Eye Candy (literally!)

A trip to 'The Fudgery' in Banff this September yielded some lovely photos of...my favorite...CANDY AND JUNK FOOD!! WOOOO!!

Enjoy! ;)

And of course what would this post be without a picture of someone eating this glorious stuff? Below is my husband caught chowing down on a chunk of Oreo fudge. Yep that's right, fudge with Oreos in it!

Mandarin Orange Salad with Almonds

My local supermarket has flyers at the tills with recipes on them. I picked this one up and it's been a favorite at our house ever since. We are big salad eaters, mostly because we follow 'The Zone' and salads allow for you to have a big meal without pigging out on bad carbs or too much protein.

This salad is fantastic as a lunch or dinner entree when you cut up a grilled chicken breast and add it on top.

NOTE: The type of lettuce does not matter too much, use whatever you have on hand or whatever you feel like. I've used spring mix and spinach as well as romaine and they all were great.

Salad
8 cups romaine lettuce leaves, torn (you can reduce this to suit your portion sizes)
1/2 cup celery, thinly sliced
2 green onions, chopped
1 can of mandarin oranges, drained (about 10oz)
1/4 cup candied slivered almonds*
Combine all ingredients in a large salad bowl and toss.

Dressing
2 tbsp white vinegar
4 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Parsley - either 1tbsp fresh chopped or 1 tsp dried
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp hot sauce
1/4 tsp salt
Black pepper to taste
Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl, pour over salad and toss to coat.

* To make candied almonds, put 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of water into a small frying pan and melt the sugar over low heat (stir it to melt the sugar). Add the almonds and cook for 5 minutes or until almonds are well coated and lightly browned. Spread them out on wax paper or foil and allow them to cool before breaking apart the ones that are stuck together.

Like sex in your mouth.

Well that's what Jaylene said this cake was like. Yes, my baking (and pregnant) friend Jaylene gave me this recipe and said it was so good, it's like sex in your mouth. Obviously I like food, so this was something I had to try. I brought it to a social last night and it pretty much got inhaled.

Apple Cake
1 c. butter, softened
2 1/4 c. granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4-5 c. coarsely chopped and peeled apples
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. chopped pecans1 c. chopped pecans (I skipped the nuts because I was unsure of people with allergies)

Icing (optional - I didn't make this)
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon-apple extract
2 tbsp. milk
1c chopped pecans

In large bowl cream butter with 2 cups of granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Stir together the 2 1/2 cups flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Beat flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in vanilla.

In a medium bowl, stir together apples, remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the 2 tablespoons flour. Fold into batter. Spoon batter into greased and floured 9x13-inch pan (Pyrex works best for me). Smooth with spatula.

In medium bowl combine brown sugar and cinnamon; stir in nuts if using them. Sprinkle this mixture over batter in the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes (i did only 45 but ovens vary) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on rack.

Make a glaze of powdered sugar, cinnamon-apple extract and milk. Drizzle over cake...Only if you choose.

Note: I used frozen fresh apples that have been partially defrosted in the ziploc bag from Jaylene's mom's tree, it helps make the batter and then the baked cake more moist.

Try not to eat this whole cake yourself. You should probably share it, your waistline will thank you.

Ice Cream Cupcakes

Taken from the Cupcake Bakeshop

Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcake ice cream cones / 350 degree oven

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs

1. measure out everything but the eggs directly into your mixer bowl
2. mix on low speed just until incorporated
3. beat on high speed for 2 minutes
4. add eggs, beat on high speed again for 2 minutes
5. transfer batter into a container with a pour spout (like a pyrex measuring cup)
6. pour batter into ice cream cones, leave a good half inch between the batter and the top of the cone
7. bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean

Time for a new hobby...

Yes that's right. I got fat... and I blame it on the KA. Well, that and my inability to exercise my willpower. So anyway I have put cooking and baking on the back burner for now (still doing it, just not overload like I was doing!) and I am going to start into the world of photography.

I had the most exciting Ebay experience ever on Sunday night. I was watching my auction to make sure I didn't get outbid, and sure enough, with 1 minute and 13 seconds left, some !@#$ outbid me! Well, my competitive nature sure wasn't going to let them get away with it, so I upped my max bid and I won at the very last second.



I am the proud new owner of a Canon Rebel XTi, with a silver body. Included in the auction was:

Canon Lens EF 28-90mm 1:4-5.6 - Standard Zoom Lens

Canon UltraSonic Lens EF 90-300 1:4-5.6 - Telephoto Lens

Digital Visions of Japan, 58mm 0.5x "fisheye wide-angle" digital lens with macro

4GB Compact Flash (XS) memory card

Three (3!) long-lasting lithium batteries and recharger

Camera bag

Three additional protective pouches

Two (2) lens filters - one is a nice SunPak circular polarizer 58mm. The other is a standard clear filter to protect your lens.

I love a bargain.

I am so happy to have won this auction for many reasons...mainly because I really wanted to do stuff with telephoto and macro lenses. I also can't wait to try out the fish eye aspect as my wedding photographer uses those lenses and his work is incredible.

Here are some photos I took with hubby's Canon Powershot SD630 Digital Elph point and shoot camera.

Cheesecake

*YOUR CHEESECAKE SHOULD NOT LOOK LIKE THIS!!!*

Sometimes I screw up. And this time I really screwed it up but at least I was able to fix it without any major tragedies!! NOTE: Cream the cream cheese before adding the other ingredients. Otherwise it will get all gross like in the above picture.

Once I re-did the mixture, the cheesecake itself turned out to be a huge success. Everyone loved it, it was just the right texture and sweetness.

Jaylene's "not mine but close enough" Cheesecake

You'll need a 9" Spring Form Pan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

1 1/4 c. graham crumbs
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. melted butter

Mix the above ingredients together and press into pan for crust.


2 (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 c. sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Cream the cream cheese in mixer until light and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until creamy and pour over crust.

Bake until light brown around edges only (about 25-30 mins). Cool and top with pie filling of your choice or anything else you choose.

Keep refrigerated.

Summer Salad

My inspiration for this salad came from two places, I found this picture on TasteSpotting and I remembered a salad I had eaten at Nemo in South Beach. The above picture was originally located on a food blog completely in Finnish and none of the online translators could translate it fully, so I improvised.

This experiment turned out smashingly well. I took it to the inlaws' for hubby's dad's birthday dinner, and everyone loved it. Considering it was a super hot day this was refreshing to eat, and just the right flavor mixture with the sweetness of the watermelon and the saltiness of the feta.

Watermelon and Feta Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Spinach, fresh greens or Butter Lettuce
Watermelon - cut into triangles about 1/4" thick and about 2" across
Feta Cheese - cut the block in half diagonally to create a triangle, then slice 1/8" thick
Toasted nuts/seeds - (I used pine nuts and pumpkin seeds)

Dressing
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced (depending on how garlic-y you want it)
1 teaspoon coarse salt (I used Kosher salt because that's what was in the cupboard)
Pinch of freshly cracked pepper (I used normal pepper)

Combine everything in a bowl and whisk together until blended. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To toast the nuts: simply place them in a skillet on med/hi heat. Pine nuts will start to look toasted and raw pumpkin seeds (de-hulled) will pop and crackle in the pan. It should take only 2-5 minutes to toast both.

Pour the dressing on the spinach/lettuce and mix it up so the greens are coated. Next, sprinkle the nuts on top and finally place the watermelon and feta on top.

I'm cautious of throwing it all in the bowl and mixing it up that way because I was scared of wrecking the cheese and watermelon triangles.

Next time if I serve this at my place I'd like to serve it up individually on plates so it would look nicer.