Halloween Floats

Happy Halloween everyone! Halloween usually tends to focus on the kids, trick or treating, and candy, so I wanted to create a recipe that all of the adults out there could enjoy (don't worry - there's a kid-friendly version included as well).

I was inspired to put this recipe together by a recent visit to my FAVORITE frozen custard shop here in the Northern VA area, the legendary The Dairy Godmother (clever name, right?!). My friend Alexis told me of it a few years ago and I had always intended to stop in, but my curiosity was peaked again when my friend, Sabrina, mentioned it to me one summer night after paddle boarding. She lives in the neighborhood and is a frequent visitor of DG. Her description of the frozen custard and the interesting 'flavors of the day' had me intrigued. I made a trip the following day and have been obsessed ever since.

I have made many post-work trips to DG (where I may have forced it to be on my way home from work...), all in the name of research and tasting as many flavors as I could in order to assess which one was my fav!  The winner is definitely the salted caramel.  It's to die... At the beginning of October, Alexis and I paid DG a visit one evening after supping at the adults-only sushi joint next door, and their flavor of the day just so happened to be 'pumpkin.' This immediately became a close second favorite of mine - it literally tastes like pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving! I knew right then and there that I would have to do a blog recipe featuring this flavor. I studied their calendar to see if they were featuring the flavor again, and sure enough they were! As Alexis and I devoured our custard, we crafted the recipe I am sharing with you today, as well as my plan to commandeer an entire pint of the good stuff so that I would have plenty for um... experimenting with the recipe. Yeah, experimenting...

This past weekend, I indeed procured said pint and used it to create this Halloween treat for Alexis & me for one of our happy hours at home. If you don't have access to awesome, pumpkin flavored frozen custard in your area, I suggest using homemade pumpkin ice cream (you will have to go elsewhere for that recipe!), or store bought. I'm sure it's easy to find this time of year! As I said, I have included and taste tested two versions of this recipe: the adult version with hard cider as well as a kiddie version using cream soda, and both were equally delish! For the adults with children, I suggest drinking at least one of these prior to any outdoor trick or treating with the kiddos. It will make you nice n' toasty and I'm guessing it will also make the entire process that much more fun and entertaining ;-)

Speaking of little ones,

Milli was festive for the occasion in her Halloween costume:

She's a fairy!

And I was so proud of her for leaving those

wings on for the rest of the night!

She was walking around in them like a pro!

OK, now let's get drinkin'!

Pumpkin Custard Floats
Servings: 1 (I'm just going to do the serving of one drink - you can make it with either cider or cream soda and multiply the recipe if you are making it for more than one person)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: n/a

Ingredients:
1 scoop pumpkin flavored frozen custard/ice cream/froyo/gelato - go ahead and buy a whole pint - I think you can figure out what to do with the leftovers ;-)
1 bottle of hard cider or cream soda
   - I used Crispin b/c they were out of Magners & Strongbow, but any hard cider will do
   - I used Jones b/c it was on sale, but any cream soda will work!
1 handful candy corn
A pinch of Halloween colored sprinkles

Start by taking the ice cream out of the freezer and letting it thaw for about five minutes.

Next, pour your cider or soda into a tall glass.

Use an ice cream scoop (I had to buy one specifically for this recipe! haha) to roll a nice ball of ice cream.

Scoop it into your glass.

Be careful to not let it splash - especially if you're using the soda. The soda foamed up a lot, as you can see in the pics!

Decorate the top of the ice cream with the sprinkles.

Drop some candy corn to the bottom of your glass.

Stick in a fancy straw and drink away! Salute!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

from me & Milli :-)

Warm Me Through Matzo Ball Soup

I recently started a new job, and my office space tends to be um... cold. Like Arctic cold. Freezing. It's frigid. Get the point? Wearing multiple layers of clothing doesn't even stop me from shivering! In light of my constant state of frozenness between the hours of 8:30 - 5:00 every weekday, I was craving something warm and comforting for dinner one night last week. Soup was the first thing to pop into my head, so I went with it.

I had some eggs at home (from brownies I had made the prior week... no judgment please), some carrots, and a half used onion. All perfect ingredients for matzo ball soup if you ask me! That is what I settled on, but I wanted to spruce it up a bit and add some non-traditional, unexpected veggies. I always use the box mix for the soup, so adding some special extras is a must. It's too boring to just eat the balls and the broth. I picked up some cabbage and broccoli and headed home... to turn on the heat! haha

To me, matzo ball soup is basically another version of chicken noodle soup, which is, let's face it, the panacea for all problems, big and small (especially frozenness!). As such, feel free to add some chicken to your soup if you don't want yours to be vegetarian. The base of the broth is chicken stock, so chicken will go lovely in this soup. I would use chicken breast, cook it however you want - either on the grill, bake it in the oven, or poach it. Let it cool for a few minutes, and then shred it using two forks, like I did in this recipe. Then add it to your soup at the same time you add the broccoli; OR if you're making a vegetarian and a meatatarian version, just add the cooked, shredded chicken to your individual bowl of soup.

This meal went a long way in making me feel all warm and toasty inside! I hope it does the same for you!

