Wine Lover's Cooking Diary

Yoo hoo…where are you?!?!

mrsabybaby — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:38:49 +0000

I have been MIA. I apologize. However, so many exciting things going on in my life!! We have bought a house, are selling our current house and our other piece of land, we have bought a new puppy, AND a friend and I are starting a business. That’s right – a custom cookie and couture cupcake business! So, though I will still update this when I make something fabulous, in the meantime, check out the blog for La Marie’s Confections! Website coming soon.

http://lamaries.blogspot.com/

See you all soon!

Cookies for the soccer team

mrsabybaby — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:24:56 +0000

My little sister is a sophomore in high school (yikes I’m getting old!) and she plays soccer. I try to make it to as many of her games as I possibly can. The last time she played near my house I decided to make cookies for her entire soccer team. It took some time but it was well worth it to see the smile on her face.

Hurricanes

mrsabybaby — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:36:47 +0000

I have a few summery recipes that I need to get busy putting on here since the first day of fall is today! Yikes!

My friend recently had a Hurricane at Hard Rock Cafe and she raved about it. She said we had to make them for our next party. First attempt was kind of blah but for my mom’s b irthday party, I mastered it! I made a few changes to the recipe that I found online. There are several different versions but this is what I ended up with that I found to be intoxicating…literally. These puppies are no joke – they taste so good that you forget that there is quite a bit of alcohol in each one. Drink with care!!

Hurricanes – my version!

Ingredients

(I double everything but the alcohol when making these for a tall glass)

1/4 full of ice

1 oz light rum

1 oz dark rum

2 oz orange juice

2 oz other fruit juice of choice – I used mango V8 Splash and it was AMAZING

Grenadine

Directions

Put all ingredients except the grenadine in a cocktail shaker. Pour mixture into glass and then drizzle just a bit of grenadine in until it makes a pretty swirly drink. Stir it up and drink it up! You can use a cherry and orange slice for garnish if you choose.

Mrs. Pig Rating: This is absolutely delish! I will make these continually for parties and this is an awesome summer drink.

Mrs. Pig’s family rating: My mom and stepdad both really enjoyed these. My stepdad said we need to definitely take the recipe with us to Florida in January – this would be a perfect sitting around the pool drink – I agree!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

mrsabybaby — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:54:21 +0000

Who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies or bars?! Not many people. These are such a good, simple yet awesome recipe. Kids love them, adults love them, they are quick, easy – what more can you ask for? I have made these several times now for Operation Baking Gals because they stay moist for so long and are oh so yummy. I think I could eat the entire bowl of dough before I even put them in the oven. HA!

Recipe from Recipezaar

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 (12 ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375* Grease a 15×10-inch jelly roll pan (I put these in a regular cake pan…they are perfectly thick and chewy in that!)

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.

Beat butter, both sugars and vanilla in large mixer bowl.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

Gradually beat flour mixture into butter mixture.

Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Spread into prepared pan.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Mrs. Pig Rating: These are one of my now favorite go to recipes to take somewhere. They are easy to just t hrow together and they are so freaking good. Everyone loves these – adults and kids which make them good for family gatherings.

Pig Rating: The Pig loves these! He is a tough critic on desserts but he really loves these. He always makes me save him one or two when I make them for OBG.

Tomato Mozzarella Bites

mrsabybaby — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:45:58 +0000

We recently had a “welcome home/birthday/going away” party at our house for my little brother who is back in Iraq. We invited some of his friends, some of our friends – it was such a fun time! I of course made too much food but I had so much fun preparing the food and drinks! I did appetizer and dessert foods and this was an easy, yummy, great appetizer – everyone raved about it. I could eat a million of these!!

