Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Homemade of course.
Does that not make your mouth water! lol

They are so easy to make too.

1. Melt peanut butter in a large bowl

2. Add confectioners sugar until it forms a ball. You need it to be fairly stiff. Roll into 3/4 inch balls and flatten slightly.

3. Melt chocolate and pour some in the molds.

4. Drop a ball in and lightly press. Top with a bit more chocolate to seal.

Cool completely and enjoy!

My new shoes.......

So my birthday is not for two months.....but my roommate will be in Italy then.....so she gave me my b-day gift early! How sweet is that!??


Are these not the bestest shoes ever!!!??? Red leopard print Dansko clogs. They fit just like my work clogs but they are so cool. I love them!

Eating at the Culinary Insitute of Canada

Wow! Friday night a group of us from school ate at the Lucy Maud Dining Room. For those of you who don't know, the Lucy Maud is the actual restaurant at Holland College. This is not the cafeteria that we normally eat at!

It was an amazing experience! After we were seated the hostess gave us our open menus and laid our napkins in our laps. Well all but mine.....I had already done it! lol

Then our first server came and poured our water and then came back and took drink orders. A couple of us had the bartenders rootbeer. It was a drink with Kahlua, Galliano, pepsi and club soda. And it tasted just like rootbeer!

Then the server came back with our amuse course. An amuse bouche is a single, bite-sized hors d'oeuvre. The term is French, literally translated to "mouth amuser" And an amuser it was! lol

I think it might have been my favorite part! A cherry wrapped in bacon! With a splash of a tomato sauce. A delight!

After the amuse course was cleared the servers brought us over the bread basket and a tray of red pepper butter, hummus and a lemon butter.

Then they cleared the table of any unnecessary silverware and served the appetizers.

My appetizer was the Bannock Panini with Lobster & Peameal Bacon. It was good. I really like the tiny panini. The lobster was overcooked though and a bit rubbery. The salad was amazing. Wish I knew the dressing recipe!

Again they cleared the table and adjusted our silverware needs and served the entrees.

I ordered the Portobello Mushroom Wellington. It had oka cheese and spinach in it. Quite tasty. It was served with asparagus, tomatoes and a red pepper sauce.

Again they cleared the table, then the hostess came and "swept" the crumbs off the table into a tiny dish. The servers came back took our dessert/coffee. Then they came back and moved our dessert silverware down from the twelve o'clock position and into the nine and three spots. They slid rather than picked it up and moved everything was so quiet and sleek. You hardly noticed they were doing it.

They set up our coffee or tea settings and disappeared again. They returned with dessert and coffee. For dessert I had the chocolate orange cake. It was very good!

While enjoying our dinner we watched two servers resetting tables. It was fun to see how they change a tablecloth without ever exposing the actual tabletop. Apparently, no one wants to see a naked table! lol

All in all it was a nice dinner. The experience of having that level of service was fantastic! As culinary students we get meal cards to allow us to eat at the Lucy Maud at a fraction of the price. It is a great opportunity for us! Next year we will be the ones in the kitchen. Actually, we have to put in hours in the dining room as well. I suppose it is so we learn front and back of the house operations. I can't wait!

Spring has sprung.....

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month. ~Henry Van Dyke

Today was the first day that truly felt warm. It was so sunny!

As we walked over town today we saw some signs of Spring! : )

These shoots were so wonderful to see.
Makes me feel like winter really might be over soon!

And this was part of the window display one of the shops on Queen Street. Lovely.

This one is my favorite. The trees were so beautiful as we walked through the park on the way home. Sure helped with my rotten mood! lol

Coconut Shrimp and my Serrano Ham Infatuation

Tonight I made coconut shrimp. Black Tiger Shrimp dusted with seasoned flour, dipped in an egg wash and then rolled in coconut. Pretty darn good if I do say so myself. lol

To the flour I added salt, pepper, ginger, cinnamon and cayenne. The egg wash is simply a beaten egg. And the coconut is plain old coconut.

I then fried it in my HUGE frying pan ( we were low on oil lol) We dipped them in sweet and sour sauce.

For an appetizer we had apples wedges and brie wrapped in Serrano ham slices. Yeah I know....I don't eat meat. Lately that is all I have been thinking about. To be honest during March Break I did have a piece of steak, and some turkey and some bacon......and.....oh the list goes one!

Today in theory class Chef was talking about smoked meats and everything sounded so good....well except the blood sausage! All the talk got me thinking......then we went grocery shopping and the ham practically jumped off the shelf and into the cart!

Serrano ham is a dry-cured Spanish ham similar to Italian prosciutto but drier and firmer. It has a salty bite. So it went really well with the black pepper brie and apple. I drizzled mine with some fig balsamic vinegar. Nice.

"Papple" Pie with Peach Brandy Sauce

Peach and apple pies.....hence the name papple! lol crazy yeah I know....but they were tasty especially with the brandy sauce.

The apples and peaches were cut and put in the mini pots then covered with a layer of pastry crust.

