The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's that time again. The holidays. This year, Justin and I hosted Thanksgiving in our tiny flat. We brined a 13 pound turkey for three days before roasting it along with sausage-sage stuffing, green beans with candied bacon, and mashed potatoes with gravy made from homemade turkey stock. For dessert, I made a chocolate pudding pie with an almond crust {recipe below!}

Pudding. Yum.

Almond crust with mini chocolate chips. It tastes like a cookie, but is gluten-free and low fat (shhh)

Baby Jonathan (my brother's kid) indulged maybe a little too much.

Now, it's time to turn our focus onto Christmas. This December 1st, it feels nowhere near the holidays at 60 degrees. I'm wearing shorts. And a T-shirt. In winter. Something is very wrong with that.

Nevertheless, a balmy start to the season won't stop us from cranking on the holiday cheer.

I took some branches from the holly bush outside my house, plopped them into a vase, and added a candle. Here it is in daylight:

And at night:

Remember when I made that tray with leftover wine corks? 

I went to Michael's a couple weeks ago, I had a plan to make a wine cork wreath. When I was checking out, I told the woman behind the counter my idea (the procedure to do so, of course, confirmed with a Google search). She asked if I had ordered the wine corks online.

Um. No.

She asked because you might need about, oh, 200 corks to do this.

For this project, just hot-glue 150 wine corks (I guess you could order them online) to a straw wreath. Add a pretty bow. Presto. Easy enough for me to do it!

Darla, of course, is fully embracing the entire tradition.

 

Happy Holidays, Readers. 

-Katie

Chocolate Pudding Pie with and Almond Crust

Ingredients
For the filling:
1 - 5.1 oz instant chocolate pudding (I used fat-free, sugar free)
Skim milk
1 container Cool Whip (I used fat-free, sugar free)
1 tsp instant coffee

For the crust:
1.5 cups almond meal (available at Trader Joe's)
3 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. For the crust: mix the melted butter and the almond meal. Mix together until moist. Add chocolate chips and mix. Press into a pie plate. Bake for 15-20 minutes or so until golden brown.
3. For the filling: measure out the proper amount of milk for the directions on the packet of pudding. Add instant coffee and dissolve. Add pudding mix and whip until firm. Add half the container of Cool Whip.
4. When the crust is cooled, pour in the pie filling. Let it set in the fridge over night. The day of your event, freeze the pie for an hour to harden. While you're eating dinner, let it defrost on the counter so it's just right.

A Mother's Day Treat: Dr. Pepper Cupcakes

My mom is a Dr. Pepper freak. And she's a trekkie. So yesterday (Saturday), I made her Dr. Pepper cupcakes and took her to the Star Trek exhibition/movie at the St. Louis Science Center. In a way, my mom was a hipster before anyone else was a hipster.

The Dr. Pepper cupcake recipe I found on Pinterest had a ton of ingredients that I didn't really feel like buying, so I just tweaked it around to make it a lot easier. Originally, the recipe called for grated licorice and apple flavoring...who's going to buy that for one batch of cupcakes?

Not me. These may not have turned out tasting exactly like DP, but they're pretty close! I reckon you could do this with any of your favorite sodas as well.

{Printable Recipe}
Ingredients
cake:
1 box chocolate cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup Dr. Pepper

icing:
6-8 cups powdered sugar (buy a few boxes to be safe)
1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup Dr. Pepper reduction (see below)
1/2 tsp vanilla
dash nutmeg
pinch of finely ground pepper
2 tbsp Dr. Pepper

DP Reduction:

2 cups Dr. Pepper

3/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the ingredients for the cake mix, scoop into lightly-greased cupcake liners, and bake until you can stick a toothpick in them and it comes out clean.

For the Dr. Pepper reduction: Bring the soda and sugar to a boil and then reduce to a simmer until it's evaporated by half. 

For the icing: whip the butter until smooth, then add the vanilla, nutmeg, pepper, and Dr. Pepper. Slowly incorporate the sugar until it starts getting fluffy and icing-like. Add the reduction. Icing is very forgiving. If it's too runny, add more sugar. If it's too stiff, add more Dr. Pepper reduction.

Let the cupcakes cool completely before icing.

Happy Mother's Day!

-Katie

Baby Shower Treats: Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Truffles

I recently found out that I have the pleasure of catering my cousin's baby shower this month. I am so excited! I love catering for family events. A couple years ago Justin and I catered his uncle's wedding (about 50 people) and a few months ago I threw a surprise baby shower for my sister-in-law Callie.

My cousin Erin is having a little girl, Lucy. How adorable is that name, by the way? I'm starting to think about menu ideas, and while I don't want to jump the gun (I haven't actually gone over the ideas with Erin), I have a few recipes up my sleeve to start.