Recipe from www.allrecipes.com

Ingredients

20 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
20 fresh basil leaves
20 small balls fresh mozzarella cheese (often labeled bocconcini)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
20 toothpicks

Directions

Using a toothpick, spear a half of a tomato, a piece of basil, a mozzarella ball (I halved the mozzarella balls so they better fit on the toothpics), and another half of a tomato. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Place on a serving dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix the vinegar and oil together in a small bowl to serve as a dipping sauce (I used this as more of a dressing and drizzled it over all of the bites once on the platter).

Mrs. Pig Rating: I will make these again and again. Fairly easy to make and oh so yummy! Use all fresh ingredients if you can – that makes it so much better!!

My “Go-To” Turkey Burgers

mrsabybaby — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:30:18 +0000

I am so behind on posting things – ahh! I have 5 or 6 recipes that I need to post so I’ll try to get a couple up today.

I love turkey burgers grilled out – YUM. No one else in my house is a huge fan for some strange reason but I make them for myself very often. They are great even warmed up for lunch the next day. This is my “go to” recipe. These are so easy but they are SO full of flavor and oh so yummy. Enjoy!

Recipe from www.allrecipes.com

Ingredients (this makes enough for about 6 burgers)

1 pound ground turkey
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon seasoned bread crumbs
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon finely diced onion
2/3 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
1/3 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

In a large bowl, mix ground turkey, seasoned bread crumbs, onion, egg whites, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. Form into 12 patties.

Cook the patties in a medium skillet over medium heat, turning once, to an internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C).

Mrs. Pig Rating: I love these. These taste so good that I normally make more than I need so I can have them for lunch. Serve them up on a wheat bun and you have a healthy yummy lunch!

Holy Yummy Cinnamon Coffee Cake

mrsabybaby — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:51:45 +0000

Let me go ahead and say if you have some aversion to using box cake mixes (Nikki) then quit reading how. However, if you are like me and sometimes you just don’t care as long as the final product is yummy, then keep reading my friend…you will NOT be disappointed.

I had this recipe saved for awhile from allrecipes.com - I love anything with cinnamon and vanilla flavors and I thought this would be great to take to the office and also for any type of brunch (I’m thinking Christmas breakfast this year Mom?!). It is an easy recipe and it makes the house smell absolutely heavenly while it’s cooking. You can use either a bundt pan or a 9×13. I chose a bundt pan because, well, they are fun to use sometimes Sheridan and I whipped this up last weekend and she was disappointed at first when I told her what we were making…she of course was under the impression that it had coffee in it which she wanted no part of. HA

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix (I used two packages of vanilla instead of using butterscotch…personal preference)

4 eggs

1 cup water

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional…you could use raisins, etc as well).

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan, or a 10 inch Bundt cake pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, and butterscotch pudding mix. Add the eggs, oil and water, mix until well blended. In another bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Pour half of the batter into the pan, spread evenly. Sprinkle with half of the nut mixture. Cover with the rest of the batter, and sprinkle with the rest of the nut mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn the oven down to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.

Mrs. Pig Rating: This is a wonderful cake – it’s easy, it smells good while cooking, and oh man does it taste AWESOME! Especially warm out of the oven.

Little Pig Ratings: The little pigs loved this one! Once they found out there was no coffee involved…

Mrs. Pig Co-Workers: Absolutely loved this one! In fact my boss has already requested this as his birthday cake for next week! That should tell you something.

Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies & Operation Baking GALS Round 11

mrsabybaby — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:27:07 +0000

Last weekend I baked for round 11 of Operation Baking GALS. My friend Kate was team leadering for her best friend’s hubby who is in GTMO so it was an easy choice as to what team I wanted to join this month. I love baking each month for the troops…my problem is that once I read all of the fantastic stories, I want to bake for every single one of the soldiers and I can’t do that!!! Not enough time and money for that but it’s tough to pick. They are all amazing people.

This round I baked chocolate chip cookie bars again as they seemed to ship well and stay moist. I also decided to make these peanut butter chip chocolate cookies that I’ve been dying to make. They were easy and boy they did NOT disappoint! I hope that they ship well!

