Grilling Peaches in the Rain

Tags

Grilled Peaches, Waffle Cone, Walnuts, White Chocolate

All summer I’ve been reading about grilled peaches… how amazing they are, the rich juiciness, and amazing flavor. I don’t have a grill, but luckily, I was visiting my parents and they have a big ol’ grill!

I was excited to try out this “campfire cone” idea I had seen on Pinterest. Most people stuff mini marshmallows & chocolate inside of a waffle cone for a s’mores effect, but someone had suggested peaches, white chocolate & sliced almonds and that peaked my interest. Not a huge almond fan myself, I swapped in chopped walnuts & was looking forward to making them.

The weather was calling for passing showers, but the skies were blue & it was a beautiful afternoon… those weathermen always get it wrong. OK, if we are being honest – it was hot & humid, but the sun was out and it was perfect picture-taking conditions.

I had all my ingredients ready, the grill was hot and I was ready to go…

I put the peaches on the grill, closed the lid and heard a single psst noise… then a few more, psst psst. It was rain drops hitting the hot metal grill lid. No, I thought, please no…

And then I’m pretty sure I heard Mother Nature laugh, because within seconds, the sky ripped open & a mad dash ensued to get everything under cover.

Hubby was so nice and dashed to our car for my big umbrella… I was a woman on a mission, a little monsoon was not coming between me & some grilled peaches!

I kicked off my flip flops while the family watched in laughter as I balanced a tray of ingredients, tongs, my camera and the umbrella, splashing through puddles as I scampered over to the grill. Luckily the grill was mostly covered by the garage roof.

I rubbed a tiny bit of olive oil on cut side, so the peaches didn’t stick to the grill. And look how pretty they turned out!

Next, I layered in the goodies… diced grilled peach, chopped walnuts & white chocolate chops.

Once the cone is filled up with your desired ingredients, wrap it in foil and cook it on the grill (or campfire) for about 5 minutes, or until the chocolate starts to melt.

Peeling back the foil was like opening a little present. The white chocolate chips were warm and melty, and it all smelled delicious!

The first few bites were so good, the juicy peach bites paired really well with everything. However, I hit some “dry pockets” where it was just nuts & chocolate… it was okayyy, but it didn’t taste amazing. Hmmm, how could this be remedied?

Then genius struck – I added a scoop of softened vanilla bean ice cream – MAGIC! The soft ice cream dripped into the little nooks and crannies throughout the cone, bringing all of the flavors together for a wow moment. Now THAT was tasty 🙂

Normally a rainy day would have a blogger packing their camera away. But I have to say, the weather antics made it such a fun adventure!

Nutella, Peanut Butter & Banana Napoleons

Tags

bananas, napoleons, Nutella, peanut butter

A few weeks ago, I got these puff pastry sheets.  I wasn’t sure what to do with them at the time, but I figured I could whip up something tasty with them.

There wasn’t anything interesting on TV today, and I was starting to get bored… and when I get bored, I bake!

I’m not sure how the weather was in your area, but here in south Jersey, it was fa-ree-zing, with a bitter cold wind… so this baker was not leaving the house to go buy ingredients.  If I was going to bake, I’d have to raid my pantry.

I remembered that earlier this morning, I came across a recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies that I had pinned on my “Recipes I Must Try” board. I didn’t have the ingredients for the cookie part, but I had everything to make the peanut butter filling.  But hmmm, what could I pair it with?

I had Nutella leftover from my Nutella Crunch Cake Pops I made last week… ooh!  And I had bananas too.  Truth be told, they were hubby’s bananas for his Cheerios, but he could spare one.  But how could I tie them all together?

Then it hit me… the puff pastry sheets!

Ladies & gentlemen, I give you Nutella, Peanut Butter & Banana Napoleons!

INGREDIENTS
– Puff pastry sheets
– Nutella
– Bananas
– Peanut butter filling (1/2 cup peanut butter, 3 tablespoons butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk. Beat peanut butter and butter together then add powdered sugar and milk and mix until well blended (it was a little thick when I made it). Source).

 

Peanut butter filling

Sliced 'nanners

Puff pastry sheets, cut in half

Bring on the Nutella

Arranged banana slices

Peanut butter mixture

More bananas

Stack it up!

Ta da... c'est fini!

Nutella Crunch Cake Pops

Tags

cake pops, Chocolate, Nutella, Rice Krispies

Ah, Nutella.  Have you ever had it?   It’s a dreamy, creamy, smooth chocolate hazlenut spread that can pretty much be described as heaven on a spoon.

As it turns out, this wonderful food item has its own day, World Nutella Day, (February 5th)!  Thank goodness I have trusty Twitter friends like Tara (@ChipChipHooray), otherwise I would’ve been completely oblivious to this fact.

I was planning on making chocolate cake pops for a Super Bowl party I was attending, but since the big game happened to coincide with this new-found holiday, I had to incorporate Nutella somehow… yay!… I love experimenting in the kitchen!  And I remember watching a recent episode of Top Chef where some of the chef-testants used Rice Krispies to add texture, so I decided to toss them in there too!

