My 1st Product Review

Hey there!

Today I am going to share my thoughts on a snack, I found here in our local supermarket. I've heard the name floating around the webisphere. So when I saw them in the store, I just had to try them.

So what I tried was a "Food Should Taste Good" brand snack. Specifically the All Natural Tortilla Chips, jalapeno flavor with crushed red pepper flakes.

I really enjoyed this product. It is a hearty chip packed with flavor. The premise of the company is to use all natural, good quality ingredients. 

These chips are: 

- Gluten free

-Whole Grain

-No MSG 

-Contains 0g trans fat

-Cholesterol Free

-Vegan & Kosher

What I liked about the chips:

Texture: It is a sturdy chip, I could definitely use these as a vessel for a passed canape. They are a thicker cut than typical restaurant style tortilla chips. You can notice the whole grain but in a pleasant way. And you get that satisfying crunch as you bite in.

Flavor: The spice is real y'all! I can definitely taste the jalapeno and red peppers, although not overbearing for me. To me the seasoning is on point, not over salted and not greasy at all. 

Natural all the way. Even the color comes from beets!

I ate these straight up, but I had some company over and I served them with some Pico de Gallo and they were great. Comment below if you would like my recipe for "Pico". 

You could also pair it with:

-Guacamole 

Here's a link to my take on that:

Guacamole

-Mango Salsa

My take on this one here: 

Mango Salsa

Here is also a link to the "Food Should Taste Good" Website.

DISCLAIMER: This review is not at all sponsored, just me sharing my take on a new find.

Have a delicious week!

Happy August

Coffee popsicles

Soooo I have, had my hands full with my little nugget and wedding season. Weddings every weekend... whoop whoop! Don't you guys just love, LOVE! Sigh... romantic at heart.

Anywho with all this running around in this heat on limited sleep, Iced Coffee sounds great! But even better are Coffee Popsicles! So today I am going to share a quick easy recipe for these yummy treats.

Coffee Popsicles (makes 4-6)

1 Cup brewed coffee (or you could use instant coffee like Nescafe granules)

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
2tbsp sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream

Method:
Once your coffee is brewed, add the sugar, milk and cream and stir until dissolved.
Allow to cool . Pour into Popsicle mold and freeze for 4-6 hrs.
Un-mold and enjoy!

Tip: To un-mold, dip the mold in a glass of hot water for 15 seconds, remove and wiggle the pop stick and it should come clean out.

I really hope you love these as much as I did.

Sidenote: I am now a proud breastfeeding momma, so I am thinking, I will  share some recipes and foods which help with milk production and energy boosting. Also when little one begins to wean I will share some baby food recipes. If there is anything you guys would like me to add be sure to comment.

Have a delicious week!

Easter Gift and Mini Cupcakes

Easter Greetings Everyone!

Exactly a week ago today, our mini cupcake arrived. He is a bundle of squirms and smirks; our little Easter gift. To celebrate, I decided to make some cute mini coconut cupcakes. This was perfect since my little cousin's birthday was the day after our little one's birth, so it could be one big celebration!

Here are the minis; naked and cooling. 

To top them, I made a green coconut buttercream. 

On top of the buttercream I sprinkled some colored, sweetened coconut and these adorable, tiny chocolate bunnies.

The bunnies are by Russell Stover and are called "Iddy Biddy Bunnies". To color the coconut, place the coconut in a sandwich or Ziploc bag. Add a few drops of the green dye and shake the bag until the color is evenly distributed.

Look how cute!

Here they are! They totally remind me of the spring I spent in Germany. It is hard to appreciate spring here in the tropics, as we don't experience winter.

After the cold winter it was nice to see the little bunnies hop around the parks and the bright colored tulips pop up everywhere.

Here is a quick recipe for the buttercream I used.

Coconut Buttercream

2 cups icing (confectioner's) sugar

1/4 cup butter/margarine

1 tsp coconut extract

2-3 tbsp coconut milk

3 drops green food coloring (optional)

Method:

Cream the butter and icing sugar together, add the coconut milk a tbsp at a time checking the consistency.To ensure it is creamy but pipe-able. Add the extract and color and mix until combined.

