Archive for I love a good Beverage!
Red Wine Poached Chicken Salad
Apparently I’ve been doing alot of cooking with vino- and vino is a good thing… And there’s never too much of a good thing!
Weather here in LA has been warming up finally and warm weather makes me seriously crave salads. I threw this salad together earlier this week and thought it was so beautiful and tasty I just had to share it with you. I obviously eat lots of sweets, which makes it so important for me to pay close attention to what I am eating in every other meal. This was filling and satisfying and super healthy. So here’s my Red Wine Poached Chicken Salad recipe.
Ingredients:
-1 lb. thin cut boneless chicken breasts
-1 cup red wine
-1 cup chicken stock
-1/2 cup water
-2 tablespoons dried sage
-2 cups red leaf lettuce- rinsed, dried and chopped
-1/2 cup grape tomatoes
-1 tablespoon goat cheese
-salt and pepper
-Balsamic Vinaigrette, or your fav. salad dressing.
Directions: Combine wine, chicken stock, water and sage in pan- bring to a boil. Salt and pepper the chicken then add to pan. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook chicken 7 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from pan and let rest a couple minutes. Combine lettuce, tomato and goat cheese. Toss in dressing. Slice chicken and top the salad. Salt and pepper to taste! Done!
So easy, so tasty, so healthy! Enjoy!
Happy Baking and Poaching!
-Kristy
Birthday Re-Cap!
Despite my confused feelings about turning 26, I had a wonderful birthday celebration with some great friends who completely spoiled me! After work, the evening began with Sushi and my fav. sushi bar in LA- Crazy Rockin’ Sushi. One spicy caterpillar roll, shrimp tempura and a couple glasses of white wine later, we were off to Amalfi Ristorante and Bar. We wined and dined on Pinot Noir- my fav. red wine, a huge delicious cheese plate and fresh brick oven pizzas. Nothing beats wine and cheese… next to desserts… it might be my fav. cuisine (yes, I consider that a cuisine all it own!)
Before the night was over… there was lots more excitement… we had a singing waitress, had a Halle Berry siting (BTW… she is STUNNING!) and of course had dessert and champagne! My buds ordered me this AMAZING Brownie Sundae! If only I hadn’t eaten so much pizza I would have been able to indulge even more. The brownie was so rich, luscious, moist and gewy. The vanilla ice cream on top was smooth and velvety… you could tell it was freshly churned! After a couple bites I was stuffed, but of course shared the remainder of my bodacious brownie with my buds… and it didn’t last too much longer! I would so return there for more wine and desserts!
By the end of the evening I was of course of a bit tipsy, but had a huge smile on my face! It was so nice to spend an evening with great people, having great conversation’s, drinking amazing wine and eating scrumptious desserts! Special thanks to all those who made my big day so exciting!
Happy Baking and Birthday Celebrating!
-Kristy
WBFT: My Very First Donation!
To learn more about ‘Will Bake For Tuition, Click Here! To read all Will Bake For Tuition Posts, Click here!
I’m kind of exhausted today, so this post will be brief, but wanted to be sure I shared my super exciting news! I received my very first monetary donation today! I was so thrilled to see a very special email from Pay-pal when my blackberry beeped at me this AM! It was a donation from my good grad school friend Camille for $5! I obviously sent her a ridiculously long “THANK YOU” text, as it was so super generous of her. This brings my grand total raised for Pastry School to $65… now only $3,504 to go! Yippee I’m on my way!
I consider Camille a fellow foodie. She and I subscribe the to same religion, Weight Watchers and Happy Hour! While in grad school, it was not uncommon for us to meet at the gym at 7am for spinning and gain tons of activity point, go to our prospective classes/internships/labs, meet for happy hour at one of many local places and frequently split a delicious dessert to top off the evening… okay not exactly the healthiest of lifestyles… but for sure a life style appropriate for coping with the stresses of grad. school! Nothing beats 2 for 1 when you’re on a school budget either! We always had a blast, would share recipes and other fun foodie tips. Oh how I miss our happy hours!
