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Thursday, September 15, 2011
wicked excited!
Ok peeps! I'm wicked excited. I just learned how to upload pics using this app on my phone! So now my blogs will look a little more interesting and you guys can be all impressed by me (polishing nails on my lapel:)
hey bees and bears
I'm learning to use this android app...hopefully ill be able to start posting pics :)
Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4
Hey bees and bears...its slowly approaching my favorite time of year. The fall season. Oh how i love fall. Its the prelude to winter. I just love the brisk weather, the colors of fall, and all of the delicious flavor profiles that come along with it. One thing you will see all over the place during the next few months will be panetone. I used to turn my nose up at these boxes of breads in disgust. (really..how can bread in a box be edible).
one day I was watching Giada on the food network where she featured a recipe for bread pudding made with Panetone. Im an open minded kind of girl. so i decided to give it a whirl, and I've been using this recipe ever since. I hope you're inspired to try it. I guarantee you will love love love it and definately include in in your holiday celebration. I know, seems a bit premature to be thinking about holiday menues already, however as far as im concerned you can never start preparing early enough.
Bread Pudding
1 (1lb panetone) cut into cubes
8 large eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 cups whole milk 1
1/4 cups of sugar
Butter a 9x13 baking dish. Put your cut up cubes of panetone in the baking dish.Combine your eggs, cream,milk and sugar together with a whisk. Pour over the cubes of bread and press down so the bread can absorb the custard mixture. Refridgerate for two hours. Press down every so often making sure the bread is soaked through. Preheat your over at 350 degrees and bake this off for 35 to 45 minutes until golden brown and puffy.
Cinnamon syrup
1 cup water
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbs heavy cream
1/2 tsp cinnamon
combine sugar and water in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce to about a cup. Bring syrup off the heat and stir in cream and cinnamon.
This recipe is so easy . I love it when i get a celebrity recipe thats easy to duplicate. Well I hope yyou have fun making this and please feel free to leave your comment and tell me what you think of it.
Off for now boys and girls!
one day I was watching Giada on the food network where she featured a recipe for bread pudding made with Panetone. Im an open minded kind of girl. so i decided to give it a whirl, and I've been using this recipe ever since. I hope you're inspired to try it. I guarantee you will love love love it and definately include in in your holiday celebration. I know, seems a bit premature to be thinking about holiday menues already, however as far as im concerned you can never start preparing early enough.
Bread Pudding
1 (1lb panetone) cut into cubes
8 large eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 cups whole milk 1
1/4 cups of sugar
Butter a 9x13 baking dish. Put your cut up cubes of panetone in the baking dish.Combine your eggs, cream,milk and sugar together with a whisk. Pour over the cubes of bread and press down so the bread can absorb the custard mixture. Refridgerate for two hours. Press down every so often making sure the bread is soaked through. Preheat your over at 350 degrees and bake this off for 35 to 45 minutes until golden brown and puffy.
Cinnamon syrup
1 cup water
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbs heavy cream
1/2 tsp cinnamon
combine sugar and water in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce to about a cup. Bring syrup off the heat and stir in cream and cinnamon.
This recipe is so easy . I love it when i get a celebrity recipe thats easy to duplicate. Well I hope yyou have fun making this and please feel free to leave your comment and tell me what you think of it.
Off for now boys and girls!
Monday, September 12, 2011
The Chelsea Market
Hello boys and girls!
Its been a long weekend. A long emotional reflective weekend since its the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. Its been 9/11 related documentaries all weekend long. In between flipping to the occasional "Chopped" episode, I didn't really do much but reflect and clean the house. It just seems like it dragged on. My only solace was my venture into Manhattan to visit the Chelsea Market. It definitely is a close second to the Whole foods in Union Square. There's a little store that I have become quite fond of. Buon Italia. I'm almost positive there are other stores that sell cheese and oil/vinegar, however there is something about this store that just screams Italy. Could it be the man behind the deli counter slicing speck and screaming in Italian.
Just sayin..lol
The cans of San Marzano tomatoes did happen to catch my eye. Many chefs regard these tomatoes to be the very best tomatoes for sauce, however I am very much a Red pack girl. So I did not buy any. I originally went there to buy some french lentils (makes for a very tasty lentil soup), but they were sold out. I was very disappointed. Being the good little shopper that I am, I found some other things to spend my money on. I bought a small chunk of black truffle speckled pecorino romano cheese. Always looking for the opportunity to experience truffles, I simply couldn't resist. It was reasonable priced at 9.95 a pound.
I bought some beautiful sun dried tomatoes from Sicily and a half a pound of fresh tagliatelle pasta. I have never experienced fresh pasta before. Only the dried stuff in the box. after putting this in my shopping basket, it all started to fall into place. Pasta, sun dried tomatoes, pecorino. A yummy pasta dinner makes Allison a happy happy girl.