Truffles make a scrumptious and easy party favor. I made chocolate Oreo truffles for Callie's shower, and this time I thought I'd switch it up and do something a little different for Erin. Besides, we can make these truffles pink, and who doesn't love all things pink and sweet?

Incidentally, it's also National Truffle Day, which really must mean the stars are aligning for me today. Kismet!

Check back here soon for more baby shower recipe ideas!

{Printable Recipe}
Ingredients
1 package golden Oreos
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
1 bag white chocolate (or dark chocolate if you prefer)
5-6 drops red food coloring
2 tsp fruit jam (raspberry or blackberry work well)

Procedure

This is stupid easy. Grind up the Oreos in a food processor until fine.

Add cream cheese and jam. Whir it up.

Let this mixture sit in the fridge for an hour or so, just to harden a little. Afterwards, roll the mixture into  little balls, about a tablespoon's worth.

Let these chill in the fridge for an hour or in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Melt the chocolate. You can do this over a double boiler or in the microwave. Just be careful not to overheat the chocolate or it'll burn on you.

If you want to use white chocolate, add a few drops at a time of the food coloring until you get the right pink color. If you are using the dark chocolate, skip the food coloring.

Take the truffles and dip them in the chocolate, working quickly. If the cream cheese starts to soften just pop them back into the fridge for ten minutes.

Once they're covered, pop them back into the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

I think baby Lucy is going to like these!

-Katie

Because I Can: Homemade Nutella

I was originally going to call this blog "The Back Burner," since I tend to procrastinate from my responsibilities by cooking — and because I thought it was really clever and cute.

The name might not have stuck, but the truth is that I should be editing my thesis right now, and instead I'm making homemade Nutella. I'm not sure why — Nutella is relatively cheap compared the strange ingredients I'd have to buy to make it from scratch, so I'm not sure it's cost-effective. I have no idea what the nutrition is for hazelnuts, either, so I'm not sure it's any healthier, either.

But lo, anything but real work. Maybe eating homemade Nutella by the spoonful will help me get through bouts of self-loathing later when I'm hurriedly scrambling to submit my thesis in a few weeks' time.

Ingredients
{Printable recipe}
1.5 cups whole hazelnuts
1 12-oz bag semisweet chocolate chips
1.5 cups skim milk
3/4 cup powdered milk (found next to evaporated & condensed milk)
1 tbsp honey or agave nectar
pinch salt

Preparation

Roast the hazelnuts at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until they look browned. 

Mine looked almost burnt.

Whoops.

While the hazelnuts are toasting, warm up the milk, powdered milk, and honey in a saucepan. Powdered milk is probably one of the weirdest things I've ever bought. What the heck am I going to do with the rest of it? Hm — I'll have to get creative.

Looks sort of retro

When the hazelnuts are done, roll them around in a kitchen towel to get all the skins off.

Throw them in a food processor and blend until they're very smooth, like natural peanut butter.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips. Do it in short increments in the microwave. Melt half the chocolate chips first, then pour the rest in to let the residual heat melt them as well (I learned that from Ina Garten … not personally, though). 

Zap them for a few more seconds if you need to.

Pour the melted chocolate in with the hazelnut butter. 

When combined, scrape down the sides of the processor and pour in the milk mixture a little at a time until smooth and incorporated.

It's finished! Let it cool and store in mason jars. I don't know if you have to refrigerate this Nutella, but since it doesn't have any preservatives, I would just in case.

Divine. I'll worry about guilt later.

Oh My Guinness: Stout brownies

It wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day without a tall glass of Guinness stout. When Justin and I went to Dublin for Spring Break while studying abroad in Rome, we went to the Guinness factory.

 

  

I've alway loved the coffee-chocolate undertones of the beer, so it seemed like a good idea to put it in some brownies. I did a little research, and found a recipe from Godiva.com. I tweaked it a little, and came up with these.

{Printable Recipe}

Ingredients

1 12-oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

4 large eggs

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 cup Guinness stout

6 tbsp butter

Preparation

Whip together the sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.

Set up a double boiler. This basically means a pot of simmering water with a large bowl on top.

Put the chocolate and butter in the double boiler and stir occasionally until melty and delicious.

I have to admit, I nibbled on this a bit. So good. Seriously, I wish I had a kiddie pool full of this stuff. It tastes like fudge.

 Dollop the mixture into the eggs and sugar. Whip it up until smooth.

Sift together the flour and cocoa powder; mix into the batter.

Soooo gooood.

Pour in the beer. Mix.

Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until you can stick a toothpick through it and it comes out clean.

This is my kind of St. Patty's Day treat.

-Katie