Yvie's Treats

A Wedding Shower-Inspired Spinach Salad

2010-10-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got to hang out with friends from the gym to celebrate Britt & Will's engagement and very close wedding. Surprisingly, alcohol was not needed to get me rowdy and goofy. Needless to say, I had a great time.Will's mother was an awesome hostess and made all the food from chicken casserole to turkey chili to some pretty delightful brownies. One thing she made that I fell in love with at first bite was a spinach salad. I could taste spicy mustard and there was bacon and sliced egg in the salad - so you know it was tasty.

After professing my love for her salad, she told me how she made the dressing and I knew I would be making this at home! (I waited a whole 12 hours before giving it a go!) Like most things I cook, I've added some things to make this my own. =)

Spinach Salad

Bag of Spinach (It doesn't matter if it's baby spinach or regular - I used regular today)
6-8 oz Thick Sliced Bacon
8 oz Mushrooms (I used crimini)
3 Large Eggs - hard boiled & sliced

Dressing

≈ 3 Tbsp Spicy Mustard
≈ 2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1 Onion (I used a sweet onion)
1 - 2 tsp Honey
Salt & Pepper

Cook your bacon & reserve the drippings. I bake mine on wire wracks at 420° for about 15-20 minutes. This prevents the annoying curling and it removes the most grease. Once your bacon is cooked, set it aside. Sauté the mushrooms with a little bit of the bacon fat until they are deliciously tender. (About 5 minutes) Set this aside. Once the bacon's not scalding hot, cut it into about 1" strips. (It's harder to shove a whole piece of bacon in your mouth, unless your my boyfriend...)

Chop the onion into chunks - not too large, you're going to blend this and you don't want the blender to take forever. In your blender, add the onion and blend it until it's a thick, tear-jerking paste. Add 2 - 3 pieces of bacon, 2 tbs of the bacon fat, the vinegar, mustard, & honey. Blend until it's all combined. At this point you can add salt & pepper if you're using it. I recently purchased some Himalayan Sea Salt and had to try it in this. And of course, fresh-cracked pepper - it's really the only way to have pepper!!!
Once the dressing was done, I combined the spinach, bacon, mushrooms, eggs and dressing in a large bowl and mixed with tongs until everything looked pretty evenly distributed. Then I took a quick picture and inhaled my salad.

This is easily addicting!

~Yvie

Pecan & Coconut Crusted Pork Chops

2010-05-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

So...I am currently taking a Speech class. This week we had to brainstorm and figure out what our Informative & Persuasive speeches will be about - these will be due in about 3 weeks. After going through my list, I decided that I'm going to do my speeches on diet & exercise with a focus on the Paleo diet.

When Ronnie started paleo last year, I got him a book he was interested in:
The Paleo Diet for Athletes. I asked him to let me borrow it so I can use it for research on my speech. Much to my content, the back of the book is full of Paleo recipes!!! So, after reading just the intro, I flipped to the back and found one I wanted to try: Oven Baked Pecan Pork Chops.

Once I got home, I decided that adding shredded coconut would really make this tasty! The recipe instructs you to cook the chops in a glass pan & flip them half way through the cooking. I didn't much care for the liquid they were sitting in half way through and when I went to flip them, I placed them on a wire wrack, sitting above the pan so that the bottoms wouldn't be soggy.

Ingredients:

1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dry sherry or water (I used water)
Ground ginger
Garlic powder
4 lean pork chops (I used pork loin chops)
1/4 C. finely chopped pecans
1/4 C. shredded, unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a bowl, beat egg, oil, water, ginger, & garlic powder. In another bowl, mix the pecans & coconut.

Dip the chops in the egg mixture and then coat with the pecan/coconut mixture.

Place in baking dish and bake for 30 minutes and then flip and continue cooking for another 20 minutes or so.

Yummy!

Know What You're Eating!

2010-04-12T21:16:00.001-07:00

I have really tried to be good about tracking what I eat. Lately, I've really tried to be religious with it. At this point, I actually enjoy it. There's something about it - it's like doing a word search. I enjoy it even more when I have to calculate the nutritional information for recipes I make. (I'm being completely serious, by the way.)

