Black Friday Giveaway – $500 Value!!

November 29, 2013December 1, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 2 Comments

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Once you have emerged from your food coma, or returned from a marathon Black Friday shopping session I have an awesome giveaway for you to enter! I have joined up with 41 other bloggers to give you the chance to win one of the fabulous items below.

Since I’m currently running on WordPress.com the Rafflecopter form for the giveaway will not display on my lowly blog – you will need to click the link at the end of the post that says “a Rafflecopter giveaway” OR head over to Living Better Together – the blog of the lovely lady who organized this whole thing (thanks Rebecca!) – and enter there. Good luck!

42 blogs are bringing you an amazing giveaway to get your holiday season underway! We’re hoping to make the holiday season easier for one of our lucky readers, $500.00 worth of easier that is!

The winner will be able to choose from an XBOX 360 Kinect Nike+ Bundle, a Kindle Fire HD 8.9″, or a KitchenAid 5 Quart Stand Mixer in the color of your choice! Oh and to top it all off, we’re going to give you the difference in an Amazon gift card to make your grand prize total $500.00!

For example, if you choose the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ as your prize, it’s $229.00.

$500.00-$229.00=$271 Amazon gift card.

Amounts based on price at time of shipment.

Sounds like something you’d like to win, right? Well, without further rambling, on to the giveaway! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Goat Cheese Cheesecake with Rum Raisin Compote

November 14, 2013November 12, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 14 Comments

I LOVE goat cheese. My grocery store sells little logs of the tangy cheese flavored with all kinds of wonderful things – honey, fig, blueberry. One of my favorites is the goat cheese rolled in rum raisins. Give me that and a package of water crackers and I’ve got ~~dinner~~ a very lovely snack. So when I saw that this month’s Spiked Recipe Challenge ingredient was spiced rum, I knew I wanted to make something with goat cheese and rum raisins. But what???

This was the very first cheesecake I have ever made and it is definitely a keeper! It has that added tang from the goat cheese that I just love, and the Biscoff cookie crust is to die for… but more on the ingredients later! First let me say – there are SO many opinions on cheesecake! Butter in the crust, no butter in the crust, egg whites, no egg whites, water bath, no water bath, bake, no bake, remove from the oven, leave in the oven to cool. My head was spinning trying to figure out how to make this darn thing!

I started off by looking for a recipe that sounded tasty yet relatively simple. I found one on Oprah.com of all places. After a few ingredient swaps I was ready to bake. I decided to do the whole water bath thing since so many people seemed adamant about it. No, you do not dunk your cheesecake in the tub. You are supposed to wrap the outside of the springform pan in tinfoil, place the pan with cheesecake filling in a larger pan, fill the larger pan with water (boiling, not boiling. I went with boiling.) about halfway up the springform pan and THEN carefully put the whole setup in the oven. . All this is supposed to prevent your cheesecake from cracking on top. Mine did not crack, but whether is was due to the water bath or just my mad cheesecake baking skills we will never know.

After letting my cheesecake chill in the fridge overnight I made my rum raisin compote. Then it was time to plate and photograph.Just one minor problem… my cheesecake was stuck to the bottom of the pan!! I had sprayed it with baking spray but apparently that was pointless. My previously crack-less cheesecake was turning into the Grand Canyon as I tried in vain to lift it off the pan bottom. A quick internet search let me know that I should have covered the bottom of the pan in parchment paper first. WHERE was this info in all of my previous cheesecake research?!

Luckily I was able to get a few nice pieces out of the cheesecake. The rest isn’t pretty but it doesn’t really matter because it’s damn delicious!

Goat Cheese Cheesecake (adapted from Goat Cheese Cheesecake with Spiced Cherry Topping on Oprah.com)

Ingredients

1 stick butter
1 3/4 cups Biscoff cookie crumbs (I just put a bunch of cookies in a plastic bag and crushed them with my rolling pin)
3 – 8 oz packages cream cheese at room temperature
8 oz goat cheese at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla bean paste (that’s where all the little flecks you see in the pictures come from; it’s not dirt – I promise) You can use vanilla extract if you do not have the paste.

Directions

Crust: Preheat oven to 325°. Melt butter; then mix it with Biscoff cookie crumbs. Press crust into the bottom of a greased 9-inch springform pan (or try the lining it with parchment paper trick!). Bake for 10 minutes.

Filling: Combine cream cheese, goat cheese, and sugar in the bowl of a mixer using a paddle attachment. Blend on low speed until smooth. Scrape down sides of bowl; add flour. Mix until flour is thoroughly incorporated. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping down sides of bowl between additions. Add vanilla; mix until incorporated.

