Chocolate Caramel Blossoms

Too…many…cookies….

I’m not sure I can eat another cookie right now. I know, I sound like a crazy person, but I just can’t eat any more for a while…maybe for like 3 days or something.

But, before I start my cookie hiatus, I have to tell you about these cookies first. Earlier this week, I told you I don’t like peppermint. Today, I am going to tell you that chocolate and caramel are two of the greatest things in the universe. Yup, the universe.

So I am not going to waste any more time and will go straight the recipe. Hubs and I are off to Ohio to spend Christmas with my family. And yes, we are driving. Why? Because we hate ourselves. And also, plane tickets were out of control.

Chocolate Caramel Blossoms

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 32 minutes

Yield: About 16 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp. instant espresso (optional)
  • about 16 Hershey's caramel kisses (chilled in the refrigerator or the freezer)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and 2/3 cup sugar. Mix in the egg and vanilla extract.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, and espresso powder.
  4. Mix the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients until well-combined.
  5. Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat. Place the remaining sugar in a small bowl. Using your hands, roll the dough into 1-inch balls (about 1 tablespoon). Roll each ball into the sugar until lightly coated and place on the baking sheet about 1-2 inches apart.
  6. Bake cookies for about 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool for about 2 minutes. Place a kiss in the center of each cookie and press down gently.
http://eat-drink-love.com/2012/12/chocolate-caramel-blossoms/

Gingerbread Martini

Everyone has a certain flavor that reminds them of Christmas. For some it’s eggnog, for which I am still just not so sure how I feel about. For others, it’s peppermint.

Speaking of peppermint, I have a confession. I think it’s time I come clean about something. We’re all friends here, right?

Ok, here it goes…I don’t really like peppermint.

I know, I’m sorry. Please don’t throw garbage at me. I don’t HATE it, I just don’t really care for it. I only like mint flavor in a few things: toothpaste, gum, tea, mouthwash, mint chip ice cream, and..well, that’s about it. I don’t like peppermint bark either. This is also because it contains white chocolate, which, by the way, I really do hate.

My favorite Christmas flavor is gingerbread. I’ll skip the peppermint, just give me the gingerbread. In all forms. Cookie, latte, and now, martini. And just a warning, this thing is dangerously addicting. The gingerbread syrup is really where it’s at with this drink, so add as much or as little as you like. I kind of want to pour the syrup on everything though.

Gingerbread Martini

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 2 martinis

Ingredients

    For the gingerbread syrup:
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 4 tbs. molasses
  • 1 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • For the martini:
  • 2 ounces vanilla vodka
  • 1.5 ounces Kahlua
  • 1.5 ounces Bailey's Irish Cream
  • 3 tbs. gingerbread syrup (or to taste)
  • 2.5 ounces half and half (plus about 2 tbs. for the rim)
  • gingerbread cookies (for the rim and for garnish)(I like Pepperidge Farm)
  • whipped cream (for garnish)

Instructions

    For the syrup:
  1. In a small saucepan, heat the water, brown sugar, molasses, ginger, and cinnamon on medium heat until the sugar dissolves (about 5 minutes).
  2. For the martini:
  3. Crush about 2-3 small gingerbread cookies in a zip lock bag with a rolling pin. Place the crumbs in a saucer and set aside.
  4. Pour the 2 tablespoons of half and half into a small saucer. Dip the rims of the martini glasses into the half and half. Then dip into the gingerbread crumbs and set the glasses aside.
  5. In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine, the vodka, Kahlua, Bailey's Irish Cream, gingerbread syrup, and the half and half. Shake well and pour into martini glasses. Place a dollop of whipped cream on top and then place a gingerbread cookie on top of the whipped cream and serve.

Notes

- If you can't find gingerbread cookies, you can also use gingersnaps or Biscoff cookies.

Adapted from Hampton Roads Happy Hour

http://eat-drink-love.com/2012/12/gingerbread-martini/

Holiday Gifts for Foodies 2012

XMas 2012

With Christmas just 10 short days away, I thought I would give you guys a little list for some last-minute ideas for the foodies in your life! And the best part about all of these items is that they are $50 and under! So, get shopping!

1. Baker Nutcracker: $25 at Pier 1 Imports

Ever since I was little, I’ve always been crazy about these guys. This is probably because my mom would always take me to the ballet every Christmas. And seriously, how cute is this baker nutcracker?!

2. Tablet Kitchen Stand: $49.95 at Williams-Sonoma

This stand might be at the top of this list for me. I always have my iPad in the kitchen with me when I am trying out new recipes and this little stand is perfect! You can also purchase a blue-tooth speaker and screen protector to go with the stand (sold separately).

