Apple Cobbler

Tags

apple cobbler, dessert, food, recipe

This recipe for apple cobbler comes to you from Food Network. I made it for Mother’s Day, and it turned out oh so delicious! I highly recommend it. It was easy, tasty, and well-liked! And I have just a few appley photos for you…

Look at that golden crust…

Songs For Sound

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cake, dessert, event, nashville, songs for sound

This weekend, I had the privilege to help out a local fundraiser by donating some of my baking skills. I made nearly 300 cake bites for Songs for Sound, at the Franklin Factory. Songs for Sound is a non-profit aimed at supporting cochlear implant awareness and resource availability.

The event was really great, with local musicians, great food, and plenty of drinks. Here’s a quick shot from my phone of the dessert display – I did not make cupcakes, but I would say my cake bites were a big hit!

And here are a few up close shots from before the event! I am currently working on a website, and cannot wait to share it with you all. But here are a few teasers for the time being…

Golden Birthday Cake Bites

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birthday, cake bites, godlen birthday, tasty tuesday, yellow cake

I had a fun little request last week from Sara – she turned 26 on the 26th! As you probably know, that means a GOLDEN BIRTHDAY! I have fond memories of my golden birthday, when I turned 7 in Ms. Heinz’s 1st grade class. Oh yes, I really DO remember it well.

Any, when she requested some cake treats, two things came to mind: 1) birthday = sprinkles, and 2) GOLD! So I made a yellow cake filling with colorful sprinkles, and added a gold touch with sprinkles and even a little golden coating on some of them. And here are the sweet results:

Is it bad that I didn’t know there was such a thing as “edible color mist?” I only used it on a few of them, because I was afraid I wouldn’t like it, but it seemed to work pretty well. I believe you are supposed to use it on icing (like for cupcakes or cookies) but it worked on candy coating as well!

The yellow cake center was a success as well. It wasn’t as rich as my chocolate cakes, but it was still quite sweet, particularly for those folks who don’t love chocolate (yes, they exist).

All in all, another cake success!

Giant Cake Bite Experiment

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cake balls, cake bites, food, recpie, tasty tuesday

So these aren’t really cake bites…they are more like five-to-six-bite-cakes. I did a little recipe experimenting this weekend, and wanted to see how these babies would work out. And they were DELICIOUS, totally from scratch. However I made them far too large…like HUGE. So lesson learned there.

But in spite of their enormousness, I did shoot a few little pictures for you. Can you taste them from where you’re sitting? I sure can!

I even practiced my music notes, since I’ll be making oh, like, a few hundred of these puppies for the upcoming Songs for Sound event. If you have never made cake balls/bites/pops, I highly encourage you to try! Here are some basic instructions for you.

 

A New Lens! {And Cake}

Tags

cake, dessert, food, photography, tasty tuesday

I did not make this cake:

My roomie Katy made it, and you can get her recipe here. But it so happened that we cut into it the VERY SAME DAY that I got my wonderful new camera lens, so this became my first subject. It’s a 50mm f/1.8 and it is beautiful and wonderful. Can you see the depth of field in these pictures or what?

I mean…I just cannot wait to use it more!!

And here is the cake that I made for Easter, before I had my new lens to take pictures of it…

Cookie Dough Dip {The Healthy Kind}

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dessert, food, health, recipe, tasty tuesday

Well, I’ve attempted Chocolate Covered Katie’s cookie dough dip recipe. And what’s it made of? Oh that’s right…chickpeas. Now don’t get me wrong…I didn’t make it exactly “low-cal,” but I do like to think it’s a lot lower cal than eating real cookie dough. I followed Katie’s recipe – I used natural peanut butter, real brown sugar (yes, the full amount), and even a smidgen more than 1/3 cup of chocolate chips. And it was delicious. And it was worth it. I have to say, I’m impressed by the texture and the flavor. If I brought this to a party, and you ate it, you wouldn’t even think about it. I promise.

So really, scoot on over there and try it! This concoction was very sweet, and I think next time I could even go with a lot less sugar. But it was SO GOOD! Seriously…try it.

