This weekend Jess and I hosted a baby shower for some good friends of ours. It was a relatively simple affair with a surprisingly large crowd of individuals and couples. I don’t know if Jess and I are missing a memo but it seems as though everyone we know is having a baby this year. I guess we are just getting to be the age where most people begin to feel the need to expand their families and begin this new chapter in their lives.

Everyone at the party seemed to be having a good time. Our friend Shanna wanted this to be a couples shower which to me was something I hadn’t heard of before. I was a bit apprehensive at first as not all of the guys who were invited were with someone but think that in the end it was a pretty neat idea. Even the single guys had fun especially when we broke out the string to guess how big her waist had gotten. While most people made a guess from their own waist however, these enterprising individuals thought the measurement of a bust line from one of our particularly busty single female guests was a better guess. Interestingly enough, they were the ones who came closest. Maybe they were onto something and I should have paid more attention?!

Since the shower we were hosting was for some really close friends of ours we wanted to make a cake for them that would be really special. We made this two tiered cake and separated each layer with a layer with vanilla buttercream frosting and strawberries. It was fantastically delicious! I also think that for amateur cake decorators we did a pretty darn good job with the fondant. It was a homemade fondant recipe that tasted way better then the stuff you pick up at the store! Tons cheaper too! I plan on sharing the recipe with yall once we master the art of decorating which I hope will be soon. The only thing that really disappointed me about the cake was that we didn’t make the royal icing stiff enough for the dirty icing, or we filled the layers with too much frosting which allowed the split layers to sag a little bit when the cake warmed up causing a little indentation. Other than that we were really pleased with how it turned out. But that’s one of the things I really enjoy about baking, sometimes you make mistakes and you learn from those mistakes allowing you to do better on the next one.

We also had the pleasure of making quite a few of the appetizers for this event as well. While all of the other appetizers we made were delicious I was particularly surprised and pleased with the recipe we used from the Taste of Home magazine that we had picked up the other month. I really love this magazine as they do a great job of putting together beautiful mouth watering pictures coupled with recipes that really taste great! Their recipe for Potato Salad Bites was fantastic. Submitted by Stephanie Sheridan, of Plainfield, Vermont, the potato salad bites were quick and easy to make and packed some really great flavor that basically made these reminiscent of deviled eggs only with baby red potatoes. This has definitely been cataloged for future reference!

Potato Salad Bites
Taste of Home Magazine
Stephanie Sheridan, Plainfield, Vermont

Ingredients:
10 small red potatoes
¼ cup chopped pimiento-stuffed olives
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon finely chopped onion
½ cup mayonnaise
1 ¾ teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
Paprika
Parsley sprigs, optional

Directions:

1.Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 12-15 minutes or until tender. Drain and immediately place potatoes in ice water; drain and pat dry.
2. Peel two potatoes; finely dice and place in a small bowl. Cut the remaining potatoes in half. With a melon baller, scoop out the pulp, leaving a 3/8 in. shell; set shells aside. Dice pulp and add to the bowl. Stir in the olives, parsley and onion,. Combine the mayonnaise, mustard and pepper; gently stir into potato mixture.
3. Sprinkle potato shells with salt; stuff with potato salad. Sprinkle with paprika. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Garnish with parsley in desired.

Here’s to a new year and new beginnings!

In my last post I couldn’t help but mourn the loss of my long standing good friend the point and shoot camera that I had used it to create many a good memories. So I feel is only fitting to write it’s obituary here.

This Point and shoot camera having passed on Christmas Day 2009 was well into its fifth year of service and had become obsolete by today’s camera standards. In a world full of DLSR’s and high resolution photos this point and shoot camera struggled to make an honest living shooting food porn. Despite its short comings in megapixels, ISO and Aperture ratings, it had been known to be able to hold its own on a good day against many DSLR’s when it came to photographing its favorite subject of all; Food Porn. While many other cameras would shutter upon gaining such information as to its profession; this point and shoot was proud of its work and didn’t mind long hours of monotonously shooting food in the nude. This well known camera had been known to say many a nights “it’s a dirty job but somebody has to do and it might as well be me”. Survived by none, missed by many a food porn subjects past, the world will forever be a little less nude.