So this was last nights dinner. Fresh pasta, red peppers and sun dried tomatoes sauteed together with a drizzle of black truffle extra virgin olive oil. Topped with 2 tablespoons of pecorino cheese. I charged myself seven points for this dish. Naturally I only cooked up 2 ounces of pasta which came out to about a cup cooked. the sun dried tomatoes were kind of on the salty side so i only salted the water for the pasta. Then I just added some black pepper to the dish after it was put together.
If you have never tried fresh pasta, you really are doing yourself an injustice. This is really how pasta should be eaten. I have officially become a pasta snob and will probably never eat the dried stuff again.
(okay that was just a big fat lie..lol...)
Hope this inspires you to go out and get some fresh pasta and a really good chuck of cheese. If you go to Buon Italia inside the Chelsea Market you can find both there. It is definitely worth the trip.
Off for now Bees and Bears!
Its been a long weekend. A long emotional reflective weekend since its the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. Its been 9/11 related documentaries all weekend long. In between flipping to the occasional "Chopped" episode, I didn't really do much but reflect and clean the house. It just seems like it dragged on. My only solace was my venture into Manhattan to visit the Chelsea Market. It definitely is a close second to the Whole foods in Union Square. There's a little store that I have become quite fond of. Buon Italia. I'm almost positive there are other stores that sell cheese and oil/vinegar, however there is something about this store that just screams Italy. Could it be the man behind the deli counter slicing speck and screaming in Italian.
Just sayin..lol
The cans of San Marzano tomatoes did happen to catch my eye. Many chefs regard these tomatoes to be the very best tomatoes for sauce, however I am very much a Red pack girl. So I did not buy any. I originally went there to buy some french lentils (makes for a very tasty lentil soup), but they were sold out. I was very disappointed. Being the good little shopper that I am, I found some other things to spend my money on. I bought a small chunk of black truffle speckled pecorino romano cheese. Always looking for the opportunity to experience truffles, I simply couldn't resist. It was reasonable priced at 9.95 a pound.
I bought some beautiful sun dried tomatoes from Sicily and a half a pound of fresh tagliatelle pasta. I have never experienced fresh pasta before. Only the dried stuff in the box. after putting this in my shopping basket, it all started to fall into place. Pasta, sun dried tomatoes, pecorino. A yummy pasta dinner makes Allison a happy happy girl.
So this was last nights dinner. Fresh pasta, red peppers and sun dried tomatoes sauteed together with a drizzle of black truffle extra virgin olive oil. Topped with 2 tablespoons of pecorino cheese. I charged myself seven points for this dish. Naturally I only cooked up 2 ounces of pasta which came out to about a cup cooked. the sun dried tomatoes were kind of on the salty side so i only salted the water for the pasta. Then I just added some black pepper to the dish after it was put together.
If you have never tried fresh pasta, you really are doing yourself an injustice. This is really how pasta should be eaten. I have officially become a pasta snob and will probably never eat the dried stuff again.
(okay that was just a big fat lie..lol...)
Hope this inspires you to go out and get some fresh pasta and a really good chuck of cheese. If you go to Buon Italia inside the Chelsea Market you can find both there. It is definitely worth the trip.
Off for now Bees and Bears!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
A long weekend
Hey everyone,
I'm back after a long labor day weekend. I got a chance to serve my banana cake and my tres leches coconut cake. I was worried about them surviving hurricane Irene. I put them in the freezer and took them out 2 days before i needed to serve them. I was very surprised because I put a layer of butter cream frosting (Ree Drummonds recipe) in between the two layers before I froze it. i waited until i defrosted it before i put the cream cheese frosting on the outside. When we cut into it you couldn't tell there were two layers because the frosting in between disappeared into the cake. everyone seemed to really like the tres leches coconut cake. I felt it was very sweet. I lked the banana cake better. The cake was not too sweet, and I'm a sucker for cream cheese frosting big time. I mean, i could just eat it right out of the bowl lol.
Everyone raved about the coconut tres leches cake. I cannot take all of the credit for a cake that starts out with a box mix. I normally don't serve box mix cakes It went over very well. I got a chance to take a piece of both to my mom and she liked them both. I think she definitely liked the banana cake more. I will post the recipe I used. since it's super easy, its perfect for those that are not into baking a scratch cake.
Coconut Tres Leches cake
Any make ahead yellow cake mix
Milk syrup
1 can (15 ounces) cream of coconut
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
combine all of the ingredients over a medium heat and warm through. Reserve one cup of this syrup and put it on the side.
Go ahead and make your cake following the directions on the box and let it cool completely. Take a skewer or a fork and poke holes all over the cake. Don't be shy. The more holes the more the syrup will get soaked up through out the cake. Take your milk syrup and start spooning it over the cake. Don't worry if it looks like the syrup is not being absorbed, it will as the cake sits in the refrigerator. Ideally you should let the cake soak overnight. when you're done spooning all of the syrup over the cake take the reserved cup of syrup and heat it up on the stove. Put 20 unwrapped caramels in the syrup and melt them together over a low to medium heat. When all of the caramels are melted spoon this new mixture over your cake as well.
