I'm Back!!

I return to the world of blogging after taking about a month off; it wasn't intended but getting married sure will take up some time! And in a blink of an eye, I'm a Mrs. instead of a Miss. But, I couldn't be happier and the wedding was beautiful, so much fun, and everything I had hoped for. Pictures are trickling in, but I will post some here once I get some more. 

For this post, I made a copy-cat recipe. About a week before the wedding, my mom's oldest girlfriends (the ones she has known since she was twenty), hosted a luncheon for my mother and I where all the ladies and their daughters came. It was so great because the daughters haven't all seen each other in at least ten years. But, we laughed and chatted without skipping a beat. 

One of the dishes they made was so delicious and super simple. I've been making it this week for my lunches at work. Below are some photos and the recipe. Enjoy!

 

Ingredients

Fresh Mozzerella Balls

Sliced Nectarine or Peach 

Shredded Prosciutto

Chopped Parsley or Mint

Drizzle of EVOO

Pinch of Kosher Salt

Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl and enjoy! There are so many ways to alter this recipe. Today I am having it over lettuce with some balsamic dressing for lunch. You could probably add some berries or use cantaloupe instead of the nectarine or peach. But, it is so fresh, simple, and just delicious. 

4th of July Hummingbird Cake(s)

The 4th of July always seems to present itself with the opportunity to indulge a little bit. We are granted a day off of work (some of us) to honor and remember how lucky we are to live in America and how hard many people have worked to arrive at this point. It has become a day to spend time with friends and family, enjoy a summer day with good food, a few drinks, and some fireworks. It's pretty simple, but is always a holiday I look forward to. 

This year I attempted a new dessert to bring to our 4th of July festivities. Hummingbird Cake. It turned out great! Below are some pictures and the recipe I followed from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. Enjoy!

  

Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 ¼ cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups very ripe bananas

1 (8 ounce) can crush pineapple in unsweetened juice, drained

½ chopped pecans

Garnish

Chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Grease and lightly flour baking dish. I used a large rectangle baking dish and then had some batter left over so made a few cupcakes which I might just continue to do in the future.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, the baking soda and the salt. Wisk or sift ingredients together. Set aside.

In another large bowl, combine the oil with sugar until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat with an electric mixer until light, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the vanilla. Add the pineapple and bananas. Add the dry ingredients in thirds. After all ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth, stir in the chopped pecans. Pour the batter in the baking dish and bake for 40-50 minutes. If using muffin tins, these should only take about 15-20 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely before topping with the icing. Garnish with chopped pecans.

                                                     

Cream Cheese Icing

1 pound (two 8-ounce packages) cream cheese, softened and cut into pieces

6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted (or whisked)

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth with an electric mixer. Add the vanilla and mix well. Gradually add the sugar and beat continuously. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

Bachelorette Weekend

This past weekend I had my bachelorette party. For years when I envisioned what I would do for this, I only ever saw my close group of girlfriends renting (or borrowing) a house on or near a lake for a weekend; eating, drinking, laughing and just having a marvelous time together. This is exactly what we did and it was a weekend I will never forget. I keep wanting to go back and do it all over again. If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout my life from my mother it is the importance of girlfriends. Of course we all have our significant others who we love very much (if not yet, remain patient, it will happen), but there is something so extremely therapeutic about getting together with girlfriends who have known you for years. Girls who you can be silly with, lounge around in comfy’s with, vent about life with, etc.  It is something I hope to never take for granted and will always cherish.

As part of my contribution to the food for the bachelorette weekend, I made a favorite of mine. It’s a recipe I found from one of my favorite cooking blogs, Smitten Kitchen. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

Peach Shortbread Bars 

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 ¾ cup all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter

1 large egg

2 peaches, pitted and thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 375 f.

Use some butter to lightly coat the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Combine the sugar, baking powder, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium sized bowl. Wisk together so it’s mixed together. In a separate bowl, mix the butter and egg together until it’s creamed. Add in the flour mixture, using a mixer to combine until it is crumbly. Use about half the crumbly flour mixture to coat the bottom of the baking dish. Press it down into the pan; save the remainder of the flour mixture for the top. Add the sliced peaches and scatter the remaining flour mixture on top. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until it slightly browns. Let cool and enjoy.

Father's Day Treat

Chocolate Eclairs

One of the recipes in the cookbook that was made for me is from a close family friend who also loves to cook. This recipe was actually passed to her by her mother; I love that there are so many family recipes out there. It's like an heirloom that keeps getting passed on; is passed with love and in a way keeps that person alive in our hearts forever. It seems to make the food taste that much better. I wonder how many family recipes are out there. I think it would be fun with Coffee And... if customers could contribute some of their own family recipes for us to make every now and then. We could have a Family Recipe of the Week treat. 

