Archive for the ‘From the Kitchen’ Category

Grow up Hot Chocolate

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

So for the 3rd or 4th time I have made us some rather adult hot chocolate.  I have to warn you this is not for the occasional chocolate lover, it’s rich, it’s thick and it contains booze.  I believe that after KLT enjoyed a cup the other night he proclaimed that he needed a glass of milk to follow that. 

INGREDIENTS
So I have tweaked this to get it to make 2 full coffee cups.

Fill 2 coffee mugs with hot water to preheat the cups. Get out your chocolate sprinkles, whipped cream or marshmallows.

In a small ramekin place the following and save for later.

2 1/2-3 teaspoons of Vanilla
2-3 Tablespoons of liqueur (Van Gough Double Espresso Vodka, Amaretto, Peppermint Schnapps – you pick your favorite)

6 oz of 60% cocoa chocolate (I used Ghirardelli )
1 cup of heavy cream
1 cup + of 2% Milk

Over medium heat melt the chocolate in the milk. STIR constantly until melted. Once melted keep stirring and simmer until a nice steam rolls off. Remove from heat and plunge your boat motor in if you’d like your hot chocolate to be frothy other wise just stir and add the contents of your ramekin.

Pour hot water out of mugs and fill with the chocolate goodness, top with your favorite things and serve.

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Tropical Dream Cupcakes

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

So I had this idea for a cupcake, I had been tinkering with the idea of strawberry cupcakes with Malibu butter cream frosting. I decided that the last time I had a strawberry cupcake it was too strong and fake tasting.  Today was the day I decided to come home and give this recipe a try.  I have to say I LOVE THEM!!!

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Cupcakes

1          Strawberry boxed cake mix
1 c.     Pineapple (used crushed in natural juice, I got about 1/4 cup of just juice out and put the fruit in the mini-processor)
1/3c.  Oil
3         Eggs

Mix and bake as per box instructions.  I didn’t want there to be stringy pieces of pineapple in my cupcakes so I used the food processor to get more of a puree.  I am sure you could do this either way.

Once the cupcakes are cooled frost!

Frosting

6 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 c. of Coconut flavored rum (may take more or less)
1 tbl of clear vanilla
1.5  sticks of butter at room temp
Pinch of salt

Beat the butter with a mixer slowly add powdered sugar alternating with the liquid. I actually started with 4 cups, 1 stick and 6 TBL of rum but it wasn’t enough for the 20 cupcakes (yeah this time I didn’t get 2 dozen).  If you thought that wasn’t going to be enough I would use 2 lb sugar, 2 sticks of butter, the same run & Vanilla and do the rest of your thinning with milk. 

Now frost those bad boys and ENJOY!!

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Tammy’s Tips part 1 of 2

Friday, September 11th, 2009

I decided it was time I shared some of the greatest things I have ever learned.  :)

Filmy build up on glassware and plates

Let me start with the dishwasher.  Did you stop using your dishwasher because it made all your glasses turn white and crusty?  Well let me tell you the solution to this.  CLR.  Nope it’s that simple.  I fill the prewash cup plus some full of CLR, pop the soap packet into the wash cup and check to be sure I have rinse aid.  I do this every other wash if not every wash unless there are not many glasses and plates.  If you have a big buil up on your dishes I recommend you fill the sink and get them good and clean to start.  According to their package it’s safe. 

Built up, dried up and otherwise nasty coffee stains on your coffee pot?

 Wanna get your coffee pot clean without scrubbing?  Well grab a couple handfulls of ice, pour in some lemon juice and add salt, swirl around to clean.  Amazing how sparkling clean your coffee pot will be!

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The best dish scraper, burned on food getter-offer EVAR!

All right this one is more of a confession that turned out to be a great idea.  When I bought the house I spent many many months working on it room by room.  This meant I had a lot of tools laying around.  I was doing dishes and there was someting stuck in the dish, which totally annoyed me.  I look in the other sink and there is a pile of tools that I had washed and left to dry.  AH HA! I grab the plastic putty knife and use it to scrape stuff out of the dish.  OMG! that was the best idea EVAR!  From that day on the little yellow puty knife stayed with the other sink supplies. 

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Cheap cabinet upgrades you can do yourself.