Remember, if you would like to join and bake for the troops during any one of the rounds, it’s easy. Bake a box of goodies and ship it! They really enjoy it. Go to the Baking GALS site and sign up!

Happy Birthday to Me!

mrsabybaby — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:22:35 +0000

Well…a little late happy birthday to myself, but better late than never right? My 28th birthday was last Tuesday and it honestly was one of the best birthdays that I have had. I was able to spend plenty of time with my family and close friends and that made it very special. But let’s be honest, I love food so the food always makes it good too!

We went to my parents house for a birthday dinner and my mom made me my favorite cake that she makes me every year – banana cake! Sheridan decorated it when we arrived at mom’s house and it was made and decorated with a lot of love. I adore the old candies that go on cakes so mom bought me some of those. YUM

Then on my actual birthday, unfortunately I was at work but my good friend Lindsay had our favorite bakery (Piece of Cake) make me the most awesome cake – I was in awe and didn’t even want to cut it!!! I’m kind of a purse freak and I love my Louis Vuitton so she had this made for me:

Isn’t that adorable? Look how thick the icing was…I swear this thing weighed 10 pounds.

All in all, an awesome birthday with awesome cakes!

Operation Baking GALS Roundup From Round 10!

mrsabybaby — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:52:17 +0000

I am finally getting around to doing a blog roundup from round 10 of Operation Baking GALS in which I was a team leader. I ended up with I think 20 people who sent baked goods to my brother and his fellow troops! I was beyond thankful and so excited to be a part of this group. I plan on trying to do this every month now – maybe not team leader every month, but at least baking every month.

Round 11 is NOW open so if anyone would like to join a team and bake for our troops who are serving overseas, it’s very easy. Bake a box of baked goods or any kind of goodies and ship it. Viola! You have put a smile on a soldier’s face for the day. If you would like to join a team go here ——> Operation Baking GALS and sign up – what are you waiting for?!

As I said, I had so many people join my team and it was awesome! My brother was so excited to receive all of the baked goods. He said that it was like Christmas which put a big smile on my face. He said he took some boxes to their commons area and it was like “birds on a full feeder”. HA Knowing that I helped give them a little piece of home makes me feel good. They do so much for us so sending a box of cookies is the VERY least I can do every month. Thank you to EVERYONE who joined my team!

As for the roundup, there are a lot of baked goods here so feel free to stop reading or continue reading if you want to see them all!

As I said in my previous blog post, I made chocolate chip cookie bars, apple spice cookie bars, magic in the middle cookies, snickerdoodles, and sugar cookies.
Lindsay made chocolate chip cookies with M&M’s and sent a bunch of other snacks, magazines, and books.

Lindsay’s mom Cynthia made peanut butter cookies and snickerdoodles. They baked together so the above pics are of both things happening
Andrea baked peanut butter cookies, brownies and sour cream chocolate chip loaf (YUM!)

Erin baked chocolate chip cookies, no bake cookies and stuffed the boxes with lots of snacks like pringles, candy, etc.
Ashley baked cookies and stuffed the boxes with lots of candy
Sally made a box full of cookies
Lorena baked a box full of her “top secret” brownies…hmm…mysterious!

Heather baked snickerdoodles, peanut butter cookies (some with Reeses), chocolate oatmeal cookies, and lemon sugar cookies (some in the shape of Texas since that is where she is from!)
Ellie baked 3 dozen peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
Amy baked sugar cookies, chocolate chipster brownies, and chocolate chip cookies

Erin M baked chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter brownies, and caramel brownies
Clara baked 4 kinds of blondies – snickerdoodle, funfetti, reese peanut butter cup and white chocolate macadamia nut as well as some sort of yummy chex mix. Mmmm!

Katy made chocolate chip cookies with pecans & coconut

My mom and Granny both baked. Mom made almond joy cookies and rocky road crunch bars and Granny made no bake cookies and coconutty bars made with Splenda in case anyone was diabetic