From Follow Me Foodie

So I just got this in my e-mail… a Cupcake Challenge!!!

Follow Me Foodie’s inviting the general public,  the cupcake connoisseurs and lovers of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, to join them in sampling and judging Vancouver’s Best Cupcake! Through collaboration with notable Foodies and Bloggers in Vancouver, as well as the general public, they’re presenting awards and notoriety for the business voted as baking the most favourable cupcake at the event.

Mix and mingle with yummy bakers and test a variety of cupcake flavours and recipes! With prizes awarded throughout the day, this is a tasty event that you will certainly not want to miss.

When: Sunday, June 20th 2010
Where: Yaletown Roundhouse Community and Recreation Centre
Time: 11:00am to 3:30pm
Admission: Free!

You can get more info from Nicole at nicole@nicolemarieevents.ca or 604-836-1614

Courtesy of The Noshery another site that I check often for all things yum, I came across this:

A 2 Bite Breakfast: Bacon & Eggs in Toast Cups!

I figure, you know, everyone must have toasts at home some how, so this may be easier than getting bread bowls from my previous posting.

Curtesy of The Noshery

This recipe makes about 6 of these little bites.

Ingredients:

As an aside, to make it extra breakfastsy, add some maple syrup to it! YUMMMMMM!

Does that not look yummy?! I was surfing the web the other day and came across this amazing and extremely easy recipe on Nobelpig.com and I must share! You can also easily alter the recipe to your own pallet and flavor.  So here goes.

Ingredients Needed (depending on how many you are making):

Crusty dinner rolls, as many as you choose
Eggs, large, one for each roll
Mixed herbs, chopped, such as, parsley, chives and tarragon, about a teaspoon for each roll
Heavy cream, 1 teaspoon for each roll
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese, grated, as much as you want to sprinkle on each roll

Steps:

1. Slice off top of each dinner roll and gently remove some bread until there is a hole large enough to accommodate an egg.

2. Arrange rolls on a baking sheet.  Reserve tops.  Crack an egg into each roll.

3. Top each egg with some herbs and a bit of cream.  Season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with Parmesan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven until eggs are set and bread is toasted 20 to 25 minutes.  After eggs have cooked for 20 minutes, place bread tops on baking sheet and bake until golden brown.  Let sit 5 minutes.

4. Place tops on rolls and serve warm.

Yum!

image curtasy of beau-coup.com

Chatelaine and Today’s Parent came provided everyone with a recipe PDF download of the Best of Holiday Favourites Cookie Exchange 2009.

This may seem belated, but if you are going to a pot luck, or if you just want to produce some homemade snacks, why not refer to this free PDF download containing 12 tempting cookie recipes!!!

Enjoy everyone!

Melt in your mouth goodness. And you can tuck a surprise in the center if you like!

This was in my Chatelaine Dec 2008 issue.

Preparation time 15 minutes
Baking time 8 minutes
Makes 42 cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour or 21/2 cups (625 mL) cake and pastry flour
3/4 cup (175 mL) ground almonds, about 100-g pkg
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1 cup (250 mL) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (250 mL) sifted icing sugar
2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla
1 cup (250 mL) semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). In a medium bowl, stir flour with almonds and salt until evenly mixed. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium, beat butter with 1/2 cup (125 mL) icing sugar until smooth. Beat in vanilla. On low speed or using a wooden spoon, beat flour mixture into butter mixture.

2. Scoop about 1 tbsp (15 mL) dough and flatten into a disc. To add a chocolate centre, press 2 chocolate chips or 1 chocolate chunk into centre of the disc. Roll dough around chocolate, forming a 1-in. (2.5-cm) ball. Repeat with remaining dough and chocolate. Place on an ungreased baking sheet, at least 1 in. (2.5 cm) apart.

3. Bake in centre of oven until puffed and golden on bottom when lifted, from 8 to 10 min. Remove cookies to a rack to cool for 5 min. Place remaining 1/2 cup (125 mL) icing sugar in a shallow bowl. Then roll warm cookies in sugar until evenly coated and return to rack to cool completely. Cookies will keep well stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to a week or in the freezer up to 1 month.

And you can totally turn this into edible ornaments for your tree

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. peppermint extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Red food coloring

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat well. Stir in the peppermint and vanilla extracts. Gradually mix in the flour.
2. Divide the dough in half. Color one half with red food coloring and leave the other half plain. Roll out a tablespoon of red dough and a tablespoon of plain until they are each 6 to 8 inches long. Twist them into a candy cane, pinching the ends. Repeat.
3. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not brown.
   Makes about 25.

On our Candian Thanksgiving weekend, my boyfriend’s little brother (12?) was doing an english assingment. He was to write a Halloween menu. This Halloween menu’s suppose to be gross and nasty but realistic at the same time…so onto the net I go and what did I find? Some AMAZING yet hilarious idea….If i throw a halloween party next year, these are ALL going to be on my “to do” list.

So here we go.

