Whoopie Goldberg Pies

I have a new obsession...whoopie pies!! Who knew they were so easy to make. I was on foodnetwork.com looking up delicious Easter treats and a recipe for carrot cake whoopie pies came up. The beauty of this recipe is you can substitute with any cake mix and with any frosting.

Ingredients:
Carrot cake mix
A stick of softened unsalted butter
3 eggs
Grated carrots (optional)
Walnuts (optional)
A can of cream cheese frosting

Preheat the oven to 375. Put the mix, butter, carrots, walnuts and eggs in a bowl and beat until combined. Put the bowl in the fridge for about 30 minutes. The batter has to be a bit hard or it won't set right. Take the bowl out of the fridge and with an ice cream scooper, drop scoops of the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Throw it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until set. Let them cool completely, put a healthy amount of frosting on the bottom of 2 cakes and squish them together to make a whoopie pie!! You can put raisins or nuts on the frosting before squishing, but I decided not to. I made this same recipe with lemon cake mix and lemon frosting and put coconut flakes on top of the frosting before squishing the 2 sides together. Happy Easter!!!

Asian Persuasion

I made an Asian-themed dinner last night and half of it turned out pretty good. I made salmon and bok choy on the grill with a yummy sauce but it stuck to the grill and wasn't very pretty. I also made fried rice, which I will post later today.I got all the recipes from Rachael Ray's magazine :)
For an appetizer, I made fried bok choy ravioli

Ingredients
1 cup oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
8 ounces bok choy, stems chopped and leaves shredded
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Wonton wrappers (you can find them at Ralphs)

Directions
In skillet, heat 1 tbsp. oil over medium; cook onion, bok stems and garlic until soft, 7 minutes. Add bok leaves and cook 1 minute; season. Add heaping tsp. to wrappers, moisten edges and fold to seal. In skillet, heat remaining oil; fry ravioli until golden.

Salami and Apricot Scones

This is going to sound kinda gross, but I promise you it's delicious. I saw the recipe on Giada at Home on Food Network and I was intrigued. The way I look at it is, I love salami and dried apricots together on a cheese plate, so why wouldn't they be delicious in a flaky scone? You can make the scone dough from scratch, but why bother when there are some great mixes out there. I actually got an apricot scone mix at Gelson's. I followed the directions on the box, but instead of 3/4 cup of water, I added 3/4 cup of buttermilk. It comes with dried apricots, but I added my own as well to give it that extra tang, about 1/4 cup. Then I diced up some salami into very little bite-sized pieces and added them to the mix. I then added a teaspoon of dried thyme and a teaspoon of dried rosemary. Then spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and follow the directions on the box to bake. It's a sweet and savory treat that's surprisingly tasty!

Valentine's Day Treats

I wanted to make something fun and different to bring to work this Valentine's Day. I did some thinking and decided to make red velvet cake and then use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make individual heart-shaped treats for people. You can make the red velvet cake from scratch, but I just used a boxed cake mix from the store. I made 2 cakes with one box. I wanted the cakes to be a bit thinner than a normal cake so it would be easier to use the cookie cutter. After the cakes have cooled, take the cookie cutter and start cutting out the heart shapes. Once you have a platter of mini heart-shaped cakes, put vanilla or cream cheese frosting on each one and decorate as you see fit. I got pink frosting with heat shaped sprinkles. You can be as creative as you want with this one, folks!

Before frosting



After frosting

Crock Pot Roasted Lemon Chicken

I have joined the rest of America and have become a crock pot user. My wonderful mother got me one for Christmas and I am obsessed. It's so easy and stress free. I'm guessing my next few posts will all be crock pot recipes. You're welcome. My first stab at it was turkey chili, but it didn't turn out as I had hoped, so I am not posting it . My buddy, Stacie, said it might be because I kept taking the lid off to stir. I have a lot to learn about the all-mighty crock pot! And now, I present to you....ROASTED LEMON CHICKEN

Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken
butter
thyme
salt
pepper
paprika
rosemary
1 lemon

Rub the outside of the chicken with butter and sprinkle on the spices. squeeze the juice of one lemon over the chicken and throw it in the crockpot. High for 4-5 hours or low for 8-10 and you're ready to eat. Soooo easy and so delicious

Pumpkin Pie Martinis

This drink was a huge hit at dinner tonight. It literally tastes like punkin pie in a glass.

You can switch it up a bit, but here is how i made it...
I put the ingredients below in a shaker with ice and poured it into martini glasses rimmed with graham cracker crumbs and then topped it with a dollop of whipped cream and a dried cranberry:
3 shots of whipped cream flavored vodka (if you can't find whipped cream flavor, vanilla works too)
3 shots of Fulton's Harvest Pumpkin Pie Cream Liqueur
a splash of cream or milk
a dash of pumpkin pie spice (if you don't have any, cinnamon will do)
a tsp of Trader Joe's Pumpkin butter

You won't be able to drink just one!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Hello pals- It's been a hot minute since I've added recipes to this blog and I thought Thanksgiving would be the perfect day to get back into it. I'd like to introduce you to pumpkin cheesecake...you're welcome

what you need
9 ounces of either chocolate wafers, graham crackers or ginger snaps (or a mixture of 2 or 3- I used graham crackers and ginger snaps)
1/4 cup sugar
6 tbs melted butter
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs slightly beaten
5 ounces evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbs cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
pinch of salt
8 ounces of marscapone or cream cheese (I prefer marscapone- it's sweeter)

for crust
1- preheat oven to 350
2- crush your wafers, graham crackers or ginger snaps 'til they are pretty fine (I put them in a plastic baggy and take a hammer to 'em)
3- mix the crushed cookies with 1/4 cup sugar and melted butter
4- spray a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray and press the cookie mixture into the bottom of the pan
5- bake the crust 8-10 minutes and let cool completely before putting the filling in

for filling
1- in a bowl combine pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and evaporated milk
2- in a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup of sugar, cornstarch, spices, salt and cheese and beat until mixture is smooth
3-add pumpkin mixture to cheese mixture and beat on low until combined and smoove

bake this bad boy
1- place springform pan with crust on a baking sheet (in case it leaks) and add filling
2- bake at 350 for about an hour or until center is set
3- let cool for about 30 minutes, cover and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!!