I hope you had a lovely Easter.

Have a delicious week.

Love Jo

Cravables

Sooo as promised, today I am going to share some of the foods that I've been craving this pregnancy. Oddly enough, a lot of my clients and friends are also expecting and hearing the foods they craved was really interesting.

So here are a few of mine-

Watermelon
Tangerines

Fruit in general (after the 1st trimester)

Ham
Eggs
Souse
Fish Cakes!!!
Cheese
Cou cou


As far as aversions go, I just could not stand the smell of chocolate my first trimester. Ugh! It was horrible as we work with chocolate every day!

Well, working through morning sickness and a huge work load allows little time for personal stuff like making dinner so we had some really quick meals. One of my fav quick meals is quiche. For some people, this isn't a quick meal but you can go ahead and cheat with store bought pastry. Our recipe for the pastry is super easy. What I like to do is make a big batch and freeze it in the pie tin when I have a bit of free time and then pop them out when we are ready to make the quiche. So here is the recipe for the pastry.

Shortcrust Pastry

8 oz flour
4 oz cold cubed butter
pinch of salt
4-6 tbsp ice water

Method:

In a bowl, place flour and salt and mix together.
Add butter. With a fork,(or pastry blender) cut butter in to flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the center and add water. Mix in until it starts to bind. Form pastry into a ball.
Allow to rest in fridge for 10-15 mins before use.

If you are going to freeze the pastry in tins, at this point roll it out and line your tins. This recipe makes two 8" rounds. Wrap the tins well with cling wrap and freeze.

Quiche Filling Ideas:

- Ham, Cheddar and Sweet Peppers
- Bacon, Leeks and Gruyere
-Spinach, Onion and Cheddar
- Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella


Quiche is obviously an egg based dish. For the egg custard for one quiche, I use 4 eggs and 1/4 cup milk seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg.


Here is a quick bacon and onion one we made for dinner one busy night. Add a bit of salad and  ...Voila!

I hope you try out the recipe.

Have a delicious week
Jo

The Announcement

Hey guys!

Thank you for your patience. Actually perhaps you already know what our announcement is. If you are on our pastry page, you have seen our notice. If not here goes.... drum roll please ......

Chef Ed and I are having a ...BABY! 

We will actually be closed for the month of April, both our catering and pastry kitchen. But I intend to blog away as we await little one's arrival. 

It was so hard keeping a secret from you guys, pregnancy is very interesting on the palate. And I have had some really interesting foodventures.

We had a photo shoot with the fabulous Brian Elcock of "Bcreative Photography". Below is one of the images. We will definitely be working with and recommending him in the future. 

To see more of Brian's work you can check him out here. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bcr8ive/

So in my next post I'll share my pregnancy cravings and aversions and maybe a recipe too. Stay tuned! 

Much Luv 

Jo

Valentine's Day Recap and an Extra

Heya!

I'm back, with my tea. I know V'day was ages ago but I promised a recap so here it is. One thing I noticed this year, more than before was all the anti-valentine people. Their premise being that love should be shown everyday, which I completely agree with. However, is not Valentine's Day a day as well? I don't know but I just think its so sweet that everyone shows extra love all together on one special day. But I may be partial because Ed  and I celebrate ev-er-ee-thang! Life is too short =)


So here are a few pics of the goodies we made for clients for V'day:

This package has: Raspberry Brownies, Chocolate cake truffles, Chocolate covered Strawberries

and Cupcakes

Here is a cupcake assortment (Red Velvet and Strawberry Swirl) 

And some dipped Strawberries waiting to be drizzled

Look at the yumminess!  Now for the extra: 

For you guys who are apparently showing love all year long .. hopeless romantics unite! 

One thing Ed and I like to do to show love to each other is to surprise each other with breakfast in bed. One of my fav things to make is homemade pancakes. Dude! It is so crazy how many people use box mix. Pancakes are super easy! I promise you this recipe takes the same if not less time to make and is super delicious. And no weird additives! So here goes, my basic recipe for pancakes.

