Sweet Whiskey Hot Sauce

My family hasn't ordered wings once since we've learned to make them ourselves.

We tend to make the classic Franks and butter sauce, but lately I've been getting a bit bored of that. It's time to expand and try some new sauces.

I really liked this hot sauce, it's sweet like barbecue sauce, but had a nice kick, next time I'll add a few more serrano peppers though. (The original recipe can be found here.)

Of course my dad liked it, because I used Jack Daniels.

Sweet Whiskey Hot Sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, roughly chopped
¼ cup Serrano peppers, seeds removed and diced
½ cup carrot, peeled and finely diced
½ cup onion, finely diced
1/4 cup whiskey
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup brown sugar or molasses
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup water

Dice the chipotle and serrano peppers, onions and carrots.

In a saucepan, simmer (on a low heat) the chipotle and serrano peppers, onions, carrots, vinegar and water. For about 15 to 20 minutes or until everything softens.

Add the whiskey, lemon juice, brown sugar, cumin, and salt. Simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes.

Let cool, then puree in a blender. (Will store in refrigerator for up to a year).

Enjoy it however you want, but I suggest using it to coat some chicken wings.

Bubblegum Vodka

Being underage, I can't partake in the consuming of alcoholic beverages, but that didn't stop me from being interested in trying to make new things. I decided to try to make some infused vodka for the next party at our house (for the people legally allowed to drink).

Two specific recipes caught my eye: bubblegum vodka and limoncello (lemon flavored liqueur). They're pretty simple, so I decided to make both for the upcoming Star Wars party.

There isn't really a specific recipe for bubblegum vodka, the blog I found it on recommends 1 piece of bubblegum per shot of vodka, so I did that but threw in a few extras. I mixed the vodka and bubblegum in 8oz mason jars, so I can give what I have leftover away as gifts.

I used about half a 1.75 L bottle of vodka, five 8oz mason jars and about 50 pieces of bubble gum.

Place the bubble gum in the jars, fill the jars with vodka then seal them tightly. Place them in a safe place (mine are in the closet), and leave them there for a week or two. You can shake them occasionally when you check on them. You can leave them too infuse for as long as you want, but one week will be fine, if you don't have anymore time.

(These pictures are of the bubblegum vodka after 1 1/2 weeks.)

When you're done letting it infuse, simply remove the bubblegum and reseal until you use it.

I'll be posting a pink lemonade cocktail you can use this and the limoncello in as soon as the limoncello is ready (it needs another week).

Blood Orange Yogurt Cake

I've been doing a lot of baking lately, which means I've been going through a lot of butter, sugar and eggs. While it's been producing some really tasty results, it seemed about time to lighten things up.

Yogurt cake is a great way to have a rich dessert without too much fat or sugar. The version I made here was actually for a breakfast party in my health class. Recipes frequently call for a dollop of whipped cream on top, that seems to defeat the purpose of a healthy cake to me. I served mine with a quick fruit salsa so people could see what the blood oranges looked like.

I adapted this recipe for Orange Yogurt Cake to use blood oranges , but either works great. I've had trouble with whole wheat flour before, but I used it in this recipe and it worked great. (I recommend Bob's Red Mill Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour). Cutting the whole wheat flour with white flour helps keep the cake light, but I might try it next time with all whole wheat flour.

Pictures are once again by Mr. Dominic Luongo, well except for the last one which was taken while serving it in class. Unfortunately we'll be back to bad cellphone pictures after this.

Blood Orange Cake

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
juice of one blood orange
zest of about 1 1/2 blood oranges
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a 9 inch round pan with parchment and spray with nonstick spray (it would probably be fine to skip the parchment).

Zest the blood oranges.

Juice one blood orange.

Whisk together yogurt, sugar, eggs, zest, vanilla extract, and juice.

In another bowl, mix together both flours, baking powder, and salt in one bowl.

Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Use a rubber spatula to incorporate the vegetable oil.

Pour the batter into the round pan.

Bake about 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool and then serve slices with a dollop of whipped cream or fruit salsa (or both).

Fruit Salsa
the juice and zest of one lime
1-2 tablespoons honey
2 blood oranges, peeled and diced
1 can of pear in juice, drained and diced

Mix together zest, juice and honey in a bowl, add blood oranges and pears, toss to coat.

Blood Orange Bars

As the temperature dipped into negative numbers recently, I really found myself craving citrus. This was amplified by the appearance of blood oranges at my local Wegmans (they're difficult to find even when they're in season). So of course I stocked up on blood oranges and immediately began making plans to do some baking with them.

I enlisted a friend (Mr. Dominic Luongo) to take pictures, so you wouldn't have to put up with any of my fuzzy rushed cellphone pictures.

First I attempted Blood Orange 'Lemon' Bars. They turned out great, not as pink as I'd have liked, but they were really delicious. The only problem I encountered was that I forgot to grease the baking pan. With some recipes you can get away with forgetting, but here it was absolutely crucial. The bars completely stuck to the pan. They still tasted good, but were a bit messy.

Another crucial step, zesting. I've recently begun a love affair with zesting citrus. For some reason I used to think it was gross, but it adds nice color and extra citrus flavor. (Also it makes your hands smell amazing). Just make sure to zest before juicing the citrus, it's much easier in that order.

If you aren't able to get a hold of blood oranges, I think any combination of citrus would work. Obviously the classic lemon, but orange/lime would be interesting, or maybe grapefruit. Use your favorite or whatever looks good at the grocery store.
Blood Orange 'Lemon' Bars

Crust
3/4 cups unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
pinch of salt

Filling
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2/3 cup juice, half blood orange and half lime
2 Tablespoons zest, half blood orange and half lime
2/3 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350.

