BRB

So much goin on and so little time to do it all! I'm in sunny AZ right now, soakin up the glorious sun with the gals!! I'm so not looking forward to going back to the cold.
I have some fun stuff coming up, so I'll brb later! :)

Funny story: Driving into Arizona and Faith sees a cactus and says, "Woa, look at that crazy tree!" hahaha First time seeing a cactus. She's quite the little traveler and likes it here so far!

$100 YouTube contest!

Do you play the piano?

Do you want $100?

Do kitty cats meow?

Then you should enter into this fun YouTube piano challenge with the amazing Dale Jessee!
Check out the details here to enter! Good luck and have fun!! :)

Valentine dinner

Since we celebrated Valentine's early (and it's too crazy to eat out on Valentines!!), Faith and I made a fun, festive meal at home! Tim was quite surprised and loved every bit of it.
Our menu included:

• Pizza with heart-shaped pepperoni
• Salad with heart-shaped carrots and 'cupid arrow' tomoatoes
  
• Heart cut-out apples (we need healthy with all the bugs going 'round)
  
• Dairy-free chocolate covered strawberries, special for Tim
  
• Berry smoothies with 'cupid arrow' straws!
• Sparkling cider, of course

Ever since we discovered how yummy and EEEAASSYY pizza's are on pita bread, we can't get enough of it! I'm never making homemade pizza dough again! And it's fun to have our own personal pizzas to put whatever we want on it, Faith looooved having her very own pizza.

Anyone else stay home and do a fun dinner?! Or breakfast?

Happy Valentines!!

I RUFF you!



Happy Valentines Day!! :) :)

Cream-filled strawberries

Ever heard of mascarpone cheese?
Mascarpone pronounced mas-kahr-POH-nay is a soft unripened cheese that belongs to the cream cheese family. It comes from Switzerland and Italy and is a thick, buttery-rich, sweet and velvety, ivory-colored cheese produced from cow's milk that has the texture of clotted or sour cream. It delicate and mild flavor is great with fresh fruit and is probably best known for its use in Tiramisu.

.....Uh, YEA! That screams delicious! I would suggest trying the mascarpone over cream cheese, it's very delicious!

Cream-filled Strawberries
Recipe from: CafeJohnsonia.blogspot.com

12-16 (more or less depending on the size) large strawberries
4 oz. cold heavy cream
4 oz. mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese, room temperature) {I found the mascarpone at Smith's with all the specialty cheeses.}
2-4 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar (make is as sweet as you like)
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
a little vanilla extract

Beat the mascarpone (or cream cheese) and confectioner's sugar with an electric mixer. Add the heavy cream. Continue beating until the mixture thickens. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Cut an "X" into the bottom of each strawberry.

Fit a pastry bag with a star tip and fill it with the cream. Carefully pipe the cream into the center of each strawberry, allowing some of it overflow from the cuts you made on the strawberry.

Serve immediately, or cover with plastic film/wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.You can't stop at just one with these!

This makes a nice light, but addictive little treat for that special someone! :)

Want a cute tag to go along with it?! Go HERE to download!

Red velvet bonbon truffles

Just sittin' here eatin' my bonbons....literally. :) Of all the truffles I've tried, this one is by far one of the best! You think the oreo truffles are good? (and they are!) You'll love these! A hard, crunchy shell along with a melt-in-your-mouth-creamy, smooth center, the best of both worlds. Mmmmmm.

My centers don't really look as red in pictures, but they are red.

Don't have a tag to go along with these, but nothing says "I love you" louder than chocolate truffles, eh! :)

Red Velvet Bonbons

Original recipe by Lindsey Johnson
MAKES 18

For the centers:

8 oz. milk chocolate
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate
4 oz. heavy cream
4 oz. cold cream cheese, cut into 16 pieces
1/2-1 tsp. red gel food coloring (I used Wilton)
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For dipping:
8 oz. tempered white chocolate (at about 80 degrees F.)
8 oz. tempered bittersweet chocolate (at about 88 degrees F.)

Chop chocolate and place in a large, heat-proof bowl. Add the cream. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. (You can take the bowl off the heat when there are still some larger chunks--they will melt.)

Remove bowl from heat. Add the cream cheese chunks. Switch to a whisk. Whisk until smooth. Add the food coloring and vanilla extract. Let cool to room temperature. Press waxed paper to the surface and chill overnight or at least 5 hours.

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Use a small ice cream/cookie scoop and drop evenly sized blobs of the ganache onto the waxed paper. (You should get about 18.) Place baking sheet in freezer for two hours to harden.

