Macadamia- Coconut Clusters

Mmmm coconut... Made these especially for Joelle and she loved them :) pretty easy to make too!

The Recipe:
For the clusters:
1 package sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted (about 2 2/3 cups)
1 jar dry-roasted, salted macadamia nuts, coarsly chopped (about 2 cups)
8 squares (8 ounces) semisweet chocolate
8 squares (8 ounces) white chocolate

For the glaze:
2 squares (2 ounces) semisweet chocolate
2 squares (2 ounces) white chocolate
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

Special aids:
4 miniature muffin tins
miniature paper or foil candy cups
small resealable plastic bags

Making the Clusters

1. Line four miniature muffin pans with candy cups; set aside.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine half of the coconut and half of the macadamia nuts. In another medium-sized bowl, combine the rest of the coconut and macademia nuts.

3. In a small microwave-safe bowl, microwave white chocolate on HIGH for about 2 minutes. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth, reheating for 30 seconds, if necessary.

4. Stir the melted chocolate into one bowl of the coconut mixture, stirring to coat. Drop mixture by heaping teaspoonfuls to fill each candy cup in two pans.

5. Refrigerate until set, about 45 minutes.

6. In same microwave-safe bowl, microwave semisweet chocolate on HIGH for about 2 minutes; stir until melted and smooth.

7. Stir melted chocolate into remaining bowl of coconut mixture; stir to coat.

8. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls to fill candy cups in remaining 2 pans.

9. Refrigerate until set, about 45 minutes.

Making the Glaze

1. In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine the white chocolate and shortening. Microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes; stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Let cool slightly; pour into a resealable bag.

2. Remove semisweet chocolate nut clusters from candy cups; transfer them to an ungreased baking sheet. Snip off one corner from the bag of white chocolate; drizzle over the semisweet clusters.

3. In same microwave-safe bowl as step 1, microwave the semisweet chocolate on HIGH for 2 minutes; stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Combine leftover white chocolate glaze. Let cool slightly; pour into a resealable bag.

4. Remove white chocolate nut clusters from candy cups; transfer them to an ungreased baking sheet. Snip off one corner from the bag of chocolate; drizzle over the white chocolate clusters.

5. Refrigerate all the clusters until glaze sets, about 15 minutes.



My Experience:
I included the few adjustments I made from the original recipe to this version (such as using the same microwave-save bowl, and the order of which to make to reduce dishes!).

All in all, pretty simple to make. Dishes are a bit of a bugger because it is melted chocolate but as long as you don't let it sit too long, it's not that bad.

Make sure you have a lot of fridge space for the cooling periods because it does take up a lot of room. For quicker chill times, try using the freezer.

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 10/10 for semisweet, 12/10 for white chocolate (she says "SEIGNEUR QUE CEST BON!")
My rating: 10/10

Lemon Sugar Cookies

I like lemon, I like sugar cookies... so I figured these would be a good choice for Christmas cookies :) The recipe is from the Holiday Cheer edition of Good Housekeeping magazine.

The Recipe:
1 1/5 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

1. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, lemon and vanilla extracts, and salt.

2. With a mixer on low speed, beat in flour in 2 additions until blended.

3. Divide dough into thirds; shape each into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 2 hours.

4. Preheat over to 350F.

5. Roll 1 piece of dough at a time, on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin, 10 1/4-inch thickness.

6. Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters; re-roll scraps.

7. Place 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

8. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden. Cool on wire racks. Decorate as you like using ornamental frosting.



My Experience:
So I've discovered I don't like rolling dough! It's an unnecessary pain. Next time I'll just do them as mostly drop cookies with a few cutouts so that they are pretty.

Other than that, they were pretty simple and straight-forward to make. And best part, they are yummy :)

This recipe makes about 6 dozen depending on the size of your cutouts.

I will soon be posting the frosting recipe that I used from the same magazine so keep an eye out for that.

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 9/10
My rating: 9/10 for taste, 6/10 for pain in the ass due to rolling!

Creamy Peanut Butter Cups

Homemade peanut butter cups! Not as easy as buying Reese's but the satisfaction that you made them makes enjoying them that much better!

The Recipe:
1 package semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar (icing sugar)
1/4 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

40 miniature foil or paper candy cups
miniature muffin pans
small glass or shot glass

1. Place foil liners in miniature muffin cups.

2. In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate on HIGH for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is melted and smooth.

3. Drop 1/2 teaspoon melted chocolate into each cup. Tap the pan lightly on a hard surface to distribute the chocolate evenly in the cups.

4. Place the filled muffin pans in the refrigerator or freezer; chill until the chocolate is firm, 5-10 minutes.

5. In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, confectioners' sugar and butter; mix until blended and smooth.

6. Drop 1 tablespoon of the peanut butter mixture onto top of chilled chocolate layer. Wrap a small glass or shot glass in plastic wrap and use bottom to press the peanut butter mixture evenly into the candy cups.

7. Top the peanut butter mixture in each cup with 1 tablespoon of the melted chocolate. Tap the pan on a hard surface to evenly settle the layers.

8. Refrigerate or freeze until chocolate is firm, 10-15 minutes.



My Experience:
My only tip is make sure that you don't overfill the paper cup. Make sure that there is a bit of paper passing over the chocolate line. Makes it easier to take them out of the paper shell.

The measurements of how much chocolate and peanut butter to put per cup is kind of just for an idea. You can just go by eye and do about a third of the cup height for each layer. Once you get a couple done, you catch on.

If you want, you can also use white chocolate instead of the semi-sweet! Makes it a little different :)

Another variation to the recipe: to make a quicker batch, layer mixtures in a foil-lined 8-inch square pan. Chill until firm and cut into bite-size square pieces for tasty Peanut Squares.

