{Recipe} Sparkle White Chocolate Lemon Truffles

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I have become a big fan of citrus, specifically lemon, in my desserts as of late.  Maybe it started when we were on our honeymoon in Italy … the lemon gelto, limoncello and other lemon stuff was to die for.  Around the holiday season I found this recipe on How Sweet It Is and immediately put in on my must make list. White chocolate plus lemon = YUM!

Even the husband who isn’t a huge fan of chocolate in general, thought the lemon truffles came out great and is looking forward to me making them again.  Just a thought, but if you are making a fancy dinner for Valentine’s Day and looking for a special dessert, I do believe your search is over!!!

Ingredients:

10 ounces white chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon corn syrup
2 drops lemon extract
the zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
white sanding sugar for coating

Recipe slightly changed from How Sweet it Is to include more lemon!

Directions:

Place the white chocolate and butter to a bowl, then microwave on medium power for 30 seconds. Stir a few times, then microwave for 20 more seconds.

Add heavy cream and corn syrup to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat just until bubbles appear on the edges.  Immediately pour the cream over the melted chocolate and butter, stir for a few minutes until combined.  Add in the lemon extract and lemon zest, mixing to combine. Place in the fridge for 2 hours.

Remove from fridge and scoop out teaspoon-size balls of chocolate with a melon scoop or teaspoon and roll into balls.  You should have enough for about 30 truffles.

Then roll them in the sanding sugar and coat completely. Put them back in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.  They will get a little bit soft when you create the balls so putting them back in the refrigerator helps.  Then serve and enjoy!

These little truffles are SUPER decedent and D-E-LISIOUS.

Happy Cooking!!

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Tasty Tuesday – The Perfect Roast Chicken

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I have a little bit of an obsession with Food Network.  If there isn’t a show recorded on DVR that I want to watch, Food Network is my next go-to channel, followed by HGTV.  Food and home improvement … you can clearly see where my passions lie.  One day while blogging and watching Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten was cooking her “Perfect Roast Chicken“.  I quickly made a mental note that I must make this dish.  An opportunity quickly presented itself and I adapted the recipe just a little.  This dish is well … absolutely DELISH!!!

Not only is this recipe super yummy, but totally falls within the healthy cooking/eating category.  WIN WIN!!!  And just to add one more log to this amazing fire (yeah I’m horrible with analogies, but I try!) it is also a pretty cheap dinner menu item that will impress!!  So I hope you enjoy the Tasty Tuesday recipe this week.

Ingredients:

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme (and/or rosemary)
1 lemon, quartered
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted (can be substituted with olive oil)
2 large yellow onions, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
4 Yukon Gold Potatoes cut into quarters

When you get the chicken home remove the chicken giblets and pat the outside dry, salt it inside and out, wrap it and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Preheat the over to 425*.  Place the onions, carrots, potatoes and some thyme in a roasting pan.

Pat the chicken dry and liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, lemon, and all the garlic.

Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper.

Tie the legs together with kitchen string.  Place the chicken on top and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken cover with aluminum foil for about 15 minutes.  I suggest putting this in a bowl, because the juices will seep out of the chicken as it rests.  I did this on a cutting board the first time and literally juice all over the floor and my dog, Sophi, was seriously pleased about this!!!

Allow the vegetable to continue cooking.  Slice the chicken and place it on a platter with the vegetables.  I like to pour some of the juices over the chicken/veggies.  The rest of the juice/gravy put in a gravy boat … I promise your guests will appreciate it!  This serves about 4 people.

Happy Cooking!

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DIY Center Pieces

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Centerpieces and/or flower arrangements can be quite costly this time of year.  With Thanksgiving over and Christmas right around the corner it seemed like the perfect time to share the DIY rose and cranberry center pieces we make every Thanksgiving.  My mom got the idea when walking through the flower section in Whole Foods a few years ago.  My mother use to be in charge of making the arrangements, but then my sister took over.  Check out our pretty Thanksgiving table will all the yummy food!!

My sister was kind enough to let me document the process of the center piece creation this year.  So here we go!

