate it to English. I do have to admit, I kind of like the idea of putting it up in Croatian though. And did I mention that I'm traveling home for the Holiday's in a few weeks? For a month!? I can't wait to be with my friends and family and bake loads of yummy stuff!

Americka Pita od Jabuka

Ne, naslov se ne odnosi na film, već na prefinu pitu od jabuka, ikonu američkih slastica. Pita od jabuka stvarno je najtipičniji američki desert, odmah uz brownies – čokoladni kolač u obliku šnita, te muffina. Svi znamo što su muffini (ako ne znate, vratite se tu za koji tjedan pa ćete naučiti!). :D

Iz nekog razloga pita je na glasu kao kolač kojeg je teško napraviti kod kuće. Prečesto čujem da je, inače vrlo spretne kuharice, ne žele raditi ili su odustale jer im kora nije uspjela. Osobno mislim da tu zapravo nema nikakve posebne vještine i da, naoružan ovim receptom i malo strpljenja, svatko može imati savršenu pitu. Ovaj sam je put odlučila napuniti jabukama, ali recept za kore možete koristiti za bilo kakvu drugu pitu – pite od borovnica, bundeve, banane, čokolade… Mmmmljac! Kako Ameri kažu, “Sky Is The Limit!”

Kore za pitu

(Ovo je recept za pitu koja ima donju i gornju koru. Ako radite pitu koju ne namjeravate pokriti korom, prepolovite recept ili imate dovoljno kore za dvije pite, yes!)

Za mjericu u receptu koristite šalicu veličine čašice jogurta.

3 šalice brašna (oko 680 g)
1/4 šalice šećera
1 1/2 žličica soli
pola šalice ledene vode
280 grama hladnog putra narezanog na kocice
170 grama masti, ohlađene
(kombinacija putra i masti se koristi jer putar daje finiji okus, dok mast daje bolju prhkost tijestu)

Iako možete umiješati putar i mast u suhe sastojke vilicom, najbolji rezultat postići ćete ako ovo tijesto zamijesite u multipraktiku. Ukoliko ćete mijesiti tijesto vilicom, u velikoj zdjeli pomiješajte brašno, šećer i sol i dobro ih promiješajte. Dodajte ohlađenu mast i sol te ih zdrobite vilicom u brašno dok većina komadića putra i masti ne budu veličine polovice graška s ponekim većim komadom (kao veći grašak). Zatim počnite malo po malo sa žlicom dodavati ledene vode, miješajući dok se tijesto ne počne formirati. Testiraje tijesto tako da ga ‘uštipnete’ i ako se ne raspadne već zadrži oblik, spremno je.

Procedura s multipraktikom vrlo je slična. Prvo na postavci ‘pulse’ izmiksajte suhe sastojke i onda dodajte putar i mast. Nekoliko puta pulsirajte dok ne dobijete željenu veličinu komadića putra i onda počnite dodavati hladnu vodu, pulsirajući između svakog dodatka. Testirajte tijesto i, ako zadržava oblik, oblikujte ga u dva diska i zamotajte u plastičnu foliju. Stavite tijesto u hladnjak da stoji najmanje sat vremena.

Najvažnija stvar kod ovog tijesta je zapamtiti da voda, putar i mast moraju biti vrlo hladni. Ja sam u vodu stavila par kockica leda, a narezani putar i mast sam stavila u hladnjak na 15 do 20 minuta prije nego sam počela mijesiti tijesto.

Upalite pećnicu da se grije na 220 stupnjeva. Nakon što se tijesto dovoljno ohladilo, izvadite jedan “disk” iz hladnjaka i stavite na površinu posipanu brašnom. Valjajte tijesto često ga okrećući za oko 30 stupnjeva kako biste dobili tijesto u obliku kruga. Razvaljajte ga par centimetara šire od širine vašeg kalupa. Pažljivo stavite donju koru u kalup za pečenje bez da tijesto razvlačite jer bi se za vrijeme pečenja i ponovno stisnulo. Za sada ostavite rubove da vise preko kalupa.

Nadjev od jabuka

kila i pol do dvije jabuka (oko 8 velikih jabuka)
2 žlice gustina
1/4 žličice soli

2 žlice zdrobljenih čajnih keksića

1 žličica cimeta
1/4 žličice muškatnih oraščića
1 šalica šećera
sok i korica jednog limuna

Ogulite jabuke te im očistite sredinu. Narežite ih na ploške od pola centimetra i stavite u veliku zdjelu. Dodajte šećer, cimet, koricu i sok od limuna te ih dobro izmiješajte.

Izvadite preostalo tijesto iz frižidera te ponovite postupak kao i za donju koru. Posipajte dno zdrobljenim čajnim keksima (keks će popiti nešto viška soka da se donja kora previše ne razmoči), a zatim pitu napunite jabukama. Lagano poprskajte jabuke vodom, kao i rub donje kore. Poklopite pitu gornjom korom i nožem održzite višak kore. Prstima ili vilicom pritisnite rubove, a na vrhu škaricama napravite par otvora. Premažie pitu s malo mlijeka, te posipajte smeđim šećerom.

Pitu pecite na 220 stupnjeva 15 minuta, tada smanjite temperaturu u pećnici na 190 stupnjeva i pecite još sat vremena. Nakon 40 minuta lagano pokrijte pitu aluminijskom folijom da vrh ne potamni previše.

Kada je pita gotova ostavite je da se ohladi na sobnoj temperaturi. Amerikanci najčešće pitu od jabuka posluže sa sladoledom od vanilije i preljevom od karamele. Njam njam!

"Roza Koza"

2009-10-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

Roza Koza means Pink Goat In Croatian. It is a new Croatian blog web site that I will be contributing to once a week. Many talented 'goats' :o) will be writing on it about anything and everything, and I must admit, I am very excited about it!!
I know most of you do not speak Croatian, but for a few of you who do and stop by here from time to time, please go check it out!

More Halloween Cookies!

2009-10-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

I love making these sugar cookies and I predict right now at least 5 more batches of them before the month ends! Yaaay for Halloween. Naaaay for all the candy weight that follows me with it!
This recipe here was actually a new one I tried out and I have to say I will NEVER try another sugar cookie recipe again! They are perfect, just perfect!
I got the recipe for cookies at Our Best Bites and all I have to say is: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

The Best Sugar Cookies
from Our Best Bites

1 C real butter
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t almond extract (I used vanilla bean paste)
3 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes. Add in eggs and extract and mix to incorporate.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.

Shape the dough into 2 flat disks and wrap in waxed paper and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours. If you want your cookies to hold their shape well, the dough needs to be really chilled.

When you're ready to roll out dough lightly sprinkle flour onto your work surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin. Cut out your cookies, if you like them crispier then thinner, and if you like them softer than thicker.

Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes. The baking time really depends on how you like them. If you like them really soft under-bake them. However if you're making large cookies, or ones with small parts or heavy frosting, you might want to be careful because they might break when they're super soft.

About 8 minutes will get you a really soft cookie, a few minutes longer (when they start to just brown around the edges) and you'll get just a little crispiness around the edges and then a soft center, and bake even longer (and roll thinner) and you'll get a buttery, crispy cookie that will just melt in your mouth. Any way you do it, they'll taste good. Remove onto cooling racks when you're done and let cool completely.

Glacé Icing
from Our Best Bites

1lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 C)
1/4 C + 2T C whole milk (low-fat actually works, but use whole if you can)
1/4 C + 2T light Corn Syrup
1 t extract (I use almond because I use almond in my sugar cookies)

With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth (no lumps!) Then stir in corn syrup and extract. This will be your glazing icing. To prepare the icing for piping, you just add more powdered sugar.

This time I really wanted to use black, white and pink colors only, next time I am going all out again with all colors imaginable! SO FUN!!!

No Recipe Here :o)

2009-10-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

This is my summer goodbye post. Soon there will be no more delicious heirloom tomatoes at farmers market. There will be no more farmers market in a few weeks! I feel like I barely discovered it! I still have no idea why it took me so long to try it out. It is downtown Salt Lake and it is kind off a pain in the butt to find parking, but still, it is worth it.
Now, again, I come from a country where usually you go to buy your fresh produce on local markets at least once a week, but more often twice or three times a week. My family gets their fresh cottage cheese and cream there too. Uncomparable to anything that you can get in the stores. No wonder so many people cringe on the mention of cottage cheese here... And I, well, I'm still trying to get used to people eating it with pineapple or peaches or whatever fruit for that matter. Give me nice fresh bacon and onion, a few slices of fresh bread and a bowl of cottage cheese with cream and a pinch of salt. Ah...the perfect weekend brunch. :o)

You know what else is delicious with that simple Croatian brunch? Radishes. Plain old radishes. I happened to find these cute Easter ones on the market. They were, sadly, not eaten with cottage cheese. I ate them with two scrambled eggs. Another very common breakfast, lunch or dinner in Croatia. We like our scrambled eggs there! Probably because we have such good bread and tomatoes to go with it. That tomato from the first picture was also included in that meal. I personally believe (this sounds familiar :D) that the best way to eat your tomatoes is with scrambled eggs. Just cut it up and put some salt on it.

The last picture here will be of my absolutely favorite greens for salad in the world. I am trying really hard to figure out how you call it in English, in Croatian it's called matovilac. I think it's called lambs lettuce. How appropriate since my favorite type of meat is lamb.

