The new year is upon us and as people are making and breaking their New Year resolutions, I’m trying to keep it real. I don’t need a new year to tell me to lose weight, eat healthy, or get to the gym. My pants already tell me those things after every holiday, Valentines, Easter, Halloween, they all have beat Christmas to that punch line.

So, resolutions?

Yea, I’m not that king of girl.

But as after every candy exploiting, sugar coma inducing, fattening holiday, I do try to eat healthier.
I started out this New Year with a chicken dish. I love blue cheese with pears. I often make a Caramelized Pear and Sage Crostini that pairs blue cheese with pears, one of my favorite appetizers, and a Blue Cheese and Pear Tart that is pretty amazing too. So I figured how can I go wrong?

I got this recipe from The Whole Food app I uploaded to my new IPad. (Thank you Santa)

Tender juicy chicken served on a bed of wilted spinach, with warmed pears and blue cheese spooned over the top. This is an easy to make recipe that comes together in under half an hour.

If you like blue cheese, this recipe is for you!

Happy New Year!

One of my daughter’s favorite cookie recipes is the  3 ingredient peanut butter cookie. Peanut butter, sugar, and eggs are all stables in this household, and we are always ready (and willing), to whip up a fresh batch of  delicious cookies.

I made these festive cookies into spritz cookies because I wanted to play with my a new cookie press, but you can make them into balls and use the familiar crisscross pattern by pressing them with the tines of a  fork. Then add an optional little drizzle of some melted chocolate and a sprinkle of chopped peanuts, and they’re all dressed up for the season.

Either way, they are tasty, pretty, and perfect for the holidays!

I could eat scones everyday.

There is just something about scones that brings an ordinary breakfast, treat, or even just a plane cup of coffee, to an  extraordinary level.  Scones take me to my happy place. They are magical, whimsical, proper, prudish, and oh so delicious. I love how they can be so enchanting, and how they can make me feel so very special.

Yes…

I could eat a scone everyday!

My very favorite scone? Hands down, this Vanilla Bean Scone recipe. It reminds me of  Starbuck’s Petite Vanilla bean Scones, but these are even better!

I use a food processor to make things that much easier. I added the  flour,  sugar, baking powder, and salt and gave it a few pulses. Then I added the  cold butter and gave it a few more pulses till it resembles course crumbs. Dump it into a bowl.

Pour the wet ingredients, over the flour mixture, mix lightly just till it comes together. Then turn the dough onto a floured surface and lightly press it together until it forms a ball.

Use a rolling pin to roll into a rectangle about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick.  Cut into shapes with a biscuit cutter of with a knife.

Transfer to a lined cookie sheet and bake for 18 minutes or until they just  start to turn golden. Allow to cool for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before glazing.

Yes, there is a glaze too!

A glaze that will make you do the happy dance!

This recipe uses 3 whole vanilla beans but they are so worth the extravagance.  I buy my vanilla beans on line in bulk. I’ve used Beanilla with very happy results, and  I’ve gotten some great deals off EBay.

Grab your self some vanilla beans and make these Vanilla Bean Scones. You wont be sorry!

***Surprise***

Happy Birthday Shelby!!!

Today is the birthday of Grumpy’s honey bunch and we are throwing a virtual surprise birthday party.

Shelby, who writes one of my favorite blogs, The Life And Loves Of Grumpy’s Honeybunch, is turning another year older and we’re here to celebrate! Katrina, of Baking And Boys is hosting this party, and asked everyone to make a recipe from Shelby’s blog and post it today.  You can find the link to all the party goers at Katrina’s. Plus she made the birthday cake, you’ll want to stop by for a slice of that!

With the cooler weather of Fall upon us, I’m ready for soup and sweater weather. I brought Shelby’s Vegetarian Minestrone Soup to the party.  My soup was a little thicker and heartier  in the vegetable department then the original recipe, but it was oh so good. I used my food processor for chopping up my onions, carrots, and zucchini and I didn’t really measure. I just chopped and dumped, and then realized I needed more broth, so I added 2 more cups of water. It made a huge pot of soup, and we ate every single drop of it! It’s light in calories, heavy on the healthy stuff, and satisfied the soul.

Thank you for a great soup recipe Shelby and…

I wish you a happy birthday and delicious day!

Check out all the fun!

Katrina from Baking and Boys

Jenny from Mad Rantings of Andrew’s Mom

Suzanne from Thru the Bugs on My Windshield 

Pam from Living Rancho Delux

Peaches have been at their prime and I’ve been getting 10 lb flats almost every week through the month of August. I have a favorite lady at the Farmer’s Market that sells the most amazing peaches. I’ve never been disappointed.
Every year at the end of peach season, I have to preserve the sweet taste of Summer in a jam. Last year I made my Peach Amaretto Jam,  one of my favorites, but this year I went with a Peach Jalapeno Jam.

Perfect for Christmas presents, and yes, I’m going there. I have already started my Christmas shopping, and these jars of jam will become part of my gift giving this holiday season.