Well now that that is out of the way… Say hello to the new hotness!

This is my new baby! I finally decided that it was time to cough up the dough and get myself a camera that is truly worthy of continuing my food porn legacy. While I know my shots of the bistro salad are not 100 percent up to par with what one would expect from a DSLR. I must say I can already see a noticeable difference and cannot wait to learn all the fine tuning options that are now available at my fingertips.

I wanted to share one of my favorite salads with you because it is a time for new beginnings and I’m pretty sure many of you made a New Year’s resolution to eat a little healthier and possibly lose some weight over the next year. At least I know that was part of my New Year’s resolution and the bistro salad will probably be a big player in that effort. While I know this salad is not the healthiest of salad options out there (probably because we use the bacon fat in the dressing) it is a lot better for you then say a croquet monsieur (which is sounding pretty tasty right now).

The Bistro salad is quick and easy to make and comes directly from one of my all time favorite cook books, The Joy of Cooking. The Joy of Cooking Cook Book is full wisdom and recipes and should be an essential part of every cooks cook book arsenal. It is fresh and delicious and tastes like my favorite of all time foods…. bacon! …. Mmmm…. Bacon…..

Bistro Salad
From The Joy of Cooking

Ingredients:

8oz thick cut bacon, cut crosswise into ½ inch strips
Enough extra virgin olive oil to make ½ cup total
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tblespoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 heads large frisee, torn into bite-sized pieces
Courtons
6 poached eggs well drained and trimmed

Directions:

Cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Pour the fat into a glass measuring cup and add olive oil until ½ cup reached. Set aside.
Cook shallots until softened, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute until softened and fragrant.
Add red wine vinegar scraping up the browned bits in the pan for 30 seconds.
Whisk in the reserved bacon fat mixture and stir in parsley, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Meanwhile, place in a salad bowl frisee.
Toss with bacon and croutons. Top with poached eggs.

For Jess and I this holiday season will prove to be one that is both exciting and exhausting. It will be exciting in that a week from now her sister will be getting married. That means we will have many extra guests from out of town that we normally wouldn’t expect for our holiday festivities. This is also where the exhausting part resides as well. We will have many extra guests from out of town that we normally wouldn’t expect for our holiday festivities…..

While I’m glad that they will be here for this special occasion and even more excited about the fact that many of them will be extending their stays throughout the holiday seasons a few problems do eventually pose themselves.

I would love to believe that our holiday season budget can easily expand to allow us to get everyone a unique gift that they were secretly wishing for all year. However, sadly that is not the case. This is why I love DIY Christmas present ideas. Not only do they extend your gift giving budget so that no one is left behind but it also shows the recipient that you cared enough about them to take some time out of your busy everyday life to make something that you are sure they would appreciate. (I mean who doesn’t appreciate a homemade DIY Christmas present?). DIY Christmas presents also allow you; the gift giver, a chance to make things that you are almost certain everyone will like, which really helps when you are dealing with the problem of getting something for that distant relative who you don’t normally see on a regular basis.

DIY Brandied Cherries Christmas presents will be part one of a multi part gift Jess and I will be giving out this year. While I would love to tell you that this is something you can whip together in a couple of minutes this week to cover those last few gifts you were struggling with, alas, I cannot. See I knew that we would have extra guests this year and had been thinking about what we would be able to get them 4 months ago actually. That is why I did this post on How to make Brandied Cherries. It takes about 3 to 4 months for the cherries and sugar to blend perfectly with the alcohol.

I wanted to make the DIY Brandied Cherries Christmas presents special so I went out and bought some inexpensive glass bottles with corked tops to create a really cute presentation. Now you can gift these brandied cherries simply by giving away the containers in which they were stored (which are cute enough). What’s nice about that option is the cherries come with the gift and will make one of the greatest ice cream toppers I have ever had.