I have not had it since I moved here. So, so sad. So what did I do with this salad wonder? I put some red vinegar and canola oil on it and some salt. How fancy huh? Wait, let me tell you with what I ate it. I baked a whole chicken in the oven with cut up potatoes. How beautifully simple, greasy and crunchy. Good times.
Anyway, the joke in this is that summer is not even the season for lams lettuce! And good news is that I will eat it like crazy when I go home for Christmas! With my moms baked chicken and potatoes. Mmmmmmm.

So we come to an end of this weird and nostalgic post, that doesn't make much sense since you can get tomatoes and radishes in any grocery store through the US all year around. But it kinda does, because those tomatoes suck. They are tasteless 95% of the time. Seriously. Even scrambled eggs can't help them much.
Bye farmers market, see you next year. You are cool even though you don't have old ladies selling freshly made cottage cheese. But what you do have is billion types of pumpkins and squashes. And they are so nice and pretty and tasty that I even forgive you for the cottage cheese! <3
(and that suspicious packaged lamb chops from Australia that is sold from beer coolers!?!?!)

Citrus-Currant Sunshine Muffins

2009-10-04T17:36:00.001-07:00

My camera is being mean to me. Well, actually that is not entirely true. My lens is being mean to me. Which is one of the reasons why I didn't post anything on here in a while. I have been cooking, just not taking many pictures because of the lens traitor.
These muffins that I made, though, were one of the things I did manage to take pictures of and they are a perfect breakfast muffin!

I got these currants on the farmers market last weekend and I was debating should I make a fruit tart or muffins, but decided on the muffins at the end and I am glad I did! This is also the first recipe I made from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home To Yours" cookbook, I FINALLY got it.

Citrus-Currant Sunshine Muffins
by Dorie Greenspan

2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup Sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 stick unsalted butter melt/cool
1 cup orange juice
2 large eggs beaten to blend
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1 cup currants
2 tsp grated orange peel

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups.
In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange is strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together orange and lemon juices, lemon extract, melted butter and eggs. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Fold in the currants. Divide evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing the muffins from the pan.

Once they were cool, I decided to top mine with some citrus lemon icing. I just took two tablespoons of lemon juice and mixed in confectioners sugar until it was the right pouring consistency, then I drizzled it over the muffins.

Croatian Stuffed Peppers

2009-09-24T23:23:00.000-07:00

Taste of home. Nostalgia.
First thing I think of when I taste this or even think of them for that matter, is my grandma. Did I ever mention to you how good my grandma smells? She is almost 80 years old, she uses Channel perfume. So cool.

I'm not sure why I cook traditional Croatian food so seldom here. Maybe because my husband likes Mexican food so much, and he would always eat a burger before a stew made from scratch. What a waste of my willingness to cook, hehe.
I was reminded of this phenomenal dish by Josipa from In Search For Inspiration blog, so thanks to her for that!
I used my own recipe for it since every household in Croatia has their own methods and recipes for it. My mom learned this from my grandma, and she learned it from her mom...

Croatian Stuffed peppers

1 lbs of ground beef
1 lbs of ground pork
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 egg
1/4 cup of rice
10 bell peppers, medium size
1 tsp of salt + 1/2 tsp for tomato juice
1/2 tsp of pepper

2 stems of parsley
large can of tomato juice
4 tbsp of flour
1/4 cup of oil + 1 tbsp to saute the onion
water

Wash and drain peppers. Remove the top from your peppers,clean the inside by removing the seeds and the stems.Wash them and drain well.

Finely chop your onion and saute it on a tablespoon of oil.

In a bowl mix your pork and beef with uncooked rice,salt,pepper and minced garlic clove. Add slightly cooled sauteed onions to it and mix. Add the egg and mix until well combined.

Turn the stove on medium heat and add oil to the large pot that you will be cooking your peppers in. Once hot add flour to it and stir for a few minutes to make a rough that will be a thickener for your tomato juice. Add the tomato juice with 2 cups of water and let it cook for a few minutes until you are ready to put your peppers in.

Fill your peppers with the meat mixture, fill your peppers to the top but make sure you don't stuff them to dense because the meat with rice will expand a little.
Put whole two stems of parsley in the pot with the tomato and add your peppers. If they are not covered with tomato sauce, add more water. Add salt.

Cook for one to one and a half hour. Serve with fresh bread or mashed potatoes. or both. There is plenty of sauce for both! :o)

I prefer this dish the next day reheated. I also doubled all of my ingredients and I've frozen half of it in packages of two for easy delicious lunch or dinner any day of the week.

Fajita Style Stuffed Mini Peppers

2009-09-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

These were not supposed to be fajita style stuffed. They were also not supposed to be mini, but they were so cute that I had to get them when I saw them, so there will be another stuffed pepper dish coming very soon after this. From another continent though, from Mexico to Croatia. Ha!

Anyway, surfing away looking for idea for stuffing these little cuties, I realized I wanted to eat Fajitas for awhile, and that these vibrant colors are totally screaming Mexican food at me. So it came to me that simple. Eliminate tortilla, and make the pepper the star. You really need to try to make these!

Fajita Style Stuffed Mini Peppers

16 mini peppers (reserve one for rice), cleaned and halfed
3/4 cup of rice
1 onion
half of chicken breast
cilantro
salt and pepper
fajita spice mix (recipe follows)
1 tsp of tomato paste
cheese

Fajita Spice Mix

1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika

Add water to the rice and bring to boil, reduce the heat and add the tomato paste, teaspoon of fajita spice mix and some salt and pepper. Finely chop cilantro, about 2 tbsp, dice one pepper and add it all to the rice.
Cut the chicken and onion in small pieces, if you have a grill pan use that, but a regular pan will do just fine. First cook the chicken and then when almost done, add the onion, season with fajita spice mix.
Prepare grated cheese and start assembling your pepper on a cookie pan lined with parchment paper. Fill the peppers with rice first but don't over-stuff them, add chicken and onion mix and top with grated cheese. This is the step by step photo:

Bake the peppers on 425 for 10 minutes or until the cheese is nicely melted and browned.
You can serve these with corn and avocado salsa and sour cream.

Corn and Avocado Salsa

1 cup of corn
1 avocado
1 large tomato
1/2 onion
cilantro
salt and pepper
1 tbsp of olive oil
juice of one lime

Cut avocado, tomato and onion in small pieces and mix in a bowl with corn, salt and pepper, chopped cilantro, olive oil and juice of one lime. That was easy! :o)

Tomorrow is Saturday and I'm going to the farmers market. It wont be much longer before the season is done so I'm hoping to stock up on some berries and hopefully nice pepper to stuff them again, Croatian style!
Tomorrow is also my dad's birthday. Sretan rodjendan tata! :-*

Potato Dumplings With Plums

2009-09-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

Those plums up there? Those plums look like ho me to me. The definitely taste like home. Huuuuge difference from the usual plum you can buy here in the grocery stores...

Since I already made enough plum jam for the next months, I decided to make my second favorite plum treat from back home. Potato dumplings with plums, or how we say it in Croatian: knedle sa šljivama.
I used to be intimidated by stuff like this, or gnocchi...now I know they are actually quite easy to make. The trick is in making sure you don't add too much flour.

I don't have an exact measured recipe, but I will write down exactly what and how I do.

Potato Dumplings With Plums

8 to 10 medium potatoes
3 eggs
flour
3 tbsp of butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup of oil
1/3 cup of bread crumbs
plums
sugar cubes
spiced rum (or rum extract in regular rum or gin)

First I boil the whole potatoes and once they are done and cooled just a bit I peel them. Then I smash the potatoes and make a little hill with a hole in the middle. In it I put eggs, butter and 1/4 tsp of salt. With your fingers start mixing it all together and slowly you start incorporating flour into it. How much flour you will need depends on how much potatoes will take, so just start with a cup or two and go from there. You just need the dough to stop being sticky, the less flour you use the better dumplings will be. Kneed the dough for good 5 minutes and then let it rest for 5. Roll it to 1/2" thickness and cut into squares about 3x3 inches.

On each square put a seeded plum with 1 sugar cube or 1 teaspoon of sugar in it. Pour 1/2 to 1 tsp of rum on the sugar and then close up the plum and pull the dough over the plum. Form a ball and roll it making sure it is sealed good.

In a large pot boil water with salt and then lower the heat to medium, like you would for cooking gnocchi. Put a few dumplings in at a time (I put 6 at a time)and boil until they swim on top or for about 10 minutes.

Traditionally in Croatia we eat these with breadcrumbs on top. It is really simple. In a pan heat up the oil and then put some breadcrumbs on it and stir for a few minutes.

When they darken just a bit they are done and this is what you pour over your cooked dumplings. Just like this:

Some people like using less and some put more on theirs, spme even roll the whole dumpling in the pan with the breadcrumbs. This is the perfect ratio and way for me. You can try out both ways and decide for yourself!

Make sure you finish them up by sprinkling some sugar on top, and also that you didn't eat for a while so you can stuff yourself in this yum-mines!

Faked Caprese Pizza

2009-09-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

I am on a heirloom tomato kick and mostly I just eat them by themselves, sometimes with just a touch of salt.
I enjoy so much going to farmer's market on Saturday mornings and trying out new kinds of them. There is so many!!! I never knew how many flavors, shapes and colors tomatoes could be! And they taste like a tomato should taste, not like those perfect red round uniform size ones from your local grocery store. Or maybe you have way better local grocery stores, I don't know! :o)

To put some tomatoes into my hubby's tummy I had to be creative and I decided on a pizza. Except, I didn't feel like making the dough for a weekend lunch, plus, I got such a beautiful loaf of artichoke and spinach bread at the farmers market. I decided to fake a pizza with it. A caprese pizza, since I also got fresh mozzarella and a bag of fresh basil.