My girlfriend came over and we made this jam as a joint adventure.  After our first batch, we knew we hit gold with this recipe, so we made it again. The second time, we blended the jam with  an immersion blender and I liked the consistency much better. You can see the difference in the two top jars of jam in the picture above. One was blended, one was not. Your choice!

We also cooked the jam for 45 minutes. I thought the pectin in the lemon juice would be enough to thicken it, but we ended up adding a box of pectin at the end. Maybe if I had it at a soft boil the whole time, it would have thickened. But the first time we had it at a low simmer so we could watch the Bachelor Pad, and the second time we did the same thing so we could go float in the pool. I guess a box of Pectin was the trade off of a low simmer. It was worth it!

This post is linked up to Share It Saturday and Fodie Friday
 

When I was in my teens, I spent a week   house-sitting for the parents of a coworker. I spent the nights at their house and had full access to a stocked fridge.  I felt so grown up. I distinctly remember two things about that wonderful week (this was way before texting and Twitter), I stayed up late each evening reading a great love story about pirates,

and…  Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

Her cake was a chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake that I found in her freezer. I slivered that poor, delicious cake to death. I ate it frozen, toasted, with coffee and on the go. I demolished it, loved it, and dreamed about it for years.

But I never made one.

Until now!

This quick and easy cake is a winner.  It’s not the cake I remember from yesteryear, it’s better!

It’s so dense and fudgy,  you would never know there was  3 cups of zucchini in it. I used my favorite cocoa and cinnamon, Bensdorp Dutch Processed Cocoa and Vietnamese Cinnamon.  I doubled the glaze and decorated the top with those cute chocolate pearls.

I got high praises for this cake from everyone who tasted it.

One taste tester said, “It’s the bomb!”.

I agree!

Other zucchini recipes you might like:
Chocolate Zucchini Cake By Baking and Boys
Chocolate Streusel Zucchini Cake
target=”_blank”>Chocolate Cake from The Repressed Pastry Chef
Chocolate Zucchini Cake from Gimme Some Oven
Chocolate Zucchini Cake from Noble Pig
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread from Barbara Bakes

This months “Baking With Julia” recipe was a Blueberry Nectarine Pie.

I dont make to many fruit pies, so this was a nice opportunity to change that.

I might have had a few bumps along the way,  maybe.

It might have been my fault, maybe.

This is how it went down.

To start, I thought I would take a shortcut and make my pie dough in the food processor. That would have been all fine and dandy… if I had not added the ice water and continues to process.

What was I thinking?

I had a soggy paste.

It ended up in the garbage.

Discouraged and out of pastry flour, I came upon this post. It inspired me to keep going with my pie. After all, it was just a pie.  And I had nectarines and blueberries waiting patiently in the fridge, for just this occasion.

Pie Crust

So I went back to the food processor with this new pie crust recipe in hand.

I liked that the recipe made only enough for  one pie instead of Dorie’s 2 pie crust recipe. I also liked that it used all purpose  flour, and less shortening.

This time, after  I mixed and pulsed  the mixture until it had pea sized butter and shortening balls in the dough, .I dumped the mixture into a bowl, sprinkling  the water over the top ever so delicately, mixing  until it came together, just. like. the. directions. say.

I didn’t add the ice water to the processor and process the holy living life out of it.

I want a flaky pie crust for Heaven’s sake!

I can be such an idiot!

So I finally had my dough made, and I started on the fruit.

Now the directions say “Put half of the fruit in a medium saucepan, add sugar, flour, and lemon zest”.

Do you think I read that part??? About putting half the fruit in the sauce pan?

No, no I did not.

I dumped everything in the saucepan and started cooking.  When I realized my mistake, I dug out half of the berries covered in flour, sugar, and lemon zest. I cooked the other half for a few minutes and then threw the rest of the fruit in for a few minutes.

It looked good, it tasted good, so I called it good!

I poured my ever so slightly cooled filling  (because I’m inpatient like that) into  the crust and thought to myself, that’s not very much filling.  A quick check of the recipe and yep, I’m one cup of blueberries short.

Did I tell you I could be such an idiot sometimes?

So I add another cup of blueberries.

Moving on, I get the top crust on my pie, pinching together the scalloped edges, and I realize I forgot to dot the top of the pie with the butter, before adding the top crust.

Ugh

O-well. I’ figure I’ll just slip some butter in the slits on top of the pie before I bake it,…

but I was all about the egg wash and my new Swedish Pearl Sugar that I wanted to try…, and I plum forgot about the buttah!

This poor pie.

In the end, it was a great pie in spite of all my mishaps.
- Heck, I would make this pie again! and again, and again…
If you would like to try and make a Blueberry Nectarine Pie, you can find the recipe at

Liz’s blog, That Skinny Chick Can Bake . She made her pie with a lattice crust.

You can also find it at

Hillary’s blog Manchego’s Kitchen, She made her pie with blueberries, raspberries and nectarines and made a crumb topping.

Give me chocolate, caramel, or coconut and I’m walking on sunshine, but give me all three, on a brown sugar shortbread crust, and  I’m walking on sunshine, over the moon!

