Baking with my new KitchenAid Stand Mixer!

After weeks of waiting for my KitchenAid 7-quart stand mixer (that I won at the Food Blog Forum) to arrive, I was finally greeted by an enormous box from Fedex last Monday when I got home from work. I'm not kidding you when I say this box is literally half my size. It took me a couple days to get around to  actually opening it; I admit, I was a little intimidated. When I finally did get it unpacked, I headed straight to the kitchen to do some baking! Look at this beauty...

First up was a recipe I've been wanting to take a crack at for a while. I have never made cupcakes before, so I was eager to try my first batch. Thanks to this recipe from Skinnytaste for Pina Colada cupcakes, I can now say I have successfully baked delicious cupcakes. It's a really easy recipe, so it was perfect for my first endeavor. Next time, I'll tackle a recipe where you actually make the cake portion from scratch. This recipe simply called for boxed cake mix, canned crushed pineapple, cream cheese, coconut flakes, and sugar. I contemplated adding some coconut rum to the mixture for the cake, but wasn't sure how it would affect the texture so I didn't do it. Next time...

Using the mixer made this one of my greatest baking experiences ever because I didn't have to mix anything by hand! I loved watching as the mixer swirled all of the ingredients together and formed the batter for the cupcakes, which tasted and smelled absolutely delicious.The frosting was even better to watch come together; the coconut flakes, sugar and cream cheese quickly combined to make the topping. It didn't have the same texture as normal cupcake frosting. in fact, I bet it would be a really good dip for fruit. 

The result was fantastic. Super-moist cupcakes topped with sweet and creamy coconutty goodness. My Bubby loved the treat, so much so that she wouldn't let me bring both trays of cupcakes to work! My co-workers were smitten with them as well. These are a great summer dessert for BBQs or dinner parties.

My next attempt was Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Brownies from Brown Eyed Baker. These were a bit more complicated than the Pina Colada cupcakes. But with my mixer, it was still easy as 1-2-3! Cocoa powder, cream cheese and Oreos are the shining stars in this recipe. I love love love Oreos in desserts — always have, always will. When I was a little girl, my favorite ice cream topping was crushed Oreos, whether at an ice cream parlor or at home. Whenever I visited my Bubby, she would crush the Oreos in a mini-food processor and pour the crumbles on top of chocolate ice cream. It's still one of my favorite ingredients when it comes to desserts, so when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. 

The cheesecake mixture is simply made from cream cheese, sugar and chopped up Oreos. This mixture is then spooned onto the brownie batter and swirled together. 

The brownies were a hit. Thanks to my mixer, there will be lots more desserts to come. Maybe I'll even attempt making my own bread! There are so many things you can do with this awesome kitchen appliance. I can't thank KitchenAid and the Food Blog Forum enough! This is easily one of the best things I've ever won in my life!

Golden Fried Matzo

One of my favorite things about Passover is my dad's chocolate chip Matzobrei or "fried matzo." He makes it every year. Eggs, matzo, chocolate chips and grape jelly — it's our most loved Passover breakfast. The recipe is super simple and takes no time at all to make, so anyone can do it. Since I wasn't there to devour my dad's fried matzo during the holiday this year, I had to make it myself. I've always thought about other variations of this dish. Everyone loves chocolate chips, but there are lots of other ingredients you could mix into the batter. I'm always reminded of french toast. Inspired by a pretty popular option on restaurant breakfast menus — cinnamon raisin french toast — I piled on the cinnamon and golden raisins and made some fried matzo of my own.

Golden Fried Matzo

vegetable oil

3 pieces of matzo

3 eggs

cinnamon

golden raisins

In a large bowl, break the pieces of matzo into fours and cover completely with water. Let soak for a few minutes or until soft. Drain the bowl of water and squeeze any excess water from the matzo. Beat the eggs with the matzo. Add in the raisins and cinnamon (amount depends on your own preference) and mix the batter until well combined. 

Pour about a tsp of vegetable oil onto a medium pan. Pour the batter into the pan and heat on a medium flame. When you start to see bubbles around the edge, cut the matzo into pieces and flip each piece over. Cook until both sides have browned. This shouldn't take longer than about 10 minutes. 

The outcome was great. I ate it plain, but I'm sure it would be good with any type of jelly, preserves, or syrup. Each bite was bursting with cinnamon and the sweet taste of golden raisins, which I like a lot more than I do regular raisins. I brought the fried matzo to work and my co-workers, Jewish and non-Jewish, all LOVED it. As unappetizing as matzo is on its own, there are definitely ways to make it appealing; this is one of the best.

As a side note, this recipe is different than the one my dad uses. He tried mine out and said he liked it better! After years of rave reviews of his fried matzo from anyone who has tried it, I was very flattered and proud to hear him say mine came out better. Thanks, Dad!

