Tis the season and so the hubs had me make my chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. This year I had a small packet of gel icing to do some fancy designs.
Apparently, the hoards at his job have been demanding these so I must give the people what they want. The ones pictured are for us, though! Specifically me, I’m sure hubs will be helping himself to a few at work.
For more FOs, check out Tami’s blog.
via Edward Dalmulder on Flickr
What sort of traditions? I wondered! Well Itako read about my attempts at cooking and is working on a translation of a Venezuelan dish. Querido Luis, eso no es necessario! Yo no escribo en este pagina en español, pero es mi lengua maternal! En casa de mis padres, el español es el unico idioma que se hable. Por favor, manda me la receta por email. (Traduccion: Dear Luis, that is not necessary! I may not write in Spanish here but it is my maternal tongue! In my parents house we only speak Spanish. Please email me the recipe.)
Since non-Cuban/Hispanic food is a mystery to me, Marie sent me a recipe for her Nan’s Pasta with Meatballs and Gravy.
Yum!
I love hand written recipes. My mom is a “just eyeball it” type of cook and never makes a dish the same way twice, unfortunately. I’ve inherited her style of cooking, just with more restraint when it comes to adding a new ingredient into the same dish. So there will most likely never be a book or a list of my mom’s “traditional” dishes. This is now making me crave food that I can’t easily here in Nashville like my mom’s croquettas de jamon (ham croquettes), harina con hot dogs (cornmeal with hot dogs), and empanadas de guyaba y queso (Guava and cheese empanadas).
This week, I tried my hands at making good ol’ English (Scottish?) style scones. Sort of.
Yum!
I’ve switched from baking with white flour to whole wheat flour, which is why they’re brown. And I was out of regular cow’s milk so I used vanilla almond milk On the whole, these scones taste pretty darn good. I don’t know how authentic they are but they are edible and that’s all that counts!
For more FOs, check out Tami’s blog.
I finally had a food win yesterday. I made these awesome bacon breakfast cups yesterday for breakfast.
Delicious!
That was the only one that came out “perfect” looking but the rest were super delicious! I did put my own spin on things:
This was a very quick and easy recipe and I will make it again. It was also quite filling. Husband said he would have liked his yolks more runny but I liked that it came out between soft and hard-boiled. Then again, I love hard-boiled eggs and he doesn’t. Final Verdict: A+ Will Try Again. Martha Stewart will never lead me astray.
It’s Friday and I get to show off my latest finished thing. This one is finished alright, but it’s more “failure” than finished. Wednesday, I found a simple recipe for Honey Beer Bread. And considering I had a ton of honey and leftover beer, I figured I’d give it a try. 40 minutes later, this came out of the oven:
You’re probably asking yourself what’s wrong. It looks delicious enough. I didn’t think anything was wrong until I cut off a piece to eat. It was still slightly raw. Not raw enough to show up when I slid the knife in it, but just raw enough to make it taste funny. I put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes but it was still a little underdone. Back in for another 5 and it’s still raw. I finally gave up and tossed it. I hate to waste food but raw is raw. Reviewing the recipe now, I see that I made another mistake. I poured the melted butter INTO the batter, not on top of the batter.
I have the most terrible luck with breads and my mom does too. Her father was her town’s baker but she never learned the trade since it was considered man’s work. And to be fair, she said she was often too busy playing to really pay attention if he did attempt to show her. So I blame her and I blame the fact that trades are learned and not genetically inherited. The baking bread did make the house smell really good so I’m going to try making this again and just letting it sit for a full hour. And following the directions correctly.
For more FOs, check out Tami’s blog.
I made some delicious cookie dough truffles for Paul’s co workers last week and by popular demand, I made some more.
Yum!
I cannot claim that this is my recipe, I found it on Recipe Girl’s website here. These are her chocolate chip cookie dough truffles and they were very easy to make. My twist was using dark chocolate and mint flavored chips which made them taste so much better.
I’m signing off for the Christmas weekend so Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all my readers! I’ll be back blogging about the weekend on Monday.
For more FOs, check out Tami’s blog.
Yesterday, Husband and I attended Nashville’s first and hopefully annual, Battle of the Food Trucks. We had a great time and we were happy to support the charity that organized this, The Tomorrow Fund. As recent New York transplants to Nashville, TN I was bemoaning the lack of food options near us. This was a great introduction to local and good eats.
For donating 5 cans of (human) food, we got a free beer courtesy of local brewery Yazoo Beer. Their Octoberfest blend was quite delicious. For me it was the right mix of sweet and spice that I love in a beer. The head on it was just what I like; it was foamy but also flavorful. I fully intend on touring their brewery and am looking forward to sampling more!
The food trucks were split between savory foods and sweet foods. I have a horrible and overwhelming sweet tooth and the seven desert trucks were all equally amazing. Alas, I had only one golden spoon to vote with and I was torn between my two favorites, The Sugar Wagon and Cupcake Collection.
Lovely ladies and co-owners.
Get on board the cupcake bus!
