The Life & Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch

Browned Butter M&M and Pecan Cookies with Grey Sea Salt

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:30:41 PST

These cookies are so darn good that you can eat about 6 of them before you even say the name of them! :o)

Saturday morning I decided to play around a little and experiment with some Splenda baking. I also wanted to try making browned butter cookies because I am addicted to the taste/smell of brown butter. Several other bloggers have already gone this route so its not a new concept by any means - but I did use Splenda Brown Sugar for Baking in the recipe and I must say I am impressed with how well they turned out. My only complaint is that the day after they get crunchy and aren't soft anymore - fortunately this recipe didn't make too many cookies - so its a great cookie to make if you intend to eat them all in one day. ;o) (for the record, we didn't eat them all in one day which is how I know they are hard on the 2nd day!)

These were so easy and quick to throw together. The toughest part would be to make sure your butter doesn't burn while browning it. They scoop out so easy and don't take long to bake. A yummy treat to have around for once and a while!

Browned Butter Mini M&M and Pecan Cookies with Grey Sea Salt

Printable Recipe

1 stick unsalted butter, browned and cooled slightly
1/4 cup brown sugar splenda
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1//2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
grey sea salts - a generous pinch - crumbled
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup mini M&M's

Mix browned butter with sugars until combined. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and grey sea salts. Stir into butter/egg mixture. Stir in m&m's and chopped pecans. Scoop with small cookie scoop and flatten some after placing cookie on baking sheet. Sprinkle with more grey sea salt if desired. Bake 7-8 minutes or until cookie is set.

Beef & Broccoli with Black Bean Mushroom Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:41:20 PST

This is the result of an evening where dinner plans were supposed to be one thing that turned into something else because of the lack of an ingredient. I originally was going to make beef stroganoff. I had a couple of small steaks in the fridge that I had to cook and we were originally going to grill them! So, these steaks went from 1 recipe to another, then yet to another recipe. What I ended up with was a quick, easy, yummy meal full of flavor! It got a big old seal of approval from Grumpy!

I am submitting this post to Presto Pasta Nights being hosted this week by Emma of Souperior. There is still time to submit for this week so if you made a yummy pasta meal this that you want to share you can do so! The guidelines as well as the future hosts and link to the round ups can be found on the Presto Pasta Night's web page run by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. If your interested in hosting, you can find Ruth's contact information on the web page also! Hope to see you there!

Beef & Broccoli with Black Bean Mushroom Sauce

printable recipe

8 oz thin sliced steak pieces
4 oz sliced baby portobello mushrooms
1 broccoli crown, flowerts only
Olive oil
1 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon Lee Kum Kee Mushroom flavored soy sauce (you can use a dark soy sauce instead if you can't find or don't have the Mushroom flavored soy)
1 heaping teaspoon Kum Kee Lee Black Bean Chili Sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1 heaping teaspoon cornstarch
8 oz dried linguini, cooked according to package directions (we use Dreamfield and love it!)

Slice steak into thin slices. Prep mushrooms and broccoli and set aside. Prep sauce by adding beef broth, soy sauce, black bean chili sauce, and sugar. Stir well and set aside. Start cooking pasta according to package directions.

Heat skillet on high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When oil is hot, add steak slices and stir-fry about 4 minutes, until meat just loses its pink color. Don't cook much longer or the meat will become tough. Remove steak from skillet and cover to keep warm. Add a little more oil to pan if needed and then add mushroom. Turn heat down to medium and stir-fry mushrooms until browned. Place mushrooms in same bowl as beef and cover to keep warm. Add broccoli to hot skillet along with 1-2 tablespoons of water. Cover and steam until tender - about 3 minutes, remove lid and let water evaporate. Place broccoli in a separate bowl and cover.

At this time the pasta should be about ready to come off the stove (mine takes 9 minutes to cook). Drain pasta and set aside.

Pour sauce mixture into hot skillet that you cooked all the other ingredients in. Bring to a boil then add water mixed with cornstarch to sauce, stirring constantly. Once sauce starts to thicken turn off heat and add steak/mushroom mixture and coat with sauce. Next add broccoli, then pasta, tossing to coat well with sauce. This makes a good amount of sauce! Serve & enjoy!

Quick & Easy Bacon Cayenne Cinnamon Buns with Maple Glaze

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:40:36 PST

yeah, I kind went overboard on the sugar here.....

Ok, don't have a heart attack....I did not make these for Grumpy although I do believe he ate one of them. These will give you a sugar high. Seriously. Everyone once and a while I want quick, bread-y, sweet/heat and cinnamon-y somethin' somethin'. A lot of times when I want something like that I grab a can of Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls and just kill the craving. Yesterday morning I didn't have that can and I, like a bad girl, did not go to the gym that morning so I didn't have opportunity to go to the store next to the gym afterward. The weather deterred me - so don't judge me for skipping out of exercising yesterday - or all week for that matter. The weather has stunk this last week. I promise, tomorrow I'll be right back there. We are supposed to warm right up to 45 by tomorrow and getting out in rain is a little easier than getting out in ice and snow. Anywho.....

I was craving sweet heat and salt and I had just come across this recipe on Pinterest for Quick and Easy Cinnamon Buns. BTW, Have you joined my at Pinterest yet? If you haven't please do so I can follow you too!

I knew as soon as I saw it I would try it because guess what they have in them? Ricotta cheese! That was different and her rolls looked so good I couldn't resist. You have those moments too...I know you do! Anyway, I went ahead and made them. They were better than canned rolls but I have to admit, they were not better than a good old yeasty cinnamon roll. If I had a choice, I would choose a yeast roll over a quick one - but hey, these were still good and they hit the spot. I shared with my sweet neighbor Jill and her family so they wouldn't hang around my house all morning tempting me. Now that I've had my naughty treat for the week I promise to be good for a while. I've found a breakfast cookie recipe on Peanut Butter and Julie's site that I intend to try out this week - its a definite healthy cookie and hopefully it will counteract kill my bread-y sweet/heat desire that I caved into. I do like to think I'm cheating by eating cookies for breakfast but being sneaky about it because they are healthy!

just look at all that maple frosting yumminess and brown sugar goodness!

Quick & Easy Bacon Cinnamon Buns with Maple Glaze
adapted from Don't Forget Delicious - Fastest Cinnamon Rolls

Printable Recipe

Dough:

3/4 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1 tsp lemon juice with enough Almond milk added to make 1/3 of liquid
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups white whole wheat flour, lightly spooned into measuring cup and then leveled off
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Filling
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar (I would actually use 1/2 cup instead of 2/3- it seemed like way too much after it was baked)
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
couple dashes of cayenne pepper

4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (I use the pre-cooked bacon for this, microwave it for 30 seconds and its ready to use!)

Maple Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup- more if needed to make frosting of spreading consistancy (of you can use extract for flavor and milk to loosen the frosting up)

Instructions

Heat the oven to 400°F. Spray the sides and bottom of a 8 or 9″ baking pan with cooking spray.

Combine the ricotta cheese, almond milk mixture, splenda, melted butter, and vanilla in food processor and process until smooth, about 10 seconds. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and pulse in short bursts just until the dough clumps together. The dough may look like biscuit crumbles, that's ok it will come right together when kneaded.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it with floured hands 4 or 5 times until smooth. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 12 x 15" rectangle.

Brush the dough with the melted butter, leaving a 1/2' border unbuttered around the edges. In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon and cayenne. Sprinkle the mixture over the buttered area of the dough and press gently into the surface. Sprinkle with cooked bacon pieces.

Starting at a long edge, roll up the dough jelly-roll style. Pinch the seam to seal, and leave the ends open.
With a sharp knife, cut the roll into equal pieces - I was able to get 9 rolls. Set the pieces, cut side up, in the prepared pan, touching slightly.

Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, 20 to 28 minutes. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.

To make the glaze:
In a small bowl mix the melted, powdered sugar, and maple syrup to make a smooth glaze. Add more syrup as needed to achieve desired consistency. Spread onto warm rolls. These, like the canned biscuits are best served warm and eaten the same morning they are made. I had a couple left over at the end of the day and it reminded me a lot of the canned rolls that just dry out and aren't as good as they are when freshly baked. You could probably microwave a few seconds (like 15) and warm it up some and it would be fine.