Instead of tomato sauce under the mozzarella, I decided to make a basil butter, lately I'm not the biggest fan of tomato based pizza sauces. This was really a delicious and fresh lunch!

Faked Caprese Pizza

1/2 of loaf of your favorite bread, cut lengthwise
1 stick of butter (room temperature)
1 handful of fresh basil leaves
1/2 lbs of tomatoes (I used black cherry heirloom ones)
8oz of fresh mozzarella
1/4 tsp of salt
1/8 of freshly ground pepper

Preheat your oven on 425 degrees. Finely chop your basil (reserve 1/4 of it to top the pizza)and mix it in with the butter, or blend it together in your food processor. Spread generously over your bread pizza base. Cut mozzarella in slices and spread over the top. Cut tomatoes in half or 1/4" slices, depending what tomatoes you choose to use and spread some basil on it. Season with salt and pepper and put in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and nicely browned.

Meyer lemon Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

2009-09-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I finally managed to get my hands on some of these amazing Meyer lemons.

My brain instantly started brainstorming what I could do with them and I decided on ice cream. Why? Easy. Ice cream is my favorite sweet. Plus, I've been wanting to try and make lemon ice cream home. So there. I looked online to find a recipe that I would like, and found it on dishing up blog. I loved that it used vanilla bean in it because I am still amazed what a difference it makes to use actual bean compared to just the extract. (Can you tell I am new to all of this? But boy am I enjoying it!!)

Meyer lemon Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
recipe and instructions from dishing up

3 or 4 Meyer lemons
1 cup sugar
1 cup half-and-half
6 egg yolks
3 cups heavy or manufacturing cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped paste

Use a vegetable peeler to peel all the lemons, being very careful not to include the bitter white pith. Pull out about four or five peels and set aside.

Place the remaining peels in a non-reactive saucepan with the sugar and half-and-half, the vanilla bean, and the scraped vanilla paste. Using a whisk, stir well and set the pot over medium heat, stirring constantly. Heat the mixture to just below boiling, remove from the heat, and set aside to steep for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the peels and the vanilla bean. Finely chop the peels you set aside earlier. Squeeze the lemons into a measuring cup. You need about a half cup plus 2 tablespoons juice, straining out the pulp and seeds.

Whisk the egg yolks in a glass bowl until just mixed. Temper the eggs by pouring in a little of the hot half-and-half mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Pour the warmed yolks back into the pan with the rest of the half-and-half mixture and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the spoon, about 10 minutes.

Pour through a strainer into the bowl, then add the grated lemon zest. Let the warm mixture sit for 10 minutes, then stir in the cream and lemon juice. Add the vanilla and more lemon juice if you’d like a more lemony flavor. Chill thoroughly, then freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions for your ice cream maker.

I really enjoy this ice cream with some chocolate syrup on top, it was not bad at all with a hazelnut cookie either! :o)

Almond Butter Maple Cookies

2009-09-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

I don't make too many cookies myself. Just not a huge fan of them...even though I have a few favorites, pumpkin ones being THE COOKIE for sure! Why I liked these is because they were different, though, next time I would probably try getting some really good quality maple syrup, I felt like I just didn't get enough of that flavor in the cookie and I hoped for it rather than jut to use it as a sweetener.

Almond Butter Maple Cookies
adapted from Sweet And Natural

1/2 cup natural almond butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Preheat the oven to 350*F. In a large bowl, combine natural almond butter, maple syrup, canola oil and almond extract until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, along with chopped almonds, and stir until just combined. Let sit for five minutes. Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into balls, flatten to about 1/3 of an inch, score with a fork and place onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Makes 18 cookies.

I still have half a big jar of almond butter and I need a good recipe to use it in. Suggestions are welcome!

Ajvar, A Red Pepper Relish

2009-09-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

This is one of the things that I miss most about home. Ajvar. It is basically a relish made of red peppers as a base. From there people usually add eggplant in it, some even onions and tomatoes. I like to skip the tomato and just do lots of peppers with little of the eggplant and onion.

It is most often served with barbecued meats and cevapi. Cevapi are little grilled sausages that are served inside of pita bread. With LOTS of fresh onions. Did I ever admit just how much I love onions? Maybe this is as good as time as any for that confession. Probably the only thing that I can't do and don't like to do is eat an onion like an apple. Everything else goes. (Yes, I do know someone who eats it like an apple, but he also pops whole cloves of garlic in his mouth like there is no tomorrow, so he doesn't really count as a NORMAL someone...hehe)

So how do you do this yumminess? You have to blacken the peppers and the eggplants. It makes the flavors so much deeper and better, and it certainly helps with removing the skins from the veggies, which is also the most annoying part of making this. I myself don't mind it, but I also make only few jars at the time. I can see if I was making this from 20lbs of peppers and I had to peel them all, how that could be annoying! :o)

Luckily though, I only make it from a few pounds, and it takes no time at all.
Ready for the recipe? I will write the amounts needed for one regular size jar, and from there you can time it by however many jars you would like to make.

Ajvar
by: me, myself and I :o)

4 large red bell peppers
1 small to medium eggplant
1 large onion (I like to use the yellow ones)
1 jalapeno pepper (I don't use the seeds,but feel free to adjust this one to you preference, original ajvar is HOT!!)
1 tsp of crushed black pepper
1 and 1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
1/4 cup of white vinegar
4 cloves of garlic

Wash your peppers eggplant and dry and well. Peel the onion and cut in half. Roast on 450 in the oven or outside on the grill until you have nice black marks on your veggies. You have to blacken them good so it's easier to peel them. When you take them out of the oven or of the grill, put them in a plastic bag and let them stand like that for at least five minutes. (Onions don't have to be blackened or put into the bag).
Remove the skin from peppers and eggplant and cut them into one inch pieces. Do the same with the onion. Mince the garlic and the jalapeno.

Put all of the vegetables and salt and pepper into a pot on your stove top on medium heat, add the 1/2 cup of oil and 1/4 cup of vinegar and cook for at least two hours steering frequently. Carefully (it's HOT!!!) blend your ajvar and return it to the pot for just a few more minutes.

While your ajvar is cooking, you can prepare your jars for canning. Wash them thoroughly and then put into the oven on 170 for about half an hour. Once ajvar is ready to be canned, heat 1 tbsp of oil on the stove top. Pour ajvar into the jar and return to the oven on 350 for a few minutes so it forms a thin crust on the top, then pour oil over it, just enough to cover the top. It should make sizzling sound when it touches ajvar. Put the top on and you are done! You can keep it like this for at least three months.
Even though this is best served with meat, I love to spread it on bread and eat it with some cheese or scrambled eggs. Yumm! (And how cute of a gift would these be!?)

Orange And Crystallized Ginger Scones

2009-09-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to a local restaurant/baking supplies store and got a few things I needed. One of them was this lovely orange oil:

I am a sucker for orange sweets and as soon as I saw these oils in all the incredible flavors, I knew I would have to start my collection with orange. Which also means I will be making lots of orange flavored stuff in the near future...
I also got some crystallized ginger and thought that it would be a great combo. In what? Well, I always wanted to try making scones, so why not orange and crystallized ginger ones. I found the recipe for ginger scones online and made just a tiny bit addition to it with my orange oil. Here goes the recipe:

Orange And Crystallized Ginger Scones
from epicurious

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel (I changed this to 1/2 teaspoon)
11 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whipping cream
2/3 cup diced crystallized ginger
1 tsp of orange oil (it is stronger than extract)

Preheat oven to 400°F Lightly butter baking sheet. Blend flour, sugar, baking powder and lemon peel in processor. Add butter and cut in using on/off turns until mixture resembles coarse meal. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Make well in center; add 3/4 cup cream. Using fork, stir until just moist. Mix in ginger. Transfer dough to floured surface and gently knead until smooth, about 8 turns. Divide dough in half; pat each portion into 3/4-inch-thick round. Cut each round into 6 wedges and transfer to prepared baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Brush tops with remaining 2 tablespoons cream. Sprinkle with some sugar.

Bake scones until light brown, about 18 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool completely. Store in airtight container at room temperature. Rewarm in 350°F oven before serving.)

I ate mine with lingonberry preserves, right after I gobbled up a few plain ones just out of the oven.

My "I don't like anything sweet except cheesecake" husband ate nine of these in matter of minutes. Then he ate some more later, so I think that speaks enough about how great these turned out. I can't wait to make them again, right after I make some huge orange and blueberry muffins! :o)

The Simple Life

2009-09-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

Heirloom tomatoes. When I finally saw these at the local health food market (which are all on the other side of the town from me, by the way)I wanted to jump from joy. Finally Heirloom. Tomatoes. The one and only. I must have read a billion recipes with them this summer, always just sighing, knowing there is no chance I would find it soon...but I did find them! Not soon, but victory nonetheless. And they are gorgeous. Am I really weird? I think they are one of the most beautiful things out there. Actually, I think they are so beautiful that I made another trip all the way back to the whole foods just to get some more. I got THE heirloom tomato. It is so pretty that I still didn't eat it, and pictures of it and some other pretty stuff will get a post of their own soon. But back to my three little tomato things.