The Roaches Pure

Does it look nasty or what?! It’s really only “Walnut Dip with Garlic”. The texture of pureed walnuts is the magic ingredient that give you the crunchy bits!

Ingredients:

3 slices of whole wheat bread, well toasted
1/4 C. walnut pieces
4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3/4 C. water
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. In food processor (or by hand), crumble the toast into fine crumbs.

2. In food processor or blender, combine walnuts, garlic, and crumbs until all is finely ground.

3. Add lemon, oil, and parsley. Process until smooth. Add water as needed until desired consistency.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. This is one of those gross recipes for Halloween that’s easy to make ahead of time. As it sits in the fridge, it gets a little darker– a good thing for cockroach puree. The parsley may darken a bit and begin to look like bits of “cockroach skin”.

6. Serve up in a bowl labeled “Cockroach Puree,” “Roasted Roach Dip,” etc.

Stuffed Roaches

This one is probably the best one I’ve ever seen out there! It’s super smart, fun and gross all in one! They looked gross but they taste good. Again the trick is the walnuts!

Ingredients:
1/3 C. cream cheese, softened
1/4 C. walnuts, chopped semi-fine
20-30 dates, pitted

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and nuts til well mixed.

2. Gently fill each date with cream cheese/nut mixture (you may have to split the dates slightly).

3. Serve in a festive halloween decorated with several rubber roaches. Label as “Stuffed Roaches,” or “Fresh-caught Cockroaches,” etc.

Truck Stop Toilet

When I saw this one, I coudln’t stop laughing, but at the same time be extreamly grossed out!

They suggested using brownies and strawberry syrup (bottled is fine) as blood (as in the picture) but also suggest a peanut butter blood recipe to make it looks much nastier. Oh and walnut! in the brownies, slicing them into long rectangular slices instead of the squares….for a more realistic look!

Ingredients/Supplies:
One brand new, UNUSED training potty/toilet
1 prepared brownies
1 tub prepared chocolate frosting

Peanut Butter Blood:
1/2 C. creamy peanut butter (chunky won’t work!)
Light corn syrup, as needed
Red food coloring, as needed
Chocolate syrup, as needed (optional)

Instructions:

1. Thoroughly clean the new training potty with soap and water.

2. Prepare peanut butter “dried blood” by slowly adding corn syrup to peanut butter until you get your desired texture. Add red food coloring until you get a dark blood red. If mixture isn’t dark enough, stir in a little chocolate syrup. Set aside.

3. Place brownies or Tasty Turds in bowl of toilet.

4. With lid opened, “decorate” your toilet with prepared “dried blood” and gobs of chocolate frosting. Dangle a length of toilet paper from one of the gobs of chocolate frosting, if desired.

5. Watch your guests get really disgusted by this gross Halloween recipe.

Much thanks to Devine Dinner Party for these deadly recipes! If you love these, they’ve got more on their site. These three are just my favs!

Vanilla Ice Pops!

Serves about 6 – 10

Takes about 5 minutes to make

Takes 3 – 4 hrs to freeze

Ingredients
250 g cream cheese, softened
500 ml milk
60 ml sugar
5 ml vanilla or vanilla beans

Preparation

In food processor, combine cream cheese with milk, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Pour into glasses or Popsicle molds. Freeze one hour, then insert popsicle stick in middle. Put back into freezer for 3 to 4 hours, to allow liquid to freeze completely. To turn out easily, dip glasses or Popsicle molds into hot water for one minute before pulling on stick. And serve!

From All You Need is Cheese

No Complaints here! LOVE Turkey! And since I’m sure many of you are going to be cooking your butts off, I figure I should share my favourite stuffing recipe ever! In my time I’ve had turkies stuffed with the traditional bread crummy (yes crummy cuz it really isn’t that great)..I’ve also had what my mom made this one time…she stuffed it with Chinese sticky fried rice. That was good too.

Now here’s my favourite…This receipe’s from a Spanish cook book that I bought for $12 a few years ago… It’s really a recipe for Chicken..but chicken or turkey…stuffing is stuffing.

Recipe Name: Pollo Relleno (for chicken…adjust for turkey size accordingly)

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).

Stuffing: Mix together 100g of chopped ham or bacon, 100g minced (ground) pork, 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley, 1 crushed garlic clove, a pinch of nutmeg, 1/2 finely diced onion, 1 teaspoon finely chopped oregano and 2 tablesppons lemon juice.Add 1 beaten egg and mix with your hands until thoroughly combined.

Season well. Wash and pat dry a 1.6 kg (3lbs 8 oz) chicken inside and out, then fill the cavity with the stuffing. Tie the legs together and put the chicken in a baking tray, coating it with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and roast for 30 minutes.

Reduce the heat to 180°C (350°F) and cook for 35-40 minutes, or until the unices run clear when the chicken is pierced between the thigh and body. Allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving. Serve a little of the stuffing with each portion of chicken.

Give this a try! I’m sure you’ll love it. Especially those who doesn’t like the traditional stuffing.