Family Passover Sedar

It has been awhile since my last post about a family dinner get-together. Passover began last weekend, so tradition brought us all together for a seder dinner at my aunt’s. There are specific things you can’t eat during the week of Passover — basically anything made with flour. Despite the fact that this seems to include a lot of foods, we were all completely stuffed after our delicious dinner. Our actual seder seemed to last only about 5 seconds. It’s hard when you have two 2-year-olds at the table. For the first time in a while, I was the one given the job of reading the Four Questions. This is always done by the youngest person at dinner (the youngest person who can read in this case...). My sister, Rebecca, has always been the one to take on this task in the past, but since I am here and she is in NJ, it was up to me. Good thing our Haggadah was in English! After going over the different items on the seder plate, saying the prayer over the wine and reading through the 10 plagues, it was finally time to eat! 

We started out with some of Bubby’s famous matzo ball soup and a white bean and artichoke salad — a traditional Passover dish for Sephardic Jews (Jews of Spanish or Mediterranean descent). My family is not Sephardic, but my aunt’s friend made the dish for us to enjoy. I could have eaten only this salad for dinner and been happy; it was so good. My aunt will be passing along this recipe for me to try out soon, so stay tuned for that. Chicken and brisket were the main entrees, accompanied by three different kugels: potato, broccoli and one made with matzo. I made a honey soy vegetable dish with carrots, mushrooms and cauliflower (recipe below).

For dessert, we had a flourless chocolate cake and apple strudel. To celebrate Bubby's birthday, we topped the chocolate cake with candles and sang to her. Her big day was a few days earlier, so timing was perfect to wish Bub a very happy and healthy birthday. She doesn't look a day older than 25! :)

As always, everything was delicious. My favorite was definitely the artichoke salad, but I have to say my veggies were pretty good too, even if I have to say so myself! I used all fresh vegetables, but you could use frozen too. I didn't measure out all the ingredients because I like to add each little by little and taste as I go, until I find the perfect flavor, but I will give estimates.

Honey Soy Vegetables

1 whole cauliflower, cut into smaller pieces

1 cup Baby Bella mushrooms

1 bunch carrots, sliced 

~3 tbs honey

~3 tbs soy sauce

1 lemon, halved

~1 tbs brown sugar

~2 tsp five spice

Put all your vegetables together in a large sauce pan and fill with enough water to cover them completely. Cover and heat on a medium flame. The vegetables will steam slowly. Keep an eye on them, constantly feeling them with a wooden spoon; you don’t want them to steam too long or they will become soft and mushy.

While your veggies are cooking, make the honey soy glaze in a smaller saucepan. Over a low flame, pour the honey and soy sauce into the pan and mix together. Squeeze the juice from both halves of the lemon into the pan. Stir in the brown sugar and five spice until a sauce starts to form. It won’t be a thick sauce; instead it will have the consistency of a salad dressing or vinaigrette. Once it starts to bubble, turn off the flame so it doesn’t burn.

By this time, your veggies should definitely be done cooking. Remove them from the heat and pour the sauce them and mix until they are well-coated. I added a little more honey, soy sauce and five spice to the mix at this stage and continued stirring until I felt there was a generous amount of the sauce covering the vegetables. 

Originally I was going to make honey-glazed carrots, simply using honey, brown sugar and lemon juice. When I realized I didn’t have enough carrots, I quickly scanned the refrigerator for anything else I could use. The only other vegetables I had on hand were mushrooms and cauliflower. Honey seemed too boring to use all by itself if I was going to use a mix of vegetables, so I grabbed the soy sauce and five spice and changed it up. Its a good thing I was short on carrots or I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to come up with this delicious side dish. It was the perfect amount of sweetness to go with the other more savory dishes we had at dinner.

I got a nice little surprise at dinner — my homemade matzo cover! My mom sent my aunt the matzo cover I made in Sunday School when I was 7-years-old. When I sat down at the table, there it was covering a plate of matzo in front of me. I looked at it and wondered who made such a bedazzled, colorful cover and then saw my chicken-scratch writing at the bottom: "Shaina 3/1995" Thanks for the little piece of home, mom!

Go Nuts & Cranberries for Chicken Salad!

Inspiration for recipe development can come from anything. Recently, mine came in the form of Greek yogurt. Chobani, to be exact. Last month right around my birthday, I jokingly tweeted the brand saying something along the lines of ‘why not send one of your biggest fans a birthday present?’ I didn’t really expect a response, but sure enough, a few hours later I saw they tweeted me back telling me to e-mail them my address and look for my birthday treat within a couple weeks. They sent me a box full of each of their flavors. Apple cinnamon, passion fruit, blood orange, mango, blueberry, strawberry banana, vanilla, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry, lemon, mango, and plain — all of them! Chobani has always been my go-to brand for Greek yogurt simply because I like their flavors and they are always 3 for $4 at Publix, but now they have definitely solidified a place in my heart. 