What you need:

  • ~27 Yellow Roses
  • 6 bags of whole cranberries
  • 3 square vases
  • water

Place the cranberries in the square vases and add water (but not all the way to the top).

Remove the leaves from the rose stems and hold it up to the vase to determine how much stem to cut off.  Cut off the stem.

Push the rose into the vase between the cranberries.  Then rinse and repeat!!  Each vase will hold about 9 roses depending on the size of the vase.

After you’ve put in all the roses add additional cranberries and water as needed so they are almost to the very top of the vase.  In this end this is what you get.

As you can see we miss counted the yellow roses this year and had to through in a few red ones. I think it still looks pretty cute!

Happy Holidays and DIY!

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Throwback Thursday for Thanksgiving

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With Thanksgiving right around the corner I thought this would be the perfect time to share one of my favorite recipes for the holiday.  This recipe was originally posted back in March, but I felt it was throwback worthy.  By the way I’ve never been a pumpkin pie, bread, etc lover, but this pumpkin bread recipe was a serious game changer!!!  Below is the original post for throwback Thursday.  Enjoy! 

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My sister and I found this recipe for pumpkin bread one fall afternoon when trying to decide what to make that wasn’t chocolate chip cookies. :) Cookies are our go to hang out and watch a movie snack.  We ate nearly a whole loaf in one sitting (or really standing in the kitchen over the loaf of bread) it was THAT good!  It’s now a must have item in our family for Thanksgiving dinner.

Besides the canned pumpkin most items are staples and you probably already have the ingredients in your kitchen.

Ingredients:
2 cups canned pumpkin (or homemade pumpkin puree)
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground cloves

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a separate bowl sift the flour into a bowl.  On your last cup of flour add the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves and sift together.

Combine pumpkin, sugar, water, oil and eggs in a bowl and beat together until mixed well.

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients slowly and beat until smooth.  Unlike chocolate chip batter this batter does NOT taste good. My sister and I made the mistake of trying the batter and thought the bread was going to be terrible.  But it’s is amazing once it is cooked, promise. So just hold off on any tasting. :)

Grease two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans with Pam or any nonstick spray. For easy clean up I recommend putting tin foil in the bottom of the pans first.  Pour the batter into the 2 loaf pans and try to evenly dividing the batter between the two.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Get ready for your house/apartment to smells OH so YUMMY as the loafs cook! Remove from oven and allow loafs to cool before cutting.

Cut and server!  And watch out because you will without a doubt eat more than one slice. :)

Happy Cooking!!

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Recipe from the Kitchen of: BlogChef.net

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Tasty Tuesday – Spicy Chicken Curry

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PEOPLE  it is Tasty Tuesday!  What are you making for dinner tonight?  Last week I love made some spicy chicken curry for the hubby.  This take on chicken curry is definitely A LOT healthier than what you would get from a restaurant.  If you don’t like spicy stuff I suggest not using any (or as much) jalapeno and use all regular curry powder instead of the hot madras curry powder.  This recipe can totally be tweaked to fit your pallet and is pretty forgiving!

Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 jalapeno, chopped
1 tablespoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoons hot madras curry powder
1 tablespoon curry powder
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup condensed milk (Fat Free will taste just as good as full fat)
5 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
Kosher salt
Steamed broccoli
Steamed white rice, for serving

Chop the onion, garlic cloves and jalapeno.  Get out all your spices so you have them ready to use.

In a food processor combine the onion, garlic, jalapeno, garam masala, cumin, and cloves. Process to make a chunky paste.  Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion mixture, curry powder, and 1/4 cup water. Let fry 4 to 5 minutes.

Add another 1/2 a cup of water as well as the 1/2 a cup of condensed milk.

I like to precook the chicken on my grill pan, however you don’t have to.  Precooking the chicken adds a pan to clean, but also speeds up the overall cooking time.

Add chicken pieces and salt to taste. Bring to a boil. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes.  If you precooked the chicken I would say about 10 minutes instead of thirty.  Add the steamed broccoli to the mixture.  Serve over rice – makes about 5 servings.

Bon Appetit!!

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