Almond Date Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:43:21 PST

I have had the desire to bake more lately - not exactly sure why that is, but now that I want to bake, I have in the forefront of my mind that I have to make it as healthy as possible for Grumpy's sake. Its not fair to have treats around the house that he can't have too. The one thing I know is carbs have to be controlled for him and when he eats carbs, they should be the better for you ones! I've switched to white whole wheat flour and just bought some whole wheat pastry flour thanks to the praise of it by my friend Katrina. Now I'm going to want to experiment with that! ha! I have been cutting sugar by using half Splenda in place and in some instances, all Splenda.

I read that dates were a good food for diabetics to eat so decided to make these muffins, substitute some almond meal for flour, used brown sugar Splenda and added dates. I also made these low fat by not using a lot of butter and going with egg whites instead of a whole egg. These muffins were such a success that Grumpy "hoarded" them so he would have them for lunches throughout the week!

Almond Date Muffins
Makes 1 dozen muffins

Printable Recipe

1-1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups Almond milk with 1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar
2 tablespoons stick margarine or butter, melted
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 large egg whites
1/3 cup chopped dates

Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon flour and almond meal into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour mixture and the next 3 ingredients (flours through salt) in a medium bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine Almond milk (soured with the lemon juice), sugar, melted margarine, almond extract, and egg whites; stir well with a whisk. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in date pieces.

Scoop the batter into 12 paper lined muffin cups using an ice cream scoop (this give the perfect portion for these muffins); Bake at 375° for 17-20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire rack.

Vegan Chipotle Chili with Cilantro Rice

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:29:27 PST

Monday I had the day off. Grumpy went to work as normal and I got busy first thing and cleared out the spare room. Iit sure made me feel a whole lot better - and it was all done before 11 AM! That gave me the rest of the morning to run to the store for a couple of items and figure out what to feed my Aunt Ann and her friend Ron for lunch. When I started lunch I came across a bag of Morningstar Crumbles I had in the freezer and I thought about Chili for dinner. I decided to use the crumbles and pray that Grumpy wouldn't notice that it wasn't real meat. I cooked up some brown rice (jasmine) and stirred in a little butter and cilantro when it was done. Served the chili on top of the rice and it was delish! The only comment Grumpy made was "is this flavored rice?" I said "yup" and left it at that. He never knew....and last evening? He ate the remaining leftovers without a single comment - which in this house is a good thing. If Grumpy's making a comment it usually is because he's not sure he likes something and he certainly wouldn't eat it two nights in a row if he didn't like it! My chili passed the test! I'm so happy and I will definitely be using the Morningstar Crumbles again!

Vegan Chipotle Chili with Cilantro Brown Rice
Printable Recipe

1/2 large onion, diced
1 medium yellow pepper, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 bag frozen meatless burger crumbles (MorningStar Farms)
1 - 32 oz jar spaghetti sauce
1-8 oz can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1 cup brown basmati rice
2 cups water
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon earth balance margarine

Saute the onion and pepper in 1 tablespoon olive oil until tender. Add the frozen burger crumbles and cook 3-4 more minutes until crumbles are thawed. Stir in chili, cumin, and chipotle chili powder. Add 1 jar spaghetti sauce and 1 can tomato sauce. Place in crockpot on low temp for 2-3 hours, then turn to warm until ready to eat.

Bring 2 cups of water and salt to a boil and stir in rice. Simmer until rice is tender, about 20 minutes. Once rice is cooked stir in cilantro and margarine. Serve chili over rice and top with more cilantro if desired.

Cherry Coconut Banana Pecan Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:17:26 PST

Lazy weekends sometimes tend to inspire me. We definitely had a lazy weekend this last weekend. It was cold outside and who wants to go out in that? So, since I had a 3 day weekend and Grumpy was going to only be home with me 2 of those days, I decided to be that 4 letter word....that isn't so dirty after all. L-A-Z-Y. Grumpy was too....if not more so than me!

In between the tv, computer I would go into the kitchen. :o) I went out for a bowl of Heart to Heart Cereal and an orange, then later a rice pudding cup (yes, store bought). Later in the day Grumpy got up and went out to make himself a hot beef sandwich with the leftover roast and gravy. I followed him out there and took notice of the two bananas that were too ripe to eat as is. I started thinking about bread and coconut and maraschino cherries and pecans. I made my bread and agonized over the next hour while it baked and the aroma filled the house. I agonized for yet another half hour after I took it out and set it to cool on the counter. I was just dying to cut into that bread. Finally, after about 30 minutes I decided I could take it no longer. I sliced off two slices, put a little smart balance butter on top and headed back to my room where I continued to watch my sci-fi movie and got all cozy under covers and savored every bite of that bread.

Cherry Coconut Banana Pecan Bread
Printable Recipe

2 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup Splenda
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups King Arthur While Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup maraschino cherries, chopped

Mix together flour, coconut, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chopped pecans.

In a large mixing bowl, mash bananas well. Add eggs, one at a time, and whisk until mixed well. Add sugar and extract. Beat well. Stir in cherries.

Add flour mixture, and stir just to combine. Spoon into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes, and remove from pan. Cool.

Chicken with Broccoli and Noodle Stir-Fry

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:45:57 PST

Presto Pasta Nights started back up last week, but I wasn't feeling well enough to really post anything on my blog. I would get home from work and not even want to turn my computer on. I had this made before the deadline but I just didn't have it in me to post. So, this gets to be this weeks PPN submission :o)

I don't really know what's up with me, most likely allergies, but it affected my voice, a cough (non-stop it seems) and felt congested in my chest. Nothing makes me feel better than something good and hot - heat wise and spice wise - when I have that feeling in my throat.

I needed something quick, easy, hot and (for me) spicy. I had some chicken tenders and fresh broccoli in the fridge. Since we both love Asian flavored pasta dishes, I decided to go with a recipe and I had seen on Food Network and adapt it to our liking. One thing about heat factor is it can be adjusted per person! It wasn't hard with this dish - I just took my portion of chicken/sauce and separated it from Grumpy's and added more heat.

This week's Presto Pasta Nights will be hosted Alisha of Cook. Craft. Enjoy. Make sure to visit her blog next on Friday, January 20th for the round up. If your interested in participating you can send your submissions to her by Thursday, January 19th. Check out the PPN website for the guidelines for submission.

Chicken, Broccoli, and Noodle Stir-fry
adapted from Food Network

PRINTABLE RECIPE

1 lb chicken tenders, cut into bite sized pieces
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced and divided
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated and divided
1 tablespoon maggi sauce (or soy sauce)
1 tablespoon Splenda Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon Mirin
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cups broccoli flowerets
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 cups pasta, cooked according to package directions (I used lower carb pasta)

Mix 1/2 of the garlic and ginger with the Maggi sauce, Splenda Brown Sugar, Mirin, Sesame Oil, and 1 teaspoon cornstarch. Place chicken pieces in sauce and toss to coat. Marinate for at least 15 minutes. Mix remaining cornstarch with 1/3 cup of water and set aside.

Heat large, non-stick skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and heat oil, add broccoli and stir fry 1-2 minutes. Add remaining ginger and garlic and chili flakes and two tablespoons of water; stir-fry another 30 seconds or so. Transfer broccoli mixture to a plate and set aside.

Re-heat skillet and add another tablespoon of olive oil. When oil is hot, add chicken mixture and stir fry until chicken is no longer pink. Add hoisin sauce and broccoli, toss to coat. Add remaining cornstarch mixture and stir until sauce thickens. Add hot noodles and toss to coat. Serve hot, sprinkle with more hot pepper flakes if desired.

Blog Anniversary Gift Card winner

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:54:36 PST

No food today - just a post to announce the winner of my 4 year blogging anniversary giveaway. The winner was Peggy. Peggy is another blogger who writes the blog Peggy's Pantry. Thanks for entering Peggy and please get in touch with me about which gift you would like!

Banana Cake with Browned Butter Maple Frosting

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:52:24 PST

I had bananas that were getting over ripe. If I had a dime for how many times I said that before stating "so I started to think about what I could do with them", I could probably be a rich girl. :o)

So, for the big news of the Grumpy home for the new year? Grumpy is being "forced" to change his eating lifestyle. Yes. I said forced, and not necessarily by me and not because of a new year's resolution. Just three days before we went on our cruise we found out that Grumpy is a diabetic. He has type 2 diabetes. He's actually doing quite well making healthier choices for the most part. This means I have a lot to learn when it comes to food and nutrients and what a diabetic should eat to maintain the optimal blood sugar levels. After all, I want my Grumpy to not only live but be healthy!