Speaking of the little spatula did you know that you can retro fit your kitchen cabinets with high end modern options? Know those little “blocks” on the front of your cabinet just below the sink, yeah they can become very vital storage space.  Run to the nearest hardware store and pick up a hardware kit.  Come home grab your tools and prepare to be amazed.  First you get to knock those little blocks out with a hammer,they are just glued in there.

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 Pick up the hardware kit from the local home improvement place and install the storage bins on the back side of your blocks. Next install the hardware that allows them to tip out.  DO IT you will be so glad you did. Nothing like hiding all the stuff you don’t want to see yet have handy with out bending over to get it from under the sink.

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Quick, eash and cheap French Manicure for your toes

Love french manicures but don’t have time to go get them done and painting that at home is nearly impossible?  While this tip is useful it is not a long term kind of thing if you are busy like me.  Nail polish hardly last a full 24 hours if I don’t have fake nails.  Go to the nearest big box store with a craft department and buy yourself a white paint marker. 

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If you have med – long nail I recommend a medium tip, shorter nails get the fine tip.  Prep your nails as you normally would including a base coat then get the paint pen flowing and paint a nice little white edge around the end of your nail.  Wait for it to dry and apply a good top coat.  Sometimes I use a pinkish top coat and then a clear super top coat to keep the polish from wearing off.  It’s easy to touch up and looks great.  I do this on my toes practically all summer as it is easy to quickly touch up and maintain. Your toes are far enough away that imperfections are not that noticeable.

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Lemon Ginger Sorbetto

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Last summer I made Lemon Ginger Sorbetto probably for the same reason I am making it now.  I needed a lemon and had to buy an entire bag.  :D   Last year I worked so hard scraping the freezing concoction every 30 minutes while this year I cheated and used the ice cream maker.  Gotta love technology.  This is a very refreshing and pallet cleansing dish.  Even my mom liked it!

Really what you need:

1 Cup Sugar
6 Tbl Honey
3 Cups Water
1 Cup Lemon Juice (about 8, but you can measure and I filled in with the bottled stuff)
2″ peice of ginger

What you need to do:

Boil/heat water so it will dissolve the sugar.  Add the honey.  LET IT COOL!  Meanwhile grate the 2″ piece of ginger into a nice little square of cheese cloth.  TWIST, TWIST and TWIST to squeeze out 1 TBL of ginger juice.  Once the hot liquid is cool (and by cool I recommend putting it in the fridge till it’s COLD)  stir it all together and dump into your ice cream maker (follow its instructions) OR put into a shallow dish and scrape with a fork every 30 minutes.

So what’s really fun to do?  Hollow out several of the lemon halves, make nice thin strips of lemon peel with a few and save your self a slice or two.  Freeze the 1/2 lemons to make cups and serve your sorbetto in that with a lemon twist and mint leaf on the side.

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Blackberry Lemon Shake-Ups

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

I was watching a local station while visiting Nashville last week and over the lunch hour saw some recipes for summer time beverages.  Well it’s been hot down there for a while but it was perfect timing for this Indiana girl. 

What normally happens is they use crazy ingredients you don’t have, expensive ones you won’t buy or they leave out some sort of detail.  Of course here it was the details.   So after some testing, I know such a sucky job to have here is what I came up with.

Ingredients
3       oz of Vodka
3.5   oz of sweet and sour -see below  (store bought is good too)
1       oz of Blackberry Sangria -see below
4 mint leaves and 1 for a garnish

Pour ingredients into a shaker, SHAKE and pour into tall ice filled glass. 

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Take the garnish mint leaf and spank it (you know place it in your palm and smack with the other hand) now lay it on top of your drink. You could asd a splash of diet 7UP.  ENJOY!!!  *This is a revision.  At first I was making 1/2 as much, straining and serving in a chilled martini glass.  VERY elegant but difficult to balance and it was to good to sip. 

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Blackberry Sangria
1 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 cup of boiling water
1/4 cup sugar – this can be adjusted to your sweetness likings

Place blackberries and sugar in heat safe container add boiling water.  Let sit until dissolved.  Place in blender and liquefy. I also used this same recipe with frozen strawberries, KLT enjoyed it. 

Sweet and Sour
1 part simple syrup (2 parts water &  3 part sugar)
1 part lemon juice

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