The Ratings:
Nannie's rating: 9/10
My rating: 9/10

Gumdrop Cookies

Thought these were a different kind of cookie. The gumdrops intrigued me so I accepted the challenge and made them during my Christmas baking spree!

The Recipe:
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped fruit-flavoured or spiced gumdrops
2 egg whites

1. In a large bowl, cream shortening and 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in extract.

2. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

3. Stir in gumdrops.

4. Drop by heaping teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

5. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

6. Cool for 1 minute before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely

MAKES: 3 1/2 dozen



My Experience:
Next time, I buy smaller gumdrops. Nannie and I made the foolish mistake of buying normal gumdrops and we had to cut the damn things into smaller pieces! Let me tell you something... cutting gumdrops into 4 or 5 pieces with scissors is not an easy task! Even had to enroll Papa into helping.

To be festive, I stuck with green and red gumdrops. Obviously, you can use other colours and flavours.

Overall, pretty good, pretty simple, pretty different.

Currently, they are sitting in the freezer. Here's to hoping they are still good after being frozen :)

The Ratings:
Papa's rating: 8/10 (he had to cut the gumdrops and wasn't happy about that! lol)
Nannie's rating: 8/10
Joelle's rating: 9/10
My rating: 7.5/10

Italian Sausage-Vegetable Soup

SLOW COOKER! That's right. Another slow cooker recipe.

The Recipe:
1/2 lb. bulk Italian pork sausage
1 cup sliced carrots
1 large baking potato, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cans ready-to-serve beef broth (141/2 oz. each)
1 can garbanzo beans or chick peas, drained (15 oz.)
1 can chunky tomatoes, undrained (141/2 oz.)
11/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1 bay leaf
1 cup julienne-cut zucchini
grated Parmesan cheese

1. In large skillet, brown sausage; drain. In 31/2 to 4-quart Crockery Pot, combine cooked sausage and all remaining ingredients except zucchini and cheese; stir gently to mix.

2. Cover; cook on low setting for 7 to 9 hours.

3. Remove bay leaf.

4. Gently stir in zucchini. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes or until zucchini is tender.

5. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and sprinkle with cheese

My Experience:
Easy. Yummy. Need I say more?

I would actually put more carrots next time since I love carrots.

Careful when serving, the chick peas sink to the bottom. Make sure to scoop them out.

Makes 7-8 servings

The Ratings:
Joelle's rating: 6/10
My rating: 7/10

Snack-ies

Now none of this is actually cooked by me. But it's just some suggestions for pre-meal time snacks that I know my family enjoys.



So in this picture we have:

1. Pumpernickel bread to go with some spinach dip (one of these days I'll try homemade spinach dip).

2. Bagel Chips and roasted garlic hummus (I also heard hummus is easy to make and cheap too! That will be coming soon).

3. Veggie platter with Heluva Good Dip (love this brand of dip! good with ripple chips or tostitos)

4. Tostitos and salsa! (once again, could make own salsa but I'm not a huge salsa person personally... others can enjoy!)

6. Deviled eggs (my FAVORITE!!!!)


So yea, some of this you could make homemade, which I plan on doing for some in the near future! So keep your eyes peeled for some new blogs.

Roasted Garlic and Feta Dip

Yummy. I saw the recipe on the side of my cracker box and realized I had all the ingredients in the fridge so I made some :)

The Recipe:
1 cup sour cream
1 cup feta cheese
2 tbsp roasted garlic
2 tbsp black olives, chopped
2 tbsp roasted red pepper, diced
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste

1. To roast garlic, drizzle 1 tsp of olive oil over head of garlic and wrap in foil. Bake at 400F for approximately 1 hour or until soft

2. In a food processor, blend sour cream, crumbled feta and roasted garlic until smooth

3. Stir in black olives, red pepper and oregano

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste

5. Serve with Rosemary & Olive Oil Crispy Baguettes Omega-3 (yea yea... promoting)

My Experience:
Well it's a simple dip to make. Makes a little more dishes since there is a food processor involved but oh well. And I LOVE garlic so I added more than the recommended amounts (and I was lazy and used minced garlic... next time I will actually roast it. Don't judge me, I was hungry). But yea, good if you like feta and garlic which I do.

The Ratings:
My rating: 8/10

Springtime Tortilla Roll-Ups

So it's not Spring but I saw this sandwich type thing and thought it looked really yummy...


The Recipe:
For the herb spread
1 package whipped cream cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
2 green onions, chopped
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

For the tortilla roll-ups
8 flour tortillas
8 romaine leaves
1 small zucchini, julienned
1 red pepper, halved, seeded and julienned
1 yellow pepper, halved, seeded and julienned
2 small carrots, peeled and julienned

1. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, parsley, dill, green onions, salt and pepper. Lightly spread some cream cheese mixture over the tortillas.

2. Layer romaine leaves, zucchini, some pepper strips and carrots on top.

3. Roll the filled tortillas up tightly.

4. Wrap the roll-up tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

5. Slice the tortillas, on an angle, into 1-inch strips.

My Experience:
These are a nice little snack. If you don't like the peppers or any other kind of the vegetables, I also had these sandwiches with just julienned cucumber.

I didn't use fresh parsley and dill, I cheated and used the bottled stuff. Still works :)

You can also add or vary the fillings with: alfalfa sprouts, strips of roasted pepper, very thin slices of ham, turkey or roast beef, strips of green onions, thin strips of cheese, sprigs of parsley.

The spread on it's own with crackers like melba toast or something is pretty good too if you have left overs.

The Ratings:
My rating: 9/10