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Cook and Tell: Godiva – More than Chocolate…

09 Aug

You guys probably noticed that a few months ago, I joined the Foodbuzz network of food blogs as a featured publisher. Well, this great relationship has a few perks. A few weeks ago, as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a sample of Godiva ground coffee, Chocolate Truffle and Hazelnut Creme. Just imagine…the goodness of Godiva chocolate mixed with rich scent of coffee. The scent alone, is to die for.

I was very excited to try this coffee. One problem though…this gal doesn’t own a coffee maker. So here I face a dilemma, I’ve got great coffee and no way to brew it. This is the time to get creative, and so I did. I used, drum roll please…a tea pot. It totally makes sense, a tea pot has a an infuser, which doubles as a coffee filter, when no coffee maker is in site. With this set up I proceeded to make, what we call Coffee Glisse, which is simply, coffee with ice cream. I decided to add a little kick to my version.

Coffee Glisse
Ingredients:
Godiva Chocolate Truffle Coffee
1 shot Kahlua
1 shot Original Baileys Irish Cream
1 Scoop of Coffee Ice Cream

Preparation:
Brew coffee and pour into cup. Add Kahlua and Baileys. Top with a scoop of coffee ice cream.
I have to admit, 1 shot of each, Kahlua and Bailey’s, might have been a bit much. Half a shot of each would have been just as good.

I took a simpler route with the Hazelnut Creme coffee. I also had the help of a cezve, courtesy of my parents. All I did was place four teaspoons of Godiva’s Hazelnut Creme ground coffee into the cezve and top it with boiled water. I heated the cezve over the stove for a few minutes, and poured into a cup. Topped with some skim milk, added two teaspoons of sugar…and oh my…I was in heaven. Absolutely delicious!

As delicious as Godiva chocolate is, Godiva coffee is exquisite. The aroma draws you in like nothing else.

So make yourself a cup of delicious Godiva coffee, sit back and take it all in…

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Cook and Tell: Basic Belgian Waffles

19 Jul

Last week was an extremely busy week, and I am very happy that I am finally able to check back here. Last week was my birthday, but since I spent the entire day at work, it wasn’t much of a celebration. However, it was all made better when a couple of friends gave me a gift that will certainly keep on giving. And not just anything, it will keep on giving fabulous and delicious Belgian waffles. I couldn’t wait to take this puppy for a “spin”.

I started out simply by pulling out the manual, which doubles as a recipe book. For the first time I decided to keep it simple and try out a basic Belgian waffle recipe, nothing fancy. I didn’t really have that many ingredients to play with. I used my last two eggs for these puppies, just shows how prepared I was.

Basic Waffles
Ingredients
6 cups of unbleached all-purpose flower
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups of reduced-fat milk
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preparation
Preheat the waffle maker. Mix all ingredients in the order they appear. Pour approximately 2 cups of batter on to the middle of the waffle griddle (this may vary based on the type of waffle maker you have). Close the waffle maker, cook until you hear a tone from the waffle maker (this may vary based on your waffle maker). Open waffle maker, remove waffles carefully with a heat proof spatula. The recipe makes approximately 16 waffles.

I halved the recipe, and used non-fat milk. I ended up with 8 delicious waffles. They may be over 300 calories per waffle, but do you really think about that when you’re enjoying this deliciousness with jam, maple syrup, or whatever else you put on your waffles?

Thank you L & L for this awesome gift!!! I can’t wait to try out all different types of waffles!

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Cook and Tell: Sour Cream Blini

09 Apr

Have I mentioned that I am a big fan of anything that includes carbs? Well, I do. Pasta, breads, waffles, baked goods, anything in the pancake family. Like these blini that I decided to spoil myself and the hubby with.

Sour Cream Blini

I learned how to make blini from my Mom. She showed me how to turn leftover sour milk, kefir or sour cream into delicious blini. The great thing is that they are so easy and quick to make, and they magically fill my carb cravings. This time around I decided to make blini using sour cream as the base.