If you're trying to be conscious about your diet and how much you're consuming then I recommend getting a scale - preferably a digital scale that will measure ounces & grams! It may seem annoying and tedious at first, but I don't know what I'd do without mine!

I weigh just about all of my food - even my fruit! And I'm on Calorie King, every day! It's not tedious, it's not time consuming, and it's not annoying! It's fun and really worth knowing what I'm eating.

According to John Tesh, it's an eating disorder if you "obsess" over your diet. I disagree. You should be totally obsessed with your diet and what you put into your body. You should be equally obsessed over what your body puts out, in terms of physical fitness.

I make it a point to be mindful of my caloric intake, output, and what I'm actually eating. Yes, a calorie is a calorie - but wouldn't you prefer a healthy source as opposed to one that doesn't benefit your body in any way?

I do weigh what I’m cooking and I write it down. I estimated the nutritional values for the salads I posted in my previous blog. I will over-estimate to ensure that I don’t go over my daily totals; I’m confident that my totals are either really close or on point to actual values.

To calculate the totals, I obtain the nutrition information for all of the ingredients, add these all together and then figure the totals per ounce. Example:

This doesn’t take much time at all and is very handy when I’m portioning out my lunch and dinner. This enables me to stay on track and within my goals. On the days I’m feeling really lazy, I remind myself why I need to continue doing this – my health is important. If I’m not helping myself, then I’m hurting myself and at the end of the day, I’m the only one capable of taking care of me!

Oh, and then I have this to remind me about the direction I want to continue moving in ...

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Trying New Things is Fun and in this case, Delicious!

2010-04-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

If you know me, then you know my boyfriend does CrossFit. In the CrossFit community, the Paleo Diet is the preferred diet.

Last year, when he started CrossFit, he didn't immediately jump into the Paleo diet; he did eventually shift over and is now fully Paleo.

Being the girlfriend (obsessive cook) that I am, I have taken a big interest in this and have spent a lot of time reading & searching for recipes that are entirely Paleo or Paleo-friendly.

This past weekend I accompanied my boyfriend to a gathering at one of his fellow crossfitter's house. I made Paleo desserts for this and left with the desire to make even more Paleo meals!

Leo, one of the owner's of the CrossFit gym my boyfriend goes to, shared two things from a Russian deli. One is simply called Vinegrett which is a fabulous beet salad & I wasn't able to get the name of the other-but it was a delicious combination of roasted eggplant, tomatoes and I think cilantro??? Regardless, my mission today was to recreate both of these as best as possible.

From the various recipes for Vinegrett I found, I saw that it calls for potatoes, carrots, and then varying ingredients. To keep this as Paleo-friendly as possible(as well as use what I had available at home) I made some minor adjustments. In lieu of potatoes, I used Hearts of Palm - which were a fantastic substitute! I was really happy with my version of this dish!

INGREDIENTS

2 - 15 oz cans of Sliced Beets - (make sure there is no corn syrup in this! Also, reserve about 2 TBSP - 1/4 cup of the juice.)
1 Clove of Garlic, minced
1/4 of an Onion, mined (I used a red onion this time, but any onion will do!)
1 can of Hearts of Palm, drained & diced
1 Cup Carrots, diced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Apple Cider Vinegar
Splash of Lemon Juice
1 tsp, or less, Honey
Dill
Freshly Cracked Pepper
Sea Salt (optional)

Steam your diced carrots until they're tender, or as soft as you'd like them. In a bowl or cup, combine the cider vinegar, olive oil, reserved juice, honey and a splash of lemon juice. I didn't measure these out, but typically it's 2 parts oil 1 part of your other liquids - this of course can change too, it's about what's good to you. So I just poured about that amount into my bowl and whisked until everything was thoroughly combined. Add the beets, carrots, hearts of palm, garlic, onion, and season with some dill, pepper & sea salt.

If you have never tried beets and aren't sure if you ever would, I definitely recommend trying them! I don't think that I would have tried them had my boyfriend's sister not convince me to. I'm very happy I did!

