French Macarons!

Do you guys remember my Macaron Cooking Class Giveaway with Mercedes?! Well I invited two bloggers (Mandy and Savannah) over to my apartment to have a cooking class from the VERY talented Merceds. This was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done, and I think that you all need to look into having her come over and teach you guys!

 

 

 

 

 

 These green ones were my all time favorite... &not just because they matched my nail polish ;)

 

 I learned that you are supposed to keep them refrigerated for a couple days for them to taste their best.... do you know how hard it was to resist eating them? It was SO worth it though! Perfect I tell you. Perfection. Mercedes has nailed these!

She is such a good teacher and you walk away with your own box of cookies and a mix to try it yourself at home. I think we made pretty good students, even though we talked alot, haha sorry Mercedes!

The Macarons turned out DIVINE. I didn't want to share much with Trevor... they were just SO good. I would love to do a class like this again with my sisters or something :) So fun! Check her site out for the mixes she sells, and more info on her classes Merceds White French Macarons. 

Sopapilla Cheesecake

This past weekend while Trevor and I were down in Provo apartment hunting, I stopped by a Blog Swap Party :) I will give you details on the party later, but until then I wanted to share the recipe of the dessert I brought. When I saw this recipe I got excited because I had read about Sopapilla. Sopapilla is a kind of fried pastry and a type of quick bread served in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, northern Mexico, New Mexico, Peru, Texas, and Uruguay. I have three brothers, two of which both served LDS missions in Mexico, and my little brother Alex is currently serving in Chile. I am sure this recipe is as far from authentic as you can get to the real Sopapilla but it made me think of my little brother out in Chile, who I have been missing lately.

According to good ol' Wikki, depending if they are served as a pastry or bread Chilean, sopaipillas are served with either mustard, ketchup, manjar, chancaca sauce (sopaipillas pasadas), hot butter, or pebre, a sauce of onion, tomato, garlic, and herbs. In Chile sopaipillas are traditionally made and eaten during days of rain. Well.... it isn't raining, and these are more of a dessert, so I don't think they count as Chilean. They can just be my American version :) But I wish my little brother auckie was here to have some with me.

3 cans Pillsbury butter crescent rolls
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup butter (melted)
Cinnamon & sugar 
(this recipe has so many possibilities, you could add raisins or nuts or whatever you want inside with the filling. I think these would even taste good with some syrup and make it like a pancake! be creative!)

Instructions:

Unrolled and spread 1 & 1/2 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. 

Trevor had some before we left for Provo and he really liked them. I am pretty sure everyone at the party liked them too!

ENJOY!

wisconsin cauliflower soup (zupas)

The first time I ever went to Zupas was while living here in Salt Lake. I don't think they have this restaurant in San Diego, but they SHOULD. I love all of their food and soups! My favorite soups are the Lobster Bisque, the Mushroom Soup, and their Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup. I would say I take turns with rotating through these soups when I go, but lately I have only been wanting the Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup. It is just such a great comfort food soup, and I am a big lover of cheese :) So I thought I would look up recipes to see what I could find, and came across this. Now if only you could replicate their mushroom or lobster.... yum.

Zupa's Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup
2 tablespoons margarine or butter (1/4 stick)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 spoon salt
2 cups milk
1 can (13 3/4 to 14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
1 head (2 1/2 pounds) cauliflower, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 cup Sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup Pepper Jack cheese

In 4-quart saucepan, melt margarine or butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour and salt; cook 2minutes, stirring frequently. Gradually stir in milk, chicken broth, and 1 1/2 cups water; add cauliflower and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes. In blender (with center part of blender cover removed to allow steam to escape), blend cauliflower mixture at low speed in small batches until very smooth. Return cauliflower mixture to saucepan; heat over medium heat until hot, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in mustard and 1 1/2 cups cheese until melted and smooth. Garnish soup with remaining cheese to serve. 

ENJOY!

How do you eat your Oreos?

I have never been a huge fan of chocolate... I know call me crazy. I blame it on originally being from Canada and having relatives send me the most amazing candy. Almost all the candy bars are made with Cadbury chocolate. So when I eat something here in the States and it is all Hershey chocolate, it just doesn't measure up. I also hate hate hate chocolate chips... chocolate cake is okay, I don't mind brownies... but at the end of the day I guess you could say I am a vanilla girl all the way.

Because of this, growing up I would split my Oreos in half and lick the frosting off (well lick isn't the right word... it was more like using my two front teeth and scraping it into my mouth, haha) Then I would discard the Oreo cookie part. But every once in awhile my mother would make homemade Oreo cookies. Now these were Oreos that didn't require me to take the cookie part off... because they were simply amazing. So here you go... my mama's quick and simple recipe for homemade Oreo Cookies! I made a big batch of them for the young primary class that me and Trevor teach at church... they loved them :)
 

OREO COOKIES

3 pkgs Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake mix

6 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

Work together with your hands because it’s too heavy for a blender (but you could with a Bosch or Kitchenaid).  Roll into walnut size balls.  Do not press.  Bake at 375 for 10 – 12 mins.

When you take them out of the oven tap pan on the counter, this will flatten the cookies.  Put two cookies together with the following:

ICING

¼ cup margarine or butter                        

1 – 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

4 cups icing sugar                                     

tsp vanilla

Mix together.  Spread generously.

You can also double the icing recipe if you want more filling in your cookies! --I double mine :)

 Do you think I used enough Pam? HA.

  These are some double stuffed ones :)

Um Yea...

So I kind of think I HAVE to have this...

I mean come on? Yellow. Cooking. YES PLEASE.

I think I would make some form of baked goods every day if I had one of these to look at in my kitchen :) Doesn't it just make you happy?