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Archive for ‘sweet’

April 12th, 2012

Cafe Dumonde in New Orleans, LA

On our road trip across the southern USA we stopped in New Orleans.

Hubs LOVES New Orleans. He LOVES The Saints football team, LOVES Cajun food, and he LOVES fleur de lis covered anything.

I LOVE hubs.

Despite my extreme morning all-day sickness, I accompanied him to all the Cajun hot spots and walked up and down the French Quarter for hours.  In return I got to have breakfast here:

Oh you know how bread and sugar make me happy!  I think this was hubs’ first time here… I was pretty excited about showing him something new in New Orleans, something he had not already discovered!
It was a cloudy day (that later turned into a downpour which left us begging cab drivers to stop and pick us up) and so I thought ordering a warm cup of hot chocolate was a great way to start the day.

Yes, that cup of hot chocolate was divine. Sooooo delish!

Hubs and I only ordered one plate of beignets since I wasn’t sure how little baby inside would handle it.  Turns out he is totally my baby because he LOVED it!  Still, I only had one just to go easy.

I kinda wish I didn’t!

On our way out of New Orleans we actually stopped at another Cafe Dumonde location and although the location wasn’t nearly as fun as the French Quarter location, the food was just the same and the wait was 100% shorter!  Have you been to Cafe Dumonde? What did you think?

Now if I could only get a good recipe to make beignets…

Categorybreakfast, eating out, experiences with food, restaurants, sweet, travel | Comment6 Comments »

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December 23rd, 2011

crispy peanut butter butterscotch treats

These treats are an all-time favorite for the hubs and the recipe is from my sweet mother-in-law. I’ve never been a huge fan of butterscotch, but even I sneak a bite or two of these crispy butterscotch treats! They are super simple to make, and they only take about 10 minutes plus cooling time. Sometimes I even add extra peanut butter because…well, you know…we love peanut butter in this house!

crispy peanut butter butterscotch treats

Cook Time: 7 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 12 squares

Ingredients

  • 1 package (12 oz) butterscotch chips
  • 1 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 6 cups crispy rice cereal (I used Rice Krispies)

Cooking Directions

  1. Melt butterscotch chips with peanut butter in a heavy sauce pan over low heat; stir until well blended. Remove from heat.
  2. Add crispy rice cereal; stir until well coated with butterscotch mixture.
  3. Press into a buttered 9x9 inch pan. Let stand in a cool place until firm.
  4. Cut into squares and serve.

What I love about basic desserts/treats like these (besides the instant gratification) is that the number of variations on the recipe are endless. For example, if you don’t like butterscotch, you could easily swap out the butterscotch chips for white chocolate chips. Or even chocolate chips! Or, you could go really overboard with the peanut butter (which by the way I’m convinced is not possible in this home) and use peanut butter chips.

See? Possibilities. Endless.

How would you make these? Just like they are? Or would you change it up a bit?

Categorypeanut butter, recipe, sweet | Comment5 Comments »

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December 12th, 2011

white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies

A few months back I was tweeting and Julie of The Little Kitchen responded to one of my tweets encouraging me to sign up for the First Annual Food Blogger Cookie Swap! She and Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil combined forced to host the event this year.

The deal was if I were to make a dozen cookies for each of 3 other people and send them, in return I would receive 3 dozen (total) cookies, in 3 different varieties.

3 dozen cookies?

Yes, please!

For my cookies I chose to make a new recipe, one I had not made before:

I said a little prayer that they’d follow suite of my good culinary adventures and that they’d be tasty and eagerly welcomed.

They were.

I found the recipe from Martha, and modified it to substitute cranberries for apricots.

white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies

Yield: 4 to 5 dozen

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (uncooked)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light-brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 8 oz white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
  • 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Cooking Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix flour, oatmeal, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Cream butter and sugars with a mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs, and beat until well combined, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture gradually, beating until just combined. Stir in chocolate and cranberries. Cover, and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
  3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are golden brown around the edges but still soft in the center, 14 to 16 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

I mailed my freshly baked creations in little red and white tins, padded with lots of bubble wrap and crumpled magazine pages, to ensure minimal cookie crumbling, of course.

Then I waited. 

I waited patiently for my 3 dozen cookies to arrive, a delicious dozen by dozen.

And they did.

First I got a batch from Life of a Bama Girl; she made these cinnamon flavored pinwheels that were down right addictive! They were tiny and scrumptious, I had to exercise major self control to not eat the whole box in one sitting.

The second batch was close to my heart, and my thought processes! From My Sweet Heart sent me Cherry White Chocolate Oatmeal cookies, sound familiar? They were the same flavor combination I used in my cookies, only cherries instead of cranberries! They were a winner and I will have to make these very soon! I guess those of us who love to bake think alike…

The third, and much anticipated  box, arrived when my hubs and I were on our way out of town. They came from Mother Thyme and were a perfect road trip cookie: white chocolate cookies with a peppermint glaze. I guess white chocolate is the new milk chocolate? Or has milk chocolate already been usurped by dark chocolate? Either way, these cookies were fantastic! The minty glaze complimented the white chocolate perfectly and was so light it made you feel slightly less guilty for eating them before dinner.

Slightly.

If you missed it this year’s swap, I highly encourage you to sign up for next year’s swap, I know I will!

Categoryfood, recipe, sweet | Comment12 Comments »

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November 22nd, 2011

cranberry walnut bread with a citrus glaze

Mmmm, nothing says comfort food like bread, and nothing says holiday time like cranberries!  This quick bread is so delicious I ate an entire loaf by myself.

Seriously.

When you see how easy it is to make, I’m sure you’ll have 2 loafs baking in your oven at any given time over the next two months.

Or at the very least you won’t be surprised when I give you a loaf for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Cranberry Walnut Bread with Citrus Glaze

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, cold & cut into chunks
  • 1 tsp freshly grated orange zest
  • 3/4 cup orange juice
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup cranberries, coarsely chopped
  • 1/3 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • 4 lemons juiced
  • 1 - 2 cups confectioner's sugar

Cooking Directions

  1. The Bread
  2. Preheat oven to 350F.
  3. In a food processor blend the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and the butter until the mixture resembles meal. Transfer the mixture into a large bowl.
  4. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange zest, juice, and the egg. Add this mixture to the flour mixture and stir the batter until just combined.
  5. Fold in the cranberries and the walnuts and transfer the batter to a greased 9x5 loaf pan (or 4 smaller loaf pans).
  6. Bake for 75 minutes, checking after 50 minutes. Remove when toothpick comes out clean.
  7. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert it onto a cooling rack and turn it right side up.
  8. The Glaze
  9. In a small bowl combine the zest and juice. Whisk in confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup at a time until the right consistency and taste. Once smooth, pour over warm loaf and serve.

Tip: grease the pans very well, as you can see from the loaf above, some of the edge wanted to stay behind in the pan…which is fine by me because it gave me a peek inside the bread at the vibrant cranberries!  The glaze could also be made with orange zest and orange juice, but I like the tartness of the lemon and it adds a third dimension of flavor.  I am making a few loafs tomorrow to take to Thanksgiving at our friends’ house, I can’t wait to share this yummy goodness!

What is your favorite holiday treat?

Categorybreads, recipe, sweet | Comment5 Comments »

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