However, I really wanted my recipients to focus on the cherry flavored brandy that has been created. This is by far a unique and delicious creation. You can drink this straight or use it in your cooking. Like a holiday ham glaze. You could also create some really interesting mixed drinks. Like Cherry Coke? You’ll love the brandied cherry coke this can make! Let your imaginations be your guide!

Seeing as how doing this has resulted in some brandy soaked cherries sitting in a container in my fridge I will have to get creative and use these up. I already have a few great ideas in my head and can’t wait to make the rest of this year’s gifts….

Brandied Cherries Recipe

Things needed for this DIY project:

12 oz glass jars – equal to the number of recipients
Funnel
3 feet of ribbon cut into 6 inch lengths
Scissors
Tape
Printable stickers – I had circle stickers that I got from Avery however, sticker paper and an exacto knife work well too.

Directions:
Fill jars with brandied cherries using a funnel. Make sure to securely attach corked tops and clean jar of any spilled brandy.
Cut the ribbon and lay it over the glass in a criss cross pattern. Secure in place with a small piece of tape.
Place stickers over top of tape and ribbon.

How cute are these?!?

I took a little inspiration from Bakerella this weekend and decided to give making some cake balls a try for the holiday. What I really love about making cake balls is how creative they allow you to be. Simply bake a cake (possibilities are endless here) mix add in some frosting to give yourself some sculpting power and freeze them in any shape you desire!

I decided since this was my first time making cake balls I should stick to a flavor combination that is relatively classic, dark chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream icing, however, I am really tempted to start experimenting with different flavor combinations in the near future.

The only thing I had a hard time doing was deciding what shape to make with them? Seeing as how these delicious little treats were going to be for a holiday party we were throwing I wanted to make them matched our holiday decorations. That’s when it came to me. What about Christmas ornaments?

Christmas ornament cake balls were a perfect idea! They matched our decorations perfectly!

The only thing I do caution about making Christmas ornament cake balls is to give yourself enough time to let these suckers freeze completely. I pushed the envelope with time as I had a few things to take care of before the party and found that if you only let them set for 30 to 40 minutes the cake is still a little too sticky when dipped in the candy melts and can create some problems with crumbs being left behind. After rolling a couple I decided that they were too soft and I stuck them back in the freezer to harden a little more. After an hour and a half freezing the cake balls dipped into the candy melts perfectly.

Christmas Ornament Cake Balls
Variation of Bakerella’s Red Velvet Cake Balls (here)

1 box chocolate cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can chocolate buttercream frosting (16 oz.)
1 package red candy melts
wax paper

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can buttercream frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt candy melts in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in candy melts and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)
7. Cut circle fondant toppers shaped like tops of Christmas ornaments. Use small dab of candy melt to “glue on”

Another month and another Daring Bakers Challenge!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I have such fun with this group of talented bakers. While I have only been a member for a few months it’s as though they read my mind. Last month I had been thinking that I really wanted to make some Macaroons for the holidays and sure enough that’s what we were asked to bake!

This was quite a pleasant coincidence I thought. Then it happened again with this month’s challenge. I had been watching an episode of “Cake Boss” which if you have caught by the way is an awesome show. They did a cannoli throwback a few episodes ago and totally got me wanting to make those delicious looking treats. Well sure enough I went to The Daring Kitchen website to see what this month’s challenge was going to be and wouldn’t you believe it was cannoli!

I really found making cannoli to be quite entertaining and definitely delicious. I especially enjoyed eating my mistakes! While most people like to fill their cannoli with something savory, I had different plans. I wanted to use a chocolate raspberry mousse and I cannot even begin to describe what a great choice that was. As I was pulling out some of my ingredients I also noticed that I still had some of my pumpkin spice mousse from a party I had thrown a couple of days ago and decided to fill a couple with that as well. This was also a winning combo!

