Japanese Candy Donuts - Popin' Cookin'

My mom came to visit for Passover weekend and I made her make a Doughnut Popin' Cookin' with me while Ellie took a nap. This kit was so adorable and smelled delicious when we were making it.

This kit was a little more confusing than the last one I did so we had to look up exactly how to do it so we didn't mess up. I may have spent 5 years studying Japanese but I can't read a word of it! Well... I can make out "Do-na-to" on the package... lol

I made the chocolate donuts and my mom made vanilla. The chocolate ones reminded me of the chocolate glazed from Dunkin' Donuts, my favorite, besides Krispy Kreme original glazed of course. Ugh. Now I want donuts! 

The chocolate sauce was delicious! They also had strawberry and vanilla icing, sprinkles and little crunchies for decoration. When we finished we both ate a doughnut and they tasted really great! The texture of the donuts was weird but all the flavors were yummy. Much better than the sushi kit! We even stole some extra tastes of the chocolate sauce that we didn't use. 

It was a fun afternoon experiment!

Japanese Candy Sushi - Popin' Cookin'

I love saw some YouTube videos of people making these cute little candies and I had to order some for myself! I love cute Japanese things and this little kit was so much fun.  

It was pretty easy to figure out how to do it even if you don't read Japanese. I still looked at a video to make sure I didn't mess it up. Each tray had little numbers or letters that matched the powder packets. 

You add packs of powder to water and mix them in the different molds. One was like tuna and the other was made to look like egg. The rice was just chopped up white jelly and the seaweed was a weird taffy thing that you molded into a strip. Everything was a strange gelatinous consistency.

The coolest part was making the fish eggs! You used a dropper to drip blobs of goo into a mixture of powder and water. They set into little balls and look just like fish eggs. 

Last was to assemble and drizzle on soy sauce!

We were scared to try them and I had to force Joe to eat one with me. The rice was the weirdest part. It was very jiggly and smooshy but none of it tasted too bad. The fish eggs were the best!

I've got a whole bunch more of these so I think I will post them all along with a taste test. Some of them are really gross from what I've heard. 

Passover / Easter Weekend

Friday morning was my yearly tradition of saying, "Hey, is it Passover? It's Passover! YESSSSS, I'm making FOOD!!"

I have this memory of a certain mystery food that was spread on matzo bread from Passover when I was a kid. It was sweet and I can never figure out what it was. 

I made matzo ball soup with parsley, dill, parsnips, tri-colored carrots and celery. I love that purple carrot. Matzo ball soup is delicious if you have never tried it. Usually it has chicken in it too but I didn't think we needed two meats since I also made salmon with a horseradish and dill cream sauce. For the side I made tri-colored fingerling potatoes and roasted beets.

I also made challah from scratch.

Saturday I decided to dye some eggs since I planned on making egg salad. I'm obsessed with egg salad. We watched the original TRON too. I don't know why you need to know all that.

The dog found the first Easter egg and brought it into his bed with him before I caught him. Ellie found the rest and tried putting them all in her mouth. She got a nice little goth lipstick look!

Happy Spring!

Great-Grandma Sarah's German Honey Cake

I have a recipe box that has a few family recipes in it. I've tried a handful so far, including yeast raised overnight waffles (which I will have to share because they ROCK.) But this time I'm going to share my great grandmothers recipe for German Honey Cake. Despite being called honey cake, it's not very sweet, but is great for breakfast with coffee. The raisins add to the sweetness, so don't leave them out, and make sure you toast the walnuts!

By the way, my great grandma Sarah crocheted the doily pictured here too. I keep it on my coffee table. She taught my mom how to crochet, and I would like to say my mom taught me, but really YouTube taught me. I know my mom showed me how to knit and crochet as a child but I forgot all of it and didn't decide to try to learn until I was in living in Guam. 

Ingredients (makes two 8x8 or one 9x12 cakes)

2 Eggs

2 1/2 Cups Flour

3/4 Cup Honey

1 Cup Oil

1 Cup Coffee

3/4 Cup Chopped Walnuts

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 Tbsp Cinnamon

1/4 Cup Orange Juice

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

3/4 Cup Raisins

Mix all together. Beat at medium speed for five minutes. Pour into two 8x8 or one 9x12 pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.