Remove crust from oven and pour in filling. Smooth top with a small knife or spatula. (Now is the time to put together your water bath if that’s the route you are taking). Bake cake until edges are slightly cracked and center is jiggly, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven; set pan on a wire rack until it cools to room temperature, then remove sides of pan. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve.

Rum Raisin Compote

Ingredients

1 cup spiced rum (I used Captain Morgan’s)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 cup regular raisins
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1 tbsp cornstarch and 1 tbsp water (optional)

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients except the cornstarch and water in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil. Boil until raisins plump and sauce starts to thicken. It will still be rather liquid, so if you want to really thicken it up mix together one tbsp cornstarch and one tbsp water in small bowl, then pour the mixture into the sauce and stir. Remove from heat, let cool slightly and then serve on top of a slice of the cheesecake.

All in all, my first cheesecake making experience was a pretty good one! I will definitely use the goat cheese cheesecake recipe again, and I’m already thinking about topping the next one with some blueberry preserves! I think the only thing I would do differently is double the recipe for the crust – it was a little thinner than I like. Oh, and maybe make some whipped cream to top the whole thing off with! 🙂

Many thanks to Carrie from Frugal Foodie Mama and Julie from This Gal Cooks for hosting another fun Spiked Recipe Challenge!

Boo to You!

October 29, 2013October 28, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 4 Comments

It’s almost Halloween! I bought my candy for the trick-or-treaters (and my boyfriend and I have already eaten half of it), watched It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with some cool kids on Saturday night, and I whipped up another set of Halloween cookies!

To make the ghosts, I used a “Why didn’t I think of that?!” technique I picked up from a ghostly post over at Semi Sweet Designs. Instead of flooding the whole ghost white and then adding the black accents on top, I painted the area I wanted the eyes and mouth with the black icing first and then outlined the face and filled the cookie with white flood icing. Like I said… why didn’t I think of that?!

Spooky Cookie

October 18, 2013October 17, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 8 Comments

This week I whipped up some fun Halloween themed cookies for another round of Operation Cookie Takeover! Back in March I made ice cream cookies for the first mass shipment of cookies to our troops serving overseas and I was so excited when I saw the Facebook post calling for volunteers again. I got to play with my new bat and giant spiderweb cookie cutters! I love the way the bats turned out! 🙂 These are shipping to Afghanistan today!

Drink Your Pie ~ Caramel Apple Pie Cocktail

September 23, 2013November 20, 2015 ~ Angela ~ 46 Comments

As some of you may remember, last fall I might have had a slight obsession with Pinnacle Pumpkin Pie vodka. I made a Caramel Pumpkin Pietini, a Kahlua Pumpkin Cheesecake Martini, a Pumpkin Pie Frappuccino, a Pumpkin Mudslide AND a Cran-Pumpkin Pop. I was just a teensy bit out of control, but come on – pumpkin pie flavored vodka? How could you not have tons of fun with that?

And now, Pinnacle has done it again with their new flavor – Caramel Apple. I stalked the hell out of this stuff. I checked the online product locator, I called all the local liquor stores to see if they had it, I’d casually “drop by” Total Wine & More every week hoping to run into it in the vodka aisle. Then finally last week, there it was.

Two bottles sat on the shelf. I bought one. I should have bought them both.

I had this recipe planned out in my mind as soon as the new Caramel Apple flavor was announced and just as I suspected the vodka, RumChata and apple cider all blend perfectly in this quintessentially Fall cocktail. In a case of finding exactly what you need when you didn’t even know you needed it, I happened across a bag of Kraft Jet Puffed Caramel & Vanilla SwirlMallows on a toilet paper run to Dollar General. I couldn’t have found a better garnish for this drink if I had been looking for one.

This is some seriously good stuff. It doesn’t even taste like there is alcohol in it. It tastes like liquid caramel apple pie with a little bit of vanilla ice cream mixed in. Is there an award for Cocktail of the Year? Cause this should win it.

Caramel Apple Pie Cocktail

Ingredients

1 cup apple cider*
1 oz Pinnacle Caramel Apple vodka
1 oz RumChata
ice
* Since there is dairy in RumChata, it can curdle if combined with a liquid that has a high citric acid content. Try to get apple cider that does not have citric acid listed as an ingredient.

Directions

Combine cider, vodka and RumChata with a few ice cubes in a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously for about 30 seconds and strain into a glass. If you wish, garnish with Caramel & Vanilla SwirlMallows. You could also rim the glass with caramel, cinnamon sugar, or both!

