Let's give it a try

Sometimes you just HAVE to try something...the more ridiculous the better. Here are three things I have tried this year...a small collection.


Sweetened condensed milk turned in to carmel by cooking it in boiled water. DELICIOUS but the canned dulce de leche is basically the same thing. Also, doing it this way requires you to use either gas/electricity for a long time. However. If I am ever house ridden and desperately needing carmel, I will do it again :)

Using balloons to dip in to wax to make a wax candle holder or tea lights. My husband and friends thought I was nuts for this one but I had to try...

And fail miserably did I! Haha. I made sure to stand as far back as possible before the impending POP. I have a feeling that if I had used a thicker balloon (we only had water ones on hand) it MAY have worked. Will I try it again? Probably not...

Balloons dipped in chocolate to make chocolate bowls...Success! Loved this and will do it again. They make molds for little bowls bu doing it with balloons makes it a unique experience I think.

Experimenting in the kitchen is so much fun...make sure to wear goggles when needed. :)

Something fishy going on

Yummy flavorful food is an obsession in this house. My husband and I and would eat lobster weekly if it wasn't so expensive! Thankfully I came across a special for $5 a tail, and bam, it was on.

All I excited I brought them home and stored them for a few days until it was Monday evening and it was time to create this culinary delight.

And then it struck me; how in the world do you cook lobster tail?

 I have eaten it, enjoyed it, delighted in it but never has it occurred to me how people cook it.

Thankfully we have the internet at our fingertips and so began my search. BBQ? Steam? Saute? Bake? Wooden skewers to prevent curling? A little overwhelming for the first time lobster cooking so I went with the one that sounded the easiest and the most yummy. Steaming it is.

Yummy flavorful food is an obsession in this house. My husband and I and would eat lobster weekly if it wasn't so expensive! Thankfully I came across a special for $5 a tail, and bam, it was on.

A few inches of water, a steam basket, 8-10 minutes of fascination with the changing colors and voila!

I simmered butter, garlic, salt, pepper, white white, a dash of Italian Seasoning and Red Pepper flakes, sauteed some shrimp and threw it all on some pasta.

And it was divine. Maybe next time I will try to bake or grill the tails, pending another amazing sale on them :)

Movin' on up...

Ordering business cards today for D'lsh Treats! There is a website being worked on thanks to the wonderful generosity and kindness that is Charles and I could not be more excited!

Dlshtreats.com

*squeal*

Let there be cake

As a little girl I would concoct food creations and basically force my family to eat them. This consisted of just throwing things together (like broccoli and banana) or attempting to make homemade grape juice by peeling and crushing grapes. (I did that with about 5 grapes and then moved on). I by no means came by baking or cooking naturally, but always had a fascination for throwing random ingredients together, so I have been following that fascination and found that I LOVE to bake and create :) Whether it be cakes, a dessert table or appetizers, I love putting a smile on someones face when they first see or smell the tasty treats...and then all the hard work is devoured in 30 seconds. Totally worth it :p

Here is my latest cake for a friends mom who graduated an accounting program. I initially had issues with how much of it was not handmade, but I think it turned out cute and with time constraints it worked out well. 

Here is an example of cupcakes and a cake I did for our nephew...so much fun!

I have done quite a few now with disasters happening less frequently but each time I learn something new for next time! Here are a few others...next I will post how it started ;)

Sushi at home? In theory...

We love sushi. LOVE IT. Michael actually introduced me to sushi when we were first dating and I have definitely gotten braver as the years have gone by.

One night, after being thrilled with how making our own pasta turned out, we decided that we should make sushi. Why not? We bought a sushi roll roller at a vendor from Apple Hill and we were good to go.
From the store we bought fresh tuna, shrimp, veggies to tempura, sushi rice, cream cheese (I know, I know), and various other ingredients.

1. Tempura. SO much fun! It's incredibly easy to do at home and we did zucchini, banana and asparagus. Easy, yummy...will definitely do again,

2. Sauces. Sushi places have delicious sauces to adorn their rolls but let me tell you...they're a bit harder to recreate!

3. The sushi. Let me just say how excited we were to be making this. I mean we were cutting up veggies, slicing fish, I did the shrimp tempura style and the rice was made. According to multiply sources you need to add vinegar to the rice so that was done and now we're ready to roll.

Looks delicious. We each made our own roll with our own spin on it, sat down and dove in to our yummy culinary creation...

Only problem? It was HORRIBLE. 

I can't even describe how nasty it tasted versus the yumminess I was expecting. 

Apparently, we added too much vinegar to the nice and it had seeped in to the entire contents of the roll as we let it sit to get the seaweed softer.

Absolutely inedible.

It was by far one of the funniest moments we have ever had in the kitchen and I am pretty sure we just ate tempura that night.

Tis the season to be baking

Fa la la la la la la la la

Christmas is by far my favorite time of the year. There are lights everywhere, sparkly decorations, wonderment in children's faces, get together's with family and friends, and people seem to get a bit nicer.
I have wonderful Christmas memories, and it's always been a time where Christmas memories trump any bad ones throughout the year. Watching White Christmas, sipping hot chocolate, going to church and driving around seeing lights are things I never want to stop doing and pray I get to do with my own kids one day.

In addition to all of this, my oven tends to be going non stop. There are certain foods or recipes I somehow deem Christmas time worthy, that do not get made throughout the year. One of these is shortbread.

I made these for the first time a few years ago and they are now a standard for winter time.

Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 3 cups butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups cornstarch
• Nonpareils and/or halved candied cherries

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add flour and cornstarch, beating until well blended.
• With hands lightly dusted with additional cornstarch, roll dough into 1-in. balls. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Press lightly with a floured fork. Top with nonpareils or cherry halves.
• Bake at 300° for 20-22 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Yield: 16-18 dozen

I have never used the cherries and leave the shortbread in until the cookies are a bit more golden brown which helps them them to truly be "melt in your mouth." I dust with powdered sugar and tries adding seedless jam this last time and loved it!

Next time I will dip in chocolate...

Cheese.

Brie is one of my favorite cheeses..its versatile, tasty, creamy and just down right delicious. Some people are not as big of fans, but that just means more for me! (and dedicated to my mother in law, yes, you do eat the rind). :)

I have made an appetizer before with puff pastry in mini muffin cups, with brie and some type of preserve...on this particular night I had these ingredients but after an impromptu craft store trip with my friend, I needed something a tad quicker to whip up.

I had half a round of brie left so I decided to place the round on top half a sheet of puff pastry, spooned seedless strawberry jam on top, added some walnuts, wrapped it up and did a drizzle of jam and walnuts on top to toast.

mmmmmm....

Ok, so I baked it until golden brown and flaky on the outside, but note to self...wait a little bit longer.

I loved the taste of the flavors together but it needed to be cooked a bit longer for the pastry to get completely cooked inside. 

Loved the flavors and the concept, and it got devoured, which is always a good sign.