Homemade Dog Treats

I remember the first time I came back to visit New York from Alaska. I was going to be a bridesmaid in my brothers wedding, so I had to wait for nine months to go on leave to see Joe again. I stayed with him in his tiny apartment with him and his dog, Knuckles, for 10 days. In a mission to bake a pumpkin cheesecake we went shopping at a local specialty foods store and found dog bone shaped cookies cutters. I thought it was so cute! I insisted that we make Knuckles some dog treats. That was probably the very first thing we ever baked together. 

Knuckles was such a good boy and I know Joe still misses him terribly. Having our Murray around really makes him happy. Murray is similar to knuckles in a lot of ways. He's well behaved and is very patient. He is also a pro at snuggling! This guy will wait until I get out of bed and then look anxiously at Joe until he invites him up. Then he hops on the bed and puts his big head right up next to Joe's face or on his chest. So cute! This silly boy deserves some treats of his own!

Unfortunately the adorable dog bone cookie cutter is packed away with Joes stuff in New York, so I had to use a boring old jar ring to cut them. It was either that or have christmas stocking shaped treats since the only other cookie cutters I have are from when we made christmas cookies. I want to pick up some letter stamps too, so I can stamp his name on each one, but instead I had to make sad little "M" shapes with a butter knife. It seems like my creations always look better in my head... Murray couldn't care less of course, he just wants to eat them. I'm a little weird when it comes to baking and cooking, I get so worried about things getting stale or having a weird texture... then I remember that Murray licks his own butt. So yeah. There is that.

What I'm trying to say is don't worry too much about how they turn out! Get creative with it and add pumpkin instead of peanut butter or add chopped up bacon bits or beef jerky. I plan on trying out a bacon variation soon!

I adapted this recipe from Food 52.

Murray's Dog Treats

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Water or Beef/Chicken Broth

2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil or Bacon Grease

1 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/2 Cup Rolled Oats

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine peanut butter, oil, and water in a bowl. Add whole wheat flour and oats and mix until smooth. Turn out onto a surface with the remaining all purpose flour and knead until the rest of the flour is absorbed and you have a firm dough. 

Roll out with a rolling pin and cut into shapes. Place treats on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes. You may have to bake for less time if you make smaller treats, but Murray is a big boy so we make big ones for him.

My very sad little "M" shapes... *sigh*

Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

About a week ago my mother mentioned to me that she had never had a fish taco before. I couldn't believe it! 

I never really had a steadfast recipe for fish tacos before, so this time I decided to write it down and share it. If you are sensitive to spicy food I highly recommend using jalapenos instead of serrano peppers for the salsa. The jalapenos at the store looked mushy so I went for serranos instead. Little did I know, they are HOT! It's a good thing I didn't try for the pretty orange habaneros! 

Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa (serves 3)

For the Fish:

1 lbs Tilapia (or 3 fillets)

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Smoked paprika

1/2 tsp Chipotle chili powder

2 tsp Garlic pepper

Olive oil

For the Coleslaw:

1/2 Red cabbage, sliced

1/4 Cup Greek yogurt

1/4 Cup Mayonnaise

Juice of one lime

1/4 tsp Smoked paprika

1/2 tsp Mexican seasoning (McCormick brand)

For the Salsa:

4 Roma tomatoes

2 Small or 1 large avocado(s)

2 or 3 Radishes

1 Mango

Juice of 1 lime

2 Serrano peppers

Salt to taste

Don't forget the soft taco tortillas!

To Prepare the Fish:

Rinse and pat the fillets dry. Lightly coat each one with olive oil on both sides. Combine all the the spices together and rub onto each fillet. Cover and store them in the refrigerator while you prepare the salsa and cole slaw.

To Prepare the Salsa:

Core and remove the seeds from each tomato. Dice the tomatoes, avocados, mango and serrano peppers and combine in a bowl. Slice the radishes into rounds and add to the bowl. squeeze in the juice of the lime and salt to taste.

