Monthly Archives December 2013

Kalamata Olive Tapenade

December 30, 2013 Posted in Appetizers, Entertaining

My husband and I took a week long across California road trip. Hitting all of the best winery hot spots including Paso Robles, Sonoma, and Napa. At one of our stops we visited the BR Cohn Winery in Glen Ellen the heart of Sonoma Valley. We tasted samples of their olive oils and stumbled upon this delicious BR Cohn Kalamata Olive Tapenade. My husband doesn’t like vegetables what so ever...
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Red Velvet Cake

December 28, 2013 Posted in Birthday, Cake, Dessert

My sister-in-law lives in San Diego and we don’t get to see her as often as we would like. Her birthday falls just after the New Year so we thought it would be nice to celebrate her special day during Christmas this year. I asked my brother-in-law what her favorite dessert was and he said it was red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting...
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White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

December 25, 2013 Posted in Cookies, Dessert

From the Ghirardelli Macadamia White Chip Cookies recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli Classic White Chips package
 
Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 36 minutes | Total time: 56 minutes
 
Yield: 5 dozen cookies or freeze half of the dough if you don’t want to make all 5 dozen
 
INGREDIENTS:
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 2 eggs, ro...
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Linguine Chicken & Bacon Pasta

December 23, 2013 Posted in Bacon, Chicken, Dinner, Pasta

IMG_9621
My husband loves chicken piccata, he loves pasta and he loves bacon so that gave me the idea to basically combine all of it into one dish. This was enough to feed him two different dinners.
 
Ingredients:
 
½ pound Linguine noodles (half of a box)
 
2 large chicken breasts cut in half lengthwise
 
1 tablespoon capers
 
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh garlic
 
1-2 tablespoons crispy finely chopped...
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Red Wine Chocolate Truffles

December 20, 2013 Posted in Dessert, Wine

The best part about chocolate truffles is the wine! You use ½ cup of red wine and you can enjoy the rest in a wine glass sipping while making yummy truffles. These do take a little time and are somewhat tedious, so keeping the wine glass full will help this process go a tad quicker.
Yields 30-40 truffles
Ingredients:
8 ounces (225 grams) high-quality semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopp...
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Russian Teacake Cookies

December 20, 2013 Posted in Cookies, Dessert, Holiday

I always love the taste of these cookies, especially around Christmas. They are perfect on their own and even more perfect with a cup of tea or coffee...
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Baked Honey Dijon Swai Fish

December 9, 2013 Posted in Dinner, Fish, Paleo

Swai fish is not the easiest fish to find. The first time I tried it was at The Heights in Upland but they only get it in once per year. I ran into this fish in the frozen section at Trader Joe’s last week. One bag of 3 really good sized Swai was $4.99. I bought it and figured if I didn’t like it then I wouldn’t purchase it again. I thawed two pieces and used this recipe. It was outstanding...

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Caramel Apple Pie

December 5, 2013 Posted in Dessert, Fruit, Holiday, Pie

FUJI APPLES = FIRST ATTEMPT WITH DULCE DE LECHE
GRANNY SMITH APPLES = 2ND ATTEMPT WITH CARAMEL SAUCE
Ingredients {for the apple filling}: Enough for one pie
  • Firm Apples- 6 large Fuji apples (sweeter) or Granny Smith (more tart)
  • Sugar- 2/3 cup *See Notes at the bottom
  • Cinnamon- 1 1/2 tsp.
  • Dulce de Leche (this takes 2 hours) – Use half of the can in the apples and the other half for topping or...
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Perfect Pie Crust

December 5, 2013 Posted in Dessert, Holiday, Pie

This is the Tenderflake lard company’s recipe for flaky pie crust. Tenderflake is based in Canada so I modified a little since I couldn’t get my hands on their lard.
 
Ingredients: {for the pie crust}: Yields 3 times 9″ double pie crusts or 6 pie shells
 
5 ½ cups all purpose, pre-sifted flour
2 teaspoons of salt
1 lb. or 16oz. of Farmer John Premium Manteca Lard or any lard
1 egg, lightly ...
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Dulce de Leche Caramel Sauce

December 5, 2013 Posted in Dessert, Sauces & Dressing

Dulce de Leche translation meaning “candy of milk” or “milk candy.” This was fabulous inside and on top of my homemade apple pie. I’m looking forward to incorporating it into many other dishes.
 
 
Ingredients:
   
1 can = 14 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk, remove label
 
One pot of hot water enough to cover the can for 2 full hours
 
 
Directions:
 
Making homemade creamy caramel can be qu...
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