You can garnish your cake a few different ways. I just sprinkled sweetened coconut flakes over the cake and served it like that. If you really want to go over the top you can put sliced bananas over the top right before you're about to serve it with a slightly sweetened whipped cream. again this is a very dense sweet cake if dont make your whipped cream too sweet.
I swear, no one will know this starts out with a box mix, and everyone will think you are wonderful :)
Ok honey bees and bears...gotta get my day started here,
Bye for now
I'm back after a long labor day weekend. I got a chance to serve my banana cake and my tres leches coconut cake. I was worried about them surviving hurricane Irene. I put them in the freezer and took them out 2 days before i needed to serve them. I was very surprised because I put a layer of butter cream frosting (Ree Drummonds recipe) in between the two layers before I froze it. i waited until i defrosted it before i put the cream cheese frosting on the outside. When we cut into it you couldn't tell there were two layers because the frosting in between disappeared into the cake. everyone seemed to really like the tres leches coconut cake. I felt it was very sweet. I lked the banana cake better. The cake was not too sweet, and I'm a sucker for cream cheese frosting big time. I mean, i could just eat it right out of the bowl lol.
Everyone raved about the coconut tres leches cake. I cannot take all of the credit for a cake that starts out with a box mix. I normally don't serve box mix cakes It went over very well. I got a chance to take a piece of both to my mom and she liked them both. I think she definitely liked the banana cake more. I will post the recipe I used. since it's super easy, its perfect for those that are not into baking a scratch cake.
Coconut Tres Leches cake
Any make ahead yellow cake mix
Milk syrup
1 can (15 ounces) cream of coconut
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
combine all of the ingredients over a medium heat and warm through. Reserve one cup of this syrup and put it on the side.
Go ahead and make your cake following the directions on the box and let it cool completely. Take a skewer or a fork and poke holes all over the cake. Don't be shy. The more holes the more the syrup will get soaked up through out the cake. Take your milk syrup and start spooning it over the cake. Don't worry if it looks like the syrup is not being absorbed, it will as the cake sits in the refrigerator. Ideally you should let the cake soak overnight. when you're done spooning all of the syrup over the cake take the reserved cup of syrup and heat it up on the stove. Put 20 unwrapped caramels in the syrup and melt them together over a low to medium heat. When all of the caramels are melted spoon this new mixture over your cake as well.
You can garnish your cake a few different ways. I just sprinkled sweetened coconut flakes over the cake and served it like that. If you really want to go over the top you can put sliced bananas over the top right before you're about to serve it with a slightly sweetened whipped cream. again this is a very dense sweet cake if dont make your whipped cream too sweet.
I swear, no one will know this starts out with a box mix, and everyone will think you are wonderful :)
Ok honey bees and bears...gotta get my day started here,
Bye for now
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The hunt for pumpkin puree
Hey everyone,
I was looking through some old recipes and came across these breakfast squares that are a good thing to keep around if you're really busy in the mornings. you can make a whole batch and just grab them and go.
Hope these save you time in your busy morning.
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs or 3 egg whites
4 mashed ripe bananas (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup of splenda
1/2 cup applesauce
Optional: 1 pint strawberries or blueberries or both
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
I didn't have the opportunity to check in last night. It wasn't a very exciting food day, I honestly didn't feel like blogging about smart beat cheese sandwiched and yellow mustard, so I decided to take a break. I was actually a little disappointed when I went into Food Emporium and couldn't find the pumpkin puree that I need to make the lentil soup that I last blogged about. I'm going to check out another supermarket tonight. If I cant find it, I guess my soup will just have to wait.
So last week I put my the cakes that I made in the freezer to save them for this week. I'm a bit anxious because I don't know if they will be mushy when they are defrosted. Only time will tell.... I was looking through some old recipes and came across these breakfast squares that are a good thing to keep around if you're really busy in the mornings. you can make a whole batch and just grab them and go.
Hope these save you time in your busy morning.
Fruit and Oat Squares
3 cups of oatmeal
2 1/2 tsp baking powder1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs or 3 egg whites
4 mashed ripe bananas (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup of splenda
1/2 cup applesauce
Optional: 1 pint strawberries or blueberries or both
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix all of the ingredients and pour into a 10x13 glass pan that's been sprayed with fat free cooking spray. sprinkle a little extra cinnamon on top. Bake 30-45 minutes until edges have browned and pull away from the sides of the pan. Cut into 2" squares
Ok honey bees and bears, Have to get my work day started....if I come across any interesting recipes you know I will definitely check back in later!
Off for now!
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