The great thing about cannoli is that you are only limited by your imagination when it comes to flavor combinations. The cannoli is simply a shell waiting for your creativity! So if things continue the way that they have been…. maybe next month we will be making … our own gingerbread houses? I’ve always wanted to do that …..

CANNOLI SHELLS

2 cups (250 grams/8.82 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons(28 grams/1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.06 ounces) unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (approx. 3 grams/0.11 ounces) salt
3 tablespoons (42 grams/1.5 ounces) vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.18 ounces) white wine vinegar
Approximately 1/2 cup (approx. 59 grams/approx. 4 fluid ounces/approx. 125 ml) sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
1 large egg, separated (you will need the egg white but not the yolk)
Vegetable or any neutral oil for frying – about 2 quarts (8 cups/approx. 2 litres)
1/2 cup (approx. 62 grams/2 ounces) toasted, chopped pistachio nuts, mini chocolate chips/grated chocolate and/or candied or plain zests, fruits etc.. for garnish
Confectioners’ sugar

Note – If you want a chocolate cannoli dough, substitute a few tablespoons of the flour (about 25%) with a few tablespoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch process) and a little more wine until you have a workable dough (Thanks to Audax).

DIRECTIONS FOR SHELLS:

1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.

2 Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (3-inch – small/medium; 4-inch – medium/large; 5-inch;- large. Your choice). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.

3 Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them well, uhh, oiled..lol). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.

4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer’s directions. Heat the oil to 375°F (190 °C) on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.

5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.

8. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.

9. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Recipe

Ingredients:
3 squares unsweet bakers chocolate
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup water
½ cup sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup heavy cream whipped (soft peaks)

Directions:

Melt chocolate in microwave and set aside.

On top of double boiler soften gelatin in water. Stilling until dissolved. Add ½ cup sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Once cool combine corn syrup vanilla gelatin and sugar mixture. Beat on high speed with a hand mixer for 15 minutes or soft peaks have formed.

Fold in chocolate quickly.

Fold in whipped heavy cream.

Pumpkin Spice Mousse Recipe

With Thanksgiving right around the corner I wanted to post a little bit about the Thanksgiving holiday at The Gourmet Foodie Blog household. I love Thanksgiving! What food blogger in their right mind wouldn’t? I mean, who could wish for a holiday more focused on food then Thanksgiving itself?!?

I personally feel blessed as my family has a long standing tradition of getting the largest group of family and friends (all are welcome at our celebration) possible together for the holiday! An average Thanksgiving holiday will have 12 – 15 people minimum! With this many people in attendance leaving the cooking to one individual or couple would be utter insanity. So The Gourmet Foodie Blog family; (like many other large families I assume) have each couple (or individual) responsible for a dish. The dishes range from gourmet desserts, to secret family recipes that have been passed from one generation to the next.

For Jess and I we use this holiday as an opportunity to expose our family to some of our favorite recipes we have created over the course of the year. As I posted earlier this year one of my favorite recipes of all time was (*wait what*…Was?) lobster macaroni and cheese. Lobster macaroni and cheese is a great way to gourmet up a classic favorite. While many would feel that lobster macaroni and cheese couldn’t be improved upon…. I beg to differ…..

About two months ago Jess and I were enjoying this delectable dish when Jess had an epiphany. How much better would this be with pancetta?!?

“Pancetta?!?” I thought. You’re right! Who doesn’t love Pancetta?!? … Well the only people I can think of are those who don’t already love the flavor of bacon; but that is a sad bunch to begin with.

The idea had been thought of but the opportunity to try this recipe out had been lacking, until this weekend that was. My parents had been working their tails off out at the farm and have had little time to get out so Jess and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give this recipe a try! Well needless to say pancetta macaroni and cheese is a new favorite! So much so that we plan on bringing this gourmet macaroni and cheese to our Thanksgiving celebration so the whole family can get a taste! The Pancetta gives this dish just the right amount of saltiness to create an even more gourmet version of an already gourmet dish. While I’m somewhat disappointed that our gourmet pancetta lobster macaroni and cheese won’t be on the main stage of our event I am excited about the opportunity to share something I love with friends and family!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving from our table to yours!