That’s exactly what you get with these Chocolate Carmel Coconut Shortbread Bars. Oozy, gooey caramel, sweet flaked coconut and crunchy pecans topped with chocolate all nestled on a brown sugar shortbread crust.

I know, right?

I found this recipe for Turtle Bars over at Miss In The Kitchen, and knew they were a “must try”  I had everything I needed except a jar of caramel sauce.  A quick trip to the grocery and that problem was solved. I love coconut so that had to be added, and I cut back on the pecans, just to make it a bit more kid friendly.

These can be whipped up in no time, but they taste like you fussed all day.

Don’t tell anyone how easy they are, it will be our little secret!

What do you get when you add one plane ticket, seven food blogging roommates, and a social media conference?

You get inspired, connected, and lots of giggles!

Last weekend  I went to  Evo’12 ,  a social media conference held at the Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah.

A couple of years ago I met Barbara from Barbara Bakes at a Blogher Food Conference. We were room mates for the conference and became good on line friends. I asked her last year about some different conferences, and she said she was going to Evo, and that I should go too. Barbara is from Salt Lake City, so it is literately in her back yard.  She also invited me to stay a few extra days and she would show me her beautiful city, AND we could spend some time in her kitchen.

Heck ya!!!

So  I bought  my ticket and counted the months… and finally the time came.

At the conference, we mingled with the sponsors,  learned from the hands- on workshops, and we were inspired by the speakers.

We experienced, we connected, we evolved.

And we cooked!

Barbara organized and rented a condo for a group of us food bloggers.    That very first morning, we made Barbara’s Citrus Cream Cheese Pull Apart Rolls, and Amanda’s  Cheesy Bacon Potato Frittata for breakfast. It was absolutely delicious and enjoyed by all. It’s my new go to breakfast, when I want a something special, yet easy!

My roommates are the sweetest bunch of girls ever,

(left to right) were;

Amanda from Amanda’s Cookin’,

Katrina from Baking and Boys.  (she met us for dinner but did not attend the conference. She also brought me a bag of her very addicting Banana Split Granola!

Carrian from Sweet Basil

Barbara from Barbara Bakes

Deborah from Taste And Tell

Not pictured was  Sandra from Everyday Southwest

and Lindsey from Cafe Johnsonia.

The “Too Hot Tamales“, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, with their biggest fan, Sandra, Everyday Southwest

I attended one of the hands-on workshops sponsored by the California Avocado Commission.   Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger from  the “Two Hot Tamales”   cooked up a fiesty feast and also judged a friendly little guacamole competition. Thanks to my team mates including Barbara and Sandra, we won 2nd place with our Tuscan BLT Guacamole. Our prize was their new cookbook,  Mesa Mexicana

I love Mexican food and couldn’t wait to dive into this book. I was thrilled to get to cook with Barbara and we made Pozole with Tomatillos and Coconut Pineapple Mango Cookie Cups.

This is an easy, delicious soup made with Carnitas pork and Hominy.

Just saute some onion, and add a little garlic. Then add the carnitas,  hominy, and broth. You can use left over Carnita meat, or if your lucky enough like we were, you can buy it at your local Grocery Store or Hispanic Market.

Then you add the  easy to make homemade Tomatillo Salsa.

Double the batch you can serve some with chips too!

And to finish off our dinner, Coconut Pineapple Mango Cookie Cups.

Head on over to Barbara Bakes for the recipe. Trust me, you wont want to miss that one!

You can  check out all the Ignite presentations that I saw at the Evo Conference on youtube..  Be prepared to be inspired!

Linked up at Tasteastic Thursday! and Foodie Friday! and Financial Friday! and Friday Favorites!

It’s Secret Recipe Club time, and this month were making granola!  I love eating homemade granola with Greek yogurt and any kind of berry for breakfast. Not only is it crazy delicious,, but it satisfies my inner shinny chick. I think tasty, she thinks healthy. Well…  she says at least healthier then a pop tart.  This is one meal we can both agree on.

This month I was assigned to  Melissa’s blog,   I Was Born To Cook.  It’s a journal of recipes,  stories and more from the kitchen of a 1st generation Italian/Greek girl from New Jersey. She has a ton of tasty looking recipes but since I’m out of my homemade cereal, the granola recipes caught my eye. I told you I have been craving coconut.   So I took her Walnut Cinnamon Granola recipe , and I adapted it into a very addicting Coconut Granola

This recipe is so easy, and quick to make. I actually made it during vacation, on the dunes of the Oregon Coast, in a little travel trailer.  I bagged up the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar in a large zip lock baggie. Then all I had to do was mix the wet ingredients in a measuring cup, pour the wet ingredients into the Ziploc with the dry, and shake it up. I then poured it all onto a cookie sheet and popped it into the oven. It made the whole camp site small delicious. My 17 year old, who wont even try my other homemade granola, couldn’t keep her paws out of this one. You have no idea how that speaks volumes,  for this granola!

I Love this recipe. My inner skinny chick loved this recipe. Even the kid loved this recipe, and I hope you do too!

Enjoy!