I love sharing pics, so here is one from our ladies night Valentines Day Mexican Celebration! And Yes, those Margarita’s were 2 for 1! So Fun! Thats me on the left and Camille on the right.
So a very special Thank you again to Camille! I so appreciate your kindness, generosity and support! Every dollar and penny counts!
Happy Baking and Happy Hour Indulging!
-Kristy
Any Sex and the City Fans Out There?!?!
I came across this picture today and had to share it with you, despite the fact its over a year old! Are any of you Sex and the City Fans?? Well I am! So last summer when the movie came out in theatres, my girlfriends and I decided to have a Sex and the City pre-veiwing party. We all purchased tickets to the midnight showing opening night at our local theatre and all the ladies convened at my pad for food, drinks, the Sex and the City trivia game (which I kick ass at!) and of course watching as many episodes as we could.
In order to fully embrace our “Sex and the City” party theme, we decided to have only food and drinks at the party that were featured in the show… so we ate Fried Chicken, Krispy Kreme’s, Chocolate Cake, Chinese Food, Saltines with Jelly, and drank Manhattans, Absolute Hunk Martini’s and of course, lots of Cosmopolitans! ( I have no idea how we made it through the movie after all we ate and drank that night!) Along with the Absolute Hunk (which was absolutely delicious!) my other contribution was the “I Love You” Cookie (I tried to find the scene on you-tube but was unsuccessful… if any of you find it send it my way!). This cookie was featured in the scene where Dr. Robert Leeds arrives at Miranda’s apartment with Pizza and another dessert mystery box. Dr. Leeds gets paged, needs to return to work and is unable to stay for dinner. Once he leaves Miranda peeks into the mystery box and discovers its a cookie that reads “I Love You” in chocolate chips! She inevidbly panics since she doesn’t know if she loves him and eats the whole thing! HA! Hysterical!
So, here is my own version that I served at my Sex and the City Pre-Viewing Party!
Hint, Hint to my Boyfriend… You can tell me you love me in a cookie any day of the week! I think it’s an awesome way to share your feelings and feed your belly!
Happy Baking, Party Planning and Sex and the City Watching!!
-KM
PS- Sex and the City 2 is supposedly already filming! Yippee!
Yom Kippur Kugel!
Last night I spent the evening celebrating an early Yom Kippur with some friends. Since last week’s Rosh Hashanah festivities didn’t quite work out, we made sure to go all out for Yom Kippur… Actually let me revise that statement… my friend Chad went all out for Yom Kippur! Our evening was supposed to be a simple potluck, but as my boyfriend and I were the first to arrive, it was clear Chad had been hard at work all day! Grilled Chicken, Pot Stickers, a HUGE Cheese Platter, Chow Mien and Panzanella were ready for munching as we walked in the door. As more people arrived, so did more food… Stuffed Mushrooms, 7-Layer Nacho Dip, a Shrimp Platter, Pound Cake with Fresh Fruit… is your mouth watering yet?!?!
Chad not only made all this food, but also made what I have dubbed “The Chad Specialty”… a delightful cocktail. Any time we have a dinner party or pot luck at Chad’s place, there’s always a “Chad Specialty” and each time its different. Last night featured a Peach-N-Pear Specialty… fresh diced peaches doused in Pear Vodka, a splash of Pomegranate Limeade from Trader Joes and splash of Lime Juice. Shake over ice and into a martini glass it goes… and OMG… it was delish! It was wonderfully fresh tasting, which I attribute to the peaches. At first you taste the peach, then comes the subtle yet wonderful pear flavor from the vodka. The additional juices added a touch of sweetness without going overboard. The best part of this drink was the treat at the end… we munched on the vodka infused peaches…MMM so freaking delicious!