Even the puppy was excited:

(That's her excited face, trust me... haha)

Let's get cookin'!

Matzo Ball & Veggie Soup
Servings: 3-4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
1 box of matzo ball soup mix (plus the ingredients listed on the box, usually eggs and oil)
3 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1/2 small sweet onion, sliced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP)
8 baby carrots (or one small regular carrot, peeled), sliced into rounds
1 cup shredded cabbage
Pinch cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon no-salt-added butter
Water - as much as it says on your soup mix box
1/2 cup broccoli florets

Start by making the matzo ball mixture. Follow the directions on the box to do so. For mine, I mixed together the matzo ball powder with two eggs and olive oil in a small bowl.

The box directed me to put the bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes, so that's what I did.

While the matzo ball mix is setting up, start making the rest of the soup.

Place a Dutch oven or a large pot that has a matching lid on the stove over medium heat. Drizzle in the EVOO.

Add the sliced onions.

Let the onions cook for three minutes, then add the FCBP and the bay leaf. Stir.

Let the onions cook for five minutes and then add the carrots. Stir.

Allow the carrots to cook for five minutes, then add the shredded cabbage, cayenne, and butter. Stir.

Cook the cabbage for five minutes.

Once the cabbage is softened, add the water to the pot. The directions on the box I used said to add ten cups of water - so that's what I did!

Next, stir in the soup powder mix and allow the soup to come to a boil.

While the water is heating up, pull the matzo ball mixture bowl out of the fridge. Set the bowl right next to your soup pot and roll the matzo balls there. 

Wet your hands and roll the matzo ball mixture into one inch diameter balls and drop them into the soup as you make them.

Once the soup has come to a boil and the all of the balls have been added, place a lid on the pot and reduce the heat to low.

Let cook for 15 minutes, then add the broccoli florets (and the chicken if you're adding chicken to the whole soup).

Replace the lid and cook for another five minutes.

Once the 20 minutes cooking time is up, your soup is ready to eat!

Turn the burner off and use a ladle to dish the soup into your serving bowl(s). I usually put three to four matzo balls in my bowl, along with plenty of broth and veggies. Add the shredded chicken now if you're doing that.

Serve immediately while it's piping hot so it can warm you through on a chilly night!

Salute!

Pesto Pizza

First things first: how do you like my new look?! My friend and fellow food blogger over at Fifty Shades of Cake, hooked me up with some instructions on fancying up my blog design. I have more work to do, but I think it's a good start. I hope you like it!

Now on to more important things: the food!

I was totally inspired to make a blog recipe for dinner when I got a text message from my friend/pseudo step-sis letting me know that she had made one of my recipes for dinner (love that!). 

Here it is btw:

How amazing does that look?! She said she added hot Italian sausage to one for her hubby and shrimp to hers. Brills!

So for today, this recipe is a play on an old favorite of mine. I gave my mom a cookbook for Mother's Day when I was in high school and shortly thereafter, we decided to go through it to look for a recipe to make together. We came across this interesting pizza recipe. I say it was interesting because it didn't have any red sauce and it basically had salad on top of it. Back in the late 90s and in my little teenage brain, that was a weird recipe for pizza! But we took a chance and made it anyway and it was fantastic! That recipe called for arugula, but again - late 90s, we lived in a small town, and the local grocery store didn't carry arugula, so we substituted it for baby spinach. This memory and the fact that we used spinach sparked today's recipe.

It's been super rainy lately in the northern Virginia area so I was craving something homemade, light, and spring-y to kind of perk up the dreariness. This recipe popped into my head, but I wanted to make it my own. I initially had the idea to do an arugula pesto as the sauce, but Teeter was out of baby arugula (major bummer!), so I decided to go with a regular basil pesto. (If you want to try the arugula pesto, please do! All of the measurements would be the same.) I kept our spinach substitute and the lemon dressing from the original recipe, but added some feta. You can never go wrong with adding feta!

The recipe seems kind of involved by the looks of it, but trust me, it isn't. It's so easy and quick, you will definitely want to keep this one in the arsenal for a light yet satisfying meal to whip up when you're in a time crunch.

Let's get cookin'!

Spinach & Feta Pesto Pizza
Servings: 2
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Pesto
1 1/2 cups of basil leaves
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil - though I used just shy of the entire 1/4 cup

Start by toasting the pine nuts. Place a nonstick skillet on the stove over medium heat. Add the nuts to the pan.

Toast the nuts for ten minutes, stirring frequently so that they don't burn.

Remove the nuts from the pan and pour them onto a plate. Let them cool for five minutes.

To make the pesto, add the basil, pine nuts, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese to a food processor or blender. Turn the blender on and keep it going until everything has been chopped really small and is blended together.

Drizzle the EVOO into the food processor/blender until the mixture becomes a smooth, thick dressing like texture.

Set aside until you're ready to put together the pizza.

Lemon Dressing
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP)

Add the lemon juice and pepper to a small bowl. Slowly drizzle the EVOO into the juice while whisking. Whisk until it becomes a thick dressing.