While I have baked with Splenda before, I tend to not want to because I never really have had a lot of luck with my baked goods turning out good. So, when I realized that "I had bananas that were getting over ripe", I decided that I would experiment just a little. From what I have read carbohydrates are what really count when you are watching your blood sugar. Sugar = carbs, as well as flour and potatoes - sorry Grumpy. I'm in the process of turning my kitchen into a healthier kitchen ingredient wise and switching to whole grains are in the works. This way, the carbs Grumpy does intake will be "healthy" carbs. I have read that beans are good for diabetics so I've been thinking of ways to incorporate more into our diet. I love them but Grumpy? Not so much. He totally surprised me recently by asking me to make my bean soup recipe so I will be doing that for him this week. Hmm, I wonder if he's been reading unbeknownst to me? ;o)

While cake isn't something he can eat a lot of on a daily basis a little bit once and a while doesn't hurt as long as we are keeping everything in moderation and basically eating healthy. Being in the learning stages, he is checking his blood sugar at different times of the day so we can get an idea of how he's doing. Along with monitoring his levels, we are hoping that diet and exercise change will make things much better for both of us in the long run.

This recipe actually turned out so good. So good that I won't be so afraid to work with sugar substitutes a little more. I was a bit nervous to go with all Splenda, so I went with half Splenda and half Sugar. That is my beginning. The browned butter frosting is to die for! I roasted some pecan halves in the oven and decorated the top of the cake with them after it was frosted. The cake had a great banana flavor along with a moist, tender texture. Absolutely perfect. :o)

Banana Cake with Browned Butter Maple Frosting

Printable Recipe

2 eggs, room temperature
2-1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup splenda
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted

Browned Butter Maple Frosting

2 - 2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter, browned
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
2-1/2 - 3 tablespoons half and half

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, Splenda, baking powder, baking soda and salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl mash bananas, add melted butter, eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. Pour liquid over flour mixture and mix with hand mixer until well blended. Pour in a 9x13 glass baking dish and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool.

To make frosting, brown butter in heavy saucepan. Over medium high heat, melt butter. Watch butter carefully and let it bubble. It will begin to show brown bits in the bottom of the pan. You will start to smell the aroma of the nutty buttery goodness. Once it has browned, immediately remove from heat. Pour butter over 2 cups of confectioner's sugar. Add maple syrup and the lesser amount of half and half. Adjust with remaining sugar and half and half as needed to make frosting of a spreadable consistency. Frost cooled cake. Garnish with toasted whole pecans. Makes 20 servings.

Vegetarian Sausage, Egg & Cheese Sandwich - Deconstructed

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:39:38 PST

My first post of the year and it involves eggs? lol Can you believe it? If your a regular reader here you know that eggs are not a huge part of my meal experience.....unless its baked in a cake, casserole, etc - where I can't literally "see" the egg. I can eat eggs, but not very often and it always has to be cooked thoroughly (no slime and no runny yolk) or it just turns my tummy. Hence, I can't handle making my own Caesar salad dressing and Carbonara is very hard for me too.

I'm off work today. We have today as our New Year holiday, so after sleeping the day away yesterday because I stayed up until 4 am on New Years, I am actually wide awake and bushy tailed, no I wasn't hungover, just tired :) oh, and HUNGRY. I wanted something savory but I didn't really want my normal bagel, veggie sausage and Weight Watcher's Jalapeno Cheese triangle spread sandwich. I wanted more substance and savoriness. Omlettes just don't do it for me. You know, the possibility of that uncooked egg factor hits me too hard with an omlette. So, I decided to deconstruct everything - what I would put in and omlette, what I would put in a sandwich, and make myself a scramble that had a lot more of "everything else" than it had egg - and guess what? It was yummy! Good enough to kill my desire for something other than cereal or pancakes and I got to have my yummy Morningstar Vegetarian Sausage Patty along with the Jalapeno Cheese! Try it, you'll like it :o)

Vegetarian Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Sandwich - Deconstructed
printable recipe

1 egg, beaten lightly
Cooking Spray
2 tablespoons diced red pepper
1 tablespoon diced onion
1 Weight Watcher's Jalapeno Pepper Wedge, diced
1 Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Sausage patty, thawed and diced
green onion & parsley flakes for garnish
1 mini wheat bagel, lightly toasted and buttered

Cook peppers, onions and vegetarian sausage in hot skillet 2-3 minutes until vegetables are tender and sausage is crisped. Remove from pan. Spray pan with more cooking spray if needed and add beaten egg and scramble until desired texture. Remove from heat and add veggie/sausage mixture along with diced jalepeno pepper cheese wedge. Toss together, salt & pepper to taste, and serve garnished with green onion and parsley flakes (I used dried parsley flakes that my mom dried herself - the color is super vibrant!). Add toasted bagel and enjoy!

Ringing in 2012 with some favorite appetizers!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:41:58 PST

Its no secret, I love appetizers. I love making a meal of small bites. I think my grandmother would have thought the same way! When we were at my Aunt Ann's for Christmas my cousin Ryan was asking what kind of pie should he have....and I told him "do what Nanny would have done....have a tiny piece of each!" Um, there were 3 pies and guess what? Most of us did just that! I decided that since I love appetizers so, I would share some from my past and maybe give you some last minute ideas for New Years Eve!

Buffalo and Blue Cheese Stuffed Button Mushrooms - this is my #1 favorite!

Brader's Artichoke Bruchetta - my #2!

Cheesy Garlic Bread - One of Grumpy's Favs!

Roasted Shrimp Tasting Spoons - oh so good!

Butternut Squash Bruschetta - a new fav!

And my newest appy treat I made for my 4 year blogging giveaway post - Brie Popover Bites with Seckel Pears. Check out the links on the post to my blogging friends who are helping me celebrate for their appetizer contribution and don't forget to enter if you haven't already!

Brie Popover Bites with Seckel Pears

Happy New Year!

Lets enjoy 2012 with lots of great fun and recipes!

Brie Popover Bites - a 4 year Blog Anniversary Party!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:54:19 PST

There are people and events in our life that we just will never forget. One person who meant the very world to me, my Grandmother aka "Nanny", Mae Iris Whitton, is one person that my heart still aches to see on a daily basis - and it is so hard to believe she has been physically gone from my life for so long already....like my Aunt Marlene said on facebook on Christmas morning, that "there is not much to one year. Not much to 20 years either now that I think about it." That is true, but when it comes to a lost loved one, it can feel like yesterday when you lost them and your heart still aches just as hard as it did when you lost them no matter how long it has been and that feeling never goes away.

Pies Nanny would have been proud of!

My grandmother is one reason that I go on with my life the way that I do. I strive to be like her - non judgmental, loving, and kind. I think about what she would think or what she would say about something I have accomplished or agonized over. I wish so much that she were here with me today. She loved to bake cookies, pies, and cakes and would love to see all the desserts I have made and posted about on my blog if she were with us still. The first dessert I ever made was a rhubarb pie and Nanny just raved and raved over the pie I had made. :o) Our last years together we enjoyed baking and decorating sugar cookies and making stuffed teddy bears for a special charity that I was very involved with. I haven't made a teddy bear since she's been gone and I can't bake sugar cookies ever without thinking of her.

Nanny & Me

When I started this blog 4 years ago, I started it with the thought that it would be a "live diary" for my children and future grandchildren to have to remember me by. My grandmother would write in a journal every day of her life. She wrote what the temperature was every morning when she got up and would write about what she did and who she saw that day in particular. I always loved to read through her journal when I would visit so I could see what she had been doing and who she had seen - and she gladly would let me. When Nanny passed away her story from her point of view had ended.

A few years later I decided that where her story had ended, I felt mine must begin. I wanted my children to be able to go back and always read what I had written. My happy stories, my sad stories, my thoughts, my memories and my recipes, but most of all, my love for them and how great it is. My blog title may be Grumpy's Honeybunch, but I am Justin & Christopher's mom first. They are my babies no matter how old they become and will always be in my heart and this story is for them.