The box of free yogurt couldn’t have come at a better time. A few days before I received the gift, I came across a recipe contest on Facebook. Pretzel Crisps, one of my all-time favorite snacks, was hosting a contest for appetizer recipes to go with their product. I tried to think of something unique. I love eating Pretzel Crisps with hummus, Tzatziki, or salsa, and thought maybe I could put a twist on one of those as my entry. But I didn’t want to do just another dip; that’s too ordinary and expected. Then it hit me: I have a ton of Greek yogurt sitting in my refrigerator just begging to be used, so why not use it? I had recently tried a really good chicken salad from Costco that had dried cranberries in it. I almost bought some, but God knows how fattening store-bought chicken salad can be, so I thought I would recreate it. My inspiration came from my abundance of Greek yogurt and my need for a lower-calorie chicken salad. After adding ingredients to the chicken salad to give it more flavor and make it a little bit sweeter dish, I came up with a cute, cheesy name for it and entered it into the contest. Now I just have to wait until the contest is over to see if the Pretzel Crisp judges like it. If they do, it’ll be posted on their Facebook page and will be up to everyone on Facebook to vote!

"Go Nuts & Cranberries for Chicken Salad!" 

4-6 oz. Rotisserie chicken, chopped or shredded

6 oz. non-fat, plain Chobani Greek yogurt

1-2 tbsp honey

1 celery stalk, chopped

1/2 cup red grapes, cut in halves

About a handful of dried cranberries

dried cherries, walnuts and pistachios, chopped*

*I used a trail mix that included all of these.

Whisk together the yogurt and honey in a medium bowl.

Add all of the ingredients and mix until well combined. Simple!

 

Boca Bacchanal Grand Tasting

This month has really been all about food, wine & fun — not that I’m complaining! Last weekend was Boca Bacchanal, a food and wine event hosted by the Boca Raton Historical Society. It began Friday night with Vintner Dinners for some very lucky people. Celebrated chefs and award-winning vintners prepared lavish dinners in specially selected private residences in Boca. Saturday night was “Bacchus Bash” at Boca Raton Resort and Club.(Bacchus is the Roman god of wine and revelry, in case you were wondering where the name came from). The event included food and drink from the same chefs and vintners who participated in Friday's feasts, as well as a dinner prepared by Boca Resort’s executive chef. There were also silent and live auctions.

Now for the main event, which I was involved with as a member of the planning committee. I've been looking forward to this for quite some time: The Grand Tasting. This outdoor event was held at the amphitheater in Mizner Park. The weather was gorgeous and a perfect day to spend the afternoon strolling from table to table, trying various types of food and wine. As a committee member, I was there early in the morning helping to set up tables and showing the restaurants and wineries where they should set up. After this was completed and all of the participants had arrived, I was free to spend the rest of the day eating and drinking my little heart out. And let me tell you, that’s exactly what I did. 

Each restaurant prepared small portions of one of their specialties, while various wineries brought their best wines. My first bite of the day came from Wave 2700 —barley with pistachios and dried cranberries. This would make the perfect side dish for any chicken or fish dinner. Throughout the day, I noshed on various small dishes such as shrimp on top of guacamole with corn, truffled pasta with roasted Brussel sprouts, calamari salad, orzo with vegetables, lobster, four cheese ravioli, seafood & mango ceviche, and strawberries dipped in dark chocolate.  I wish I could remember which dish came from which restaurant, but there were so many that it was hard to keep track (and of course, all that wine wasn't a big help in that area either!). The participating restaurants were Andrew's, Bogart's Bar & Grill, Brooks, The Capital Grille, Chops Lobster Bar, City Fish Market, City Oyster, Ernie's Italian Chophouse, Howard's, Max's, Maggiano's, Nespresso, Oceans 234, Palm Sugar, Phillipe Chow, Publix Apron's Cooking School, Racks, Rocco's Tacos, Sea Level, Texas de Brazil, Truluck's, Uncle Julio's, Vino's of Boca and Wave 2700. 


My first stop was a winery I was familiar with: Cupcake Vinyards. I love Cupcake’s Riesling, but I noticed they had a new bottle. A blush wine, Angel Food. It was good, but I wouldn’t say it was my favorite new wine of the day. Of course I couldn’t leave the table without tasting their Riesling and Prosecco, as well. I also am a fan of their Red Velvet, but it has a bolder flavor that my tastebuds weren’t up for just yet. I tried lots of different wines, mostly Riesling and Moscato, since I am a sweet white wine type of girl. I did, however, find a red that I enjoyed, which was produced by a winery in Orlando. Lakeridge Winery’s Southern Red and Southern White were two of my favorite discoveries of the day. I also enjoyed the Biagio Moscato D’Asti and the Brovida Cordara Moscato from the Domaine Napa Wine Company. It was good experience to try wines from all over the world and notice the differences. I went out of my comfort zone a few times and tried drier wines than I normally drink, but that’s what a tasting is all about, isn’t it? 

My friend, Kristine was there with her husband who is pretty knowledgable when it comes to food and wine. He steered me toward the Domaine Napa Wine Company & Lakeridge, so thanks to him for those suggestions! Here's a picture of the two of us. See what I'm wearing? Everyone was given a wine glass and a strap to wear around their neck to hold the glass so your hands are free to enjoy your food — what a great idea! It was fun to spend the afternoon with my friends, and we planned on doing dinner together soon. I said I’d bring dessert, as long as they provide me with a date!

Overall, I think the Grand Tasting event was a success. I’m happy I was able to be a part of it, and now that I know what actually takes place on the day of the tasting, I plan on getting more involved with the committee next year. Maybe one day I’ll even chair it...