Sour Cream Blini
Ingredients:
16oz Low-Fat Sour Cream
2 large Eggs
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Powder
Vegetable Oil, for frying

Mix all the ingredients, except for vegetable oil, together. Heat vegetable oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Using a tablespoon (I used a regular soup spoon), scoop spoon fulls of blini mixture and place on the frying pan. Cook blini until golden brown on each side. The number of blinis will depend on how much mixture you use for each one.

Enjoy the blini warm or cold. I prefer my blini with raspberry or strawberry preserves.

Sour Cream Blini

How do you like your blini?

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Cook and Tell – Raspberry Clafoutis

07 Dec

You’re probably wondering whether I always make new dishes. Well, I want to let you know that I repeat the successful dishes over and over. One of the favorites that has made its return is the clafoutis. You might remember that a few months ago I shared the Plum Clafoutis I prepared.

This time around I decided to recreate the clafoutis based on the original recipe, with no alternations (as I like to do all the time). So this time I made Raspberry Clafoutis just as the Food & Wine Magazine recipe says.

One tip, butter the dish well, so it’s easy to take the clafoutis out when serving. Sounds familiar? That’s because I completely forgot to butter the baking dish originally, and even though I buttered it this time, it was still sticking just a bit. But in the end even though I had to add some extra muscle to get the slice out, it still tasted awesome!

Raspberry Clafoutis

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Cook and Tell – Black Magic Favors

23 Nov

I am sure many of you have gone to events where you left with a party favor at the end. Everyone tries to be creative and leave you with something cute, memorable, personal, useful, etc. But what happens most of the time is that either the favors are left behind at the event or are forgotten in the back of a drawer. What’s never forgotten however, is food. Wouldn’t you agree?

With this in mind, I decided to take a chance and leave my guests with something sweet to remember the event by. Thank you Confessions of a Tart for the great idea.

What is better than a chocolaty, moist cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting? It may be gone fast, but it’ll remain in your memory forever.

Black Magic cupcake

These delicious, perfectly sized little black magic cupcakes are extremely easy to make. I was surprised myself how easy it was. I got the recipe for the cupcakes from Milk & Honey Cafe, and the cream cheese frosting from All Recipes.

The individually packaged portions are even figure friendly The cupcake boxescan be purchased on Amazon.com.

Individually packaged cupcakes

I would like to send a special thanks to Shrimpaholic for her support and help with this venture.

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Plum Clafoutis

14 Sep

In the recent past plums have been everywhere. While my husband was on a business trip, my parents, concerned for my nutrient intake, shared an overly generous amount of plums with me. I put a very conscious effort into eating all the plums. I took two with me to work every day, and yet the supply didn’t seem to diminish at all. That seemingly small, brown lunch bag felt like a bottomless pit of plums.

Realizing that it would be virtually impossible for me to eat all these plums before they spoil, I decided to put them to good use. While unsuccessfully searching for a recipe of an upside down plum cake, which I distinctly remember seeing in my overstuffed drawer of recipes, (I of course found it after the fact), I came across a very appetizing raspberry clafoutis recipes in one of my Food and Wine magazines. Being that the purposes of baking that day was to use up the plums that were haunting me, I made the executive decision to substitute the raspberries with plums.

I followed the recipe (mentioned above) completely, other than substituting raspberries with plums, and confession, forgetting to butter the baking dish. In my opinion the clafoutis turned out very tasty, and I believe others that tasted it agreed with my opinion (hope they weren’t just being nice ).

Bottom line…here is the final result

Plum Calfoutis

If you make this clafoutis, please do leave a comment here to let me know how it turned out. And of course, remember to butter the baking dish!

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Passover Berry Cobbler

11 Apr

Passover ended last week, so once again I am late with the holiday recipes. However, I look at it this way, some dishes are so tasty, that they should be eaten any time of the year, not just during the holidays.