I haven't celebrated my blog anniversary with a giveaway before, but tomorrow (December 27th), being the 4th anniversary of my blog I decided that I wanted to celebrate and involve several special people who have also become very special in my heart and if it weren't for blogging, we would have never met. Those who were able have joined me in this celebration and have contributed a party appetizer bite to celebrate on their blog. Please visit the link there to see their celebration post and leave a comment to enter the giveaway (details at the end of this post).

However, there is one person that I must tell you about first: Linda aka Grannyloohoo. Author of For Goodness Sake and Talking Stash. She is the first and foremost person in the world of food that I had contact with whom I had never met. We met through allrecipes.com and I became a member of a forum that she belonged to that were foodies and members of allrecipes.com. Granny quickly became someone special in my heart. There was something about her that drew me to her from the get go. Even Grumpy knows who I mean when I say "Grannyloohoo". She's the one he was talking about when he said I should make something "scrumpdillyumptious" like she did after I showed him a photo of peach pie she had made! Linda and I have exchanged emails several times and I have grown to feel like she is family to me. If I had the opportunity to meet one person from my foodie world and cook a meal AND dessert for - it would be Grannyloohoo. I would also wrap my arms around her and feel like she is my family. I only hope she knows just how dear she is to my heart and how happy I am that we met. She has been there every step of the way over the last 4 years...when Justin was married, when my sons lost their uncle in a tragic accident, when I had to have neck surgery, when Grumpy was laid off and went back to school, right up to today - she is there for me to turn to when I need to talk about something I can't talk to everyone about. She is caring and beautiful inside and out! I guess if I were to have a bucket list, meeting Grannyloohoo would be at the very top.

There are many other bloggers out there that I met in the beginning of days that I still keep in touch with and feel a special closeness to. However, if it weren't for Granny who started the whole ball rolling by introducing me to a world of online foodies, I would never have met any of the rest of them. Thank you to all of you who participated and to those who were unable to participate - I love you all and am so happy to have you as a special part of my foodie life!

Now for the giveaway! My favorite way to eat is appetizer/small plate style so I asked my friends if they would join in by creating an appetizer to post about and collect comments to help me with the giveaway celebration. There is a link collection at the end of this post that will take you to each blogger's post where you can see what appetizer they made for me and leave a comment for an entry in the giveaway.

Details and how to enter the giveaway - Good Luck!

Leave a comment on this blog post telling me who is your inspiration in life and what special part that person plays in your life.
Visit the blog links that will take you to my blogging buddies page where they have joined in the celebration party and leave a comment on their post. Each comment will count as 1 entry.
Giveaway will end on January 7th at 5 PM EST.
Winner will be announced on January 8th via blog post on The Life & Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch.
Winner will be chosen via random drawing - drawing to be done by Grumpy.
Value of giftdcard will be $50 and can be ONE of the choices listed below:

Sears
Kohls
Amazon
Target
Wal-mart
Chili's
Uno's
Marshalls/TJMax
Bed, Bath & Beyond
Macaroni Grill
Olive Garden
Starbucks
Barnes & Noble

Mini Popovers Brie Bites with Seckel Pears

printable recipe

Non-stick cooking spray

2 beaten eggs

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, use a wire whisk to beat eggs, milk, and oil until combined. Add flour and salt; beat until smooth.

Fill the prepared cups half full with batter. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven, slit tops of popover and place a small chunk of brie cheese inside slit. Place back in the oven and bake 5 minutes more. Serve with pears (or fruit of your choice).

Makes 24 mini popovers or 12 regular (muffin sized) popovers.

Merry Christmas - 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:54:40 PST

The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch wishes you

all a very Merry Christmas!

Italian Ricotta Cookies and a special giveaway announcement!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:08:40 PST

Oh my goodness, are these cookies ever the bomb! I'm probably late on the band wagon with these cookies, but honestly, the first time I ever ate one was almost a year ago. We were invited to our new neighbors house for their daughter's birthday. We met some more of our new neighbors, one of whom had made these awesome cookies that I didn't want to stop eating. They were the perfect cookie, soft and tender with an awesome lemon flavor in the cookie and the icing. I fell in love.

The next month I had a surprise birthday party for Grumpy. I thought it would be a good way to get to know our new neighbors more and an opportunity for me to feed people! Of course when Stacy, one of our new friends asked what she could bring, my first response was her Italian Ricotta Cookies!

I decided these would be a great cookie to make to wrap and give as gifts to a few special people this year so I asked Stacy if she would mind if I made her recipe and blogged about it. Of course the response was positive 'cause here I am!

This also is the "pre-announcement" of my 4 year blog anniversary giveaway! I have never really celebrated a blog anniversary and this year I felt it would be a great time to do so. I have made so many friends through blogging over the last 4 years and several of those friends will be joining me on December 27th to celebrate on their own blogs. Watch for the post coming up next week to see what the prize will be along with all the wonderful foodie items that my friends and I will be sharing with you! I have some very special people in the bloggy world that I will be talking about and showing my appreciation for - you don't want to miss any of it!

In the meantime, if you need to make some other treat that is quick, easy AND delicious, definitely make these cookies. They take very little time and you will become the star of the day by serving them to those you love. Thank you Stacy for sharing your recipe with me. Your awesome!

Italian Cookies (Ricotta)

Printable Recipe

1/2 lb butter (2 sticks), softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons lemon extract (I used pure lemon juice and the zest of 1/2 lemon as I had no lemon extract)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 container Ricotta Cheese (15 oz)
4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon flavorings (you can also substitute Anise flavoring for the lemon). Stir in the ricotta cheese.

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to batter and stir until combined.

Drop by teaspoons onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool, frost, and decorate with sugar sprinkles or lemon zest (which I did with some!) If you love fresh lemon, you will LOVE these cookies. They are so soft and tender and lemony! Enjoy!

NOTE: I used two different cookie scoops - one large one and 1 small one and got 2 dozen large cookies and 1 dozen small

Lemon Icing

2-1/2 to 3 cups confectioners sugar
Juice of 1-1/2 lemon
zest of 1 lemon

Mix well going with the smallest amount of sugar first and adding more as needed for the consistency you want for your icing. You can go thick or thin....if you do a thin icing, you can just dip the cookie tops in the icing and sit them on a cooling rack to dry. Sprinkle with sugar sprinkles and/or lemon zest. Let dry completely and store in airtight container.

I'm Coming Home

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:21:00 PST

I'm sure he misses me.

Even though he has probably slept most of his day away

However, I'm sure he is showing Chubby the affection he's not shown me all week long.

But I'm pretty positive he can't wait for me to get home.

although he may punish me for a little while and not want to crawl under the covers with me for a night or to...

or maybe not...since he does seem to be attached to me like GLUE

I can't help but think he must have felt like this all week. :*(

and I'm sure he has wished I was home so he could be right where he thinks he belongs...

snuggle bugging with his momma....

and while I can't wait to see my Rotten Little Rudy Rut-ton

(and of course Chubby and Kitty....but Rudy is my baby....)

I really can't wait to see these guys....in a couple of weeks.

The bestest and goofiest kids in the whole wide world

I'm coming home. :)

Prime Rib Roast with Pan Gravy - A guest post

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:47:00 PST

Today my guest is Jane of The Heritage Cook. I have been reading Jane's blog for quite some time now and I first came upon her by StumbleUpon. I love her themed posts - especially her Chocolate Monday's and Festive Friday's! Today she is sharing a meal fit for a king's family - and one that Grumpy would enjoy for certain! Thank's Jane for being my guest while Grumpy and I a relaxing in the Caribbean!

It is always an honor to write a guest post for another blogger that I admire and today is no exception. Shelby of Grumpy’s HoneyBunch is extremely talented, funny and generous. While she is basking in the Caribbean sun, I am happy to present you with one of my favorite holiday meals, Prime Rib!

When I think of serving a special occasion meal, in particular one during the holidays, Prime Rib is at the top of my list. It is elegant, easy to make and doesn’t require a lot of work or last minute preparations.

Every year my father-in-law roasts a large beef rib roast for the family Christmas dinner. When we walk in the house we are instantly enveloped with the mouth-watering aromas of roasting beef. Yum!

A standing rib roast may seem hard to make, but it is probably the easiest of all the party entrees to make. It can be as simple as seasoning the roast with salt and pepper or you can go all out and make a complicated rub and crust. I like something in between, with all the flavor but not all the work. The only equipment you need is a roasting pan and an instant-read thermometer. There is no need for a rack because you stand the beef on the ribs raising it off the pan and allowing the heat to reach all sides at the same time.