As this was a potluck, of course I brought something delicious! Earlier in the week I had asked Chad about traditional Yom Kippur dishes… and that’s when he told me about Kugel… a fancy, fun and Jewish version of a noodle casserole. There are sweet Kugels, savory Kugels, vegetable Kugel… you name and its Kugel. I decided to make a sweet Kugel (are you surprised?!?!) …. A Sweet Strawberry’s and Cream Kugel to be exact. To be honest I was a bit nervous making this dish as I had never tried it before and other than some store bought Challah, this would be the only traditional Yom Kippur dish there… I felt a little bit of pressure!
So I took a peek at many different Kugel recipes, but used an Apricot Kugel recipe as my primary reference point. I made some changes to make it a bit creamier. I didn’t add any heavy whipping cream to the recipe, but next time I may just to add a bit more sweetness to the primary part of the dish. Here is the recipe I created.
Ingredients For Filling:
No-Yolk Medium Noodles 8oz package
4 eggs
15 oz Ricotta Cheese
8 oz Sour Cream
8 oz Cream Cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened.
1/2 cup chopped strawberries
Optional: 1/4-1/2 cup sugar or splenda
Ingredients for Topping
1/4 cup butter
15 oz jar strawberry preserves (I used low sugar preserves)
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup Sugar or Splenda
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Prepare No-Yolk Noodles according to package directions. Mix eggs, ricotta, sour cream, cream cheese and butter (preferably with stand mixer, but by hand will work as well). Fold in strawberries followed by noodles. Once well combined evenly spread mixture into 13×9 in casserole dish. Set aside.
To prepare topping, place butter, preserves, vanilla and sugar in pan over medium high heat. Continually mix until butter is melted and all ingredients are well combined. Remove from heat and top noodles with mixture, doing your best to spread mixture evenly throughout the casserole.
Place casserole dish on cookie sheet (to catch drippings) and bake for 1 hour. Enjoy warm and top, if desired, with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.
I opted to serve it with ice cream, and was pumped to learn my friend Liam had just made fresh whipped cream, which was an awesome added bonus for this dish. I served the Jew’s at the celebration first (all 2 of them!) to get their official opinion from those who have had Kugel before. My friend Gail told me that it tasted just like her aunt’s Cherry Kugel, which made me very happy to hear! It must have tasted somewhat authentic! Chad, who is not a huge sweets-eater finished his bowl in minutes! I was so happy that my first Kugel was so well received! Even my boyfriend, who rarely eats dessert, asked me why haven’t I made this for him yet! I am pumped that the only traditional Yom Kipper dish (other than the delightful store bough Challah!) was a success!
Typical for me shortly after my Kugel indulgence I fell asleep on the floor of Chad’s living room (I blame the martini’s too) early in the evening and awoke to find much of our feast, as well as most of the Kugel had been gobbled up. As much as I love to celebrate, it clearly wipes me out! Our Yom Kipper festivities along with my first Kugel were all a huge success! Yippee for Yom Kippur!
Happy Baking!
-KM
Wine Inspired Cupcakes!
Over the weekend my boyfriends sister Kate and her husband Kris invited us over for dinner to watch the Emmy’s and have an impromptu celebration for my acceptance to Pastry School (Yippee! I love celebrations!). Of course, I will always accept a dinner invitation, and I always offer to bring dessert and a beverage. Since I had picked up the Cupcake Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc earlier this week (to read post, click here!) and hadn’t yet had a chance to open it, the wine was my first choice to share with them. I also got a bit of inspiration from the wine for the dessert. The wine’s label described it as having citrus lime flavors so I decided to make lemon-lime cupcake with lime butter-cream frosting. This was also the first cake recipe I created on my own and I am quite proud of how it came out! I think I can tweek the recipe a little bit, but I thought it was still good enough to share with all of you. So, here is the recipe
Ingredients For Cake:
1/2 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Package Powder Vanilla Pudding Mix (3.5 oz)
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1.tsp Lemon extract
1 3/4 Cups Flour
1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp. Salt
3/4 Cup Sour Cream
Juice of 4 Limes
Instructions: Pre-heat oven to 350. In stand mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add Powdered pudding, mix. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon extract. In separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Alternatively add flour mix, sour cream and lime juice to butter and sugar mix. Beat well. Pour batter into cupcake tins and bake for about 20 minutes. Makes 12 cupcakes.