Guilt-Free Brownies {Trader Joe’s}

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chocolate, dessert, food, tasty tuesday, trader joes

This weekend, I finally made the box-mix brownies that have been living in my pantry. When I saw this fat-free chocolate promise at the store, I had to try it. And I’m so glad I did! I highly recommend these brownies – you’ll notice there are no pictures of the final product because they disappeared so quickly both with my boyfriend and in my tummy. So next time you’re at TJ’s, pick these suckers up!

Valentine Chocolate Scones

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brunch, chocolate, coffee, dessert, recipe, scone, tasty tuesday, valentine

Happy Love Day, people!

I must admit – I love heart shaped things, and so when I had an itch to bake some scones this weekend, I chose to break out the heart cookie cutter rather than cut them into typical boring triangles. That said, I bring you chocolate scones…in the shape of hearts.

This recipe comes from Sharon O’Conner, found in this sweet little box of recipes my mom gave me a while back. I considered tossing in some dried cherries for Vday, but ultimately decided to keep it simple. If you don’t already know this, scones are absolutely one of my favorite treats. It’s something about how they are slightly dry, yet chewy and smooth.

And so, here you are: Chocolate Scones

Ingredients
1 egg
1/2 c. heavy cream or half and half
1 t. vanilla extract
1 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/3 c. cold, unsalted butter, cut into bits

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg, cream, and vanilla together until blended; set aside.

In a larger bowl, stir the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and salt until combines. Using your fingers (or a pastry blender or knives), combine the butter with the flour mixture until it resembles course crumbs.

Add the flour mixture to the cream mixture and stir until the dough just comes together; do not overmix. I like to use my hands to combine the last final bit.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a 1/2-inch-thick round; cut into 8 wedges OR use a cookie cutter and get creative

Transfer cones to a baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes (this will depend on how big your scones are), or until firm on the edges and a little soft in the center.

YUM!

Buffalo Chicken Skewers

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buffalo chicken, chicken, dinner, food, recipe, tasty tuesday

Over the weekend, Jonathan and I experimented with a new way to make buffalo chicken. We wanted to keep it simple and tasty, and we succeeded! So here, I give you are very experimental yet delicious Buffalo Chicken Skewers.

We bought 2 packs of chicken tenderloin strips (to make six skewers). Laying the strips out between two sheets of plastic, use a meat tenderizer to flatten out the strips (or, an actual hammer if you are at your boyfriend’s house). Place your chicken in a large bowl, and add salt, pepper, and all sorts of seasonings (I think we used basil, oregano, italian seasoning, a dash of cinnamon, and some red pepper flakes). He also added in a splace of apple cider vinegar just because. Make sure you turning and tossing your chicken so they are evenly coated in all the delicious seasonings. Then go ahead and add in buffalo wing sauce until well coated. Feel free to add a few dashes of hot sauce, depending on your hot sauce tolerance.

We then allowed the chicken to marinade in the fridge for a couple hours, while we let the skewers soak in the sink. When you are ready to stick ‘em, you will weave three strips on each stick – you can sort of see in the picture above how they should look. I just went accordian style so that each piece of chicken was secure on the stick. then bake at 375 or 400 for about 15 minutes. They should cook through pretty quickly since they are thin, but be sure they are fully done!

Eat them with a little blue cheese dressing and BLAM, delicious, juicy chicken with a buffalo flavor. Yum!

Personal Pizzas {Girls’ Night}

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cooking, food, personal pizza, pizza, recipe, tasty tuesday

So, this isn’t rocket science. And really, it’s not even a recipe. But I just have to suggest that if you need an easy, inexpensive meal for 2-10 people, you should go with personal pizzas. For our recent girls’ night (for 7) we did just this. I bought three packages of whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe’s, and divided each into thirds. Each of us flattened and garnished our own veggie pizzas…and what did I do with the extra 2/3 dough? Oh, I flattened it, topped it with a little oil and cheese, baked it, and we all pulled at it as we sat around the table, drinking wine and giggling post dinner. Delish.

It is just so easy, and required little prep on my part. So as everyone got there, we stood around the kitchen, drinking wine and eating an appetizer while we each decorated our own little pizza. Then while they baked, we sat in the living room and talked and drank wine. Are you sensing a theme? *hint: the theme is wine.*

So the next time you are planning a little dinner, make pizzas! Your friends can bring a salad, appetizer, dessert…and wine.