Zest the limes and blood oranges. I used the small grate side of my box grater, but if you have a zester you can obviously use that.

Juice the limes and blood oranges. (Now your hands will smell amazing.) Set juice and zest aside.

Cream together butter and sugar, then slowly add flour and salt.

Transfer to greased baking dish (I used my 13 by 9 baking dish, but I'd recommend something smaller.) Press the dough down evenly in the baking dish (using your hand is the easiest way to do it).

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until lightly golden, set aside to cool (in your fridge/freezer if you're impatient.)

In you mixer (or with a whisk) mix together the eggs and sugar.

Add the juice and zest, mix thoroughly.

Pour the filling over the cooled crust.

Bake for another 30-35 minutes, until the filling is set. (There was a big air bubble in mine when it finished baking, but it went down.)

Let cool.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and garnish with slices of blood orange.

Oreo Truffles

Originally I had planned elaborate treat baskets for all my friends for Valentine's Day, but I decided to make them into favor bags for Charlie's upcoming birthday party.

I've already made regular chocolate truffles for the favor bags, but I thought it would be nice to try out a new recipe too. Just about every food blog I read as made Oreo Truffles, and being so simple I just couldn't resist them. After having tried one I know I'll be making them again.

These Oreo Truffles are SO good. The centers are crunchy and creamy. They're so rich and decadent that I really only needed to eat one.

From what I've read you can use any kind of Oreos to make the truffles, so whatever flavor you feel like. I wouldn't recommend using Double Stuffed, people have said they fall apart and I think they would be too sweet. But feel free to experiment with golden, mint or chocolate filled Oreos. (I used generic Wegmans Sandwich Cookies and they worked perfectly.)

Use chocolate or white chocolate candy melts, it doesn't matter. I like the contrast between the centers and the white chocolate, but regular chocolate would be very delicious.

Oreo Truffles
(as seen on the internet everywhere)
1 package of Oreo chocolate sandwich cookies
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 lb(ish) white chocolate candy melts

Crush the Oreos as fine as you can get them, either with a food processor or a large ziplock bag and a lot determination. (I smashed them in a ziplock bag and it worked out great.)

In a large bowl, mix the crushed cookies and cream cheese. You can use a spoon, but it's much easier to mix by hand.

Scoop and roll out small balls of the cookie mixture. You want to get about 35-40 truffles, so use a teaspoon as a scooper. They should be one bite.

Chill for about an hour in the fridge (or half an hour in the freezer if you're impatient).

Melt white chocolate wafers in a double boiler or in the microwave. It took about 2 minutes in the microwave. You don't want it too hot, so pull it out before it's completely melted and stir it the rest of the way.

Dip each truffle into the melted chocolate and drop onto a parchment paper/wax paper lined tray. Once you've dipped them all, use a fork to shake any remaining chocolate over the top of the truffles.

Refrigerate until set.

Lazy Valentines Day

At this point I'm sure it's pretty clear to everyone that I love to bake and cook from scratch. It would probably be no surprise that I don't care for the 'semi-homemade' way of doing things. Yesterday I sat a friend down and made them watch Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee, to show them exactly what I didn't want for a mass media project I'm doing (and for a cooking video I'll be shooting soon).

So knowing all this, you'd probably think my semi-homemade Valentine's Day plans were a little strange. (I had Valentine's Day with my boyfriend last week because of scheduling conflicts.) Unfortunately I don't have any pictures for you, but I thought I'd just share my ideas.

I love baking A LOT, but sometimes it's nice to go out to a bakery (I recommend Sweet Tooth on Elmwood.) and pick out a couple little treats to share. For Valentine's Day we just picked up a couple cannolis, a slice of red velvet and a slice of cheesecake and shared the dessert feast. Of course, if you're going to have so much dessert, you can't have a very big dinner so I decided to finally break out my fondue pot.

I used the Pioneer Woman's cheese sauce from her "Welsh Rarebit" recipe and it was crazy delicious. For dipping I just toasted up some chunks of bread and chopped some raw broccoli. It took 10 minutes tops but having the fondue pot made it feel like a special occasion.

I'm sure I'll be repeating this formula since it worked so well and then I will take pictures. But for now I just wanted to remind you that you can have a nice easy Valentine's Day without going to an expensive restaurant.


(Note: If you don't have a fondue pot you can pick one up and all the fixings for fondue for considerably less than the cost of dinner at The Melting Pot.)

Starbucks VIA Coffee Pudding (for two)

Starbucks VIA is delicious. I've pretty much stopped going to Starbucks during the week because of the 50 count box of Starbucks VIA at my house. (Unfortunately, no one is paying me to say this.)

So when I found this effortless Espresso Pudding recipe I thought it would be a fun way to incorporate my favorite instant coffee and of course it would save me a trip to the store since I had all the other ingredients.

The recipe yields just enough for two people, so it's perfect for date night. I poured it into martini glasses to chill. I added chocolate chips because my pudding was a little lumpy (I didn't pay enough attention to it, because I was also baking naan.) The end result was super delicious.

Starbucks VIA Coffee Pudding
¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar (I used light brown)
1 Tbs cornstarch
1 packet Starbucks VIA Instant Coffee
1 ¼ cups half-and-half, divided

In a saucepan mix the instant coffee, cornstarch and brown sugar (do not heat yet). Add 1/4 cup of the half-and-half and whisk until the instant coffee is mostly dissolved. Add the rest of the half-and-half. Whisking frequently, bring to a boil over a medium heat and whisk constantly at a boil for a minute. Remove from heat and pour into cups, ramekins, or martini glasses. Chill for a few hours and enjoy.