For the Frosting, I used the classic Butter-cream frosting
from Wilton (click here for recipe), with a couple changes. I use only shortening and no butter, substitute in lemon extract for vanilla, and substitute in fresh squeezed lime juice for milk. I piped on the frosting with a #29 tip and of course, topped with sprinkles! Everything is better with Sprinkles!
I really enjoyed both making and eating these cupcakes! The sour cream helped the cupcakes stay SUPER MOIST! That’s just the way I like my cupcakes (I REALLY dislike dry cupcakes!) The citrus flavor in the frosting was subtle yet sweat. It really complimented the more intense lime flavor of the cupcake.
Kate and Kris raved about them too. Kris is another one of my favorite people to bake for as he is always enthusiastic about anything and everything I bring over. He’s another great taste testing in my life. He had one cupcake that night and saved 2 for later in the week! To me, that’s a huge compliment! Oh… and the wine was citrusy with an apple taste to it too. It was a nice combo (then again… any wine and cupcake to me is a good combo!!!)
There were a few extra cupcake so I had my boyfriend bring them into his work today as I had the day off. Not to toot my own horn at all, but one of his co-workers actaully emailed me to tell me how much she liked the cupcakes! Okay… I really can’t help my self… TOOT TOOT BEEP BEEP! My first cake recipe was a success! Yippee!!!
Give the recipe a shot and let me know what you think!
Happy Baking!
-KM
Always Time for Wine!
My week days get pretty busy (thus this post will be brief!), and a glass of wine at the end of a long day is both delicious, and something, simply necessary. I wanted to share with you the bottle that I recently picked up (I might be busy, but I can always squeeze in a little bit of time to go shopping for wine!) The bottle of wine I bought this week was chosen solely based on its name (usually… I admit… I go by picture… I’m not exactly a wine connoisseur!). It was a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from the CupCake Vineyards. Yes, I said it, CupCake Vineyeard! How freaking Cute! The description on the back of the bottle likens the wine to “your grandmothers lemon Chiffon Cupcakes.” (This vineyard is onto something here… anything likened to a cupcake is a must buy for this little lady!) Mmm… I love a good citrus cupcake and this wine features flavoring of Meyer Lemon and Key Limes… I haven’t yet popped the bottle open but will later in the week. I might just have to make some Lemon cupcakes to go with! I picked it up at World Market, which has it on sale this week as well… so go pick up a bottle for yourself!
Happy Baking and Sipping!
-KM
Top Chef is Back!
This post will be brief and is really just a friendly reminder. Top Chef is back on Bravo! Yippee! This is one of my favorite shows. And season 6 is off to a great start. It’s only 3 weeks in and the competition if fierce! This year there are brothers, Michael and Bryan, competing against each other and some seriously impressively trained chef’s like Jennifer who has worked under Eric Ripert. Usually by now I have a winner picked, but this years cast to simply too good.
This is my one and only must see show of the week. I put on my PJ’s, poor myself a nice, big glass of wine.. and nothing can get me off the couch for this one hour. I get soo excited to watch how creative the chef’s are. And, I get even more excited when a see a chef make a kick-ass dessert. I loved Karla from season five, who always made a bang with a baked good! I specifically remember an apple tart served with a piece of cheddar cheese… OMG it looked soo good… which reminds me… it’s almost fall and apple season is right around the corner! mmm… I love a good apple dessert!
I am totally looking forward to see how this season will unroll! Be sure to watch every Wednesday (TONIGHT!!! YIPPEE!!) at 10pm (I know. I sound like a commercial huh… but I just seriously love this show that much!) More blogs re: Top Chef 6 will be on its way!