I don't know what to call the other dish other than Eggplant Salad.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Eggplants
1 Large can of Diced Tomatoes
1 Clove of Garlic, minced
1/2 Red Onion, Minced
Small bunch of Cilantro, chopped
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Cider Vinegar
Freshly Cracked Pepper
Salt (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350° F.

Cut the eggplant into thick slices and cover generously with salt. Rest this on a wire rack and let rest for about an hour. Once the hour has passed, thoroughly rinse all of the salt off of the eggplant and dry it w/ a paper towel. Cut each eggplant slice into quarters and arrange on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with Salt & Pepper and then Drizzle some olive oil over the eggplant. Bake for 45 min - 1 hour, until the eggplant is completely cooked.

In a separate bowl, combine Olive Oil, Vinegar, and a splash of lemon juice - again I didn't measure this... Whisk until everything is combined. In a different bowl, combine the onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro and roasted eggplant. Pour your dressing over this and Stir. Add more pepper & salt to your taste.

These were both really easy and really quick to make (minus the time it took for eggplant...). Even more important is that they are both healthy and very delicious!

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Could There be Anthing More Devine? Maybe ...

2010-02-02T10:56:00.001-08:00

Last week I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and try a new frosting recipe. I'm quite fond of my buttercream frosting but I am certainly a fan of variety.

I have seen so many beautiful cupcakes and even heard from others how delightful Swiss Meringue Buttercream tastes. I decided to go ahead give this a try!

It's actually a really easy recipe, if I do say so myself! This particular frosting doesn't use powdered sugar like traditional buttercreams do; instead granulated sugar is dissolved into egg whites over a waterbath. The result is a less sweet, very silky, and delightfully buttery frosting. It's absolutely amazing! After making the first batch I was hooked... I wasn't fond of the second batch, however. After tasting it and having my roommate and neighbor taste it, I realized it was too buttery. This was my fault, I rechecked everything I added and realized I did add too much butter. I fixed this by adding sifted powdered sugar and more extract. Luckily the texture and final flavor was as if I didn't botch up! =)

The recipe itself is very simple as there are really only 3 ingredients (4 if you are adding flavoring). The process it's quite simple too!

Ingredients:

5 oz. Egg Whites (about 5 egg whites)
10 oz. Granulated Sugar
15 oz. Unsalted sweet cream butter cut into pieces & @ room temperature
if adding flavoring it'll be up to you as far as how much you wish to add.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk your egg whites & sugar together w/ a small pinch of salt. Place this bowl over simmering water and whisk, whisk, whisk. You will continue to whisk until the sugar has dissolved completely - don't stop whisking.

Once the Sugar has dissolved, remove the bowl from the heat and attach the whisk attachment to your mixer. Whip the egg whites & sugar until stiff peaks form and the bowl is cool to the touch. (This can take anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes). I found that my bowl wasn't cool enough with one of the batches I made and the butter was melting! If this happens to you, stick the bowl in the freezer and check your frosting often. (Less than 10 minutes later, the frosting was perfect when this happened to me!)

Once your frosting is stiff, this will have some give to it but will definitely hold piping shapes, mix in your flavoring of choice. For the baby shower, I did melted chocolate + cocoa powder for the chocolate buttercream and then Vanilla Bean Paste for the vanilla buttercream.

If you make this, I do recommend tasting the buttercream before the butter is completely incorporated - I would say to start doing this after 2/3 of the butter has been added.

I have heard that there may seem like there's separation of the meringue and the butter as you are adding the butter. This didn't happen to me; however, if it does happen don't worry - it's part of the process and your frosting should still come together smoothly.

If successful, you will have created a satiny smooth frosting that you will surely fall in love with!!! =)

Pancakes for the Mommy

2010-01-24T12:01:00.000-08:00

One of my best friends had a craving for pancakes, yesterday. She got this idea stuck in my head and that was all I could think about today. Around 11:30 or so I woke up and knew that I was going to make pancakes. I sent her a text and shared the good news and she joined me for some lunchtime pancakes!

