2010
Feb
4
Posted in baking, dessert
I can’t even begin to tell you how GOOD these muffins are. Hands down these are the best chocolate chip muffins. I had been searching for the perfect recipe for a couple days and I am so glad I did not decide to give up and just pick any old recipe. These muffins are so soft and fluffy, just imagine clouds with pockets of melted chocolate and the mascarpone cheese gives it a suprisingly great subtle flavor.
Many thanks to justjennrecipes.com for posting the recipe! I’m not sure whether or not she created the recipe, but regardless it is definitely a favorite from now on.
Mascarpone Chocolate Chip Muffins
(adapted from justjennrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
- 1 (8 oz.) package mascarpone cheese
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I like a lot of chocolate chips)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Beat mascarpone cheese and butter together until fluffy. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Stir flour mixture into wet mixture until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Spoon batter into 12 prepared lined muffin cups. Filling them until they are almost full. I filled mine up all the way and had no problems with overflowing. They made a nice full muffin top.
- Bake for about 20 min or until the top is golden brown.
Mascarpone Chocolate Chip Muffins
2010
Jan
4
Posted in holidays, life
Happy New Year everyone!
I haven’t given much thought to resolutions for this year. I figured that I would just keep the same ones I come up with every year, but stumbling upon this website gave me inspiration to add some new ones to my list. I don’t like making more than a few resolutions a year, because the more resolutions the harder I find it to remember them throughout the year. This New Year’s Resolution generator website was very entertaining and if you need a little help on resolutions this generator is perfect for you! What did you decide to pick? Here are my picks:
This was a helpful reminder for me, because I almost never back up my files. Two years ago I learned my lesson after my computer crashed and I didn't back up a lot of my files. So, this year I promise to do it as often as I can remember. Which is more than once, I hope...
This year I defnintely want to create more desserts, crafts, and make use of my brand new sewing machine.
This resolution sounds like fun...have a few friends over, cook a good meal, drink some wine, and serve the ultimate dessert to top off the evening. I will definitely update you guys when this happens haha.
This one made me laugh...I like tomatoes, but I can't promise that I'd ever eat it like an apple.
2009
Dec
25
Posted in baking, dessert, holidays
Hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday filled with lots of dessert!
I went to a White Elephant Christmas Party this past weekend and whipped up two really simple and easy treats. Both of the recipes require no baking, are cream cheese based, and can be made ahead; so it saves you plenty of time during this busy season.
I wanted to make something unique and I found the perfect recipe for a Dessert Ball. Think of a cheese ball spread, but instead it’s sweet. This was so easy to whip up and once all the ingredients were combined I just popped it in the freezer until it was time to bring it to the party. The dessert ball was paired with graham cracker sticks to spread on. Everyone at the party was intrigued by the ball. This was definitely a crowd pleaser and perfect for people who like cheesecake tasting dessert.
The other dessert on the menu were Oreo truffles. I like to call these the “Wow Truffles” because every time someone bit into it, the first thing they would say is “WOW! These are so GOOD!”. It even converted my non-chocolate loving friends. You know a dessert is awesome when even people who hate chocolate start eating your chocolate dessert and rave about. The truffles were also a snap to make and had the shortest ingredient list.
Dessert Ball with Graham Cracker Sticks
Oreo Truffles aka Wow Truffles - So good even chocolate haters love them.
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2009
Dec
21
Posted in dessert, travels
Took a trip to San Diego the other weekend and my very first stop was Extraordinary Desserts and like the name says, it was far from ordinary! I heard about Extraordinary Desserts from friends before, but I never thought to visit it sooner and now I wish I had. When you walk through the door you just see a long display cases filled with beautifully decorated cakes and treats. Fresh flowers were adorned on almost every dessert, which seems to be their signature style. I had to take multiple trips up and down the display just to wrap my mind around everything I was looking at and try to narrow down my choices.
I finally settled on the La Bete Noire cake (Traditional vanilla crème brûlée, chocolate truffle cream are layered in between dark chocolate cakes and moistened with Madagascar vanilla bean). It was absolutely decadent and the creme brulee layer was my favorite part, such a brilliant idea. Of course, I couldn’t leave without taking a few things to go: cherry chocolate chip cookie – not my favorite, Chocolate Chunk Shortbread- very chocolately and oh so yummy, Mini Lemon Meringue – perfect size for a small treat and a lovely lemon flavor, not too tart. I was dissapointed that they weren’t offering their famous Chocolate Crossiant Bread Pudding, but that’s ok because it just gives me another excuse to visit.