Once the chocolate blobs are firm, remove them from the freezer. Dust your hands with cornstarch and roll into smooth balls. Put the balls back on the baking sheet and chill again for a few hours.

Instructions for dipping:

Take one ball of ganache at a time, and drop them into the tempered chocolate. Carefully turn the ball around in the chocolate so it is uniformly covered with chocolate. Use a regular fork, or chocolate dipping fork to remove the ball from the melted chocolate. Drag the bottom of the fork over the edge of the bowl to remove the excess melted chocolate.

Place the bonbon on the waxed paper. Repeat with remaining balls. Drizzle leftover chocolate over the tops of the dipped bonbons. Let harden in the fridge until ready to eat.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container, or layer bonbons on waxed paper in a freezer-proof container. Let some to room temperature before serving.

Chocolate mousse filled cupcakes with chocolate ganache

Does that name catch your attention or what?!? :)

My mom told me that cupcakes are goin' out and pies are the "in" thing now. Well, not for me, especially with these. I do love a good pie, but this is not your ordinary cupcake! I've been wanting to make filled-cupcakes for a while and decided to try it out with my chocolate mousse.

I found this handy little gadget, specifically designed for filling cupcakes, at Orson Gygi. (my new favorite store!) Some of the gadgets I see though I think, come on you'd have to be really lazy to buy this! :) You could easily just scoop out centers with a spoon, but I'd rather poke it and twist it than spoon it. :S

As I was writing this, it reminded me of the game "Bop It". If you've heard of it, you'll know what I mean....bop it, twist it, pull it. :) I forgot to show the "dip it" part, that's the funnest (it IS a word ;) part!

Aren't they so pretty! They're so good, even my milk-allergic hubby couldn't pass one up! Poor, poor guy. :)

hehe. :) That may or may not have been me who devoured that.

Chocolate mousse-filled cupcakes with ganache
*One box cake mix (I used devil's food)

Follow instructions on cake mix box. Once cupcakes are cooled, make mousse.

Chocolate Mousse
(from my mousse cup recipe last year)

Whip 1 pint heavy whipping cream to medium stiff peaks. Stir in 1 pint jar of Kraft double fudge topping and 2 teaspoons cocoa.

Make holes in center of cupcakes (whichever method you prefer). Fill with chocolate mousse. Refrigerate til it sets up a bit.

Chocolate Ganache
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Put cream in double boiler. When it starts to simmer a little, take off heat and add chocolate chips. Stir until smooth.

Now, the fun part. Take cupcakes out of fridge, dip tops into ganache making sure it's all covered. Sprinkle with cute pink nonpareils or anything of your choice. This may be too much chocolate for some (is there such a thing!), but I tried doing buttercream frosting on it, and there's just no better way to do it. The ganache goes very well with the mousse. Put in fridge to set up.
Hurry and stick in these cute cupcake toppers I made and give to a friend before they all magically disappear. :)

Strawberry Popcorn + printable tag!

Thinking about the other popcorn recipes I've seen and tried, I looked around for one for Valentines but found nothing really. I decided to experiment (I don't do this hardly ever, especially with food) and see how my idea of strawberries and cream popcorn would turn out.

I got some chocolate and found some strawberry extract and started. 2 minutes in, I stopped. haha Nothing worse than seeing your smooth chocolate instantly turn chunky (well, I guess it's far more worse seeing yourself instantly turn chunky, lol). I figured since peppermint extract worked for the peppermint bark popcorn, this would work. Not the case..supposedly it's water-based. Oh, poop.
Orson & Gygi have everything, so I called to check and I found something even better than extract.....strawberry flavored chocolate! Perfect!

I started off with strawberry popcorn, drizzling white chocolate for my strawberries and cream. Then I thought it might be too strong, so I did vanilla popcorn drizzled with strawberry chocolate. Then I thought....HEY, chocolate covered strawberry popcorn!....woa :) It's as good as it sounds! I took a poll for people's favorites and the verdict was:

#1 White chocolate drizzled with strawberry.
#2 Close tie was chocolate covered strawberry.
They're all good though, in their own way. :)
Not only is it yummy but it's such a bright, pretty color of pink!! I love it!

Strawberries & Cream Popcorn

15-16 cups popped popcorn
1 lb. of either strawberry flavored chocolate or white
white, strawberry or milk chocolate for drizzling
So many possibilities!

Melt 1 lb chocolate and pour over popcorn. Stir around til it's all coated. spread out on wax paper to dry. Drizzle with chocolate of choice using a fork. let dry. Break up in chunks and eat! :) Or wrap it up cute, print off these fun labels I made to go with it and deliver to a friend or special someone!