During Passover I had to come up with a dessert that would be “Passover friendly”, as we had guests over that were observant. I had literally one day to come up with something that was very tasty and yet took no time to make. My first point of reference? The Food Network of course. Within minutes I found the perfect recipe. It requires a minimum amount of ingredients and was so easy to prepare. The Food Network’s Passover Cobbler.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, however I used frozen berries and frozen pitted cherries for the filling. I couldn’t find cinnamon sugar, so I picked up some cinnamon and mixed it with regular sugar. I would recommend using less of the cinnamon sugar mixture than the recipe recommends, as it still covers all the berries and the top of the cobbler. As for technique, I used a hand-held mixer to mix all the ingredients together. To make this cobbler you will need:

3 large eggs
3/4 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of matzo meal
2 tablespoons of potato starch
2 packages of frozen fruit (1.5 would also do)
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1/8 cup of cinnamon sugar (I would use a bit less)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Break the eggs in a mixing bowl, add sugar and mix until smooth and well mixed together. Add matzo meal, potato starch and vegetable oil to the egg and sugar mixture and mix until fully combined.

Grease a pie dish or a deep baking pan and cover with frozen berries (make sure the bottom of the dish you choose is fully covered and not visible). Top the fruit with most of the cinnamon sugar mixture, and then pour all of the matzo mixture over the fruit. When pouring try to cover most of the fruit. Top with the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

I made this cobbler three times in the last week, and it has come out fabulous every time (see what I mean about eating it any time of the year )

Passover Cobbler

Hope you enjoy this treat whenever your heart desires!

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Cooking Step-by-Step – Sirniki

28 Mar

A little while ago I found out that a friend of ours has developed quite a craving for sirniki. Sirniki in this part of the world are also known as Farmer’s Cheese Pancakes. I promised our friend I that I will make sirniki and document the steps so that she can enjoy them, in the comfort of her own home, whenever the fancy strikes her:) I, this is for you!

To make sirniki you will need the following ingredients (I never officially measured the ingredients so you’ll just have to eye it).

1. Farmer’s Cheese (a.k.a Tvorog) (approximately 1 package)
2. One egg
3. One tablespoon of sugar
4. Salt (to taste)
5. One tablespoon of all purpose flour
6. Raisins (to your liking)

To begin, place the farmer’s cheese into a medium sized bowl
Sirniki_add-tvorog

Add the egg and mix with farmer’s cheese
Sirniki_add-egg

Mix in salt
Sirniki_add-salt

Mix in sugar
Sirniki_add-sugar

Mix in raisins
Sirniki_add-raisins

Mix in flour
Sirniki_add-flour

Once all the ingredients are well mixed, take the mixture by the tablespoon full and form into small patties
Sirniki_forming

Spray a hot frying pan with cooking spray, and add the sirniki, a couple at a time. Fry the sirniki, turning after a few minutes, until golden brown on each side
Sirniki_frying

The end result should look something like this…
Final-Product

…and should be delicious.

I, I hope you enjoy making sirniki as much as you enjoy eating them

Sirniki on Foodista Sirniki

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Wheat and Honey Pancakes with Berry Syrup

20 Sep

Another day in Vika’s kitchen. Today Vika whipped up a batch of delicious and health-conscious pancakes. You won’t need a lot of time or ingredients for these easy-to-make pancakes.
Here is what you will need:
Krusteaz Wheat & Honey pancake mix
Frozen blueberries and raspberries (or any other frozen berries)
Sugar
Cooking Spray

Prepare pancakes as directed, mix the berries with sugar in a cooking pot. Cook until defrosted and slightly boiling. Make sure not to overcook as berries will fall apart.

For a side, Vika threw together a homemade iced tea. To make the iced tea you will need the following:
Brewed Tea (pick a flavor to your liking)
Lemon slices
Orange slices
Ice
Brew hot tea as you would normally and cool. Add ice, lemon slices and orange slice.
Iced-Tea
I hope you enjoy these pancakes as much as I did!
Panckes-and-Iced-Tea
Bon Apetit!