I made one more dessert stop on my trip and that was to Babycakes. It got decent reviews on Yelp, so I decided to check it out. They had a unique selection of cupcake flavors ranging from PB&J to Guava cucpakes. I decided on the Red Velvet and PB&J. The red velvet was a complete fail. I don’t know if maybe I got an old cupcake, but it was just super dense and flavorless. Sadly, I ate a part of it and just threw the rest away. Not worth the calories. The PB&J was much better and salvaged my trip to Babycakes. The peanut butter frosting was delicious and I loved the jam syrup drizzled on top. The cake was just a plain chocolate cake, nothing fancy, but at least it wasn’t as dense.
Overall, the trip was great and I’m happy that I found a new favorite dessert place, Extraordinary Desserts. Hopefully, they will decided to open a store in LA in the future!
Extraordinary Desserts Display Case
View of their bar/restaurant area
La Bete Noire Cake
Beaultiful orchids and gold flecks arranged on the cake
My Goodie Box - The shortbread was huge! Defnitely worth it!
Babycakes
Red Velvet and PB&J Cupcakes
2009
Dec
16
Posted in cooking, news, shopping
Now you can create Top Chef-like dishes at home with your very own SousVide machine! As seen on the reality show Top Chef and used by renowned chefs, the SousVide machine is a innovative way to cook your food and lock in its flavor. The SousVide Supreme (available at Sur La Table) is a water oven that cooks vacuum sealed food at low temperatures. Supposedly, you can achieve “perfect flavor everytime”, but don’t expect your meal to come out exactly like a Michelin Star restaurants’. I would definitely be wary of buying such an expensive machine without having the proper knowledge and experience in using it. This would be an awesome Christmas gift for hardcore cooks, but unless it came with some culinary classes or a private lesson with Thomas Keller I would definitely think twice about splurging on this baby.
Want more info? Check out the NY Times Article about the SousVide Supreme and Cooking Sous Vide is a website dedicated to cooking sous vide for home cooks.
(image via Sur La Table)
2009
Dec
1
Posted in baking, dessert, holidays
I hope all of you had a wonderful and filling Thanksgiving! Believe it or not, I still feel full from everything I ate over the last few days.
I’m a bit sad that the November is over because there were so many Thanksgiving themed desserts I wanted to try out, but they never made it to reality. I’m not sure how the month flew by so quickly, but I ended up making only a couple things from of my long baking list. I have so many different dessert recipes lined up just for Thanksgiving/Fall, but I guess they will have to wait until next year. The two recipes that actually made it to the oven, were Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins and Pumpkin Pie.
The Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins were an idea I got from the Starbuck’s version, but I did it semi-homemade style and used a box of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Bread Mix. It still turned out really well and having a cream cheese center is always a nice twist.
Pumpkin pie was definitely a must bake on my list. At first, I couldn’t figure out which kind of pumpkin pie I wanted to make. I found so many versions of pumpkin pie and they all sounded so good. I decided to make traditional pumpkin pie since I had never made it before. The directions on the recipe made it seem fairly easy, but I messed up just a tad. The filling said it was good enough for one pie but I came out with enough for 2 pies. So, I made the mistake of overfilling the pie thinking it would fit…bad idea. I filled it up so much that I had a difficult time putting it in the oven without trying to spill too much. Another reason overfilling your pie is a huge mistake is that I didn’t take into account that it would rise just like any other baked good, so as it was baking it overflowed a little. But, thankfully it didn’t affect the overall taste; it just didn’t look as pretty as I would’ve liked.
Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread & Muffin Mix and a Log of Cream Cheese
Cream Cheese Centers
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Cream Cheese Goodness
Ready Made Crust
My Overfilled Pumpkin Pie
Making Decorative Leaves
Acorns & Oak Leaves
My Very First Pumpkin Pie and Definitely Not the Last!
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2009
Nov
10
Posted in holidays, shopping
Just saw these new Christmas tree ornaments at Sur La Table. I think this year’s tree should be foodie themed, how about you?
Starting from the Top Left: Cake Ornament, Pink Cupcake Ornament, Espresso Machine Ornament, Pickle Jar Ornament, Prosciutto Ornament (I think this is one of my fav ones), and Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Ornaments (looks good enough to eat!)
(images via Sur La Table)
2009
Nov
7
Posted in baking, dessert, holidays
I’m going to have to blame my lateness on my current situation: my over a week long illness that’s taking its precious time and does not seem to want me to get better yet. It made my Halloween preparations and plans very difficult, but I still managed somehow, even though I did have to give up a few things I wanted to get done. It was especially frustrating last week because I had started getting sick last Monday and miraculously the next morning I was all better, but the sneaky little bugger came back with a vengeance the next day and since then I have been battling it for almost 2 weeks now.