You know that feeling when you get a new perfume and you want to go somewhere special the first time you put it on?
That is how I felt when I got these. I had to think of something really special to do with them, because I would try them for the very first time. I thought about it for three (3) days!!! All the possibilities!!!
But you know what? All I really wanted to do is cut them up and put tiny bit of salt on them, and eat them with 2 perfectly plain scrambled eggs.

Boring and unimaginative? No. Just one of many joys of simple life! The other two guys were eaten like an apple. Oh man! But right now, right now I will remove myself from internet and go make me scrambled eggs. Looking at these pictures made me crave them again! :o)

Halloween Orange Cookies With Rum Frosting

2009-09-02T01:39:00.000-07:00

Huh? Is this a huge spelling error, or did I just write that title?
Not that I only wrote it, I also made Halloween cookies in August. Why, oh why!? Because I too hate those people that put Christmas decoration even before the Thanksgiving turkey is eaten, and buy Valentine's cards day after Christmas... But, special occasions demand special measures. Like throwing a Halloween summer party and making sugar cookies in boo! shapes. Look!

So why? Well, you see, in Croatia we don't celebrate Halloween, and I had these friends visiting in the past weeks who really love Halloween stuff and never had a chance to experience it. So after my friend visited me for the second time here in the US, and missed Halloween just by little on both times, we decided we do not want to wait for the third visit. So we went all out, had guests in cool outfits and lots of Halloween goodies, including my mother-in-laws home made pumpkin cookies. The best!!!

We found this recipe on sweet cakes blog. The only change from original recipe I made is to use orange extract instead of vanilla for the cookie, and I added some rum extract to the frosting. It was so yummy! Other than that, recipe and instructions are copied from the sweet cakes blog.

Halloween Orange Cookies With Rum frosting

makes about 30 cookies

3/4 cups butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon orange extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Rum Frosting

2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup butter
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon rum extract
food coloring

In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and butter until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

We had so much fun decorating them, everyone joined in and even though we are all almost or over 30, it was like a kindergarten around here. Good times.
Now I am even more excited about October and real Halloween. I want this Fall to start already!

Swedish Meatballs

2009-08-28T17:09:00.000-07:00

I love Alton Brown - and as much as I enjoy watching him, I love to try out his recipes.
Alton reminds me of my brother very much. A little bit of charming, A little bit of geeky, combined with lots of humor - makes the perfect recipe....uhmm, what are we cooking here?
Oh yeah, meatballs!

See, I've been known to go on a diet every now and then, and in such times of sadness, buy a Lean Cuisine or two...for times when I really don't feel like cooking anything healthy from scratch. One out of two kinds that I get is the Swedish meatballs. Other is tortilla crusted fish if anyone wanted to know that. :o)
Wrap it and call it whatever way you want to though, it's still a frozen meal and I am not really into IKEA ones that they offer in their restaurants. I knew they could get better than that, so I went to see what Alton Brown had to say about that.

Swedish Meatballs
for recipe go to: Alton Brown

I decided to let my Kitchen Aid do the dirty work here, it made this whole process so much easier (and cleaner). I just had to scoop out the meat and shape it into little balls. I used my mini ice-cream scoop for this.

Like the instructions say, I put all of the done meatballs into the oven on 200, while I did my second batch. Well all accept one, that one jumped into my mouth by mistake, but she was so tender and delicious that I decided to just let it go and not get upset. :o)

Now I had a bunch of meatballs that were very inpatient to start swimming in something delicious, so I had to work quick. I was pretty happy with the sauce after just two cans of broth, so I kept it at that. If you want to use all three that the recipe calls for, just go ahead, I am certain it will be just as delish.

Before I started making theese meatballs, I couldn't quite make up my mind what to serve them with, I am glad I went with these egg noodles. I even LOVED them with lingonberry preserves (back home we don't usually mix sweet and savory). I want to make that on my own next time...but I never saw lingonberry here in Utah. I still remember picking them and eating them straight from the bushes at my great grandmas house in Croatia...those were the times!!!

All in all, I like these more than classic American meatballs. I am just not the biggest fan of tomato sauces, so this works better for me.

Chocolate Tart

2009-08-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy three weeks here. My friends from Croatia are gone and I'm so lonely now. I keep telling myself that now I will have time for the blog again, which is really cool because I love this blog. But I have to admit. It was so much more fun cooking for my friends than just for myself and hubby. See, my husband is not into sweets. At all. Unless it is a cheesecake, and one can't make cheesecakes all the time. Which takes me to that miss-fortunate tempt a few days ago to make a raspberry swirl cheesecake. I thought I would make a perfect cheesecake even better by adding water in the oven underneath it...I will do this cheesecake again, soon. No water though. Lesson learn, a perfect recipe is perfect because you can't do anything else to make it even better, so DON'T try!

And speaking of perfect, I did make a perfect vanilla ice-cream (recipe and pictures in the previous post) and was in a mood for making something really luscious to go underneath it. A chocolate tart. Yes.

I never used to love chocolate like I do now. I would listen to other people craving for it and didn't understand it. I would always take something caramel over chocolate. Or white chocolate over regular one. Boy has that one changed in the past few years. When I get one of those 'I need something chocolate' moments...well, let's just say that if you are not chocolate, get away from me.
I've been wanting to try this recipe out for a while. It is a recipe from Master Chef Australia. Please go here for a whole recipe and instructions.

I was worried about this dough. It was really moist and I had no idea how it would roll out, I am no pro and still kind of new to all of this, but I am happy to say that as long as you put enough flour underneath and on top of the dough while rolling, it will come out just fine.

See?
Next came the filling:

I was getting pretty excited at this point. It just needed to cool down a bit for the glaze.

I am more than proud of this beauty! It looked so pretty and you could see your reflection in it just like in a mirror. Well almost like a mirror! :o)

For me the best part of this tart is how wonderfully creamy the texture the chocolate filling is. I've had some mean chocolate cakes...but this one has a special texture, it's made from dark chocolate and because od that it isn't too sweet. That is why it is going into my recipe book. Zaher cake is the queen of chocolate cakes, but everyone needs a little variety sometimes.
And just look at this picture, you can SEE the creaminess!

(twd) Vanilla Ice Cream

2009-08-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah! This was the fifth time in the past two months that I made an ice cream or gelato, and it was the simplest and tastiest. I think I'm rediscovering the beauty of minimalism all over again!
It is also the second Tuesdays with Dorie recipe I made. I will try to make one every week, we will see how that will go...
This recipe was chosen by Lynne from Cafe Lynnlu. Please go there for complete recipe and instructions!

This was the first time I used a vanilla bean instead of an extract. I am just amazed what a difference it makes. I was little worried once I took the bean in my hands and it was time to cut it, but I followed the simple technique to plump it and it was so easy. Now if I only had my vanilla bean tree! :o)
I also have to say that once the ice cream was churned, it almost broke my heart when I had to stop eating it directly from the ice cream maker and put it in freezer...it was THAT good. I wish I could store ice cream like camels can store water! (hmm...maybe that's what's going on with my behind, LOL)

Can I tell you I also made a fawesome chocolate tart the same day? Can I tell you I had this amazing fudge sauce left over from the tart's glaze? Do you know where that sauce went? Well, you know where. I don't need to tell you...

Hint, hint. :o)

Plum Jam

2009-08-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

The ONLY thing that would make this jam better are Croatian plums, but these here that I got will do just fine. I made this jam last August also, just two jars though, and we ran out of it way too soon. This time I made six huge jars. We will have plum EVERYTHING in the next months, starting with breakfast today, jam and toast. Ah, the simple life.. :o)

Recipe could not be more simpler. Here it goes:

Plum Jam
by: me :)

10 lbs of plums
2 lbs of sugar
juice of a lemon
tbsp of vanilla
tbsp of spiced rum (gives such a great hint of flavor to the jam)

Half the plums and pit them. Cut in smaller pieces. In a big pot start assembling a layer of plums then a layer of sugar. When you are done, go relax. Yeah, just put the lid on it and let it do its thing for couple of hours. Make your self a cup of coffee and go and daydream about all those great crapes you will eat with this jam. Whatever, scrape that one. Just daydream how you will soon be eating this jarred miracle with a spoon!
After couple of hours start cooking the jam. Medium heat, until it's the consistency you like. I like mine to have chunks in it so I don't let it fall apart completely. Ten minutes before it's done, add vanilla and spiced rum in. That simple!
While the jam is cooking, prepare your lids and jars. Wash them thoroughly and then put them in the oven on the lowest setting to dry out like that. Handle them carefully once they are done. Hot, hot, hot!
These make such an awesome gift for friends, I need to get some cute smaller jars and make another batch of this. Can't wait to decorate little labels and put pretty little bows on them. They will sure put smiles on some faces!

Vanilla Cupcakes With Lime Curd And Lime Meringue

2009-08-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

Two of my friends have been visiting for the past ten days and one of them is really big on lemons and limes. Since I will take any chance I have to cook, we found this fawesome recipes for lime cupcakes. Well, for lime curd and meringue to be exact, cupcake was also vanilla but I didn't use the recipe from the blog where I found the curd and meringue one. I love discovering new blogs in this food virtual world, it is one of my favorite things about cooking and blogging! These cupcakes I found at Whisk Kid. Go and check it out for a recipe. Awesome photos too!