When you buy the roast, have your butcher cut the bones off and tie them back on. This is called “cradling.” This gives you the flavor of roasting the meat on the bone without the hassle when you go to carve it. Just don’t forget to remove the strings before you serve it!

The trick to perfectly cooked roasts is to cook them below your desired final temperature and let the residual or carry-over heat finish cooking it. While resting, the juices have a chance to be redistributed throughout the roast, keeping it juicy. Transfer it from the roasting pan to your cutting board and cover loosely with foil. And don’t worry about it cooling off – it will easily stay warm for the 15 to 30 minutes it will rest.

The classic English side dish is Yorkshire pudding. It is a cross between a baked roll and custard with a crunchy exterior and creamy interior. Cooked in the drippings from the roast, it is a savory pastry designed to absorb the juices from the plate, so place it next to the beef for maximum flavor. Often made in individual portions, I like Tyler Florence’s version cooked like a Dutch Baby (large pancake).

Horseradish sauce is one of the traditional accompaniments for roasted beef. The pungent, spicy flavor is addicting and helps cut some of the richness of the beef. Horseradish is a member of the mustard family and the version we are all accustomed to seeing is made from the thick, white root. The longer it sits in the refrigerator, the milder it gets, so for the fullest flavor, buy a new jar before the holidays.

I have included two recipes for slightly different versions of a horseradish sauce. The first is made with whipping cream and the second with sour cream. Make the one that suits your personal tastes. If you like sour cream on your baked potatoes, try this version – it will wake up your taste buds!

And finally, Bearnaise sauce, a variation on Hollandaise that is artery-clogging but oh so good. It is hollandaise with shallots and tarragon. It was my father’s favorite sauce with beef and the one he always requested for his birthday. Today’s recipe utilizes a blender, which makes this a snap to make. Definitely worth the effort, this sauce is likely to become one of your favorites, just like my dad.

The holidays can be stressful, but if you plan ahead and do a little at a time, you can cruise through the season. I hope that today’s recipes help to make these holidays extra special!

Prime Rib Roast with Pan Gravy
Simply Recipes.com (with a few notes from me)
Yield: 2 servings per rib

printable recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 standing rib roast, 3 to 7 ribs (estimate serving 2 people per rib), bones cut away from the roast and tied back to the roast with kitchen string (ask your butcher to prepare the roast this way)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Simple Dry Rub, optional (recipe follows)

METHOD
Remove roast from the refrigerator, loosely wrapped, 3 hours before cooking. Roasts should always be brought close to room temperature first, before they go in the oven. (This helps them cook more evenly.)

Cookbooks often call for the excess fat to be removed. By "excess" fat they mean any fat more than an inch thick. The fat is what provides the flavor and what you are paying for with prime rib, so you want to leave it on. Your butcher should have removed any excess fat.

If your butcher hasn't already done so, cut the bones away from the roast and tie them back on to the roast with kitchen string. This will make it much easier to carve the roast, while still allowing you to stand the roast on the rib bones while cooking.

Preheat your oven to 500°F, or the highest it will go (our oven only goes up to 450°F). Generously sprinkle salt and pepper all over the roast. Alternately, you can replace the salt and pepper with a dry rub (such as the one below) of your choice.

Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast, making sure it doesn't touch a bone. (Some meat thermometers require that you poke a hole first with a skewer, and then insert the thermometer.) Place the roast, fat side up, rib side down in a roasting pan in the oven.

After 15 minutes on 500°F, reduce the heat to 325°F. To figure out the total cooking time, allow about 13 to 15 minutes per pound for rare and 15 to 17 minutes per pound for medium rare. The actual cooking time will depend on the shape of the roast and your particular oven. A flatter roast will cook more quickly than a thicker one. So make sure to use a meat thermometer. This is not a roast to "wing it". Err on the rare side.

Roast in oven until thermometer registers 115°F to 120°F for rare, or 125°F to 130°F for medium.

Check the temperature of the roast using a meat thermometer a half hour before you expect the roast to be done. For example, with a 10 pound roast, you would expect 2-1/2 hours of total cooking time (15 minutes at 500°F and 2-1/4 hours at 325°F). In this case, check after 2 hours of total cooking time, or 1-3/4 hours after you lowered the oven temp to 325°F.

Once the roast has reached the desired internal temperature, remove it from oven and let rest 20 minutes, covered with aluminum foil, before carving. The roast will continue to cook while it is resting.

With a knife or scissors, cut the strings, which attach the meat to the bones. Remove the bones (save for making stock for soup. Then, using a sharp carving knife, slice meat across the grain for serving, making the slices about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

Making Pan Gravy: To make the gravy, remove the roast from the pan. Place pan on stove over medium high heat. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the drippings to a separate container. Into the 2 tablespoons of drippings in the pan stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir with a wire whisk until the flour has thickened and the roux is smooth. Continue to cook slowly and stir constantly. Slowly add back the previously removed drippings (remove some of the fat beforehand if there is a lot of fat). In addition add your choice of water, milk, stock, cream or beer to the gravy, enough to make 1 cup. Season the gravy with salt and pepper and herbs.

Simple Dry Rub
Jane Evans Bonacci - The Heritage Cook © 2008
Yield: about 1 cup

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup sweet paprika
3 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp packed brown sugar
3 tbsp dry thyme leaves

METHOD
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl until evenly distributed. Store in a tightly sealed container at room temperature.

Yorkshire Pudding
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence
Yield: 6 servings

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup pan drippings from roast prime rib of beef

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Sift together the flour and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat together the eggs and milk until light and foamy. Stir in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.

Pour the drippings into a 9-inch pie pan, cast iron skillet, or square baking dish. Put the pan in oven and get the drippings smoking hot. Carefully take the pan out of the oven and pour in the batter. Put the pan back in oven and cook until puffed and dry, 15 to 20 minutes.

Horseradish Cream Sauce
From Whole Foods
Yield: about 1-1/4 cups

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup chilled heavy cream
2 tbsp prepared white horseradish
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Freshly minced chives

METHOD
Beat the heavy cream until stiff. Slowly add the horseradish and lemon juice and continue to beat together. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Garnish top with chives. Serve with roasted beef.

Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce
From What’s Cooking America
Yield: about 2-1/2 cups

INGREDIENTS
1/4 to 1/2 cup prepared horseradish, or to your taste
2 cups sour cream
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp salt

METHOD
In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients and whisk until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Will hold in the refrigerator up to 2 days.

Béarnaise Sauce
Recipe from “MEAT by the Lobels”
Yield: approximately 3/4 cup

INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp shallots, minced
1 tbsp tarragon vinegar
1/2 cup white wine
5 egg yolks
1-1/2 tsp tarragon
3 peppercorns
Salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
3/4 cup butter, melted
Pinch cayenne pepper
Squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

METHOD
Simmer the shallots in vinegar and white wine until liquid has been reduced by about two-thirds. Remove from heat and cool.

Place this mixture in blender and add egg yolks, tarragon, peppercorns, salt, and dry mustard. Blend at high speed for no more than 10 seconds.

Add the warm melted butter, cayenne, and a squeeze of lemon juice (optional). Quickly turn on blender again and let it rotate until sauce thickens. Should it become too thick, add a bit of hot water and blend again.

This sauce should be made at the last minute so that it will be warm when served (but it may be kept warm in a double boiler).

Butter Pecan Cookies - A guest post from Gonna Want Seconds

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:01:00 PST

Today my friend Kathleen of Gonna Want Seconds is sharing a yummy, buttery, pecan cookie. I met Kathleen when she emailed me to tell me she had been reading my blog and had started her own. I was impressed with Kathleen's blog and how great her photos were. I hope you will enjoy her cookie today, I know I will make this one when I get home! Thanks for your post today Kathleen!

Hello everyone! I'm Kathleen from Gonna Want Seconds and I'm excited to be guest posting for my wonderful blogging friend, Shelby. Shelby is one of the very first bloggers I started reading and following way back when when I discovered the amazing world of blogging. I was immediately drawn to her blog because of her friendly, warm and embracing style and her recipes always looked amazing to me. I couldn't wait to get in my kitchen and start making whatever she had posted! When I first started writing my own blog, Shelby was always there for me to answer questions and lend support. I honestly think she is the most generous person out there in the whole blogisphere!!!