Next to scrambled eggs, I think pancakes are the next easiest thing to cook up in the kitchen! A few simple ingredients and warm pan = yummy meal! =)

The Ingredients

Gently Mix all Ingredients - don't over mix or the pancakes won't be fluffy!

Cook on Low Heat - the low heat will ensure you don't burn this breakfast treat!

Stack the cooked pancakes on a plate and top each with a pat of yummy butter!

Serve to your friend and make her tastebuds happy! =)

I Can't Seem to Find the Time... LoL

2009-12-30T10:16:00.000-08:00

It really is crazy how much time elapses between my posts. I think about posting all the time too!!! I haven't stopped baking, and in fact feel busier now than I have ever been. Granted, I've just been baking for family and friends, but the holidays have certainly kept me very busy! I want to say that it's driving me crazy, but it's not. My only complaint is that the day isn't long enough to do everything that I want. Since October, I have made so much! I've made a Strawberries & Cream Cheesecake, Pumpkin Roll, Caramel Swirl Pumpkin Cheesecake & Cupcakes, Sugar Cookies, Golly Polly Doodles (weird name... LoL), Gingerbread Cookies, Checkerboard Cookies, Pinwheel Cookies, Chocolate Roulade, Whoopie Pies, English Toffee, Strawberries & Whipped Cream Cake, Yule Log, a Death by Chocolate Cake, New Year's cupcakes, Chocolate-covered Caramels, Chocolate-covered strawberries, Peanut Butter Cups and Bon Bons, haystacks, and tonight I'm making more Toffee! I promise I will get some pictures up ... I would love to see the things that I have made. I make them and then they disappear! LoL.

Oh how the time flies

2009-10-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a little bit since my last post. I've baked some cookies in between then and now, but nothing spectacular...although, I find shortbread spectacular at any time!

About a month or so ago I was approached by San Pellegrino about using one of my Flickr photos. I said they could absolutely use my photo. I am happy to say that it's finally on their website. It was really an exciting moment when I went to a website and saw one of my dessert photos featured with others.

To see it:

* Visit http://www.sanpellegrino.com/index.html

* Then click the picture next to "Zabaione"

* Click the "READ MORE" that's in light blue

* On the left-hand side you'll see many pictures.

In addition to that, I was fortunate enough to have one of my recipes featured on the Inn the Kitchen blog.

To see this visit: http://innthekitchen.com/wp/2009/10/09/apple-crostata/

She posts lots of great recipes, so be sure to check out some of her tasty creations!

Needless to say, I'm very happy and am really looking forward to moving forward with my dream of being a sweets creator.

I am so blessed to be an artist. It's not easy, by any stretch of the imagination. We always hear about the "starving artist." Well, I'm far from starving, but I'm certainly not successful...yet. My roommate and I were discussing one of his lesson plans (he's a professor at UCF) and one of the assignments in his class was for the students to define was Success meant - clearly there wouldn't be a wrong answer as this is subjective. We all have our definitions.

This got me thinking and daydreaming, not that much doesn't make me do this... I know that I want to be successful in art. I am going to school for graphic design, but I just don't know that I could be happy in that field. I'm not much of a graphic designer as much as I am an illustrator.

In addition, I've just really found that I love to bake. I've always loved cooking, but I just really love to bake. In my down time, I think about baking. What can I make next?! I keep thinking of reasons to bake cakes and cookies and cupcakes, just so I can "practice." The reality of it is, I just love to do it. It's so relaxing and the end result is just the "icing on the cake."

Success for me would be being a successful baker. I would love to make a comfortable living from baking. Baking for small events or just individuals would be fantastic whether working for myself or for a small company. I will hopefully be embarking upon a business venture that may open new opportunities so that I may achieve this. If this doesn't work out, it's okay, because I'll still be baking and doing my best to share what I can do with others who want my desserts. :-)

Birthdays Really are Happy!