I made these Chocolate Eclairs specifically for Father's Day. These are one of my dad's favorite treats and thought I would test out my baking abilities on a little more difficult of a recipe (it also gave me another reason to use my new mixer). They turned out great and I cannot wait to give them to him. 

For the pastry:
1 cup water
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
3-4 eggs

For the wash
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. water

Fresh whipped cream:
1 pint of heavy cream
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

For chocolate glaze:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz. semisweet chocolate

To make the pastry, preheat the oven to 400. 

Bring the water, butter, salt and sugar to a rolling boil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. When it boils, immediately take the pan off the heat. Add the flour all at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon until all the flour is incorporated. Return to the heat and cook, stirring about 30 seconds to dry out the mixture slightly. 

Scrape the mixture into a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or hand mixer. With the mixer running add 3 of the eggs one at a time and mix until it is glossy and the eggs are completely incorporated. The dough should be thick, but should fall slowly and steadily from the beaters when you lift them. You can add the remaining egg and mix if the dough is clinging to the beaters (I had to use 4 eggs). Using a pastry bag, pipe fat lengths of the dough onto a lined baking sheet leaving 2" between them. 

Whip the egg wash and brush the surface of each éclair. Smooth out any bumps. Bake 15 minutes then reduce the heat to 374 and bake until puffed and light golden brown about 20 minutes longer but it will depend on their size. Let them cool. 

Whip the whipping cream and slice off the top of each éclair and fill with lots of whipped cream. 

Glaze:
Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat. Put the chocolate in a medium bowl and pour the cream over and whisk until melted, set aside and keep warm. Pour over each éclair. 

Enjoy!!!

Tea Party Bridal Shower

This past weekend was something truly magical. Kevin and I had our second wedding shower on Sunday which was thrown for us by my mother's dear friends. We have known these women for about twenty years from living in the neighborhood. Our families all belong to our local neighborhood pool where as kids we all swam on the swim team, grew up, became lifeguards, and now are getting married, having kids and bringing our own families to the pool. Needless to say, it is our heaven on earth and home away from home in the summertime. 

One tradition that has developed over the years is that the "pool mommies" throw the bridal showers for the Mother of the Bride's daughter. I am so blessed and lucky to have these ladies in my life; they threw our second bridal shower and boy was it stunning! These ladies thought of everything, down to every last detail. There are some pictures below, but they do not do it justice. I felt like I had walked into a magazine spread. These ladies sure know how to make a girl feel loved. 

  

  

 

(I think I know who to go to if I need help decorating the coffee shop.)

Blueberry Muffins

I figure, every coffee shop or bakery needs to have a good blueberry muffin in the store at all times. They are delicious and popular. So, with that and wanting to test out my new mixer, I set out making the recipe from the recipe book I got for my bridal shower. It’s a recipe from Kevin’s aunt. It was surprisingly very simple, and turned out delicious. I think I would just need some extra large cupcake pans or perhaps, sell them two at a time. After they were finished, I had to taste test to make sure they were tasty…I ended up eating about five of them. So, I think it’s safe to say I’ll be making many batches of these blueberry muffins in the future.

½ cup of butter

1 ¼ cups of sugar

2 eggs

2 cups of flour

2 tsp of baking powder

½ tsp of salt

½ cup of milk

1 ½ cup of blueberries

2 tbsp of sugar (for tops of muffins)

  

Beat the butter, sugar, and eggs together. Add the dry ingredients then fold in the blueberries. Fill the muffin cups to the top and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

Good Samaritan Story

The other night Kevin and I were getting dinner ready when we heard our door bell ring. Going to answer it, we could see the guy outside and I asked if Kevin new him. He said he did not. We opened the door and it was a gentleman saying he had two boxes for us from Bed Bath and Beyond, he said our address was wrong on our registry and he found us by using the internet! I thought it was an employee from Bed Bath and Beyond and thought, "wow, that is great customer service!" But today I checked our wedding website and found that a gentlemen we don't know signed the guest book saying that he had some boxes for us delivered to his house by mistake and to call him to go pick them up. He is the one that ended up finding us and delivering our packages, including my new KitchenAid Mixer. Thank you, Sir...whoever you are. Pay it forward...

Here’s a picture of my brand new KitchenAid Mixer! It’s the Pistachio color and it’s beautiful! I cannot wait to test out all sorts of recipes for Coffee And with it.