Being Trixie

Why I love cold nights.

I love me some Peanut Butter cookies.

I would have to say of all the goodies I bake. Cookies are not my specialty. I leave those to my sister-in-law. She is a cookie beast. The only cookie I know I can make (and make well) are the good old peanut butter cookies.

Oh hai little ingredients soon to be cookies.

Every now and again I get the hankerin' for some cookies, I also believe that there is no reason to go to a store for them, when I can do it myself.

 

Patiently awaiting their #hashtags#

 

So I do what I do and make me some peanut butter yummies.

 

 

You can make them too...

 

Philly's Finest Bar(Tender)

Scotch. Whiskey. Bourbon.

These are things I don't typically like to drink. During some odd phase in his life, Joe has become a huge fan of these old man drinks. And has a bottle collection of a champ.

Last year for his 30th birthday we went into Philly for a day of fun. I had a gift certificate for any Garces restaurant of my choosing, and we decided upon Village Whiskey. A little bar on the corner of 20th & Sansom St. We settled in and had some drinks. This was the beginning of our obsession with this bar.

 

I wouldn't say so much the bar. But we have always had the pleasure of going to see Steve. He is a master bartender. A mixologist if you will. Most people think these folk are annoyingly called that. But they just wouldn't get it until you see the work they do.

Raw egg whites?

I'm sure if you were to head out to your local bar and say..
"Good day bar keep! May I have a delicious whiskey sour please?"

You would see that Mrs. T sour mix pop into sight, along with some whiskey, mix it up in a glass, and off you go.

Not here.

It's a 5 minute process.

But in the end..

Yes Please..

No sour mix here. Just some egg, whiskey, fresh juice, homemade simple syrup, bitters of sorts, and a couple of very strategically placed fruits.

It's always a good time when we go. Food and fun is something that never lets us down.

 

Hot AND Tasty.

Sadly. Steven is moving on to bigger and better bars. And this was the last time we will get to see him at Village Whiskey. But If you ever get a chance stop by. It's worth it.

 

 

Sunday morning breakfast

 

It was a rainy morning here in South Jersey today. The radar has nothing but good things to say...

That yellow? Yeah thats where I am.

 

Instead of mulling about.. I took the time to get cracking on some breakfast. The husband was complaining that I don't supply him with Sunday breakfast anymore, So I set off to prove him wrong. And get some waffles in my own belly.

Lets get cookin.

 

Ahhh. Hello there eggs & friends..

I think my least favorite thing about baking/cooking is getting the ingredients together all at once, and getting them prepped. This would be the reason I've never really logged meals on my blog. I get the camera out, and start to get cooking.. and then become a whirlwind of a mess and before I know it. things are half made, and I took one picture.

I am trying to better myself at this.

 

I might be weird.. But I like the way eggs look.

Time to mix mix mix...


I use a Belgian waffle - like maker. I've never been able to perfect exactly how much makes a full circle waffle. It's always toooooo much and I have spillage all over the place, or they're funny shaped and not round at all.

This looks like enough.

 
Close the lid, and see what happens....

 

Almost perfect.

 

Now I can't just stop there. Butter? Syrup? They would be the NORMAL way to go about adding pizazz to a delicious treat...

 

But how about powdered sugar glaze??

 

Perfecto. :)

 

Wanna make them yourself?

 

 

Grilled Chicken with Salsa Rice & Corn!

I was very motivated today to cook. I've been craving chicken and rice since monday. Luckily today, I finally got my wish.

Let's see how this shook out..


Getting that chicken all flavored up. I noticed I have really high intakes of sodium, so I tried to keep it low key.

 

Next up..Grill that chicken. I started the chicken, and then did all the remaining work.. When I was done fixing the rest of the food, the chicken was ready to go!