To Prepare the Cole Slaw:

Slice cabbage to make shreds and set aside. Mix mayonnaise, yogurt, paprika, Mexican seasoning and lime juice together to make a sauce and combine with the cabbage. 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Place fish fillets on an aluminum foil sheet sprayed with olive oil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until the fillets turn flaky. 

Warm the tortillas and place coleslaw in the center of each one, followed by the baked fish and topped with the salsa. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Sangria

I would love to be the type of blogger who tested and posted recipes in time for the reader so actually try it for the intended holiday! Alas I am not. So it's a good thing that sangria is an excellent summer drink and not just designated for Cinco de Mayo.

I've been wanting to make sangria for a long time (since before I got pregnant) but I never did. It seemed like a waste of wine to use a whole bottle when my husband doesn't drink wine himself. Now that my mom is here helping with baby Ellie I thought it would be a great opportunity!

This sangria is sweet, but not too sweet. I used the Cupcake Vineyard Red Velvet blend, which I think is delicious and used sliced strawberries as the fruit. My husband even tried it and said that he liked it, so I consider this a great success!  

Red Velvet Sangria

1 Bottle of Cupcake Vineyard Red Velvet wine

1/4 Cup lemon juice

1/4 Cup orange juice

1/4 Cup Triple Sec

1/4 Cup sugar dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water to make simple syrup

2 Cups ginger ale

1 Lemon, sliced

1 Lime, sliced

16 oz of strawberries sliced

1 Tangelo, sliced (you can use an orange if you prefer)

Combine the wine, simple syrup, orange juice, lemon juice and Triple Sec in a pitcher. Add strawberries, lemon, lime and tangelo or orange slices. Top it off with ginger ale and stir. Let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight before serving. Serve with a basil leaf or rosemary sprig as garnish.

Canning Apple Preserves

I know this really isn't the canning season, but I wanted to try it out anyway. Apples are pretty much good year round, right?
I won a giveaway from Girl Versus Dough many months ago and got a gift card for William Sonoma. If you have ever been to William Sonoma you would know that a spoon costs like, $100. After doing some searching I figured out that all the canning supplies were pretty inexpensive! I picked up some canning tongs, a lid lifter, a canning funnel and Sherri Vinton's book, Put 'Em Up for recipes and instructions. I chose Apple preserves as my first recipe since if the canning didn't work like I planned at least apples were cheap. I also love apple pie, apple tart, apple crumble... basically any baked apple is the best thing ever.

The recipe was super easy. I actually added some nutmeg and cloves because I wanted a little more apple pie flavor. I love apple pie more than anything.

I just have to say though... if you read the recipe directions you will notice it says to "ask your farmer" about the best baking apples. Are you shitting me? I may live in Louisiana now, but that sure doesn't mean we have apple farmers around. We have Walmart. That's it. She couldn't give a suggestion, like Granny Smith? 

Granny smith is what I used. I used those because that's what other recipe books recommended when baking apple pie... they don't get all pretentious about having apple farmers on hand to answer all your questions. 

I'm crossing my fingers it doesn't just turn into apple sauce! I can't wait to get some summer berries to make chutney and jam! I've got little swatches of gingham fabric, bakers twine and little tags to make the jars look all cute.

Pumpkin Bread from Roasted Pumpkins

On a late night run to the grocery store for some emergency Ramen noodles, I discovered that they were selling baking pumpkins! I was so excited I bought two. I ended up with a lot of extra puree, which means I'll probably make pumpkin pancakes, soup or something else with it. 

Don't forget to save the seeds and roast them too, with a little salt!

Scoop out all that goop!

I baked the pumpkins at 350 degrees for an hour and a half, cut side down on a baking sheet.

Toast the pumpkin seeds at 350 for maybe 10 minutes? I took them out once I heard them start popping inside the oven and they came out fine. Check them often to make sure you don't burn them.

I pureed it in the blender. Yum! This is a good idea for baby food.

Recipe for Pumpkin Bread comes from The Joy of Cooking. 

Delicious!