3. Cuisinart Immersion Hand Blender: $29-$39 at Amazon

I have been meaning to buy myself one of these and haven’t gotten around to it so it is also my list! It would be really useful for soups! And they come in such fun and pretty colors!

4. Conversion Dishtowel: $4.95 at Crate and Barrel

I’m really horrible with conversions. Like, the worst. So, how freakin’ cool and handy would this dishtowel be?!

5. Herb Keeper: $20 at Uncommon Goods

Though I have been meaning to plant my own herbs at my new place, I haven’t gotten around to it, so I am still buying them from the store. I really hate when I buy herbs, only need a little, and then basically have to throw the rest away because I can’t get to them fast enough. This little herb keeper would be great for making them last longer!

6. The OCD Cutting Board: $26 at Think Geek

Um, yes.

7. Merry Berry Soap and Lotion: $16 at Crate and Barrel

I’m pretty sure I had something similar on last year’s gift list, but I don’t care, I’m adding it again! During the holidays, you are probably washing way more dishes than normal and it’s colder outside. This soap and lotion set is perfect to keep next to your sink!

8. Utensil Earrings: $28 on Etsy

Ok, how cute are these utensil earrings I found on Etsy! Perfect for any cooking enthusiast!

9. Cake Pops Set: $45 at Amazon

I don’t have any kids yet, but this adorable cake pops set from the incredible Bakerella really makes me wish I did because these look like too much fun!! Maybe my husband will do this with me?!!

10. Sea Salt Caramels: $22 at Crate and Barrel

You can never go wrong with tasty candy for a foodie. These sets make great gifts for co-workers or teachers as well. Crate and Barrel and Williams-Sonoma both have a great variety of treats!

Butterballs

I’m so excited for today’s post. This year, I participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. This is the second year of the swap. The premise is simple, bake 3 dozen cookies and send them to three different bloggers. And in return, you get 3 dozen cookies from other other bloggers! Fun, right?!

I signed up without a clue of what I was going to make, I just knew I wanted to join in on the fun. After looking through 10 thousand different recipes, I settled on an old family favorite…Butterballs. Some of you may call them Snowballs. But, I call them Butterballs, so that’s what we’re going with here!

I bet you can’t guess the main ingredient in these cookies…it’s butter! Lots and lots of butter. So you know these are good. They are pretty simple to make. We usually just mix in some chopped walnuts in ours, but you can also add mini chocolate chips if you wanted.

I sent my cookies to three lovely bloggers: Linda of Tumbleweed Contessa, Carrie from Kiss My Whisk, and Kelli from The Corner Kitchen. Ladies, I hope these cookies made it to you safe and sound and that they were not in a million pieces!

Butterballs

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: About 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. butter, softened
  • 1 cup powdered sugar (plus extra for rolling the cookies in after they bake)
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 cup finely chopped nuts (walnuts)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Cream together the butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
  3. Sift together the flour and salt. Add the flour gradually to the butter and sugar mixture until well-combined.
  4. Blend in the vanilla and the walnuts using your hands. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes in the fridge or 15 minutes in the freezer.
  5. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat. Form the dough into balls (or into crescent shapes) and place on the baking sheet.
  6. Bake cookies for about 14-17 minutes or until a very light golden brown.
  7. Allow the cookies to cool slightly. While still warm, roll each one in extra powdered sugar.
http://eat-drink-love.com/2012/12/butterballs/

Yarn Wreaths

I’m back with yet another craft for you all today! I started making these yarn wreaths last year and now I can’t stop. They are just too much fun. I want one for every holiday!

Wrapping the yarn can be a little tedious, but I like to do it while I am watching tv or a movie. It’s a relaxing project and they look so cute when you are done! And they are way to cheaper to make than to buy at the store. I spotted some at Target today for $30, these will cost you half of that. And once you stock up on assorted colors of yarn, you only need to buy the wreath each time.

These would also make fun little gifts to give this holiday season!

Ok, here is what you need:

A foam wreath from the craft store. I usually go for the white ones, but my store was out so I just went with a floral green one. The wreaths also come in different sizes. Pick whichever you want. Make sure you get the smooth ones, not the really rough ones. Gosh, I’m so good at explaining this, aren’t I?

Yarn. Lots of yarn. And in lots of colors. Go crazy.

Pins.

Ribbons, felt, or whatever you want to decorate your wreath with! You can also use flowers or buttons. I have also made felt flowers and used buttons for the middle. Get creative!

Ok, so that’s what you need. A foam wreath, yarn, pins, and ribbon.