 

Yummmm. I LOVE corn. I can eat it every day. Look how yummy and yellow :)

 

cut up the avocado, and mix in the lime juice, then add your salsa. (I puree mine down so it's more saucy)

Mix in the rice to that mixture and get it coated.I used bagged minute rice. no need for picture of that :/

 

As I said , when the ancillary food are done being prepped.. The chicken is cooked!

 

What comes next is common sense. Plate that food up and enjoy! (The corn isn't dirty... I put some Mrs. Dash spicy chipotle seasoning on it)

 

And be sure to enjoy, because after you do....

 

Wanna make this too? Check out the recipe!

 

Blueberry Lemonade Cupcakes...

I got the baking bug today. And was feeling the urge to try something new.

I chose blueberries.

I never worked with real fruit... given, well. I don't like it :P But for the sake of trying something different.. I gave it a whirl.. Besides I finally got to use my new food mill.

 

Mmmm I do love sugar..

The final product was ooey, and gooey, and very purple.

 

 

I was pretty nervous about just mixing it into the batter.. But I guess you gotta just jump in at some point. I mixed it into the milk... Which I did not try.. And crossed my fingers.

 Yay :)

Icing and decorations.. and viola. I have Blueberry Lemonade Cupcakes.

 

 

 

 

 

Foccacia French Toasty Night

I had my first run in with foccacia bread a couple months ago.

I really don't think of myself as a bread person.. That's more a Joe thing. (He's italian... it's in his blood) I can't get bread in the house for any reason without him attacking it and chomping on it like a puppy chews on a new bone.

Anywhoodle. I eneded up with a loaf of foccacia, and I needed an idea for dinner tonite. The only thing I can ever think of when bread is involved is french toast. Mmmmm, yummy french toast.

Lets start with some foccacia bread (Mine's from Sweet life bakery in Vineland) and eggs, cream, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla.

I let the bread soak for a minute to really get te bread moist.Hoping to get the flavors in.

A nice little sizzle on the griddle...

 

Butter and syrup these puppies up and ENJOY.
(I told Joe butter sells... I did take 2 pads off to eat it.... After it melted, a little.)

       

 

 

I'm a kid at heart..

There are 3 steps to making me happy.

 

1. Enter the Lunchables (PB&J for me today)

 

2. Assemble in a photogenic fashion. (how sassy!)

 

 

3. Asseble and Enjoy. And feel like a kid again.

Yum! How fun!

Thanks to How sweet it is  (one of my new favorite foodie blogs) I have a half open box of yellow cake mix. After cake flavored pancakes, and cake flavored waffles I was running out of ideas on what I can flavor without getting tired of it.

 

Enter these little treats.

As I sat on the computer after deciding I didn't feel good enough to go to my yoga class tonight...I started to think. What can I do with that cake batter?  Cookies came into mind... And a few searches on food gawker for some cream cheese cookies (I had cream cheese available... & I didn't even know they existed) birthed these delicious morsels.

 

 

I mixed up a batch of a recipe I found online. But (I'm not going to name cuz I don't want to be mean) but the recipe was... not really legible. Things were in multiple measuring units.. like 3 oz cups of butter.. ... ? I don't know what that even means.

 

SO - Needless to say, I used the ingredients listed.. and just made up my own measurements. But instead of 1 cup of flour, I used 1/2c of flour and 1/2 c of (you guessed it!) Yellow cake mix!

But Nikki - won't that chnage the recipe? Yellow cake mix is a mixture of lots of stuff!
   Probably. But I wasn't worried about that at the time.

Luckilly I didnt care much about "rules" because these little things are BANGIN!!!

Enjoy!

 

Not all baking fails are bad..

What happens when you mix

THIS..

THIS....

 

And a girl who can NOT wait the 30/40 minutes it takes for a cake to cool off so she can icing accordingly?

Thats me BTW... trying to put PB Ganache on a cake that is FAR too warm..

 

You get this.

 

It may not be the prettiest Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cake ever. But it's pretty freaking yummy.