Well today I wanted to share a wonderful cookie recipe that is perfect for your holiday baking. I absolutely adore this little gem! I had a similar Pecan Butter cookie at a restaurant once and have been searching for a recipe that duplicated its deliciousness! After try untold recipes, low and behold, I have found the winner and here it is! It is super rich, buttery and virtually melts in your mouth. Now that I found this baby you can bet it will be made often! I hope you give it a try :)

Butter Pecan Cookies

from Taste of Home

1-3/4 cups chopped pecans

1 tablespoon plus 1 cup butter, softened, divided
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup pecan halves

Place chopped pecans and 1 tablespoon butter in a baking pan. Bake at 325° for 5-7 minutes or until toasted and browned, stirring frequently. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, cream brown sugar and remaining butter until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Gradually add flour, baking soda and salt and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Roll into 1-in. balls, then roll in toasted pecans, pressing nuts into dough. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Beat egg white until foamy. Dip the bottom of pecan halves in egg white, then gently press one into each ball. (If you get the foamy egg white on the top of the pecan it with remain after baking and not be attractive)

Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks.

A Guest Post--Non-Alcoholic Pina Colada and Bunuelos and Churros

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:02:34 PST

Hi! Katrina here from Baking and Boys! So fun to be guest posting here for Shelby while she’s away!

“Cuz’ I like Pina Colada….and getting caught in the rain……”

While Shelby is off on her long-awaited and much-deserved Mexican cruise with Grumpy, she asked if I would do a guest post for her—I jumped at the chance. Shelby is such a great gal with a wonderful blog and I’ve come to think of her as another “sista from another mista”. Always happy to help my “sistas” when I can. Besides the idea of Shelby playing around in Mexico gave me things to think about as a post for her and my family and I really enjoyed what I came up with!

I thought it would be fun to do some kind of drink, since I’m sure Shelby is enjoying one or two while they are sailing away. Simple enough, I settled on the ol’ Pina Colada. The boys and Kevin and I all really enjoyed this refreshing drink one night. I was just bummed that I didn’t have any cute little umbrellas to stick in the drink!

The recipe is so simple and I like that it has no added sugar (well, I think there is a little in the coconut cream). There are also only three ingredients and that’s if you count ice as one. I found the recipe at Drink Swap. We doubled it.

Virgin (Non Alcoholic) Pina Colada

14 ounces pineapple juice

4 ounces coconut cream (I used a brand called Coco Real brand)

2 cups crushed ice

Put all ingredients in a blender, with the ice first and blender for a minute or two until smooth. Serve in glasses with fun straws.

Well, that’s not fun enough for a guest post, so I made a couple other things to go along with the drink. Churros were next up! Perfectly Mexican treats that the kids loved! What is not to love about fried food with cinnamon and sugar?

We (especially Scott and Parker) were eating them so fast I had them run a bunch over the the neighbor girls next door to share!

Another simple recipe perfect if you don’t get the real pleasure of going to Mexico (like some lucky people!) for the real thing! ;)

I followed the recipe I found at Rockin Robin's Cooking Mexican Recipes exactly. Try them—they’re great!

That just wasn’t enough, because since I had oil out for frying the churros, we remembered how much we love Deep Fried Scones also known as Sopapillas, which are also a Mexican treat known as Bunuelos. The only difference is that sopapillas are a dough made with yeast and bunuelos have no yeast and are made with baking powder. We made the Churros on morning and the boys begged me to make “scones” (as we call them), so those were made that same day in the evening. I halved the recipe linked above for the bunuelos and they ate every single one of them! (We don’t fry food very often, so I decided to just let the kids eat what they wanted.) Fried food is best fresh!

The bunuelos are traditionally made with a cinnamon-sugar mixture on them, while scones/sopapillas have butter and honey drizzled over them.

The boys ended up having the cinnamon/sugar on them AND drizzling them with honey.

Can’t get away on a cruise to Mexico? Make your own goodies at home!

Chocolate Peppermint Filled Bonbons - The Great Blogger Cookie Swap

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:50:00 PST

Do you ever take on more than you can handle? I certainly do - and sometimes when I do this it seems like I am out to punish myself or something! When I do take on more than I can handle though, I always end up handling it - however the end result may not always be what I wanted and so then I am disappointed in myself.

This year I decided to participate in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Before I realized what I was doing I had set myself up for stress. Our deadline was December 5th, which was also the deadline for Secret Recipe Club reveal day. I also have been out straight at my job, have had a hard time sleeping past 3:30 am, and dead tired when I get home in the evening. If I didn't go to the gym at 5 am - I would never get there! However, my last weekend home before our cruise and also the last weekend I had before shipping off the cookies, I spent making cookies. Then, wouldn't you know it, I read the directions wrong and made 3 dozen of 3 kinds of cookies! ha ha. That's what I get for stressing myself out!

Cardamon Sugar Crisps

What it did for the recipients of my cookie exchange though was give them an extra surprise in their box when they opened it! The rest of the cookies, I put in my freezer for gifts to give later! Please click the link on the Cardamon Sugar Crisp photo for this recipe.

My recipients were Allison of Decadent Philistines Save the World, Denise Oviedo of addicted to recipes, and Madeline Olin of Thursday Night Baking. I hope they enjoyed the cookies I sent them!

I received two packages before I left for my vacation. I still hadn't received the third one before I left on Saturday morning so I can't tell you who the third person was or what they sent me. My neighbor has agreed to open the box, take a photo, and eat the cookies for me. :) Thanks Auntie Jill (as Grumpy calls her!).

My first box I received was from Michelle of delishiono. She sent me Brown Butter Holiday Spice Cookies - and they were delish! They reminded me of a snickerdoodle. I took these to work and shared with co-workers and one in particular said he could smell cookies and I'm pretty certain he had more than one. Of course, I had to admit to everyone that I was not the baker this time! lol Great job Michelle and thank you!

The second box I received was from Kathy of Panini Happy! I was so excited when I saw who my cookies were from. I have been reading Kathy's blogs now ever since I started blogging. I really love her Panini Happy Blog (she also writes another blog Cooking on the Side that is also fabulous!) Kathy also is one of the first people who's blog I made something from in my first year of blogging. I made her Buffalo Chicken Panini in August of 2008 - and it was a great hit with both Grumpy & me! (Kathy's Buffalo Chicken Panini Post). Thank you Kathy. It was a very special treat to have received the delicious chocolate thumbprints you sent! A few were eaten here and the evening before we left for vacation I sent the rest home with the neighbors little boy who was tickled pink to get them!

To whomever the 3rd person was - I'm really sorry to have missed your cookies...I'm sure they were delicious and that my neighbor's kids were thrilled to have them!

Chocolate Peppermint Filled Bonbons

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 Dove Chocolate Peppermint Candies, cut in 4 pieces
chocolate icing drizzle

Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla until creamy. Stir in flour and salt until dough holds together.

Mold portions of dough around pieces of peppermint patty to form 1 inch balls. On ungreased cookie sheet place balls about 1 inch apart.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until set but not brown. You can roll these in powdered sugar while still warm or drizzle with a chocolate icing.

Chocolate Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon coca powder
2 tablespoons milk (more if needed for drizzle consistency)

Mix together until blended. Place in sandwich bag, clip corner, drizzle away :)

Baked Shrimp with Feta and Tomatoes - a guest post by Aggie's Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 02:01:00 PST

Today Grumpy and I are on the Carnival Glory Ship! While we are relaxing and enjoying the Caribbean weather, I asked a few of my blogging friends to guest post for me. Aggie of Aggie's Kitchen, one of my longest blogging buddies agreed to guest post and she is bringing you a dish with my favorite seafood - Shrimp! Thank you Aggie for guest posting here on my blog and I hope you all enjoy her recipe!

I'm so happy to be here guest posting while Shelby is out on the seas cruising with her beloved Grumpy. Not going to lie...I'm a teensy weensy bit jealous...just kidding...or am I? Hope you are having a wonderful time Shelby! (I know you are!!!)

In case you don't know me, my name is Aggie and I share recipes over at my food blog, Aggie's Kitchen. I've known Shelby for...pretty much as long as I've been blogging. We've gotten to know each well over the years, mostly for our shared love of light and healthy eating as well as pretty much everything else that goes along with blogging. I was thrilled that Shelby asked me over here to today to share one of my favorite recipes with you, Baked Shrimp with Feta and Tomatoes.