Pictured is a lemon poppyseed variation with berries and bacon. 

Fluffy Breakfast Pancakes

1cup flour (you can use whole wheat as well)

1tbsp baking powder

1 beaten egg

1tbsp oil

1tbsp brown sugar

3/4 cup milk

1 pinch salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Method: 

1. In a bowl mix flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. (TIP ALERT - if you want to make your own box mix you can bottle or package this mix in a Tupperware and store and just add the oil, milk and egg when you are ready to cook the pancakes. Just make a little note and attach with the amounts for the other ingredients to be added and put on top. It lasts up to 2 months) 

2. To the mix add the egg, milk and oil and whisk lightly until everything is incorporated. Batter will be slightly lumpy but do not over-mix. 

3. In a lightly greased non-stick pan or griddle cook your pancakes on medium heat. You will know your pancakes are ready to flip when you see bubbles appear around the edges. 

Here are some additions I like to use to change things up: 

- Chocolate chips

-Lemon zest 

-Poppy seeds

- Apple chunks 

- Berries

- Oats

-Toasted Nuts

Hope you all are having a great week and are showing love. Now go make someone's morning delicious! 

Nuff luv!

Jo

With A Cup of Tea

Hi Guys, 

Where did the time go?  This year is zooming by! Lets catch up.
Well then, lets get comfy and for that we need a cup of tea and something yummy.

The tea I'm loving right now is a Lipton Green Tea with acai berry, melon and dragon fruit flavors. Its super refreshing and light.
You can see it here and all the other flavors in that line:

http://www.liptontea.com/product/detail/141457/acai-dragonfruit-melon-superfruit

For the something yummy I just have to share with you this delicious apple bread!

Apple Bread

Topping/ Filling:

2 large apples (diced) 

2 tbsp brown sugar 

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup sliced almonds 

Batter:

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

11/2 cup flour

1/4 cup quick oats

11/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon zest

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 F and grease and flour a standard loaf pan 

In a small bowl mix apples, sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

In another bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 

Add eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated

Sift flour and baking powder into mix and fold in, add oats.

Mix in milk, vanilla and lemon zest.

In the loaf pan add half the mix, spoon over apple mix and sprinkle with half the almonds

Add the other half of of the batter and top with the remaining apple and almonds

Bake in preheated oven for 45 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

I really hope you guys try this recipe. The apple totally infuses the entire bread and makes the bread  deliciously moist. 

Well there isn't much time to chat now after all the baking, but don't worry I'll be back with a Valentine's recap, some info on our new menus and soon an exciting announcement! 

Have a delicious day! 

Jo

Cozy Morning Breakfast

Happy New Year! 

I can't believe its already 2014. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!
For our Christmas celebration, we had a little family brunch; rather than a traditional dinner or lunch like we usually do. I decided to take 2 breakfast casseroles. They are super easy and serve a crowd well. As I was thinking about it, these would be great for a weekend breakfast. Especially when the little ones are home. They can be made ahead and refrigerated.

Today I am going to share one of the recipes (the other one I will share in future). It's my recipe for French Toast Casserole.

French Toast Casserole

12 slices of bread (I prefer whole wheat)
5 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 pinch salt
2 tbsp dried cranberries (optional)
3 tbsp butter (softened)

Method:

Cut slices of bread into 4 triangles each.
Grease casserole dish with one tbsp butter.
Arrange slices of bread in dish to cover the base and overlap.
In a bowl mix eggs, spices, milk, sugar and salt.
Pour mixture over the bread and allow to sit to absorb the liquid. (If you are making this the night before at this point you can cover the casserole and refrigerate, just allow to come to room temp before baking).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Dot with bits of the butter and sprinkle dried cranberries over the top. Bake for 15 mins.

This is so yummy on its own but feel free to serve with maple syrup and crispy bacon!

I hope you guys try this recipe! Have a great week.

Much luv - Jo