2009-10-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

My friend Amanda will be celebrating her birthday this Sunday. All she asked for was a Winnie the Pooh-themed caked. At first, I was like ... "NO! You're going to be 30! I can't support this." Then, I realized that this is her birthday and it's a cute theme so why the heck not????

I decided that I wasn't going to let her know about this and I told her on Wednesday that I couldn't do her cake and I apologized. Wednesday night I made Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie dough and tossed it in the refrigerator so that it would be ready to roll out and bake on Thursday.

Thursday I went straight home from work and baked the chocolate cupcakes and rolled out the sugar cookie dough. I cut out flowers and butterflies which I then decorated with orange-flavored royal icing.

While the cookies and cupcakes where cooling, I colored some of my marshmallow fondant and sculpted a bear that was supposed to be Winnie the Pooh... LoL. He looked similar to said Disney character and at the very least, he was a cute teddy bear. ^_^

Decorating these cupcakes and the cookies was just so much fun. Decorating just got me more excited! I just wanted to decorate all night long - and I almost did (I called it a night around 1 am).

During her lunch break I set up the cupcakes in our conference area and was grateful that she didn't see the treats until we all sang Happy Birthday (I may have been the only one singing, I didn't hear anyone over myself).

Needless to say, she was a very happy birthday girl and I even got her watery-eyed. I love it! I love baking and I love making people happy! Her reaction totally made my day! :-)

Mmmm! I love CHOCOLATE!

2009-09-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

I made a VERY tasty chocolate cake last Wednesday! It was so yummy and very hard to stay away from! The cake was ... perfect! It was moist and dense & light at the same time. I am a fan of the chocolate cake recipe I now have. I tweaked one that I found. The original recipe has a more bitter chocolate flavor as it calls for unsweetened chocolate - my version uses sweet and semisweet chocolate and I feel like it's just the perfect combination! The cake is great with frosting or without it!

I decided to play around with the frosting on this one and decorated it simple. I was really happy with the thicker and even frosting center. I get so excited when I cut into a cake that I've made and the icing in the center isn't thin... and the even-ness... well, it just makes a girl smile! Now I just have to work on making thicker walls... I should get a cake decorating book or something. I want to decorate a cake like a pro! Ugh! I wish there were more hours in the day and more time to bake bake bake!!!

I Got A Feeling ... Woooo hooooo

2009-09-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

I just want to bake. It's funny how I get excited about baking ideas. I sit at work and think about what I want to try next... it's usually Everything! I'm thinking that sometime this week I'm going to make a chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream icing... Mmmm... That sounds good!!! I want that, now! LoL.

I think I'm really lucky that I've been able to make as much as I've made recently. I went to the cake supply store (the only one!) on Saturday. I saw all of the boxes that they had available and I got excited. It seems a bit silly, but when I saw them I immediately thought of all the things I could fill them up with... *sigh* ... SO ... probably tomorrow or Wednesday, I shall bake again! I will be sure to post pics, of course! Until then, thanks for reading! =)

This Week's Journey

2009-09-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

So, today was the delivery day for the graffiti cake and 35 cupcakes! So.... before I discuss that, I will go over my week.

As you are aware, I wanted to try to prep as much as possible so that I wasn't rushing to complete everything at the last minute. I probably spent more time making everything that I may have anticipated...but that's okay. I had a great time and really enjoyed every minute of it!

So... On Thursday, I decided that I would start the carrot cake, since its decoration was the most important. Whilst at work, I was daydreaming about the cake and going home to bake it...when I realized something. When I painted Kiana's name on the fondant, I didn't think to measure how large it was. I continued to think about this and just knew that it was going to be larger than the 6 inch cake that was ordered.

I had two options; either re-do the name or make a larger cake. I really liked the way the name came out and opted to do a larger cake and figured that this could be a nice surprise for them.

So I got home that night and compared the name to the 6-inch round cake pan. Sure enough, the name was larger than the pan. I made a 1/2 sheet cake and decided that I would cut it to the size that I wanted. Once it was ready, I cut a 10 1/2 x 6 inch rectangle and frosted it with the crumb-coat, set it in the refrigerator and told it I would see it the next day. This was completed by 12:30 AM... LoL.

