Valentine's Day Cake

Oh I do love Valentine's Day!  Hearts, flowers, lots of pinks and reds...oh and chocolate.  Seriously, everything I love.  Add in some jewelry and a sweet love note from my husband and it's a successful day. 

Realistically, I'm too cheap to give my love more than a card and a gorgeous cake.  He knows also, that it makes me happier for him to not spend the money on over priced flowers and I have so much fun costume jewelry, any jewelry that he gives to me is on some random day when I least expect it.  Oh and the love notes...those are daily from him.  He's a keeper for sure.  I like to celebrate with desserts and I like to do it before,  during and after the holiday!

 

This cake was super easy....heart shaped cake pan, box cake and canned frosting, plus cherries dipped in white chocolate.  Oh and swirl the white chocolate over the top.  Of course, you could make everything from scratch, but I took the easy route this time.

Happy Valentines Day to the most loving husband ever!

Chicken and Dumplings

Breakfast?  Nope.  Sweet treats?  Nope.  Chicken and Dumplings.  Comfort food with a capital C.  It's a well known fact among my friends that I don't cook dinner.  It's like asking me to run a 5 minute mile.  Can't do it, it's just too mentally tough for me.  I think the two or three times I've cooked dinner, I've actually blogged about it.

I am a little obsessed with reading food blogs.  So when I found Slow Cooked Chicken and Dumplings I promptly gave my hubby a shopping list and off he went.  That makes it sound like he was skipping, but he wasn't.  He was just happy to have some comfort food. 

Check it out.  Like I said above, Comfort food with a capital C.  The dumplings are more dense, than light, which I love.  The corn and green beans were so good.  You can add carrots or really any veggie you like.  Or none at all.  I forgot to ask him to get some fresh veggies, so we tossed in some canned.  The sauce/gravy was nice and creamy. 

Enjoy!

Cinderella

I love her.  End of Story....Love her so much I ran like her at the Disney 5k and Disney Half Marathon!  Nothing baking related, but happy that I run so I can bake and eat more!

Baked Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Chives

I'm still working on my "savory" dishes.  Savory is harder for me than the sweet stuff.  Pancakes, French Toast, Crepes....all of that makes sense to me....but make something that has no sugar??? in it...good luck.  So here I go.  I keep reminding myself that for my dream bed & breakfast not everyone wants sweet food every. single. morning.  So practice and practice, I will.  Drum roll please......I present to you Baked Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Chives and Maple Bacon.  Sorry!!! But I had to have something sweet with it. 

I must admit,  I impress myself sometimes.  Savory can be pretty darn tasty.   It's also healthy, at least by my standards.  I'm  happy.  Hopefully, if you ever come stay with us, you will be too!

Enjoy! 

— Recipe from "Easy Breakfast & Brunch" by publisher Ryland, Peters & Small

8 ounces smoked salmon slices, chopped

1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives

4 eggs

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 F. Heavily butter 4 small, shallow, oven-proof baking dishes or ramekins.

Divide the smoked salmon and chives between baking dishes. Use back of a spoon to make a small indentation in salmon at center of each dish. Crack an egg into each indentation.

Sprinkle each dish with pepper, to taste, then spoon a bit of the cream over all. Place baking dishes in a roasting pan and add enough water to come halfway up sides of dishes.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until eggs have just set. Remove from oven and let cool several minutes.  (Since the ramekins were buttered so nicely, I turned the baked eggs out on the plate instead of eating out of the ramekin).

Makes 4 servings.

Apple Cranberry Cake

A couple of years ago I met a lady.  Her name is Jeanne Cohick.  It was love at first site.  She was smart, funny, so very kind and just an amazing lady.  She has had many lives, in the sense that she had many careers.  Mom, wife, INNKEEPER!

Yes, innkeeper.  She had me at "I just sold my bed and breakfast".  To which she followed up with..."Why don't you come over and look through my recipes".  What?  Now?  "Sure!"