First, pick your first color and cut a piece of yarn to your desired length. You can do all of the colors the same length, or you can change it up. There is no wrong way to do this. Place one end of the piece of yarn on the inside of the wreath and pin into place.

Now wrap the yarn around the wreath. You want to try to wrap it so there are no gaps where the foam is showing. After I wrap each time, I push the yarn to the side up against the side where I started wrapping and make it nice and tight. Once you reach the other end, pin that side down.

Now it’s time to move onto your next color. Just like the first color, take one end, pin into place, wrap, pin the other end. Rinse and repeat.

If there are any pieces of yarn sticking out, you can just pin it down. Ok, so after you finish wrapping your yarn, it’s time to decorate! Again, there is no wrong way to do this. I like to wrap mine with ribbon and then from there, I do different things.

Here are two Christmas wreaths I have done:

And because I am way too lazy to go break out my Halloween decorations, here is an Instagram pic I posted of one of my Halloween wreaths.

For the Halloween wreath and the snowman wreath, I bought sheets of felt at the craft store. Cut two equal shapes that I wanted (snowman, ghost, spider, pumpkin). Then I hand stitched around each one about 3/4 of the way around the edges, stuffed cotton balls inside, stitched up the rest. Then I made their faces!

For the Santa one, that is also made with felt, but it was a little kit I spotted at Michaels and I just glued it together.

So, the possibilities are endless! Have fun with it!

Magic Bars

Ok y’all, today’s post is gonna start off a little mushy. First, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for buzzing my Cranberry Orange Bars to the Top 9 on Foodbuzz today!! This is my first time to get in the Top 9 and I couldn’t be more excited! I have met so many wonderful friends from Foodbuzz and I am so thankful for each and every one of you!!

Alright now that we got that out of the way, we can talk about these Magic Bars. Every year, my Aunt Renée makes a bunch of cookies for Christmas and she always sends a big platter of them home with us. I will say that of all the cookies on the tray, the magic bars are probably the favorite in the family and are usually the first ones to disappear. Part of this might be because she is stingy with giving us the magic bars as my cousins try to hoard them for themselves (*insert evil snicker as I know they might be reading this ;) ). So anyway, once we bring the tray home and unwrap the plastic wrap, there are usually only like 4 or 5 magic bars on the tray. What the heck is up with that, yo?!

This year, Hubs and I will be traveling to California to spend Christmas with his family. I’m excited to spend time with them and I am REALLY excited because I finally get to meet my adorable little nephew who was born at the end of July! But going to Cali means I won’t be going home to Cleveland and won’t get to fight it out for the magic bars so when I decided to make a cookie tray of my own for my lab’s holiday party this weekend, magic bars needed to be on it!!

Classic Magic Bars

From Eagle Brand®

Makes about 24 bars

Ingredients:

– 1/2 cup butter, melted

– 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

– 1 14-ounce can sweetened and condensed milk

– 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

– 1 1/3 cups shredded coconut

– Optional: 3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the melted butter and the graham cracker crumbs until it is fully moistened by the butter. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Add the crumbs to the pan, spread evenly and push down to form a crust. Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the crust. Then layer with the chocolate chips and then the coconut. Press down with a fork. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until the top is golden brown. I recommend letting the bars cool before cutting.

Suggested variations:
- Sprinkles (though, the nonpareils I used started to bleed so I’m not sure I would use them again).
- M&M’s (use red and green for the holidays!)
- Dried fruit – cranberries, raisins, etc.
- Butterscotch or peanut butter chips (OR, mix the chocolate and PB chips! YUM!)

Cranberry Orange Bars


Unless this is your first visit, you may have noticed my blog looking pretty different. I finally was able to transfer to a new host over the weekend and while the transfer process itself was pretty painless, it didn’t really occur to me that my layout would not go with it! Imagine my surprise to learn that I would have to re-do everything! I don’t know why I was surprised, I read that before, but I just forgot. So, this is what you get in 24 hours folks! I hope you like it! Over the next couple of weeks, I will be tweaking some things and will be adding some new features so stay tuned!

Now, onto the good stuff, these cranberry orange bars! I have a holiday party to go to at my advisor’s house this weekend and agreed to bring dessert. I decided on a cookie tray so I hope you all like cookies! I also hope you like cranberries because I have a lot of them in my freezer to use up! Since I am so busy during the week because of work and school, I wanted to get a head start by baking some of the cookies and freezing them until the weekend. These cranberry bars are sweet and tangy. They are also pretty easy to make!