Enchilada Lasagna

2009-08-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

This is without a doubt my husbands all time favorite dish. I got this recipe from his sister, and made just a few tiny adjustments to it. It is a very mild Mexican dish, and pretty much fail proof. I don't make it often enough though, specially if you ask my hubby. He would like to have it at least once a week. Problem is, he eats one pan full on his own, most often in one sitting, and that is just not good for him, other people in the house or the budget! :o)

Enchilada Lasagna

Ingridients:

2 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 lbs chicken breast, chopped to bite pieces
5 cups of mexican blend cheese
1 can of cream of celery
1 can of cream of chicken
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup canned and chopped green chillies (drained)
small corn tortillas
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Brown chicken in a pan on 2 tbsp of oil. Season with salt and pepper.
In a bowl combine cream of celery, cream of chicken, sour cream and green chillies.

Prepare a bowl of water that you will dip your corn tortillas in, and the dish you will assemble the lasagna in. Put 1/2 cup of cream mix on the bottom of the baking dish and spread. Layer a row of tortillas followed with cream mix, chicken and cheese. You should be able to make 3 layers like this. Last layer doesn't need chicken, just a ton of cheese. :o)That is the best part!

Count on getting at least seconds, it really is that good!

Quick update...and thanks to J + P for reminding me!
It seems that I forgot to put instructions down for actually baking this amazing dish. Yaaay me!
I preheat the oven to 425 degrees and let it bake for about 20 minutes or until cheese is nice and melted and golden brown on top...

Thank you Andrea!

(twd) Brioche Plum Tart

2009-08-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

I am not a part (booey) of Tuesdays with Dorie yet. I don't know how to even begin, and frankly, I don't even dare right now. But they make soooo many fawesome recipes. When I saw this, I knew I would have to make it, even without my uncontrollable fear of yeast dough!
Anyway, this recipe has been chosen by Denise from Chez Us. If someone wants to try it out, go there for complete recipe and instructions!

I only wish I had plums from home. They are smaller and so much tastier, I don't know how you call them in US, but I've seen them a while ago when lady from work brought some from her tree. I used these:

As far as the dough goes, I followed the recipe word for word and I did manage to be patient and let it in the fridge overnight. The thought of wonderful warm brioche tart for breakfast gave strength! :o)

In the morning I pushed the dough in my quiche pan and then spread some jam on it and put the sliced plums on it and sugar mixed with pecans. I love pecans and had them home so I went with that instead of walnuts. I also didn't have any plum jam (which I actually made with my mom recently, but it was so good that we ate it with a spoon and it was soon gone). I used lemon-lime marmalade that we also made. Delish!

So, what did I manage to mess up this time? I did not have any aluminum foil home, so I had to take the tart out of the oven before the sugar got completely caramelized or the whole thing would be burned. We lived though, it was still very very tasty.

There is one thing that I think it would make this even better. At least for my tummy :o)...
I would add some grated orange and lemon zest to the dough. Definitely orange if just one. Maybe I would even try putting a teaspoon or two of maraschino in it. Anyway, I will make it again for sure. It's a keeper.

Croatian "Strukle"

2009-08-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

Did I make myself a treat a few days ago! Strukle (it is not spelled this way, but with a Croatian letter that makes the sound sh, which I don't have on this keyboard, you read it sh-t-ru-k-lee) are a Northern Croatian specialty. I have only eaten them made from scratch and fresh a couple of times in my life myself. That is because you can find a perfectly wonderful package of frozen ones in every store on every corner in Croatia, and it is so much easier to just throw a few of them into a boiling water than to go through the trouble of making the dough and STRETCHING it yourself!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeek.
Well, I am not afraid to do the dough myself! Being a few thousands miles from home and first store that carries something that you are craving insanely will do that to you. It was actually very easy to make it, once I was determined and had the necessary patience with stretching the dough (which you can use btw for making strudels and such, just omit the amount of salt).

Croatian Strukle

For the Dough:

9 oz all purpose flour
1 egg
2 tbsp vegetable oil
pinch of salt
luke warm water

First of all, put a large pot into the oven or if you can't boil some water(not too much) in a large pot on the stove top to make the pot hot. You will cover your dough with it once kneaded for half an hour.
You will need to add water as you go, the goal is to get the dough to pizza like consistency. Stretchy and soft, but not sticky anymore. I sift the flour on my island and with fingers make a little hole in the flour "hill". Inside I put the egg and some oil (this time I used 1tbsp of melted and cooled butter and 1 tbsp) and start incorporating flour into it, slowly add water until all the flour is mixed and the dough is not sticky anymore. You want to put some air in it so knead it until you see or hear some bubbles. Once done shape it into a ball and brush it with some oil. Cover with the hot pot for 30 minutes. While waiting, prepare the filling.

For the filling:

20 oz of cottage cheese
2 tbsp of sour cream
2 tsp salt
4 eggs

Mix all the ingredients together and strain 3/4 of the mixture. What you will now have is cottage cheese mix that you will put back with the 1/4 of the beginning mixture, that you use as a filling. The other drained part is what you will put on the top of strukle before baking them in the oven.
Now a picture tutorial of stretching the dough :o)

Roll the dough out as much as you can before you start stretching it with your hands. Make sure that your working surface and hands are well floured. Gently lift the dough with your palms, make fists and make start stretching it in circular movements. Once you think it's thin enough, specially around the middle, return it to your working surface and start stretching it out there. You should be able to get at least a 3'x4' piece of stretched dough. It is normal that it will brake at some pieces, but that shouldn't worry you, just stitch it up. When you have sort of transparent like filo looking dough, you are done.

Spread the filling evenly over the entire dough except the first and last 2 inches of it from where you are starting to roll. Once rolled you will have a big doughy snake. Cut it with a little plate, it will help seal little pockets that you are making, even though it is likely they will reopen while cooking. This is why you will cook them in steamy but not fully boiling water, so you lose as little filling as possible.
At this point you could just cook them, take them on the plate and serve with a dollop of sour cream and couple of tablespoons of heated bread crumbs with little bit of oil (yummy). Or you could go all the way and be authentic and do the next:

Arange strukle in a baking dish and pour the rest of your filling, the liquidy stuff, over the top. Put in the oven on 425 F for 20 min or until deep golden brown.

Taaaa-daaaaa. I am so proud of me. I will be so proud of anyone else who makes it! I did my very own home-made strukle. I must be going insane with this cooking thing!

Strukle are very mild in flavor, but they are truly a comfort food. If you ever had a cheese bourek or savory cheese strudel, that is the closest to what I would compare it to. Except this one is not the crispy and flaky dough. There is NOTHING wrong with crispy and flaky, hey I prefer it. But sometimes you just need strukle, warm and cheesy,soft and comforting little pockets of goodness!

Around The World, India - State of Kerala: Coconut Chicken Curry

2009-07-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

picture borowed from Best Royalty Free Images

India, State of Kerala

Kerala, one of the most idyllic states of India, lies to the extreme southwest of Indian peninsula. It is flanked by the Arabian Sea on the west and the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats on the east. The state can be divided into hills, valleys, midland plains and coastal belts. Formed in the year 1956, it has 14 districts with Thiruvananthapuram as its capital.

The economy of Keralais primarily agrarian in nature. Some of the key crops of Kerala are tea, coffee, rubber, cashew, cardamom, pepper and cinnamon.
It is famous for its rivers, backwaters and endless beaches.

State symbols of Kerala

Animal Elephant
Bird Great Indian Horn-bill
Flower Cassia Fistula (Indian laburnum)
Tree Coconut
Fruit Jack-fruit

All info from Wikipidia and Maps Of India

First of all, I have to say that this dish turned out better than ANY food I ever had in an Indian Restaurant. I really think I stumbled upon a great recipe here, and it was so fun to make it!
The first thing I think of when someone says India is - curry. Seriously. There is so many awesome thing about India, but that is the first thing in my mind when someone mentions it...so I couldn't wait to make it home. I honestly don't know why I never tried it before, now that I think of it.
I found this recipe on Indian Foods CO. I made just a few changes to it, adjusting it to what was easy to get at the local grocery store, and because of the fact that Chris really doesn't like bones, so I did it with chicken breast. i also adjusted the amount of spices to my taste. Other than that, recipe is copied and pasted entirely with directions included.

Coconut Chicken Curry

Ingredients

Chicken- 1 and 1/2 Lbs. (wash & cut into pieces)
Fresh green peas 1/4 cup
Small baby potatoes- 7 boiled and peeled
Onions- 2 (chopped)
Grated ginger- 1.5 inch piece
Garlic- 3 cloves (chopped)
Green chilies- 1
Coconut milk- 1 1/2 cups

cilantro and chopped cashew nuts for garnish

More with the onion, because they are that good! :o)

I have a lot of pictures in this post, I know. bare with me though, it makes me happy!

Spices

Cinnamon- 1 piece
Bay leaves- 2
Cloves- 2
Black peppercorns- 1 tsp.
Turmeric powder- 1 tsp.
Curry powder- 1 and 1/2 tbsp.
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp.
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp.
Ground coriander- 2 tsp.
Oil- 2 tablespoons
Salt to taste

Heat oil in a large pan and add mustard seeds. When it pops add cinnamon, bay leaves & cloves. When it turns brown add garlic and curry leaves.

After a few seconds add the onion, grind ginger and chili paste. Fry for a couple of minutes. Then add the chicken pieces and fry. Add potatoes, carrots, curry and rest of the spices and salt.

Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes.
Then pour the coconut milk and add the green peas. Cover and cook until the chicken is fully cooked.

I served this over simple Indian rice. For a recipe, go here. I didn't have ghee and it turned out great just the same.
I was so happy when I finally got to eat it, even Chris loved it. He couldn't decide what was better, chicken or potatoes... I say they were equally good and I say I am making this again next week!

A Very Passionate Mojito

2009-07-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

I almost wrote Burrito. What kind of burrito would that have to be!?!
But, I did make a very passionate cocktail. A Mojito!

I got a gift card for Ross from Chris's parents for my birthday. They have such great deals there btw! I got two very nice shirts, of which one is my new favorite item in my closet! I also got couple of outfits for Mogwai and quite a few new kitchen items. One of them was this ice glass mold pictured above. I was a little doubtful to how it was going to turn out, but its really cool. Here is a picture of the first glass I made:

They don't come out perfect like a real glass, they don't form a perfect circle all around, but I think they are just gorgeous and oh so cool!
So now I had couple of very cool glasses, what now? I only had tequila, rum and triple-sec home leftover from my birthday. I also had a passion fruit mojito mix.
So that decided it. Passion fruit mojito it is.

Chris and Andrea got the real deal. I only poured a little bit of the mix with ice in mine. I used a shot glass of rum and two shots of mojito mix for theirs. I put a slice of lime in it too. They said it was very good, I'm sure it is. I love everything made with passion fruit by default! And, I finally realized that passion fruit is maracuja. Aleluja.

I LOVED the feeling of sipping my drink from this glass. The taste of the drink combined with the cool feeling on your lips and a perfectly cool drink is just fawesome. You probably can figure the downside of it by yourself. You better drink fast, or you just might loose your drink. These glasses melt away fast in the summer. After the first drink we had to use little bowls so the ice melted in them and the drink that was now dripping through a tiny hole was not lost. No worries, all got consumed and saved!

Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Pancakes

2009-07-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

Do you want to see what I eat every single morning for breakfast? You do? OK. I'll show you. This:

There. My whole grain cocoa puffs with whole grain banana nut cheerios. With skim milk. I love it. I am a weird person when it comes to everyday breakfast. I go through phases and eat the same thing over and over again for months and months at a time. For the longest time that was maple spice oatmeal. Then it was Kellogg's Special vanilla almond cereal. Now it's this. It goes way back this OCD with my breakfast. Right now I'm in my cocoa puff banana nut phase. But, just to be clear, weekends are usually special. If we go out I will kill myself in omelets or country fried steak. And once a week on Saturday or Sunday, I like to make us breakfast home. Eggs and bacon, corn muffins or pancakes...whatever we are in the mood for. Well, I wanted to do pancakes for a while now so I went on Joy's Blog for some inspiration. She likes her pancakes, I knew I would find something there. Actually, it is impossible to go there and not find something you want to make. Like right now. This instant.
I liked her triple berries pancake recipe. It says every berry except the blueberry/ HA HA. Guess what was the only berry I had home...
So her everything but the blueberry recipe, became my blueberry and white chocolate chip one. I just changed the amounts of oil and sugar from her recipe, and changed the berries and added white chocolate in it.

Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Pancakes

1 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 stick (8 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup flour
2 tbsp baking powder
4 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

Whisk together milk, eggs and vegetable oil in a medium bowl, then whisk in the butter.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in another medium bowl. Whisk in the egg mixture until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries and white chocolate until just incorporated.

recipe and directions copied and pasted from Joy The Baker with a few modifications

For the sauce

1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup maple syrup
couple tbsp of water

Put all the ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil. As simple as that!

Oh man, this totally hit the spot! IHOP, go hide. This was our breakfast, I think we are good till dinner. :o)
Just look at that gorgeous blueberry sauce on top!

Around The World, Morocco: Chicken Spiced Kebabs

2009-07-24T23:26:00.001-07:00

picture from IPPNW-Students Morocco webpage

First lets learn a bit about the country we are going to taste this dish from:

Morocco

Officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million. Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Algeria to the east, Spain to the north, and Mauritania to the south via its Western Saharan territories.
The full Arabic name al-Mamlaka al-Maġribiyya translates to "The Western Kingdom". Al-Maġrib (meaning "The West") is commonly used.
The climate is Mediterranean, which becomes more extreme towards the interior regions where it is mountainous.
Morocco's official language is (modernized) Classical Arabic. The country's distinctive Arabic dialect is called Moroccan Arabic.

Moroccan cuisine has long been considered as one of the most diversified cuisines in the world. This is a result of the centuries-long interaction of Morocco with the outside world. The cuisine of Morocco is a mix of Berber, Spanish, Corsican, Portuguese, Moorish, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and African cuisines.
Spices are used extensively in Moroccan food. Chicken is the most widely eaten meat in Morocco. The most commonly eaten red meat in Morocco is beef; lamb is preferred, but is relatively expensive. Couscous is the most famous Moroccan dish along with pastilla, tajine, and harira. The most popular drink is green tea with mint. The tea is accompanied with hard sugar cones or lumps.

All info from Wikipidia

And now what we did:

This was our dinner several days ago and we all loved it! It is one of the easiest dishes to prepare, and it packs a big punch. Like you really worked hard to make it...I could make this at least once a week! It is also my first ethnic recipe that I will try to post at least once a week. I enjoy diverse food a lot, and I think that with time it would be really cool if we could get our Mogwai to try all the different cultures foods too!
Here is the recipe:

Moroccan Chicken Kebabs

1 1/2 lbs. chicken or turkey breast, cut into 3/4" cubes
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon crushed saffron threads (optional)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 or 2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Here is a picture of spices (don't you just love spices!?):

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients except the chicken. Add the chicken, and mix well to fully coat the meat. Cover with plastic, and leave the chicken to marinate for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

Transfer the chicken to skewers and grill or broil about 4 or 5 minutes on each side, or until the meat is done. Serve over you favorite couscous recipe.

Saha wa hana! This means something like enjoy your meal in Arabic. If I made a mistake, maybe Aunt Lisa can help out. :o)

Black Forest Cupcakes

2009-07-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

When I stumbled upon this recipe looking for cupcakes to make for my birthday party I instantly knew I'm making these. Black forest cake is very popular in Croatia. I dare to say it is even better than the US version and we call it The Schwarzwald Cake. Wouldn't know why anymore. Because of Germans. Or British. :o)
No, seriously, it's because of Germans. I'm sure. Black Forest/Schwarzwald is a forest in Baden-Württemberg District, Germany. I actually lived there for a very short time. Not in the forest, in that district. I say lived instead of visited, because when you visit a place you pack a couple of suitcases. If you are very obsessed, you pack your pet too. I packed and moved every thing I ever owned, including my computer.
Anyway, 'you' guys call it Black Forest. 'We' call it Schwarzwald. Tom'a'to - Tom'ah'to. See how I did that there? Aren't I smart? No.

I found this cupcake recipe on the cupcake project blog. There are some seriously fawesome cupcakes on it! Here is the recipe:

Black Forest Cupcakes
by cupcake project

Makes around 16 cupcakes
(I actually got 18 nice sized ones)

1 2/3 C all-purpose flour
2/3 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 C butter
1 1/2 C white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp coffee extract ( I used a tsp of instant coffee melted with tiny bit of water)
1 1/2 C buttermilk

1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs and extracts.
4. Beat in flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, until combined.
5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
6. Bake at 350 F for twenty minutes or until cupcakes bounce back when touched.

For The Cherry Filling

1 lb cherries, washed, pitted, and de-stemmed
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp cherry liquor (maraschino)
3/4 C sugar

1. Throw all the ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and let mixture simmer for 15 minutes, stirring periodically.
3. Remove from heat and let cool.

To fill the cupcakes, use a paring knife or any tool of your choice ( I used an apple core remover) to cut a hole out of the top of each cupcake and place two cherries and a few teaspoons of the juice into each hole.

Then, pour a little bit of maraschino on each cupcake. It will help if you poke some holes on cupcake so it soaks it easier.

The frosting is very simple maraschino flavored whipping cream:

2 C heavy whipping cream
1/2 t vanilla extract
3 tbsp maraschino liqueur

1. Whip the whipping cream until it looks like whipped cream.
2. Mix in the vanilla extract and liqueur.

recipe and directions copied and pasted from cupcake project

Don't forget to put the cherry on top!

I think it's quite a special cupcake and I will probably make them better next time around (I didn't have enough maraschino left so the flavor could have been better). This will be my cupcake of choice for Valentine's Day, unless I discover something more fawesome, liquored up and cute looking!
Here is how they look like when they are done:

Red Velvet Black And White Cookies

2009-07-24T17:05:00.002-07:00

Yummy! These red velvet b/w cookies are my favorite! They were seriously delicious. Thing is, once I started baking them I thought it would just not work out. BUT. Frosting just did all the difference in the world. I will make these whenever I can from now on!
Guess where I got the recipe? My current favorite girl online, of course, Joy The Baker. I guess it originally came from Rachel Ray. We wont take that against the cookies though.

Red Velvet Black And White Cookies
by Joy The Baker

makes 10 large cookies

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

5 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 Tablespoon red food coloring

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk

For Vanilla Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

1 Teaspoon light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Chocolate Glaze

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

3 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease and flour the pan well so the cookies don’t stick. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Using a mixer, 5 Tablespoons of butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, food coloring and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.