Friday rolled around and I went straight home from work. I immediately started making the vanilla and chocolate cake batters for the cupcakes. The chocolate cake batter was dyed black and the vanilla was separated into 4 bowls and dyed pink, blue, yellow, and green - all VERY bright!

I baked 12 chocolate, 12 vanilla, and 12 marbled cupcakes. The chocolate frosting was also dyed black and I also tinted the vanilla frosting pink, blue, yellow & green.

I dyed the cream-cheese frosting a red-brown for the brick wall I was going to create with the carrot cake. Once the carrot cake was frosted, I refrigerated it to let the frosting set again. Once set, I scraped the tops and sides so that I could even out the frosting...this also created an awesome texture on the frosting that gave the appearance of brick! Then, I "carved" the lines into the cake where the "cement" would go. I filled those lines with white cream cheese frosting and once this was done, I placed the name on the top of the cake and outlined the name with black frosting.

Let me just say this... I was happy to see this completed. ... *sigh*... anywho... Once that was done I decorated all of the cupcakes and packed them into containers. FINALLY! I was done!!! Then, I took a step back and stared at my kitchen. Well, I knew it was a kitchen... a stranger walking into my home probably would have thought it was a disaster area. I was nowhere near done...sooooo... finally after cleaning, I was actually finished. At around 3:45 AM my bed was shouting for me; I obliged itl.

Today was the day. I woke up and went to the cake supply store to buy boxes for the cakes and cupcakes; came home, packed everything up, showered and headed to the home. I wasn't sure of what to expect and was feeling pretty nervous. I finally made it to the cake's destination and delivered the goods. I was so happy to hear the "Wow's" that I got. I wanted to cry, just a tear. I felt AMAZING! They loved the way everything looked. Hopefully, I'll receive an email from them telling me that they loved the taste too.

Summary of this project:

11+ hrs of work

3 very late nights

Countless dishes cleaned

1 10 x 6 x 2.6 inch cake

36 Cupcakes (I threw an extra in the box)

A happy 16-year old & Family

An Even Happier Yvie. =)

Getting Ready For Saturday!

2009-09-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

I love baking... and my boyfriend, roommate, and co-workers are probably sick of all of the baking I do; however, I can't seem to stop! My boyfriend suggested I post an ad on Craigslist and I was reluctant to do it ... but he made a great point: If no one reply's, then you're where you are now; but, if they do, then ...

I took his advice and posted an ad on Craigslist (about a month ago) and on the first day I received a serious inquiry. A mother who was in the middle of planning her daughter's sweet 16 inquired about cupcakes and a 6" cake. After a few emails and a telephone conversation, I got to meet the family for a tasting. Let me just say that words don't describe how awesome that was for me. It was certainly a great feeling to know that what you love to do is something that complete strangers will enjoy! The word Delicious was even thrown my way! So, this Saturday I will be responsible for the cake portion of a young lady's Sweet 16. I am trying to do as much prep work as possible so that I'm not rushing through the baking and decorating.

For this event I will be making:

6" Carrot Cake w/ Cream Cheese Icing
35 Cupcakes: Vanilla, Chocolate, & Marble Frosted with Vanilla Buttercream or Chocolate Buttercream.

Her invitations were a graffiti theme and that's what I will match the cake and cupcakes to. SO... Bright colors and GRAFFITI!!! If you know me, and you must if you're reading this, you know Graffiti is not my style! Luckily, in the cake world, there are so many ways to create! So far, I have made all of the frostings and tonight I worked on some fondant shapes that I will use on her cake and on the cupcakes. I have painted her name in a Graffiti style on a sheet of rolled fondant (homemade, if I may add) I am letting all of this dry and harden as much as it can. Once her name is dried I will cut around it so that there is a white border and then I will outline that in more black.

I have also made some brightly colored fondant stars which will top the cupcakes. I will use some of these on the cake itself for some added color. I will certainly post pictures of the finished products this weekend. This is so fun and so exciting! Wish me luck! I am excited about this!!!!

~Yvie