Cranberry Orange Bars

Makes about 24 bars

Ingredients:

– 1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries

– 1 small orange, zested and juiced

– 3/4 cup water

– 1 cup sugar

– 1 box yellow cake mix

– 1 cup rolled oats

– 3/4 cups butter, melted

– 2 eggs

– Optional: 1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. You’re basically going to start off by making cranberry sauce! In a saucepan, add the water and sugar. Stir until the sugar is absorbed. Add the rinsed cranberries, along with the orange juice and zest. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the cranberries pop and the mixture begins to thicken. Pour into a bowl and let cool completely (at least 1 hour).

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, add the cake mix, oats, melted butter, eggs, and cinnamon. Mix until everything is well-combined. Set aside about 1 1/2 cups of the mixture. In a 9×13 baking dish, spray with non-stick spray. With the remaining batter, spread and push down into pan, forming a crust.

3. Spread the cooled cranberry sauce evenly over the “crust”. Then, with the 1 1/2 cups of batter you reserved, drop it by the spoonful evenly over the mixture. Then, with a knife or spoon, gently try to push down and spread some of each spoonful so it’s not as thick. You do not need to cover all of the cranberries and try to avoid pushing the batter down into the cranberry sauce. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let the bars cool for at least 2 hours before cutting into bars (trust me on that one!)!

 

 

Notes:
- If you want to try to make this sugar-free, then you can used Stevia or Splenda for the cranberry sauce. As for the cake mixture, look for sugar-free or no-sugar added cake mixes in your grocery store or in health food stores!

Holiday Gifts For Foodies

Gifts for Foodies

With the holidays rapidly approaching, I thought I would make a list of some of my favorite holiday gifts for foodies! Not sure about you guys, but at least half the items that are on my wishlist are cooking and blog related. I’ve scoured all of my favorite sites and compiled a list of some of my favorite things. And best of all, all of these items are $50 or less! Happy Shopping!

1. Amazon.com: Oster FPSTBW8207-S Electric Wine-Bottle Opener, Silver:…
$20 - amazon.com

This electric wine opener is the perfect gift for wine enthusiasts! It’s durable and works really well! I know this because I have given it to friends and family myself and everybody seems to love it!

 2. 3-Piece Snowflake Bowl Set in Christmas Entertaining | Crate&Barrel
$20 - crateandbarrel.com

I love these bowls!! I love the big, bright snowflake print and they would be perfect for baking and serving festive treats for the holidays!

3. Santa’s Elves Cookie Mix
$12 - crateandbarrel.com

Not only is this cookie mix cute and tasty, but it makes great gifts for co-workers or teachers. Crate and Barrel has a ton of other different types of baking mixes and candies that would also make great gifts on their own or in a gift basket!

4. Chanukah Salad Plates, Set of 4 | Williams-Sonoma
$40 - williams-sonoma.com

Um, how awesome are those menorah salad plates?! I love the beautiful blue color! These would be perfect for anyone that throws a lot of parties and can be used for not just salads, but appetizers and desserts!

5. Winter Berry Hand Soap & Lotion | Williams-Sonoma
$40 – williams-sonoma.com

Foodies do a lot of cooking and baking. This also means we do a lot of dish washing and in the colder months, this could lead to dry and chapped hands! This hand soap and lotion will keep hands clean, soft, and smelling just lovely! :)

6. Amazon.com: Cuisinart DLC-2ABC Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor, Brushed…
$40 - amazon.com or surlatable.com

While this mini-food processor may not be large enough for soups, it is perfect for dips, pesto, and salsas! (um, hello brownie batter dip!!). It also comes in tons of bright and fun colors! You can get them on Amazon or Sur La Table.

7. Amazon.com: Cuisinart CFO-3SS Electric Fondue Maker: Home & Garden
$46 - amazon.com
This fondue pot is by far one of my most favorite things in my kitchen.  Hubs and I love making fondue. This pot is easy to use and clean and all you have to do is plug it in! I use it for cheese, meat, and dessert fondue!

8. Large Holiday Baker
$20 - crateandbarrel.com

Us foodies can never have enough baking dishes. We love them in all shapes and sizes! Add a fun color and we love them even more!

9. Red Double Swirl Glassware
$6 - pier1.com

I’m not sure about you guys, but I could always use extra wine glasses. I love these festive glasses from Pier 1!

10. Froth & Pour Hot Chocolate Pot | Williams-Sonoma
$30 - williams-sonoma.com

Here’s a gift the whole family can enjoy! This awesome little pot blends, and froths hot chocolate for you and then all you have to do is stick in the microwave to heat it up!

What items are on YOUR holiday wishlist??