If you love shrimp, like I do, you will absolutely love this dish. It's a pretty straightforward recipe that I adapted slightly from Ellie Krieger, and can easily be put together alongside some orzo or rice for a quick and delicious weeknight dinner. It's low in calories and high in protein and could even be served with steamed or roasted broccoli or green beans if you are trying to cut back on the carbs.

We eat shrimp pretty often in our household so if you are looking for new ways to serve it up check out a few of my favorite shrimp recipes:
Pasta with Creamy Shrimp, Tomatoes and Peas
Green Lightning Shrimp
Shrimp, Broccoli and Edamame Stir Fry

Thanks for having me over Shelby! Hope you all are having a great week and enjoy the recipe!

Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta
Recipe slightly adapted from Ellie Krieger

printable recipe
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 (14.5-ounce) cans of diced tomatoes, with their juices
1/4 cup finely minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh basil
1 tsp dried oregano
pinch of red pepper flakes
handful of kalamata olives
1 1/4 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 3 ounces)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Heat the oil in an oven proof skillet over a medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 5 minutes, until the tomato juices thicken.

Remove from the heat. Stir in the parsley, basil, dried oregano and shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the feta over the top. Bake until the shrimp are cooked through and cheese melts, about 12 minutes.

(Note: If you do not have an oven proof skillet, cook tomato mixture first, then transfer tomatoes along with other ingredients to a casserole dish before baking)

Serve with whole wheat orzo, rice or a side of roasted or steamed broccoli or green beans.

Buffalo Chicken Macaroni & Cheese Tasting Dishes

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:44:36 PST

This is my "Grumpy's gotta have something to take to work for a party, I've gotta get my fridge cleaned out before vacation, and I wanna use my new little baking tasting dishes" kinda post." :)

Grumpy had an office holiday potluck lunch at work last week. I am not sure why these things are so hard for me. Maybe because I want to make sure whatever I make is yummy but also different. In any case, when Grumpy first told me he volunteered me to make something for his office party my first thought was that I needed to make that yummy buffalo macaroni and cheese my friend brought to work last year. Then the thought left my mind and before I knew it the night before his party was here.

If your one of my Facebook friends, then you are bound to know that I am not a night person. I can be up as early as 3 am and by 4:30 am will be out the door headed to the gym. Well, the evening before his party I could not for the life of me stay awake. It was 7 pm and I was dying to go to bed. Miss Kitty was hogging the love seat so I threw a blanket on the floor, watched the rest of a tv show with Grumpy, and was in bed by 7:30. Yup. 7:30 people. I went to bed earlier than my kids would go when they were little ones. Grumpy tells me that's what getting old gets me. HA (I don't think so Grumpy!). Anyway, I woke up close to 3 am and did not want to get out of bed. Any other day I wouldn't have had any trouble. But that day, I had to not only make Grumpy his dish for work I also had to be at the dentist for a follow up at 7 am. There was no way I was making it to the gym that morning. I wasn't too happy about that part, but I had to give it up for that day.

I opened my fridge doors and thought to myself, what can I use to make this dish that will help me clean the fridge out some and still not "hurt my reputation" as Grumpy put it. I believe his words were "It just needs to be good, your reputation is at stake." I still believe it was his reputation he was worried about. I found some half and half, almond milk, sour cream, a mix of colby, cheddar and gorgonzola cheese. I had a large can of chicken in the cabinet, some Frank's red hot and butter along with garlic that my parents grew in their garden that they sent home with me. I decided I would give it a go and see where it went. The worst case scenario would be Grumpy would have to stop at the store, grab some cheese and crackers, and tell everyone at work that I was too old and tired to cook the night before.

Before I even had the sauce and the chicken mixture mixed together, I knew it was going to be a winner. The sauce itself was awesome. I couldn't believe I had made that yummy sauce out of my head and with what I could find in my fridge. I put the majority of the mac & cheese in the large crockpot dish and served up 3 small portions in my baking tasting dishes. Baked the tasting dishes at 350 for 25 minutes, the crockpot for 40. I put the crockpot in the warmer, set it to warm and told Grumpy to take it to work and do the same...that his reputation would be safe. Oh, I'm sorry, I mean, my reputation. ;)

This is my contribution to Presto Pasta Nights! Can you believe it Ruth?! I actually have a PPN post from my busiest week ever! :) This weeks host will be Rachel of The Crispy Cook.....and guess what? She's also from the Capital District! I couldn't believe it when I read her email address which insinuated to me where she was from....I realized she had to be from NY - so I read her about me and found out she is so close to me! How exciting. Her blog is a good mix of recipes (kind of how I like to think mine is!) and she has a mix of different diets in her home, just like Grumpy & me! Now, how I didn't notice this before is mind boggling to me since she is hosting PPN for the 3rd time now! Shame on you Shelby Mae! ;) I'll definitely be reading more of her posts once I return home from vacation! Oh yeah, we fly away today to sail away tomorrow on the Carnival Glory ship for a full week of pampering, relaxation, good food, and fun!

Buffalo Chicken Macaroni & Cheese
(for the crockpot and/or a party of baking tasting dishes!)

printable recipe

1 lb uncooked elbow macaroni, cooked according to package directions
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce, divided
1 large can Chunk Chicken, drained
3 cloves garlic
2 heaping tablespoons flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup half and half
2 cups almond milk (unsweetened, plain)
1/4 cup sour cream
4 ounces colby cheese
4 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup gorgonzola or blue cheese crumbles
panko crumbs for topping

Cook macaroni according to package directions and set aside.

While macaroni is cooking you can create your sauce. Saute 3 cloves of garlic in 1 tablespoons butter for a few seconds - until you can smell the great aroma :) Add the chunk chicken and Franks red hot. Simmer for a couple of minutes then set aside.

In heavy saucepan, heat remaining 3 tablespoons of butter until bubbly. Add flour, salt, and pepper and whisk to make a roux - it will get thick. Gradually add the almond milk/half and half mixture, whisking all the while. Once sauce has thickened again, add sour cream and cheeses and stir until melted. Add chicken/hot sauce mixture and cook another minute or two.

Add sauce and macaroni together and stir well. Place in large crockpot or baking dish, sprinkle with panko crumbs. My crockpot has a removeable bowl so I first baked mine in the oven to crisp up the top some. I then had grumpy put the crockpot on warm setting for his party.

Serves 16 (regular sized servings)
Serves 36 (tasting dish servings)

Mint Chocolate Truffles

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:02:46 PST

I do like homemade candies. I'm just not that good at making them or at least I think I am not good at making them. Maybe I just don't like the tediousness of the work. However, I have had these Holiday Mint Chocolate Chips sitting around and I knew my friend Mags would never forgive me if I didn't find some way to use them since she loves them so much. :)

I was making my caramel sauce (post coming soon) on Thanksgiving morning when I happened to look a little more through my Cooking Light Holiday Cookbook and came across the recipe for these truffles. Since I had to stay in the kitchen to keep a close eye on the caramel sauce anyway, I decided to pull out the ingredients for these truffles and try my hand at making them.

I was a little nervous at first because the recipe called for blending cream cheese into melted mint chocolate chips. For some reason that just didn't seem right to me, but I went with it anyway. These were the easiest truffles I have ever made. No melty chocolate on my hands from rolling them into balls which made me a very happy camper. I don't like messes. Yes, I admit it. I am a prissy baker. I don't like to get dirty even though sometimes I know its impossible not to! Apparently I made a mess today though. Grumpy had a bit of complaining to do when he went to the kitchen. I told him that's what he gets for not going hunting like he was supposed to. ;) Hey, my kitchen is my domain....he could stake claim to what it looks like if he were to spend any time in there cooking instead of eating!

Mint-Chocolate Truffles
a Cooking Light recipe

Printable Recipe

1/3 cup semi-sweet mint chocolate chips
1/2 cup (4 ounces) 1/3 less fat reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 (16 ounce) package powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup powdered sugar
variety of melted chocolates/sprinkles to decorate

Line a 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper.

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave. Start with 30 seconds, stir and then microwave another 30 seconds. Repeat until chips are melted (shouldn't take more than a minute to minute and half). Add softened cream cheese to the chocolate chips and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add 1 package (16 oz) powdered sugar and mix until well blended.