Place 1/4-cup scoops of batter 2 inches apart of the prepared baking sheet, spread the batter out with a butter knife, so they’re not completely flat but look like the pictures below. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.

To make the glazes-

In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon of corn syrup and 2 tablespoons hot water, until smooth.

In a seperate bowl, melt the butter and the chocolate in a microwave for about 1 minute. Add the corn syrup and stir until smooth.

Can this be more simple people?

Once the cookies are cooled, face them all bottom side up of a clean surface. Spread half of the cookie with vanilla glaze and the other half with chocolate glaze. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to set.

recipe and directions copied and pasted from Joy The Baker

This is THE cookie. I think it has to be refrigerated though, and let it sit outside for five minutes before you eat it. Maybe in cooler months it wouldn't have to be like that though! Right now here in Utah, everything just melts without making any excuses.

A Cake, A Cupcake And A Semi Finished Ice-Cream

2009-07-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

I'm itching all over. I am so obsessed you see, that I feel like I can't write about other stuff I would like, or cook and take photos of anything else until I am done with all the recipes from my birthday. Like right now I am eating a gorgeous turkey avocado sandwich on a Hawaiian roll with extra veggies, and I wanted to take pictures of it, it looks so pretty. But I didn't. I feel like I don't get to play with other stuff until I'm done with what I set up to do in the first place. Jeez. My poor Mikachu. I am going to be THAT parent.

For this reason, I will cramp three recipes in here now. As the title says, a cake, a cupcake, and a semi finished ice-cream. It is actually finished, I just don't have a picture of a finished product. First one up is the cake I made to be my birthday cake. Recipe is a combination of two recipes. Here we go:

Whole Orange Cake
by Joy The Baker

2 whole oranges, seedless Navel

12.8 oz melted butter

6 eggs

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. Slice the two oranges into wedges. Place wedges in the food processor with the blade attachment. Process oranges until they are pulverized into orange mush. Depending on your food processor, this can take several minutes. You may need to stop the food processor half way through to scrape down the sides.

3. Add eggs to the bowl of an electric mixer. Turn on low speed. Slowly add the sugar to the beating eggs. Once incorporated, add the cooled melted butter in a steady stream. Once incorporated, add the orange.

4. Using a large wooden spoon, fold in the dry ingredients. Stop mixing once all dry ingredients are no longer visible.

5. Pour batter into very well greased and floured cake pan. Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes. ( I used two mini cake pans )

For the frosting I really wanted to try out this recipe I found at Smitten Kitchen

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
Adapted from The Dessert Bible

Sour cream has to be at the room temperature in order for this to work!

Makes 5 cups of frosting, or enough to frost and fill a two layer 9-inch cake

15 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 teaspoons instant espresso (optional, but can be used to pick up the flavor of average chocolate)
2 1/4 cups sour cream, at room temperature
1/4 to 1/2 cup light corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

This frosting seriously means business. I now have my always go to chocolate frosting recipe! This cake in the future I wont make as a birthday cake but as a bundt. That is how it was made in original recipe and I think I will stick to that. Another thing about this cake is that you really want to eat it at room temperature, not straight from the fridge. No yummies then!
This is how the cake turned out before the candles. I think the candles really gave it that final charm though. It was so tall and quirky.

Now a quick recipe for the cupcake. I made it for Jeanie because I know how she loves her peach vine. It is quite simple actually:

Lemon Blueberry Cupcake With Peach Vine Frosting
By ME :D

basic white cake recipe
zest and juice of a lemon
1/2 cup blueberries + 1/3 cup for the top
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp of peach whine for the frosting + 2tbsp for blueberries
confectioners sugar

Prepare the cake mix following instructions on the box (or your favorite recipe) and add to it zest and juice of a lemon. Fold in the blueberries.
Bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean when inserted and then let it cool.

While the cupcakes bake make blueberries on the stove top, they are part of the frosting. Put the remaining blueberries, 2tbsp of sugar and 2 tbsp of peach vine in a sauce pan and let it come to a boil, just until the blueberries start releasing the juices and it thickens. Let cool.

For the peach vine frosting, start adding confectioners sugar to the peach vine until it reaches the desired consistency. Frost the cupcakes. Once it sets put a dollop of blueberry mix on top.

Here is how they turned out:

And the third and last recipe for today is the blueberry sour cream ice-cream. It is not my favorite, but my mother-in-law said it is delicious. I gave her the whole bowl to take home before I remembered to take some pictures of it done! :o)

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream
by Joy The Baker

1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen, if frozen, thaw and drain)

1/3 cup sugar, or more to taste

pinch of salt

grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime, or more juice to taste

3/4 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup sour cream

That is the original recipe, knowing what I know now, after making it, I would add 1/3 cup of sugar to it. I like my sweets sweat! :o)

Put the blueberries, sugar, salt, lime zest and juice in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture boils and the berries pop and soften, about 3 minutes.

Turn the berries into a bender and whirl until you have a fairly homogenous puree, about 1 minute. (It will never be completely smooth, and that’s fine!) Add the heavy cream and sour cream and pulse just to blend. Taste and, if you’d like, and a squirt more lime juice or a tiny bit more sugar.

Pour the custard into a bowl and refrigerate until it is chilled before churning it into ice cream.

Scrape the chilled custard into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

It is a real shame I forgot to snap a picture of the actual ice-cream. It had such a beautiful color. I will make this again though and with a little more sugar. i think it will then be one of my favorite ice-creams. And I will try to remember to take a picture too!

recipes and directions in all three recipes copied and pasted from Joy The Baker

Going Bananas!

2009-07-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

Let's get these recipes show on the road, ha? First up is the banana nut mini cupcakes.
I knew I wanted to make them as soon as I saw pictures of them on Joy's blog. They turned out yummy and this recipe made 12 large cupcakes and 40 mini ones. Yes, 40! I decided on a chocolate frosting for the mini ones and brown sugar cream cheese one for the large ones. The chocolate frosting is the same one that went on the orange birthday cake so I will post that recipe in that post.
Here is the recipe for the cupcakes first:

Banana Nut Cupcakes
by Joy The Baker

1 cup butter, softened

2 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups ripe bananas, mashed

(about 4 medium bananas)

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 350. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside. Mash the bananas and add the sour cream. Set aside. Cream the butter in the sugar until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating each egg for 1 minute. Scrape down the bowl after each addition. Add the flour mixture alternately with the banana mixture, until just combined. Fold in the nuts and chocolate. Bake in cupcake papers, or a well greased and floured cupcake pan for 15- 20 minutes. Check them after 15 minutes.

recipe and directions copied and pasted from Joy The Baker

Also Joy's recipe for the frosting:

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

8oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-4 tablespoons milk

4-6 cups powdered sugar

depending on desired consistency

Cream the butter and cream cheese together in an electric mixer. (Be sure that the two are at room temperature. Cold cream cheese or butter can make your frosting lumpy.) Add the brown sugar and vanilla extract, and beat for about 2 minutes. Turn off mixer and add 2 cups of powdered sugar. Turn the mixer on a low speed so the sugar doesn’t fly out of the bowl. Slowly add more sugar alternately with the milk until you reach your desired consistency.

recipe and directions copy and pasted from Joy The Baker

This is how they looked like(the one with chocolate on top):

Yellow cupcakes from the photo are cinnamon cream cheese ones with cream cheese frosting. I can't claim much on that one. I bought a box! of cinnamon streusel cake mix and instead of milk, I've put cream cheese in it.

Frosting is the regular cream cheese frosting. I am ashamed to say that the cinnamon cream cheese ones were a favorite for many of my guests! :o)

Here is another one of both cupcakes:

The Bake-off post...

2009-07-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

And finally that post on how I baked and baked and baked, until I couldn't bake no more. That is what happened. With the exception of red velvet black and white cookies (minus the icing), everything was done on Friday. It all started around 8AM and finished around 10PM. I only took brakes to feed Mika and play with him in the morning, in the afternoon Chris and Andrea were here and taking care of him. I was exhausted by the end of the day, my back was killing me. Why on earth did I even want to bake all this!? Well, so it can look pretty. I am insane. It's just that I had this vision in my head of my kitchen island being transformed into a cupcake/sweets heaven and I wanted people to be able to get a plate and pick and choose their favorites and feel like we are not all as old as we are. I got the island looking pretty close to what I had in my head! So yay for me. I ate only a couple of things from all of this and gave the rest away.
IThe thing I learned on Friday is that I love to cook and I love to bake, but I am definitely a better cook than I am a baker. I think I need a lot of practice to get the stuff I bake to look and tastes how I want it and think it should. If it doesn't taste better than what I can already buy, then there is really no point in insisting on making it. But I would love to learn. I got this phenomenal gift from Chris's parent sand sister. It is a decorating set for baking and cooking and my fingers are already itching to make something with it. I would love to be able to create cute little wonders with it and put smiles on people faces. And if it gets to be tasty enough I would gobble it all up too!
Gobble-gobble, oh man when will that fall come!

I started bright and early with my mini birthday cake...then all the cupcakes followed. I was making 4 different kinds and also finishing the cookies and making chocolate covered bananas and blueberry sour cream ice cream.

The picture from above show most of the stuff I baked before I started with frosting them and decorating.

These mini cupcakes in foreground were banana nut with chocolate frosting, and in the background were the cinnamon cream cheese ones.

