Blueberry Cheese Danish- In the Making

Solvang is the place to go to get the largest variety of danish's served in the smallest town in California. There's no point going there without picking up one. It had me thinking the other day, I am a good 3-4 hour drive away from Solvang and I sat there and questioned myself if I was up to the challenge. I did it, I made my first danish and it was a smashing success, except for the part that it grew in the oven into a rather large version of a danish. Nothing like the picture in my magazine, but nonetheless it tasted really nicely with my iced chai this morning. ;)

Recipe adapted from The Bread Basket www.tasteofhome.com

Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding With Espresso Whipped Cream

For this week's Magazine Monday Event, hosted by Retorte, I have a very old recipe I've been saving to try for the Holidays. I finally used it and I highly recommended this bread pudding recipe found in 2005 issue of Food and Wine Magazine.

When I came across this recipe years ago, I new I had to give it a try during one of these Holiday seasons. Who doesn't like Krispy Kreme right? I love bread pudding and what better time to make this than during the colder months. Though this is the first time I ever made bread pudding, I did find this recipe easy to follow but a bit time consuming after each step to complete it. Unfortunately nobody believed me during Thanksgiving dinner when I told them this Bread Pudding was made out of Krispy Kreme donuts. If only they lived in my house to smell the donuts cooking in the oven. What I love about these donuts are the really nice soft texture, even though all bread puddings are of that consistency, this one keeps a really nice firmness as well. The Espresso Cream topping takes the cake, if you love coffee don't skip this step it really is the cherry on top. It was a beautiful finish to an already tasty dessert.

Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm not cooking this big feast of a dinner as my mom loves to put her all into this holiday. I'm eager to make the desserts though, last year I went with the traditional Maple Pecan Pie, but this year I wanted to try a different path. How often do I get to make a cheesecake? I pulled out Dorie Greenspan's "Baking From My Home To Yours" and decided to go with the Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake recipe. I've been wanting to try this recipe since I bought the book last year but I'm only willing to make such a dessert unless I have a large gathering that can help us eat it up. :) Excuse my slice of cheesecake picture, as I always forget to run the knife under cold water first and this is what you get when you don't do that. :)

I also have a few other desserts up my sleeve...

Coconut Crusted Salmon With Tamarind Barbecue Sauce

I'm always looking for new ways to make Salmon, I came across this recipe and thought the ingredients sounded interesting together. Turmeric with Coconut? Yet this came together nicely, the taste of a rather strong spice as Turmeric with a subtle hint of coconut and panko combination worked out really well. The sauce was sweet as Tamrind is suppose to be but the use of shallots, tomato paste and ground red pepper gives this sauce just the right texture to satisfy my palate. We cleaned our plates with this dish. The recipe was adapted from Cooking Light.

Magazine Monday's- New Mexico's Chili Glazed Chicken with hominy polenta

For this week's Magazine Monday event I wanted to try something out of the new issue of Bon Appetit for December 2008. I wanted something healthy and this New Mexico's Chili Glazed Chicken with Hominy Polenta sounded healthy. I love hominy, it tasted really nice and light with this chicken and the sauce was very sweet and spicy but if you want heat you should add in pepper flakes for that. It only took 30 minutes to make. I love quick and light meals. I really liked the way the dish came out but the next time I make it I will add less honey and more spice, it was more sweet than what I'm use to.

Shrimp Curry

I made this very delicious Shrimp Curry last night. The taste is very similar to Thai cooking but the dish is South Indian food. I was told South Indian food uses lots of coconut milk like Thai cooking does. My husband's family is from Gujarat, the food is not sweet at all but rather spicy they don't use Coconut milk in their cooking. One of the fascinating aspects of India is the variety of languages and different food tastes that come between the North and the South. I prefer South Indian Food only because I love Thai food and there are very many similarities in the sweet and spicy flavors.

Recipe was adapted from Random House

Beer Chili

Recipe Adapted from Bon Appetit













I was in need of a beer with dinner tonight so I had to come up with a dish that would go good with beer. What better dish than a chili made with a 12 oz beer added to it. I plan on making this again. I love good recipe finds.

Movies and Food.
Why is it every time I see a movie and the characters are drinking wine I must drink some too. Does anyone else do this? Every time I watched Ocean 11 and it's sequels, Brad Pitt was constantly munching on something it made me hungry for nuts. It's a mental thing, it really is. I wonder how many other people out there get hungry from watching movies? I'm not a popcorn fan, there's something about eating plain butter and salt that grosses me out. It makes no sense why they serve loud food at movie theaters, you can't hear the movie when you have a starving person sitting near you as they scoop and crunch for two hours with maybe breaks in between. Why not ice cream? It's quiet and so much more tasty.

:)

OBama Our Leader....

Obama made a historical moment happen before millions of eyes across the Country yesterday and I'm so proud to be apart of that movement. It's reported that 95% of African American's voted for him, 65% of Hispanics and 60% of young voters. There's hope for change yet... I just remember the gut wrenching emotions that went through me when Bush became President, this time during this election, I am relieved and have nothing but restored hope in this Country again.

Pumpkin Cookies

My little lady bug :)

I carved this pumpkin, not to bad eh.... :)





Recipe adapted from Joy The Baker.

Finding recipes that work out in my favor are always a treat, I'm so glad I came across these pumpkin cookies as I'm not much of a pumpkin fan to begin with but these worked out great. I will be making them again in the near future. I had told my mom all about them, so I think I'll be baking her up a batch soon.

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween, I took my little one out trick or treating for the first time and though she was shy to meet the people at the doors, she took the candy they handed to her without a problem. (She doesn't eat candy but she likes people to give her stuff.) Someone down the street from us had put together a haunted house that stirred up a big attraction, as we got word of it on the street. We took a drive by and a rather large crowd gathered at the residence to take part in it. I love people that get into the Holiday spirit those are my kind of people that I enjoy having company with.