Set aside until you are ready to dress the spinach.

Pizza
1 pre-made thin pizza crust (or you can make your own!)
1/2 cup pre-made pesto (recipe above)
1/4 teaspoon FCBP
1 pinch sea salt
1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles
2 large handfuls baby spinach leaves
2 tablespoons lemon dressing

Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the pizza crust on a large cutting board. Use a spatula to spread the pesto around the surface of the pizza crust, making sure to not go all the way to the edge.

Sprinkle the 1/4 teaspoon of FCBP and the pinch of salt evening over the pesto.

Next, spread the feta crumbles all over the pizza crust.

Place the pizza in the oven, directly on the rack. Let cook for ten minutes

Within the last few minutes of the pizza cooking, toss the spinach with the lemon dressing. To get the dressing evenly coated over all of the spinach, I put the spinach into a food storage container, drizzled the dressing over the leaves, place the lid tightly on, then shake the container vigorously for ten seconds or so.

Remove the lid and set aside.

Once the pizza is done cooking, remove it from the oven and place it on a cutting board.

Use a fork to add the spinach to the top of the pizza. Make sure to spread the leaves evenly over the surface.

Before you cut it, let everything sit there for a few minutes. This will give time for the pizza crust to harden up a bit, as well as for the spinach leaves to soften and wilt slightly.

Now you can cut! I always use a regular butcher knife to cut my pizza, rather than the traditional pizza cutter/roller. I hate when the roller drags the toppings and cheese along with it. The knife is less messy.

Cut it into as many slices as you like. I did eight.

Serve with a cold glass of white wine (or rosé like I did!) and enjoy!

Salute!

The Citrus Pucker

I have been waiting to post this recipe for foreverrrr! I took the pictures for this post in RAW over a month ago and my work laptop wouldn't read RAW files. I *finally* FINALLY got my new computer this week and immediately got to downloading Picasa so I could edit my photos. Yes! So excited. (I'm a photo nerd.)

When I made this recipe, I had my friend, Alexis, over for Happy Hour at Home (as we are wont to do) and came up with this cocktail on the fly for us to drink. She had offered to bring a bottle of wine and initially I agreed to that... until I took a peek into my freezer and realized I have WAY too much alcohol chillin' in there (pun intended)! I'm not a huge cocktail drinker, I'm more of a wine or prosecco girl at home, but somehow I have managed to acquire quite the collection of alcohol! From acai spirits to flavored vodkas to a couple of bottles of cachaça, my freezer is practically overflowing with booze! It's confounding. So I figured, why spend money on wine when I already have plenty of alcohol that needs drinking?

I am admittedly hoarding away the cachaça and acai spirits for when I want to make specific drinks, so I decided that the raspberry & peach vodkas would make the perfect subjects for that night's happy hour cockies. I took a whirl around my neighborhood grocery to look for complements to these two flavors and found some things that ended up working out really well.

I was buying some organic lemons for my breakfast smoothies and picked up a couple extras to use in the cocktails. While I was already in the citrus section, I decided to go ahead and grab some limes (what cocktail doesn't benefit from a lime?!) and a grapefruit. I mosied over to the fresh herbs and threw some mint and tarragon in my basket. Mint is standard cocktail fare, but tarragon would be something new and different. And with that, off to the checkout line and into my kitchen.

I had some fresh ginger root and honey laying around, as well as some club soda, so I added those to this drink as well. I feel like cocktails are so fun to play around with - you can use all kinds of unexpected ingredients and somehow just make them work. I love trying new things with my drinks and I'm glad I have the opportunity to share them with you!

I have to say, as far as cocktails go, I feel like this one is pretty low-cal. I usually get vodka-sodas while I'm out at bars because both vodka and club soda are low in calories, and that's essentially what this is. All of the other ingredients are fresh, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say this drink is probably pretty decent for your waistline. Definitely better than beer!

OK let's get mixing! Pucker up!

Citrus Pucker
Servings: 2 small cocktail glasses
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: n/a

Ingredients:
2 quarter-inch thick slices of ginger
4 large mint leaves
4 tarragon leaves
1/2 pink grapefruit, juiced
2 lemons, juiced
2 limes, juiced
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 cup raspberry vodka
1/4 cup peach vodka
1/4 cup club soda

Start by adding the ginger, mint, and tarragon leaves to the bottom of your cocktail glass.

Use a muddler to crush them all together.

Set aside.

Now, pour all of the fruit juice into your cocktail shaker (or food storage container with a tight fitting lid like I had to use because my shaker broke while making margaritas! Whoopsie...).

Drizzle the honey into the juice.

Put the lid on the shaker and shake like crazy for a good fifteen seconds.

Remove the lid and pour in the peach and raspberry vodkas.  Add a handful of ice to the container and a handful into each of your cocktail glasses.

Replace the lid on the shaker and shake again for ten seconds.

Remove the lid and strain the drink into each of your cocktail glasses. Make sure to leave about a half an inch at the top of your glass so you can add the club soda.

Add half of the club soda to the top of each glass and stir.

Put a sprig of mint and tarragon sticking out of each glass.

Serve immediately! Salute!