Again mini banana nut cupcakes and in the background a lemon blueberry cupcake with peach vine frosting.

On this photo are the black forest cupcakes and you can see a little bit of red velvet black and white cookies. They were my favorite from everything I made!
Here is another one of the black forest cupcakes:

The last picture is of a whole island, unfortunately without the birthday cake. I don't know how I managed not to take a good one with the candles...maybe I will find something from later in the night eventually!

Cantaloupe Sorbet

2009-07-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

OMG! This is sooo good! Oh thank you, thank you, thank you Joy The Baker! And, I managed to screw only half of the batch. But that was almost not my fault but the ice makers! Almost.

Seriously people. This is the most refreshing thing in the world and oh so sweet...

Cantaloupe Sorbet
by Joy The Baker

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon Pernod
two 3-inch strips of lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cantaloupe (about 2 1/2 pounds), seeds and rind discarded and the flesh chopped (about 3 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup heavy cream

In a saucepan stir together the water, the sugar, the Pernod, and the zest, boil the mixture, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved, and simmer it for 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice, transfer the syrup to a bowl, and chill it, covered, until it is cold. In a blender or food processor purée the cantaloupe, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula, until it is smooth, blend in the cream and the syrup, and force the mixture through a coarse sieve set over a bowl, pressing hard on the solids. Freeze the mixture in an ice-cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

recipe and directions copied and pasted from Joy The Baker

I used Vodka and a few drops of anise extract(Rum would work here fine also) instead of Pernod. I had no idea what that is by the way. Never heard of it. So I goggled and made it work with something I had home.

I am getting really excited about Saturday. There is going to be so many yummies, and Margaritas and Mojitos!
Tonight I am working on Joy's Red Velvet Black and White Cookies, and then tomorrow is the cupcake bake-off. Weeee

And now, look at this beauty:

Pistachio Gelato

2009-07-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

First of all I need to say that it's been a quest for me to find a decent pistachio ice-cream or gelato, even a shake here in Utah. Maybe I'm going to all the wrong places but I have yet to find one. Closest to something tasty I had was a shake from Iceberg, but it is so obviously made from jello mix that it's full of jelloish green little gummy nasty things. I also looked for a recipe I could work with for awhile because some called for things I just couldn't get here, like Sicillian pistachio paste or pesto. I think if I could get that here, it is safe to say I would be able to find pistachio gelato also. I decided on a recipe from epicurious.com. I doubled the amounts and made some changes but other wise copied and pasted ingridients and directions.

This is why I had so many leftover egg-whites and needed to do something with them. And then Divinity taffy came to be. :o)

I also love taking pictures of sugar as I have discovered...

Here is the recipe:

Pistachio Gelato
GELATO AL PISTACCHIO

1 and 1/2 cup unsalted shelled pistachios (I couldn't find unsalted and used regular salted ones, gelato tastes just as delicious)
1 and 1/2 sugar
4 cups whole milk
2 teaspoon almond extract
10 large egg yolks
4 drops green food coloring

Chopped unsalted pistachios

Preparation:

Finely grind 3/4 cup pistachios and 1/4 cup sugar in processor. Combine pistachio mixture, milk and almond extract in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to boil. Whisk yolks and 1/2 cup sugar in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk milk mixture into yolk mixture. Return mixture to saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens slightly and leaves path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, about 8 minutes (do not boil). Remove from heat. Whisk in food coloring. Refrigerate custard until cold, about 3 hours.

The change I made is that I put the cooked pistachio mix through the sifter because I didn't want my gelato to have so much chopped nuts in it. I think my processor sucks and this would not be a problem with a better quality one. Even with this the consistency of the gelato is not as smooth as I would have hopped so. The flavor sooo makes up for it though!

Process custard in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to covered container and freeze. (Can be prepared 1 week ahead. Keep frozen.) Scoop into glasses or bowls. Garnish with chopped pistachios.

This is how grinned pistachios with sugar look like.

And this is the egg yolks. They looked so fluffy and yummy I could have eaten them like that. Except for the salmonella....

And the finished gelato, Ta-Daaa:

The Half Birthday

2009-07-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Half Birthday Mika!! I can't believe he is already six months old! It went by so fast and at the same time I feel like I had him always...
So for six months, here are my six favorite things about him:

1. When I wake up him being the first thing I see smiling back at me
2. When he touches my face gently with his exploring eyes (not trying to poke my eyes out)
3. The noise he makes when he is trying to eat and talk to me at the same time
4. Hearing his laughter
5. The way he makes me feel like I did something magical
6. His little face that just lights up when he succeeds in something. Bringing his little feet up to his mouth, or finding a toy next to him...

Bonus one...moments when I can totally see my brother in him.

Everyone told me there is no love in the world like the one that you will feel for your child. I knew they were right, but I didn't know it was going to hit me so hard. I think if I didn't have him my body would literally burst into flames from pain and disappear.
Moje sunce i zlato i sve na svijetu, Sretan Ti Polurodjendan. Majka te prevoli!

On some lighter subjects..
We didn't do anything special today for it, I had the idea of baking him half of the cake, it would be kind of cool, but we both fell asleep around 11AM til almost 3PM...so we just had a nice dinner, recipe for it was in the last post. Divinity was a disaster. Or at least the consistency of it, it tastes nice, me like. The only solution I had because it was so runny, was to scoop it on some wax papers and make little candy wrapped divinity goodness. It will be soooo messy to eat it, but oh well.
I will post the recipe for it, but obviously I messed something up with either the temperature of the sugar, or length of mixing the whole thing together. Divinity is tricky!

Divinity

Ingredients:

* 4 cups granulated sugar
* 1 cup light (not dark) corn syrup
* 1 cup water
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 3 egg whites (room temperature)
* 1 cup walnuts, chopped
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1 tsp cherry extract
* food coloring ( I used red and little of blue)

Preparation:
Combine sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt in heavy saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture starts to boil. Continue cooking until mixture forms soft ball when tested in cold water (or use a thermometer). In the mean time, beat egg whites until stiff.
When syrup reaches the light crack stage when dropped in cold water (this will happen quickly) start adding it to the egg whites VERY slowly while beating. Continue beating until candy begins to hold its shape. Stir in vanilla, cherry extract and nuts and food coloring. Drop by teaspoonful onto waxed paper.
Makes 50-60 pieces.

You can pour this into a foil lined pan that has been Pam sprayed then cut into squares if you are not comfortable spooning it out.

I have to keep mine in the freezer until someone is going to eat it. Like to that exact minute. Sad.

Tandoori Chicken

2009-07-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

Dinner tonight will be this yummy chicken. The idea came from Andrea and me wanting to stuff our faces with food, combined with curiosity and my love for ethnic foods. We are going to aim making at least one new dish from a different country each week. This was just a warm up with Tandoori Chicken. It was really good. Now I'm really in the mood for more Indian food. Like lamb curry...

Tandori Chicken

recipe from eatingwell.com

1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
4 bone-in chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds), skinned and trimmed of fat
( I substituted chicken thighs for chicken breast

1. Stir together yogurt, onion and garlic in a shallow glass dish. Add lemon juice, cilantro, paprika, cumin, turmeric, ginger, salt, pepper, cinnamon and cloves. Add chicken and coat well. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 500°F. Coat a wire rack with cooking spray and set it over a foil-covered baking sheet. Place the chicken on the prepared rack.
3. Bake the chicken until browned and no trace of pink remains in the center, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve hot.

NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per serving: 227 calories; 10 g fat (3 g sat, 4 g mono); 87 mg cholesterol; 8 g carbohydrate; 27 g protein; 1 g fiber; 398 mg sodium.

Strawberry Not Shortcake Cake...

2009-07-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

And here it is...my first recipe post, my baby, my Southern Style Strawberry Cake. Many thanks to Joy The Baker for the recipe, and more than that, for inspiration to do this!
I am quite proud of it actually. Andrea helped me with cooking, she also financed making it :o)...
It was fun, the cooking part, but even more taking the photos! Cooking and Photography!??!? Can something be more fun? No.
Well actually, living on Santorini, cooking and taking photos...yes. That WOULD be more fun.

I did change the original recipe just a bit, I thought the cream cheese frosting was way to sweet...

Southern Style Strawberry Cake:
Joy The Baker

1 (18.5 ounce) box white cake mix

1 (3 ounce) package strawberry jello

1 Tablespoon self rising flour

5 teaspoons granulated sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the cake, combine to cake mix, Jello, flour and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition Add the water and strawberries and mix well. Divide the batter evenly into three 8-inch or two 10-inch round baking pans that have been oiled and floured. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean and the layers pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer the layers from the oven to wire racks. Let them cool, still in their pans, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, run a knife around the inside edge of each pan, then unmold each layer onto the racks to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 ounce) block cream cheese, softened

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

1 (1 pound) boxes powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

pink or red food coloring

6 sliced strawberries

To make the frosting, in a bowl combine the cream cheese and butter. Beat until soft and pliable and no lumps remain. Add the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Beat until incorporated. If you would like a thicker consistency, add a bit more powdered sugar until the desired consistency is achieved.

Put the coconut in a small bowl and sprinkle with two or three drops of pink die. Mix with hands to distribute the color and wash hands immediately. Once the cake is frosted, decorate the top of the cake with the shredded coconut and sliced strawberries.

recipe and directions copied and pasted from Joy The Baker

Voilà

Now if everyone would just hurry up and arrive so we can dig in!!