Happy Baking and Watching!
-KM
An Iced Coffee Conundrum!
I am Lucky enough to have Friday mornings off and usually try to get bills paid and run errands before heading into work for noon. I love to treat myself for being so productive with a morning or afternoon coffee trip. I especially LOVE iced coffee in the summer… actually I can drink it all year round… anyways…Iced coffee is probably my favorite kind of coffee. Being an East Coaster, I am pretty much obsessed with Dunkin’ Donut’s Iced Coffee. The town that I grew up in literally had Dunkin’ Donut’s across the street from each other. Its been a struggle for me here in LA living without a daily trip to Dunks, so I have been on a search for the next best thing to my Medium Iced French Vanilla with extra cream and one equal… and it has left me with much to be desired!
So here’s my issue. I go into the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and request an ice coffee. Instead, I was served espresso, with a splash of water over ice… NOT iced coffee. I can do the Starbucks iced coffee from time to time, buts its much stronger in flavor than what I am looking for. I go to a cafe across the street from me, and again am served with espresso over ice. This past Friday morning I decide to try a small cafe about two blocks from my apartment. I go in, ask the nice lady behind the counter if she offers iced coffee, (I thought I was being soo smart– asking if they served it or not…) She replied ‘yes.’ (JACKPOT!!!) I ordered a small iced coffee to go. And won’t you know… I was again served espresso with a splash of water over ice…. DAMMIT PEOPLE I WANT COFFEE NOT ESPRESSO!!!!
So after another failed attempt to get iced coffee, I thought I would do a little research on the topic. Here is what I learned from wisegeek.com. 1.) Both espresso and coffee are essentially made from the same kind of bean, but the beans are prepared differently. 2.) Coffee is usually made with the drip or peculator method, where gravity helps move hot water through the coffee grinds. 3.) Espresso is made by using finely ground coffee beans in which super hot water under high pressure is shot through it, creating a thick and highly concentrated beverage. 4.) Espresso is served both as a shot and or with milk, while coffee is generally served on its own. 5.) Although both coffee and espresso, again are made from essentially the same thing, here in America we differentiate the two beverages while in Europe the term ‘espresso’ is synonymous for all coffee related beverage.
Well… I have news for you… WE LIVE IN AMERICA PEOPLE NOT IN EUROPE! IF I ASK FOR ICED COFFEE I WANT COFFEE AND NOT ESPRESSO!!! My apologies… but this issue really fires me! So all you fancy cafe owners please bid me this one favor… If I ask for iced coffee and you don’t serve it, just tell me! I will gladly order an iced soy latte instead (My second favorite iced caffeinated beverage!)
Alas… my search for the perfect iced coffee here in LA continues… If anyone has any good recommendation for iced coffee, PLEASE send it my way!
Happy Baking and Sipping!
-KM
A Lovely Winery In Sonoma
I was fortunate enough to spend a lovely weekend up in wine country with my boyfriend and his family. We rented a beautiful house in Sonoma and spent a couple days wining, dining and relaxing. It really was a fabulous weekend.
Initially Matt and I had made a plan to pick out one bottle of wine that we both really enjoyed and that would be our splurge for the weekend. Well… 13 bottles later… clearly we didn’t stick to our plan! We didn’t realize how much the both of us would enjoy wine tasting and consider all the bottles of wine we bought to be great investments in our drinking future!
I did want to share what our favorite winery was, which was Arista. We tried five different wines at this particular shop, and loved every one of them. We ended up by purchasing 2007 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. It was bold, yet smooth. We’ve decided to save this bottle for a special date night or exciting event. It supposed to be kept in a wine cellar for another 5-7 years— but I highly doubt he and I will be able to wait that long! Oh well… We can always make another trip to Sonoma!
Happy Baking and Tasting!
-KM