Anyway, on to what I was able to accomplish during my sick week. I was able to sew part of my Halloween costume. I was little red riding hood and I decided to sew my own cape. It came out pretty well, I’m just thankful I didn’t mess it up (it was my first time sewing anything). I baked two items out of the three items I had planned for Halloween, and I also managed to give out Halloween candy.
This year I decided to try out some new recipes. I baked Buttermilk Spice Muffins (the exact recipe from Mimi’s Cafe, I couldn’t believe they just posted it on their website) and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. The Buttermilk Spice Muffins were good, although next time I might double the spices. Unfortunately, I personally can’t tell you how good the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins were. By the time I made these, I couldn’t really taste anything anymore, but my friends seemed to like them so there’s a good sign! I’ll have to try baking them again when I’m not sick.
Buttermilk Spice Muffins
Mini Halloween Liners
My Little Red Riding Hood Basket Filled with Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
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2009
Oct
25
Posted in cooking
When I think of Olive Garden, I think of one thing: Zuppa Toscana. It is one of my favorite soups and the thing I look forward to most when I eat there. I usually order an entree, but hardly touch it because I’ve already downed two bowls of this stuff along with a basket of breadsticks. It’s a meal in itself.
As the days are getting colder, I thought this would be the perfect soup to warm up with. The soup itself is a blend of spicy italian sausage, potatoes, and kale, in a creamy broth. I was lucky enough to find a copycat recipe and it turned out exactly the same. I was amazed. Now, if I could only get the recipe for Olive Garden breadsticks…
Zuppa Toscana
(adapted from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients
- 1 pound mild Italian ground sausage
- 5 slices bacon, baked and crumbled
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 tablespoon minced garlic
- 5 (13.75 oz) cans chicken broth
- 3 medium potatoes, thinly sliced rounds
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 bunch fresh kale
- 1 tsp. fennel seeds
- 1 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
- salt and black pepper to taste
Directions:
- Cook the ground Italian sausage in a pan over medium-high heat until crumbly, browned, and no longer pink. About 10 to 15 min. Drain and set aside.
- Place bacon on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until crisp, about 10 minutes. Place bacon on paper towel to drain and then crumble bacon and set aside. You may save a couple tablespoons of the bacon drippings and use it to saute the onions and garlic.
- In a large pot saute onions and garlic in a couple tablespoons of the bacon drippings or oil(whichever you prefer). Cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Pour the chicken broth into the pot with the onion mixture and add crumbled bacon. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the sliced potatoes, and boil until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the heavy cream cooked sausage, fennel seeds, and crushed red pepper flakes; heat through. Add salt and pepper if needed. Mix kale into the soup until wilted just before serving.
Zuppa Toscana
2009
Oct
3
Posted in dessert, news
I haven’t really taken advantage of the free Sprinkle cupcake giveaways until recently, and I figured that it’d be a great way to get me to drive the long 10 min drive to my local Sprinkles store (yes, I am lazy, which in this case is a very good thing or else I’d be at Sprinkles everyday). So, I made sure to coincide my trips during their special featured flavor events which are scattered throughout the months. First trip I made was to try their Raspberry cupcake back in August and then I went one more time the other week to try the Vanilla Hazelnut Chocolate cupcake. Featured Flavor + Free Cupcake = Very good deal indeed.
The Raspberry Cupcake was surprisingly good. Both the cake and frosting were raspberry flavored. I wasn’t sure how they were going to pull off the raspberry flavor without making it taste artificial, but after one bite, I felt like they must have used hundreds of raspberries and packed it into one little cupcake. The frosting was the best part: not too sweet, nice tartness, and a bold raspberry flavor. The cake was not too shabby. It was moist, had less of the raspberry flavoring, but the only thing that threw me off was the coloring. The cake was gray. Weird, but tasty. At this point, I wouldn’t mind if they put some food coloring…maybe a nice bright pink/magenta? I don’t care, just as long as my food is not gray or anything resembling cement.
Now, onto the Vanilla Hazelnut Chocolate Cupcake. This was Sprinkle’s take on a vanilla cupcake with a Nutella flavored frosting. This cupcake was good, but defnitely not the best and I think I would have much rather have a vanilla cupcake with Nutella smothered on top. I don’t think anyone can come close to getting that Nutella flavor unless you actually use the hazelnut spread. The frosting had the hazelnut taste, but I really felt like the flavor was diluted. More Nutella please! Actually, forget the cupcake, I could just eat Nutella by itself with a spoon.
Sprinkle's Raspberry Cupcake
See? It's gray...
Sprinkle's Vanilla Hazelnut Chocolate Cupcake - Cupcake was a little damaged during handling, sorry.