The cider does start to separate if you let the drink sit too long, so you might want to have a cocktail stirrer handy. However, this cocktail is so absolutely delicious that it sitting too long really shouldn’t be an issue. 🙂

If you give this one a try (and believe me, you should!) stop back to let me know what you think! And don’t forget to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and all that other good stuff! The links are at the top right of my page!

Cheers!

~ Angela

Disgustingly Good – Pumpkin Caramel Apple Magic Bars

September 19, 2013November 15, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 23 Comments

It’s time for another

This is a funtastic recipe challenge from Julie at This Gal Cooks and Carrie at Frugal Foodie Mama. The challenge is to use the chosen booze to make anything other than a drink, and the for this go-round we had to use a fall beer! This challenge was very, well, challenging to me because I really don’t like beer. Here is a picture of me the last time I actually consumed an entire glass of the stuff:

That was almost 4 years ago, on my 30th birthday. I’m going to be 34 in a little less than a month. Ugh. Anyway, the birthday was awesome, the beer was raspberry wheat and it was… tolerable. Most times, when my boyfriend insists that I try a sip of whatever beer he is drinking I end up having to gargle with a chocolate cupcake just to get the taste out of my mouth. This beer didn’t make me run for the nearest bakery, but I didn’t ENJOY drinking it.

So, to create an awesome tasting recipe with a seasonal beer sounded like a daunting task. However, I think I got lucky when I stumbled upon Shock Top Honeycrisp Apple Wheat beer in the liquor store. It still tastes like beer, but it also tastes a lot like apple. I might actually slightly like it. Maybe. It still does taste like beer, after all.

Regardless, it doesn’t really matter what it tastes like straight from the bottle because when it’s mixed together with a can of sweetened condensed milk and drizzled over top of yummy things like pumpkin cake and Caramel Apple Milky Way bars you end up with a magic bar fittingly described as “disgustingly good.”

Other reviews:

“This is the best thing I’ve ever had!”

“I don’t normally like sweets but those magic bars are really good.”

“Oh My God! This smells delicious!”

Many thanks to my coworkers for being my guinea pigs, although in this case I get the feeling I was the one doing them a favor. Everyone was raving about these bars.

These bars were inspired by a recipe that I had pinned from The Domestic Rebel for Samoa Magic Bars. I have yet to try the original recipe but Hayley’s stuff is always awesome, and how can anything soaked in sweetened condensed milk be bad? There are quite a few magic bar recipes out there any everyone seems to go nuts over them, so I took the basic concept and ran with it.

Pumpkin Caramel Apple Magic Bars
Adapted from Samoa Magic Bars by The Domestic Rebel

Ingredients

1 box of Perfectly Pumpkin Cake Mix from Pillsbury
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup Kraft Caramel Bits
1 and 1/2 cups Harvest Blend M&M’s, divided
1 cup chopped Caramel Apple Milky Way Miniatures (about 20 wrapped pieces)
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp Shock Top Honeycrisp Apple Wheat Beer

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13×9 inch pan with foil, spray the foil lightly with cooking spray and set aside. (I used a metal, nonstick pan. The baking times may vary if you use glass.)

2. In a large bowl combine the cake mix, egg and butter until a soft dough forms. Press the dough evenly in the bottom of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

3. While the dough is baking, mix the 2 tablespoons of beer and the can of sweetened condensed milk together in a small bowl. If you haven’t done so already, now is also the time to chop your Milky Way bars into small chunks.

4. Remove the pan from the oven and pour about 3/4 of the sweetened condensed milk/beer mixture on top of the cake. Next, evenly cover the cake with the caramel bits, chopped Milky Way bars and 1 cup of the M&M’s. Drizzle the remaining sweetened condensed milk on top.

5. Return to the oven and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes. I’m not sure you can tell that it’s done just by looking at it since it’s covered in melted candy. I took mine out at 15 minutes and it was done. You can leave it in a bit longer if you like, just keep an eye on the condensed milk to make sure it doesn’t start to brown too much.

6. Remove from the oven. Let cool for about five minutes and then sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of M&M’s on top. Allow the bars to set at room temperature until cool before cutting into bars. I stored mine overnight in a covered container in the refrigerator before taking them in to work the next day, but according to the original recipe these will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for several days. They won’t last that long though, so you don’t need to worry about it!