Pancetta & Lobster Macaroni & Cheese Recipe

Ingredients:

2 seven ounce lobster tails or 1 lobster – room temperature, cut into small cunks
12 ounces pancetta diced
5 ounces unsalted butter
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cup whole milk
3 ounces Cheddar, shredded
3 ounces Fontina, shredded
3 ounces Gruyere, shredded
12 ounces macaroni pasta

Directions:

1. Cut the butter in to once ounce cubes. Place 4 ounces of butter in a small pot and melt slowly over low heat.
2. Add the lobster meat and cook for 5 -7 minutes or opaque in color. Claw meat will cook faster so make sure to check this after 3 – 4 minutes of cooking.
3. When cooked remove from heat and remove lobster meat. Set aside.
4. In a small pan cook the pancetta until slightly crispy.
5. Place a pot on high heat with heavily salted water for boiling the macaroni.
6. Melt 1 ounce butter in medium sized pot over medium/high heat. Add the flour and cook for about 2 minutes stirring constantly until the mixture browns and develops a nutty smell.
7. Stir in the heavy cream and bring to a boil. Add the milk and, again, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes.
8. While this is simmering your water should have reached a roaring boil. Add macaroni to your pot of boiling salted water.
9. When your cream sauce has simmered for 3 minutes slowly add the three cheeses, a handful at a time, and stir until fully incorporated.
10. When the pasta is fully cooked pour the pasta into a colander to drain off water. Place the pasta in a bowl and add the cheese sauce. Mix well. Fold in the cooked lobster meat and pancetta; serve immediately.

What a weekend! Things have been pretty interesting around the gourmet foodie blog household lately. Not only did we throw a wedding shower for Jessica’s sister, it was also their birthdays! Yes, Jess is a twin! While we love to host parties at our house it definitely takes a ton of planning and time to get things set up, especially when you are planning two events put into one, which would explain the absence in my posts lately.

Things started out a little shaky on Friday. As we were setting things up for the following day I decided to open a window because the ovens had been running full steam ahead and heated the house to the point where we were about to pass out. I slow opened the window (which had a screen by the way) and was promptly stung by a wasp! WTF how did that get there!?!?! He must have been planning his attack for hours just lying there in wait, knowing we would have to open a window sooner or later! After a few choice words I decided to re-think this whole “Save the Bees” campaign I’ve been supporting lately….

Here is what I think it looked like when he attacked.

It has probably been 20 some years since I was last stung. I can remember this event as if it was yesterday… My brother and I were doing what children with loads of curiosity and time do. We had found a bee’s hive earlier in the week and wondered what you would expect any kid of this age to wonder… What would happen if you were to hit it with a water balloon? This was a completely legitimate question…. right? Well needless to say a couple of direct water balloon hits later we found out. I’m pretty sure you can guess that was the last time we did that.

Not only was I busy with planning and preparing our party this week, I have also been going crazy with raking leaves! For some reason this year our tree decided to produced extra leaves just to make things difficult. As soon as I have finished raking the yard the wind blows and the yard is completely covered again! Is there no end to the madness?!?

Since raking leaves is normally a really mundane task I decided to make it fun this year by enlisting two little helpers. They had a blast chasing the rake and running through recently stack piles of leaves!

Seeing as how this weekend was a two event party I wanted to make sure we did something special for the occasion. I wanted to make something that was representative of the season and perfect for a celebration of this kind which is what lead me to make one of my all time favorite cupcake recipes. Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes!

A Pumpkin spice cupcake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting is basically a pumpkin spice pie baked in cupcake form. What I love most about these cupcakes is the unbelievable amount of moistness that is the direct product of the pumpkin pie filling. Many of my favorite cupcake recipes add pudding or extra milk to create a cake that is moist and delicious. Another great benefit of the pie filling is it makes them extremely hard to overcook.

Everyone at the party loved them!