The sauce is a simple brown sugar, butter, and brandy sauce with the addition of some of the left over peach juice. Aren`t the bubbles fantastic! I love them!

We had the pies with lattes. Yum! Notice the chocolate heart on the latte. Pretty sweet eh!

Carmelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tarts

So tonight we decided to make Carmelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tarts! Delicious. There was tons of goat cheese and the onions were carmelized perfectly.

We served them with a caesar salad with homemade croutons ( that Revanna made) and a peach mango salsa. The salsa is from superstore and surprisingly quite tasty.

We had such a fun time cooking tonite! We laugh a lot and have a great time. I am not sure what it will be like to go 6 months without cooking together!? Can we do cooking sessions and photo shoots with her in Italy?!?!? lol Maybe we can Skype it? lol

Chocolate Cake with Boiled Icing.....

I also made chocolate cake with boiled icing! It was yummy! The boys came over for supper so I cooked a big turkey dinner and had this baby for dessert! It was at least 7 inches tall! :)

Not too bad eh?! lol I do think that I will be making the icing again. The cake maybe not might just use a box next time! lol

Donuts....Lots and Lots of Donuts!

Old fashion cake donuts with nutmeg! Yum!
I made lots of donuts while home for March Break. This is pictures from the first batch. Yeah thats right I did this more than once! The second batch I doubled the recipe and I think I worked on them for two hours! Crazy!! But man they were tasty.

Galette update

We made mini fruit galettes today. They turned out pretty good. We used the recipe from the blood orange galette recipe and then used some thawed frozen fruit.

Aren't these gorgeous! We made some of the brandy sauce to go with it. Pretty simple and a pretty good dessert for a Sunday supper!

Chocolate Cupcakes

Revanna made these delicious chocolate cupcakes yesterday! They are sooooo moist and yummy! We gathered up some toppings and the fun began!

The boys really seemed to have a good time not that they will admit that though! lol

Isn't this a gross picture.....this is what happens when you eat all the remaining cupcake toppings! Your tongue is dyed black! lol Oh well Z had fun! And it makes his teeth look really white.

Blood Orange Galette

We have for your viewing pleasure.....a beautiful blood orange galette!

Aren't the colors beautiful....just what we need on a snowy dreary day! Revanna found the recipe for this rustic tart and we knew that we HAD to try it out!

1 cup all purpose flour, plus a bit for dusting
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp of cold, cubed butter
3 tbsp of ice cold water
6 blood oranges
1 egg yolk, mixed with 2 tbsp of water

In the food processor combine flour, salt, 2 tbsps of sugar and the baking powder. Add the 1/2 cup of butter and process in pulses until coarse: about the size of peas. Add the cold water and pulse again until absorbed. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently once or twice. Form into a disk, wrap with plastic and put in refrigerator for about 30 minutes or until thoroughly chilled. On a floured surface roll the chilled dough into a 11'' rough circle. Place on baking sheet covered with parchment. Chill again for 10-15 minutes. While dough is chilling it is time to do the blood oranges.

Cut 2 of the oranges into slices. And the other 4 oranges into supremes. Click here for a great step by step guide to supreming. The video below shows how to do it too.

Arrange the segments on center of the dough, leaving a 2" border. Sprinkle half the sugar over the segments. Fold the crust up over the edges of the oranges, remember this is a rustic galette so don't worry about it looking perfect. Brush the crust with the egg wash. Lay the slices of blood orange over the visible segments and sprinkle with a bit more sugar. Dot the top with the remaining butter.

Bake in preheated oven at 375 for approximately 40 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

We also made a brandy carmel sauce to go with it. Butter, brown sugar, brandy and cream. It was so goooood! So good that some people licked their plates to get the last bit of sauce! hehehe

The tart was really good. The only thing I would like to change is to not put slices on the top.....the membranes in the slices are a bit bitter....so if you used the segments then the galette would be prefect!

You could make this with pears, apples, plain oranges, peaches.....practically any fruit would work!

And here is the video. It is on the serious side...no chip and dale voices this time. :( apparently someone felt we didn't need to this time! lol

Things I never knew.....

I never knew that my oldest son was so talented......today he sketched a few pictures of things around my apartment. And wow! He is really great!

Pretty awesome eh?!

Meatloaf and Mac and Cheese....

My boys are here for the week as it is March Break so tonight we made meatloaf and homemade mac and cheese for supper. They are both family favorites.

The meatloaf is made with cooked ground beef rolled in biscuit dough.


Then you slash the top a bit and bake about 40 minutes at 400.


And voila! Yummy meatloaf!

For the mac and cheese I simply made a bechamel sauce and added some grated mixed cheese. I precooked the elbow macaroni and then mixed it with the cheese sauce. The topping is bread crumbs sprinkled with a bit of extra cheese. And baked in the oven until golden. Easy!


With some of the bechamel sauce I made a tomato soup style sauce for the meatloaf. It tastes pretty close to Campbells Tomato!

Supper was so good that the boys had it for breakfast too! lol