These bars are fantastic. The apple beer brings a wonderful flavor to the sweetened condensed milk, and the pumpkin and caramel apple – each a great fall flavor in its own right – combine to make on hell of a sweet treat. The recipe can also be made without the beer for those not old enough to imbibe and it would still taste fantastic! This is definitely something to make to feed a crowd. If I hadn’t taken this in to work to share I’d probably still be in a sugar coma on my couch. It would have been worth it though… : )

The Obsession Continues – Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookies

September 12, 2013September 11, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 31 Comments

Hey all! I’m back, and I brought more cake mix cookies!! If you happened to miss my last post about these UH-MAYYY-ZING Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake Cookies that I made using cake mix, you should definitely go check it out! Go ahead, I’ll wait… : )

…So you can see why I am totally digging cake mix cookies, right? They are so easy to make, and every time I have made them the cookies are perfectly soft, chewy and full of flavor! They have yet to disappoint, unlike some other recipes I have tried lately.

Even though it’s supposed to be almost 90 degrees again tomorrow here in NJ, I am in full on fall recipe mode. I spent last weekend baking pumpkin and apple cake mix cookies (as well as a sweet treat for this month’s Spiked Recipe Challenge – Seasonal Beers) and I spend a ridiculous amount of time pinning pumpkin related everything to my Fall Pinterest board. I can’t wait for crisp weather, crunchy leaves and cozy fires in the fireplace.

Fall leaves in Vancouver (Photo credit: VancityAllie)

To help usher in my favorite season, I would like to introduce you to my Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookies! As I mentioned, these are cake mix cookies and I used another one of the new seasonal Pillsbury cake mixes I found at the grocery store a few weeks ago.

Let me tell you, this cake mix smells heavenly. I mean, it’s got caramel in it – how could it not? I used white chocolate chips in this recipe, but regular chocolate chips would be also be a delicious add-in. I’ve ogled those chocolate dipped caramel apples on numerous occasions, haven’t you?

Same simple concept as the Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake Cookies. Cake mix, pudding mix, oil, eggs = YUMMY COOKIES!

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookies (Once again inspired by and adapted from Kitchen Meets Girl’s Funfetti Cheesecake Cookies)

Ingredients

1 box Pillsbury Caramel Apple cake mix
1 small box instant cheesecake pudding mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup white chocolate chips, divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil and eggs in a medium bowl until a dough forms. Mix in 1/2 cup of the white chocolate chips.
3. Form dough into balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Use the remaining white chocolate chips to press into the top of each cookie.
4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until cookies begin to brown slightly. Remove from oven, cool for 2 minutes and then move to a wire rack.

Makes about 24 cookies.

I ate quite a few of these and then had to take the rest to work before I ate them ALL. Looking at these pictures now though, I wish I hadn’t. I’m hungry and I could really go for a cookie…

I Did A Bad, Bad Thing – Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake Cookies

September 9, 2013September 8, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 26 Comments

I recently discovered cake mix cookies. I think I am obsessed.

I am in big trouble people. Four, maybe five ingredients, mix it up in a bowl with just a spoon, bake and you have the most delicious, soft and chewy cookies in endless flavor combinations? Like I said, BIG trouble, and it’s all because of Pinterest, Ashley at Kitchen Meets Girl and this recipe for Funfetti Cheesecake Cookies.

I pinned this recipe a while back and then a few weeks ago I decided to try it out and made a batch. The next day I made two more batches to take into work. These cookies are addictive, and while I sat stuffing them into my face my mind was going wild with all the possibilities. Take any cake mix, and box of pudding, vegetable oil, 2 eggs and some kind of chocolate chip type add-in and you have the easiest, yummiest cookies ever!

I knew I wanted to use the Pillsbury Perfectly Pumpkin cake mix I picked up at the grocery store. I also had a bag of Heath Toffee Bits, and after my first taste of the aforementioned Funfetti Cheesecake Cookies I bought out Acme’s supply of JELL-O cheesecake pudding mix so I had tons of that.

Pumpkin. Toffee. Cheesecake. Do I really need to say anything else?

Okay, I will!

These cookies are THE BEST!!!!! The pumpkin cake mix and cheesecake pudding go perfectly together, and combined with the bits of chewy toffee… well, it’s about as awesome as a bin full of puppies.

English: Puppies in a bin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you haven’t tried them yet, you MUST make a batch of cake mix cookies. They come together so fast and disappear even faster! You just mix up a few ingredients in a bowl, roll the dough into balls, and bake!

After 8-10 minutes you have this:

And then once they’ve cooled you will eat ~~them all~~ a few and be transported to cookie heaven. From zero to two batches of insanely good cookies in less than an hour? Hell yeah.

Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake Cookies
(adapted from Funfetti Cheesecake Cookies by Kitchen Meets Girl)

Ingredients

1 box Pillsbury Perfectly Pumpkin cake mix
1 small box instant cheesecake pudding mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup Hershey’s Heath Toffee Bits, divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil and eggs in a medium bowl until a dough forms. Mix in 3/4 cup of the Heath Toffee Bits.
3. I just grabbed blobs of dough and rolled them into balls, but you can use a cookie scoop if you prefer. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Use the remaining Toffee Bits to press some into the top of each cookie.
4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until cookies begin to brown slightly. Remove from oven, cool for 2 minutes and then move to a wire rack.

Makes about 24 cookies.

The only thing I don’t like about these cake mix cookie recipes is that you can only squeeze 24 cookies out of a batch, but they are so easy to make that doubling up on the recipe is no problem at all!

I’ll be back soon with another cake mix cookie recipe. Did I mention I was obsessed?

The Best Thing Since Sliced Banana Bread

August 12, 2013August 11, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 7 Comments

I love banana bread, unless it has nuts in it. I do not agree with the concept of putting hard bits of walnuts, pecans, etc. into soft baked goods. That is a major food texture faux pas in my book. There is nothing worse than slicing into a loaf of banana bread and finding it filled with squirrel food, or biting into a piece of delectable looking carrot cake only to have your teeth come crunching down on a stinking walnut. It’s just wrong.

I am, however, not averse to adding other things to a nice banana loaf – chocolate chips, blueberries, and most recently coconut. Last week I had some bananas about to go bad and a half used can of coconut milk lurking around in my refrigerator so I turned to Pinterest (my favorite recipe finder these days) in search of a recipe for coconut banana bread. After looking through a few, I found a recipe that seemed pretty simple and didn’t require a trip to the grocery store for ingredients. I whipped it up and in about two hours was enjoying the tropical fruits of my labor.

The bread was really good and I found myself thinking, as I often do, How can I add some booze to this? I decided that the next time I made the bread, I would top it off with a glaze made from my new favorite – Malibu Sundae. Banana, coconut, chocolate, yes! Since I can be a tad impatient, I made another loaf today.

I’m trying not to eat it all before tomorrow. The bread on its own is delicious (check out the recipe over at Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body) , but not overly sweet. The addition of the rum glaze adds a perfect kick of boozy sweetness and it couldn’t be simpler to make!

Malibu Sundae Rum Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons Malibu Sundae

Mix the confectioners sugar and rum in a bowl until smooth, then pour over whatever it is you want to glaze! Let sit until the glaze has hardened, then have a slice…or two, but not three. Definitely not three. Cause that would just be too much. Right?

Christmas Cupcakes In July

July 25, 2013July 24, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 4 Comments

We are just coming off of a seemingly endless stretch of 90+ degree days here in NJ. It’s been a hot, humid and VERY rainy summer so far – a lot more like the tropics than the Mid-Atlantic. The weather has been more conducive to loafing around on the couch in the A/C watching old Law & Order: SVU episodes on Netflix than it has been to baking. Who wants to turn on an oven inside when it FEELS like an oven outside? Not this girl.

Luckily things have finally cooled down a bit, just in time for me to bake some cupcakes for our Christmas in July celebration at work today!

I was having a hard time getting in the spirit of things and deciding on a flavor so I did a little poll on my Facebook page. I had quite a few good suggestions: eggnog, gingerbread, red velvet. I was leaning towards eggnog until someone mentioned peppermint. Mint is not only Christmasy, it’s also cool and refreshing – perfect for hot weather!

I was inspired by these Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cupcakes from easybaked but I knew I wanted to add a splash of booze to my cupcakes – they are for a holiday party after all 😉

Spiked Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

24 cooled chocolate cupcakes, prepared in the manner of your choice (I used Pillsbury Devil’s Food cake mix)

To make the frosting:

Heat 1/2 cup of milk, half & half or heavy cream either on the stove top or in the microwave. Dissolve one packet of instant hot chocolate mix in the milk and let cool.

In a stand mixer combine:

1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup shortening
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons peppermint schnapps
10 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup cooled hot chocolate

The bowl for my mixer isn’t that big, so I started off with 5 cups of the confectioners sugar, mixed that with all the other ingredients and then added the other 5 cups of confectioners sugar.

Frost cooled cupcakes then add mini marshmallows (I used mini chocolate ones) and a peppermint candy for garnish.