With the end of the weekend finally here a day of rest was definitely needed. We did a quick lunch time meeting at Twisted Root (our all time favorite burger joint) and caught an afternoon movie with my parents and brothers girlfriend. We then went home and promptly fell asleep. What a week!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground all-spice
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 3/4 cups pumpkin pie filling (I use Libby’s)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Whisk together flour, baking powders, salt and spices. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine sugar, eggs, melted butter and pumpkin puree with an electric mixer on med-low until well combined.
Pour in half of the flour mixture and slowly combine into the liquid mixture. Add the rest of the flour on low until everything is well combine and smooth.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched.
Cool completely (about 10-20 min) before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp cinnamon

Beat cream cheese and butter together until creamy.
Mix in (one cup at a time) powdered sugar until smooth.
Add vanilla and cinnamon, beat on med-high until light and fluffy.

For some reason the end of the year always seems to fly by. One minute I’m outside enjoying the last few days of summer and the next minute it’s the middle of January and I’m left wondering what happened. It could be that I love the holidays so much I bury myself in them, so much so that I completely forget to take a moment and step back to enjoy each day as I’m constantly looking forward at what needs to be completed by the end of the week.

That is exactly what has been happening around The Gourmet Foodie Blog household. I have completely submerged myself into intricate details of our next Halloween party. For me Halloween is the second greatest holiday there is. While I know many a foodie are scoffing at the fact that I place this “pseudo” Holiday above that of the endless food buffet that is Thanksgiving, there has always been a special place for it in my heart (it probably has to do a lot with the copious amounts of candy and treats).

I promise to do a post on what we made for our Halloween party food as I have some really fun ideas planned. While I know this will be a little too late I just don’t have the time to make them before the night of the big event as I have been elbows deep in some props I plan to have at this year’s party. My fingers are literally black right now from all the spray paint I have been using and I’m beginning to wonder if they will ever be clean again (my bet is for sometime around Christmas).

Now where was I ….. oh yeah!…

What does this all have to do with a Mac Attack you ask?

Well because I have been so entirely busy I almost forgot about this month’s Daring Baker’s Challenge! Lucky for me I have a calendar alert for such an occasion… I quickly logged into the Daring Bakers website and read that our challenge would be macarons… I both cheered and moaned all at the same time. While I was excited because I have always wanted to try making macarons I have also heard many a bad things about how difficult they are to make and doing this on a short time frame could prove to be very difficult.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Fortunately the only thing I really found really difficult about making macarons was finding the almond flour. I had to go to 4 different grocery stores to find it! This would explain why I was so late in posting this today. I chose to add chocolate as my flavoring because let’s face it who doesn’t love chocolate? Maybe it’s because of all the Halloween decorations or maybe it’s because I love the combination of orange and chocolate. I decided to fill my freshly made chocolate macarons with quick and easy orange buttercream frosting. The resulting combination melted in my mouth and really satisfied my Mac Attack! I love these little treats so much that I can’t wait to start experimenting with other flavor combinations!

Ingredients:

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)
Cocoa Powder: 2 tablespoons

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen. Ami’s note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons.

Orange Buttercream filling

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
2 tbls Vegetable Shortening
3 1/3 cup Confectioners’ Sugar
1 tbls Orange extract

Directions:

Beat Vegetable shortening and butter until creamy.
Mix in Confectioners’ Sugar until smooth.
Add Orange extract.

Two weekends ago my grandparents came into town to do some visiting as they made their way down to Florida for the winter. Yes, most Minnesota (well most northern state) grandparents have the same migratory patterns which are surprisingly similar to that of a flock of ducks.

While they say they are just trying to stay warm I have a different theory. I believe that all of the grandparents go to Florida and engage in one massive 3 month long Spring Break party that no one under the age of 60 knows about and is reminiscent of the days of yesteryears. While many of you may question the feasibility of this let me first give you the name of this recipe; Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo.

Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo is not really a name that grandparents come up with while sipping hot coffee watching the sunrise on the beach. This is partly why I suspect that there may have been a little spring break partying involved with the creation of this recipe. *Disclaimer* they claim to have gotten this recipe from their son (my uncle) but I’m pretty sure that this is just another one of their elaborate cover ups (similar to that of Roswell).

Next Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo has everything you could ever want at a party; it’s extremely filling (great for absorbing any late night party concoctions) quick and easy to make (you need that if you have been partying for too long), and then there is a case to be made about how the recipe directions were written…

Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo

4 Chicken thighs
2 lbs of Polish sausage, sliced
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
1 jar of Prego/Ragu/whatever Garlic and Herb spaghetti sauce
1 can (11 oz) corn
1 green pepper

- Cook the birdie bits and den slice ‘em up.
- Cut up the sausage. 2 lbs is double the normal amount but I like da sausage.
- Dump everyt’ing in a pot and den add 2 cups of water. You can add more water if you likes your Gumbos thinner.
- Bring da pot to a boil as if you was going to cook up some crawdads. Cover and cook over a medium fire for about 15 minutes or until da rice isn’t crunchy no more.

For a little more kick in your Gumbo you can zing it a little wit’ a bit of hot red pepper sauce.

Hoo-Wee!

Now does that sound to you like a recipe written by grandparents who do nothing but sit around and play cards every day as they say they have been? I think not! But I’ll let you be the judge here…..

Regardless of who or how this recipe was created I would have to say that this recipe is definitely the perfect recipe for a fall get together with family or friends. It makes enough to feed a hungry group of people and will leave everyone completely satisfied. Which is great…. no matter what it is you’re doing ……

I love bacon.

There I said it.

And because I love bacon I love to try an incorporate it into many of the dishes that I make (it’s a sickness I know). While I may not like it enough to dip it in chocolate or mix it into my cupcake mix (that takes it a little too far if you ask me those people need even more help then I do) I do like to add it when a dish is missing a little something.

A while back I had picked up some fresh scallops that had arrived at the local grocery store and made myself some seafood primavera. While the dish turned out pretty good I felt as though it was missing something. Which is probably why it didn’t turn out to be a post on my blog despite the fact that I took the time to photograph the dish in the first place.

Well this weekend I was looking back though some of my “close but not good enough” meals that I had made in the past and came across my seafood primavera recipe and remembered that there was just something about it that didn’t make me go “YUM!” And for some reason (maybe it was because I had just eaten a bacon filled breakfast) it hit me why not use bacon wrapped scallops?!?

So I ran to the grocery store and got everything that I needed for dinner that night. Then instead of just pan searing the scallops for the pasta primavera I wrapped them in bacon and that definitely did the trick!

Bacon wrapped pasta primavera is now one of my favorite dishes. I think it’s funny how sometimes you can change a dish from okay to fantastic with the addition of one or two ingredients. Maybe this is why I love cooking so much. I love to take recipes and try them out and then think about what I could add or take away to make the dish just a little bit better. While many dishes I make seem to be perfect in nature there are just as many that I feel could use a little tweaking.

This dish is best served with a little white wine on a beautiful fall afternoon. It is light in flavor and hearty enough to fill you up. Jess and I filled ourselves silly with this dish and still had some leftovers!

Bacon Wrapped Scallops Primavera

Ingredients:

• 10 Fresh Scallops
• 10 Slices Hickory Smoked Bacon
• 1 Red Bell Pepper
• 1 Green Bell Pepper
• 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
• ½ Pound Spaghetti Pasta
• ½ cup white wine

Directions:

1. Wrap each scallop with 1 slice of bacon securing with a tooth pick.
2. In a separate pan begin to boil water for pasta.
3. Add Pasta to boiling water cook according to directions.
4. Pan-sear the bacon wrapped scallops until bacon has fully cooked.
5. Slice Peppers and place in pan on medium heat. Add wine and simmer until soft. Approximately 7 minutes.
6. Dain cooked pasta and combine with peppers and wine in a separate bowl. Plate spaghetti and top with bacon wrapped scallops.