Both offered the always amazing combination of chocolate and peanut butter, in cup and cupcake form so it was very hard to compare the two. The Sugar Wagon’s nicely chilled Peanut Butter Ganache Cups were like having a creamier home-made Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup (one of my favorite candies!). I wish that I could have gone back for more. I think I could easily eat a dozen or more of these cups. Their other offering (which I did not sample) was a Pumpkin Spice Whoopee Pie which got rave reviews from my friends.
The Cupcake Collection’s two samples were Peanut Butter Mousse and Sweet Potato. I opted for the mousse (I am a chocoholic!) and it was out of this world. The frosting was wonderfully dense compared to the lightness of the cake. And the peanut butter in the middle was a slightly melted surprise. The gooey-ness of it was a good binder for the frosting and cake. The peanut butter wasn’t overly sweet or gritty which is sometimes a problem for homemade nut butters. Same with frosting, now that I think of it.
Cupcake Collection was the winner for sweets with Sugar Wagon coming in at a close second. I won’t tell you which one I voted for but they were both equally delicious. I’ve made the executive family decision that we will be buying from both places very soon.
The savory side was quite the smorgasbord of food and flavors. There was very spicy chicken and waffles from The Hot Spot. The chicken was too spicy for me but it reminded me of spring days wandering around Brooklyn.
There was a great Thai truck, Deg Thai, that had the most delicious pineapple and raisin rice that I’ve had in a LONG time. I think they used glutinous rice? And maybe some sweetened milk? It was a sweet rice but not overly so. It went well with the bits of chopped pineapple. Deg Thai came in second place which is impressive for a business that only opened on Saturday.
Owners of Deg Thai
I know part of the appeal is that it’s great food from a truck but if they had a sit down restaurant, I would be more than willing to go even if all they serve is that rice again.
My other three favorites really fall under one theme: meat, meat and more meat. Hoss’ Loaded BBQ Burger was heaven. The hamburger was juicy and flavorful, the cheddar cheese was sharp, the bacon salty and the onion strings crispy. And the bbq sauce on the very soft bun were perfect touches. I’m looking forward to putting this burger in my mouth in the near future.
How can you go wrong with a name like that?
The second tasting of delicious meats was Smoke Etal‘s pigs in a blanket with a fried pickle okra. The “blanket” was the usual flakey croissant but a delicious corn meal based bread. And it was pulled pork in the middle which was a great twist on my favorite crappy hors d’oeuvre. The batter around the okra was crispy and the pickling was an unexpected sour flavor. It was good, but I’m not a big fan of okra.
The third truck was the wonderfully namedLove Shack. Their waitress was dressed in a go-go print minidress and their truck is a hippie’s dream. Their offering was their brisket Philly cheese steak that I loved. It wasn’t served as a sandwich but in little bread bowls with the cheese melted on top. It was the perfect finger food for eating and walking around. A+ for thinking about that!
The winner for savory foods and for having the most votes was Riff’s with their Korean BBQ taco. I enjoyed the heat from the Korean spices on the pork loin but I wasn’t too keen on the tortilla. Then again, it’s a taco! It should be all about the filling so I whipped out a pair of chopsticks and dug in to that.
Congrats to the winners!
So congratulations to the winners and a hearty thank you to everyone who showed up. I enjoyed myself immensely and it was a great way to really get to know my new home town. I am looking forward to pigging out at all of these places very soon.
I tried my hand at stir fry the other day. I was hoping to leave it for today and dub it “Stir Friday” but that didn’t work. The rice and veggies were from a frozen package of stir fry vegetables and I just added the meat my self. I cooked up the rice and vegs in some canola oil then added soy sauce (I should have used more) and a teaspoon of fish oil sauce. Unfortunately, we were out of rooster sauce. Once the rice was cooked through, I set it aside and sliced up the eye of round steaks. They had been marinating in a sweet sesame sauce over night. I threw the steak in the already cooked skillet and added some more soy sauce and a little bit more of fish oil. Once the steaks were almost done, I added the rice back to pan and mixed it for about a minute which was perfect timing because Paul walked through the door as I was plating it.
It really wasn’t enough for two people so next time, I’m going to just add some of my own rice. Plus we agreed that we are just not fans of broccoli. The meat came out really good and it was enough for both of us so we weren’t too hungry. This weekend I plan on picking up a rice cooker. I made rice the other day on the stove top and it’s just too much to worry about. My mom makes great rice and she uses a rice cooker so I’m going to follow in her footsteps.
I have no knitting to show off today and it’s storming so no good pictures of what I’m working on either. I did come back from the doctor and made some progress on a swap hat I’m working on. It wasn’t a good appointment and I’ll be looking for another GP and that’s all I’m going to say about that. I am also reading Gone With the Wind and I’m getting really sucked into it. Next on my list, learn to knit and read!
To find more knitting FOs, head on over to Tami’s blog.
Yesterday, I thought I’d be super nice to my husband and surprise him with a cake of sorts. We had peanut butter and squares of baking chocolate so I trolled the internet for no bake peanut butter bars or home made Reeses Cups which are his favorite.
That’s when I learned that yes, there is a difference between confectioner’s sugar and regular white sugar. The pie is delicious, but uh it’s rather gritty. *sigh* Next time, I’ll make sure to have ALL ingredients on hand. Oh well, at least it’s tasty!