I can modestly confidently say that the result was a mild stroke of genius 🙂  Here’s how it all went down…

Ingredients:
– prepared chocolate cake
– chocolate frosting
– Nutella
– Rice Krispies cereal
– dark chocolate candy melts

Step 1. Crumb your cake. I prefer to do it by hand, as I think using a food processor or stand mixer can make the consistency too fine.

Step 2.  I combined a small amount of chocolate frosting with a generous helping of Nutella.  Unfortunately, I don’t have exact measurements, but go with your gut until you get an even combination of consistency and flavor.  Then fold that into the crumbs.  Note: Nutella is very rich, so start off by adding small amounts of this mixture.  You can always add more mixture if the crumbs are too dry, but there is no turning back from a saturated crumb mix.

Step 3.  Once you get your desired crumb mix consistency, fold in the Rice Krispies. Add as much as you’d like for however crunchy you’d like the pops.  I wouldn’t add too much as the individual Krispies create some logistical problems (discussed in the Step 5).  For a full cake, I’d use about 1 cup of ceral.

Step 4.  Roll the cake balls.  Make sure they are formed firmly.  If they are too soft, they will fall apart in the following steps.

Step 5.  Dip the tip of your lollipop stick and insert it into the pop.  As I mentioned in Step 3, the Krispies can cause some logistical problems – they make it challenging to drive the stick straight through.  Looking at the pop on the right, you can see how it split apart after I put the stick in it.  If this happens – don’t despair!  Drizzle some melted chocolate in the cracks, then squish the ball back into shape and let it chill for a few minutes.

Step 6.  Dipping the pops.  I usually dip the pop in the chocolate, spin it around to get it evenly coated, then tap off the excess.  However, with the Krispies in there, it made the cake ball a little weaker, and it’d fall off the stick, as shown below.  While this isn’t a cute look for a party, my hubby was happy to “taste test the bloopers”.  For these pops, I found the best technique was to insert the pop in the bowl, and spoon chocolate all around it, then lightly tap it to get the excess off.

And there you have it!

Word to the wise: this is not a recipe you can make too far in advance.  I made them at 3:00pm, and by 9:00pm at the party, the Krispies lost their crunch, having absorbed the moisture inside of the cake pop.

No pressure, but now you only have 364 days to prepare for the next World Nutella Day… how do you like to use scrumptious spread?

Exploding Bread!

Tags

party food, Pinterest, pull apart bread

When I first signed up for Pinterest, I didn’t really “get it”.  Sure, I pinned pictures of owls that I thought were cute or cool cake pop creations I spotted, but I didn’t really understand what the point was.

Well my friends, that has changed. Now, I get it, and boy, do I loveeeeeee me some Pinterest.  I’ve set up a board for our cake pop stands, one for food on a stick to show how our stands can be used, fun DIY projects & more.

Anyhoo, allow me to get to my point. Lately, as I’ve been stalking browsing the Food category, I’ve been noticing some pictures where it looks like the bread has exploded!

Whoa! What in the challah bread is going on here?

Ok, so the truth is it’s not challah… it’s sourdough bread. And green onions. And cheese… love cheese! Who doesn’t? I mean really…

Oh – and it hasn’t really exploded… whew! The cool thing about sourdough loaves is that it holds its shape as it’s cross-sliced, so you can stuff all kinds of things down in the nooks and crannies, pop it in the oven, and it makes this fantastic pull apart appetizer!

Check out some of the other bread explosions I’ve found…

Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pulls

Cheesy Mushroom Pull Apart Bread

Cinnamon Roll Pulls

Are you getting hungry too, or is it just me?

These would make fantastic ideas for Super Bowl parties tomorrow.  Do you have any special dishes planned for the big game?

National Lasagna Day

I’ve often said that I get more news information from Facebook and Twitter, than I do from actual news sources like the paper or TV.  (This isn’t surprising since I mainly watch shows on DVR.)  Anyways, while I was browsing Facebook today, I found out that is National Lasagna Day!  I didn’t even know Lasagna had its own day, let alone that I almost missed it… see, you learn something new every day.

So to celebrate this day of pasta, cheese and sauce, I’ve got a recipe for you!  This one has been saved in my ‘favorites’ for some time now, under “Must Make Recipes”.  I haven’t tried it yet, but if we can catch a break in this heat wave, I will give it a test.

Ready for it?  Petite Lasagnas!  


Who knew lasagna could be cute?

Andie Mitchell, of Can You Stay For Dinner, created an amazing photo-tutorial so you can follow the pictures step-by-step.  Andie’s got quite an amazing story, actually. Five years ago, she lost 135 pounds, and started the blog to catalog her journey about life, loss and food.  She’s 26, and has accomplished so much – definitely check out her site.

Happy Lasagna Day!

xoxo,
  Kim