Turn truffle mixture into baking dish and press into a square. Cover with more plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill up to one hour.

Remove mixture from refrigerator, cut into squares (I cut into 48 small squares) and roll into balls. Coat with cocoa powder, powdered sugar, or sprinkles. Store in refrigerator and take out at least 10 minutes prior to serving.

Note: Cooking light uses a smaller dish and cuts the chocolate into 48 squares.

Cheesy Sweet-Hot Beer Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:00:09 PST

All I can say right now is....what on earth took me so long to make a beer bread?! I remember years ago when I was married to my first husband, he wanted to make beer bread and I went right ahead and said go at it. I had no interest. Not sure why, maybe because back then I really didn't care much if I had beer to begin with. Lord knows I certainly didn't have any problem making anything else for him. I don't even remember eating any of the bread he made. For some reason I don't remember it being something that even appealed to me. Jump ahead 20+ years and here I am, making my own beer bread. Dana might even be proud of me today because it was an awesome bread. One thing he and I had in common was definitely food and cooking it. (besides loving our two wonderful sons).

It is a little ironic that what brought me to make this bread was The Secret Recipe Club and Krista of Meet the Swans. I've read Krista's blog for quite a while now. I remember how precious her love story was and I even commented on her about me section way back when. Krista is a sweet little thing who grew up on a farm (almost ditto here...my dad went into farming after I was in HS). I love her enthusiasm and her love of baking....even if most of it is chocolate. ;o) I thought about baking a treat as she has mostly baked goodies on her blog, but I haven't been making much sweets to have around us for a while now and I was feeling like something savory. I searched and searched and in the midst of all her chocolate I found this Beer Bread. Bingo. I thought to myself that I really should try it out. After all, I was early in the challenge and if I messed it up I would make the Almond Crescents (which I happen to LOVE - but have never made myself).

Such a simple recipe and as soon as I read the ingredients and saw it called for some sugar, I knew I was going to put some kind of heat in it. I went searching through my cupboards for some pickled jalapeno's thinking for certain I had to have some, after all, I'm a hot pepper fanatic. No such luck, but I did find something even better. I found some pickled hot peppers that my dad had given me from their canning shelves the last time I was home. I couldn't wait to try this recipe out!

While I was going to make the bread, I also didn't want to take the chance that I would have a full loaf of bread and neither Grumpy nor I would want to eat it. So, I decided to make half the recipe and make mini loaves. Well, I won't have to half the recipe next time for certain! I could have eaten a whole mini loaf by myself that afternoon. I stopped myself at half a loaf though and then decided that I would have more when we ate dinner. ;o) Yes, it was that good.

I took some sneak peeks while the bread was in the oven because I was really curious as to how it would rise. It was more like a batter bread and I also was curious about how the top of the bread would look. I was far from disappointed. I was strongly reminded of Red Lobster's cheese biscuits. So much so that I melted some Best Life butter and stirred in some garlic powder to brush over the top of the loaves. Oh, sweet, heavenly YUM! I sinfully even spread some more of that garlic butter on my individual slices, not that it needed it. I just wanted to be bad.

Cheesy Sweet-Hot Beer Bread
adapted from Krista's recipe at Meet the Swans

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Makes 2 mini loaves

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tablespoons baking powder
6 oz beer
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (I used yellow for color)
2 tablespoons chopped hot yellow peppers (the pickled kind)

Preheat oven to 350. Prep bread pans by spraying with non stick cooking spray.

Whisk flour and baking powder together. Add shredded cheese and pepper pieces and toss to coat. Pour in beer and stir until combined. The batter will be thick and kind of biscuit-y like. I put my batter right to the top of the pan and I used two mini loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Mine baked just a little less than 50 minutes.

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Stars

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:08:25 PST

Its that time of year and many of us are making cookies. Some of us have been making a lot of cookies! I wanted to make a cut-out cookie so I could use my Nanny's copper star cookie cutter. It makes me wish she were here baking with me whenever I do make cookies and that part is hard - because we did spend so much time together in the kitchen making my sugar cookie recipe for special events that I volunteered for.

I made big stars and little stars and I know that Nanny would have loved them. I also made a shortbread round that I kind of dropped when removing it from the pan and it landed on my cookbook. Fortunately I salvaged as much as I could and dipped bits and pieces alike in the chocolate and decorated with sprinkles. Although they weren't the prettiest, they would still be tasty!

The butter makes the cookie just melt in your mouth. I decided that with these stars I would dip them in some candy coating - both vanilla and chocolate and decorate with colored sugar crystals and some gold and pearl dust powder. I also used lime zest instead of lemon zest (Rachel used lemon).

It is kind of appropriate that I used this cookie cutter in particular because the person who I got this recipe from made my nanny's cookie recipe for Taste & Create way back when we were paired together July 2008!

Last month Min of Bad Girl's Kitchen emailed several of us who had participated in Taste & Create in the past and extended a special invitation to join in this month. As a result, there are quite a few of us who are posting for Taste & Create this month. I was paired with Rachel of Tangerine's Kitchen and picked the recipe for Shortbread Daisies.

You can head to the Taste & Create page for a line up of all the posts for the month by December 5th and while you are there you can see what Rachel made from my blog!

Rachel found the recipe for these shortbread cookies on Martha Stewart's website. I headed over there for measurements because I'm not good at converting Celsius to Fahrenheit and I couldn't see how long to bake these for on Rachel's blog. I found on the Martha website she said to bake these for 50 minutes. I really believe that is a typo! Maybe it should be 15 instead...because that is how long I baked mine for. I ended up watching the cookies and pulled them out of the oven when they had started to brown and felt firm in the center of the cookie. Depending on how big you make your cookies will probably depend on how long you bake them, however, I think at 50 minutes they would probably be really, really browned ;-)

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Stars

printable recipe

1 cup butter
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
zest of 1 lime
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar (it also states you could use granulated but I went with confectioner's)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Sift together flour and salt in a small bowl. In a larger bowl cream butter and lime zest until fluffy. Add sugar and beat until light in color and fluffy. Add flour mixture and beat on low until flour is just incorporated and dough sticks together.

This is where you can vary how you make these. You can pat them in a round on a cookie sheet so you can cut them when removed and slightly cooled from the oven or you can wrap the dough in some plastic wrap, flatten it into a circle and refrigerate for about an hour. You can then roll the dough out (I did so between the plastic wrap so it wouldn't stick) and then cut into desired shapes.

Bake until cookies start to brown and are firm in the center. Time will vary depending on the size of your cookies.

If you decide to dip these, be careful - they are very fragile. You could always opt to drizzle them with chocolate instead, or just eat them plain. They are great no matter what way they are served.

Butternut Squash Bruschetta

noreply@blogger.com (Shelby) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:28:20 PST

If you know me, then this post will come as no surprise to you. There is some sweet heat in some little bites in this post and believe me when I say they are yummy bites! This recipe incorporates some of my very favorite flavors ever - all in a little appetizer bite!

I was searching recipes for small plates to get some ideas for this week when I saw the recipe for Butternut Squash Bruschetta. I immediately went to the recipe because it sounded too interesting to pass up. Then I read the ingredient list and knew I could not pass it up. My next trip to Price Chopper had me buying a baguette so I could put this yummy appy together!

There is honey, chili flakes, walnuts and caper berries topped with asiago cheese. Strong flavors mixed with sweet for a perfect party bite. If your wanting to use your butternut squash in a different way for Christmas or New Years, this is it! The night I made this, it was my meal alone. That went along perfectly with a bottle of Blue Moon. :) Go ahead, try it, share it, and become the star of your party!

Butternut Squash Bruschetta
adapted from NYTimes

2 cups butternut squash, diced
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
10 caper berries, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
10 walnuts, roughly chopped
1 loaf baguette, sliced diagonally

salt
pepper
garnishes: asiago cheese slivers and chopped cilantro

Preheat oven to 400. In a medium sized bowl, mix all ingredients except asiago cheese and chopped cilantro. Turn squash mixture out onto a heavy baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, stir, then bake another 15 minutes. Squash should be tender at this point. Don't over cook or you will burn your ingredients. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, slice baguette, drizzle with olive oil and season lightly with salt. Bake until slightly browned and crisp.

Remove baguette slices from oven, top with squash mixture and garnish with asiago cheese and cilantro. Become the star of your party :o)