Seriously, I went into overload and just basked in her recipes.  Here is one that I revised because it's the holidays and cranberries are everywhere.

Now, let me just say, my only experience with cranberries is out of a can, eating them.  I love them when they squish out of the can in their perfect canned shape and they get sliced and served.  I also love the canned ones that don't come out that way.  Although one of my BFF's makes homemade cranberry sauce for the holidays and I always request that she bring that.  I wanted to not have whole ones in the cake, so I had to ask my friend if the are able to be cut in half without squishing them.  She replied with..."you could even bounce them, that is how they come."  Oh. 

Anyhoo, I present Apple Cranberry Cake.

It's a version of the Caramel Apple Cake,but like I said above, it's the holiday season, so I splashed it with some red.  Oh and I had a few blueberries (like 10) that I tossed in because I could. 

It's moist, pretty and could be a breakfast or dessert.  You know I love to multi-task my foods.  I didn't add the icing because I forgot to get half and half, it was still very tasty and now a teensy bit healthier. 

Enjoy! 

Cranberry Chip Cookies

      I stumbled upon the 2nd Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap hosted by Love & Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen.

Life changing, well in my new world of food blogging, it was.  I became a cookie swapper via my foodie/baking love.  I've never done a cookie swap, even with friends in town.  I was so excited to pick a perfect recipe that would go out to complete strangers and hopefully have them love my creation as much as I loved baking them.  This year the Cookie Swap was working with Cookies for Cancer.  A non-profit that raises funds to fight the war against pediatric cancer.

 I tested many before I sent out any and the final choice was some Cranberry Chip Cookies.  To be different, I added 1/2 cup of toffee chips. Just cuz I could.

I love them.   Not only did they ship well, but the zing of the cranberry and the creaminess of the cholocate, made them melt in your mouth good.

I hope that Becky, Gerry and Christina love them too!  From their comments to me, I believe they did.

The other fun part of the Cookie Swap is, of course, the receiving of the cookies!  First up was some Vanilla Chai Crackle Cookies from Joanna at Go Ahead & Snicker.

So good, the smell was gingery/chai like and they made me feel warm and fuzzy.  And the cute little plantable seed paper note card was so unique!

Next up was some Ferrero Rocher Double Fudge with Bailey's Brownies from Camilla at caffayway.com  You had me at Ferrero Rocher.  You had me at the White Chocolate Swirl.  Just sayin'  

Very moist, very rich and again, so very happy I was.

Finally, from Jennifer at Bake or Break, some delectable Brown Butter Snickerdoodles.  Yep, I love anything with "Butter" in the title and these cookies did not let me down. 

 

As you can see by the picture, I ate and ate before I even thought to take a picture.  Always a sign of immediate love!

Thank you Lindsay and Taylor and Julie, too!  Looking forward to next year already!

White Chocolate Peppermint Bark

It is officially Christmas season at our house.  How do I know?  Is it the fact that the Christmas lights are up?  The tree is up, so that must be it.  Nope, Christmas gifts are almost all purchased, so that has to be it.  Nope.  Temperature is still a balmy 80 degrees outside? Nope.

Peppermint Bark has started flowing out of my kitchen like snow melting off of a mountain in the spring.  Yep, that's it...White Chocolate Peppermint Bark is everywhere.  I think Peppermint Bark is so pretty and so refreshing and so, well, pepperminty.

It is so super easy, just melt some white chocolate, pray that I don't get distracted or that it burns and stir it up so it is silky smooth, add some chopped up peppermints and a drop of Peppermint Extract, not mandatory though, spread out on wax paper, sprinkle more peppermint pieces on top and pop in fridge, and viola, 30 minutes later....Christmas Season is here.

I love sending it to friends, even more than cookies.  My only hope is that is not all melted when it arrives.  It *shouldn't* be, but it's still totally edible, just much chunkier.

For a touch more color, I sometimes add some green sprinkles.  Creative, I know.  Then take a crappy picture so the white bark looks yellow.  :-(

Happy Holidays!!!!