My wonderful hubby, Mike, and I are finally heading to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival next week. All week I have been checking out the menus and pictures of the food that they are serving this year.
Check out the website here: Epcot Food and Wine Festival
Stay tuned for blogs from the festival. You may want to cover your keyboard with a towel…you will be drooling.
Several months ago, I discovered an awesome “auction” website called Tophatter. It is a fun, interactive website where you bid on items you wish to purchase. It is actual time auctioning, unlike Ebay where you have to wait to see if you win for several hours to several days.
One day, I was on Tophatter and came across an auction for caramels from Poisoned Apples. I was lucky enough to win the auction for a pound of orange caramels. When they came, very well packaged and looking beautiful, I bit into one and have been a fan ever since.
You do not have to wait for another caramel auction. You can purchase items right from The Poisoned Apples Etsy store. Go and check them out. You won’t be sorry.
I’m currently attending a Tophatter auction to try to get some more yummy caramels. Wish me luck!!!
My husband, Mike, and I have been TRYING to eat healthier. Being food lovers, this is very difficult. Tonight I decided to show him that you can have a tasty dessert without ruining a healthy eating day.
Poached pears with raspberry sauce
For the poached pears
2 pears (I used bosc), pealed, cut in half and cored
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp. honey
1 cinnamon stick
3 small pieces of candied ginger
Place the pears in a small saucepan. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower temperature and cover until sauce is reduced and pears are tender. Remove cinnamon stick. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
For the raspberry sauce
1 pint raspberries
1/4 water
1 tbsp. honey
Put ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. When berries have started to burst, stir. Simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Pour into a fine strainer over a boil and remove to remove all of the seeds. Taste. If not sweet enough, add 1/2 tbsp. honey. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Serve 2 halves of pear in a bowl with cooking juices. Drizzle with the raspberry sauce. DELISH!
I served them with a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and some fresh raspberries.
I haven’t blogged about cooking or baking in a while. It’s been a little too hot in Southwest Florida to turn on the oven!!! I am gearing up for holiday baking season with some great purchases from King Arthur Flour and Penzy’s Spices.
Stay tuned for some blogs on my experiments in the kitchen.
On Thursday’s I work until 7:15pm. This isn’t too horrible, unless you want to cook a nice romantic Valentine’s Day dinner for your hubby and the holiday falls on a Thursday. Sigh…what’s a girl to do??? Well, even though it is Ash Wednesday, I decided to make the special dinner tonight. As a Catholic, this means no meat. Shrimp it is!!!!
One of the best things I’ve ever made is Baked Shrimp with Feta. It is an easy and very flavorful recipe.
In a sauce pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat.
Dice one medium onion and cook for three minutes, or until onions are soft.
Directions
Sometimes you just want a no muss, no fuss treat. As my third type of fudge for my Valentine’s Day cooking program, I am making Fudge in a Ziplock Bag. No bowls, no clean up and you can eat it right out of the bag. Here we go…
Put one pound (yes, that is ONE POUND) of powdered sugar in a large ziplock bag. Add 3 ounces of cream cheese.
Two tablespoons of butter
Measure out 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and put it in the bag
Squish all the ingredients together in the bag.
It is not as easy as it sounds. Mix until smooth. This next picture is after 10 minutes of smoooshing.
Keep smooshing until smooth. This is after 15 minutes.
You can now eat your fudge out of the bag or press into a flat container.
Each month I try to find a different “theme” for the cooking program at the library. For February, I thought it would be nice to do a Valentine’s Day theme, so we’re doing three kinds of fudge and making an origami box to put it in as a gift to the participants’ valentines. One of the many request from the attendees is to have healthier recipe options. I scoured the internet and found No Bake Pinto Bean Fudge on www.food.com and decided to try it. Here are the steps to make this fudge.
Mash the contents of one 15.5 ounce can of pinto beans. I did mine in the food processor until smooth.
Add 3/4 cup of cocoa powder
Melt 1/2 cup margarine (or butter) and pour into food processor.
Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla and 2 pounds of powdered sugar.
Add the equivalent of 1 pound of sugar substitute*.
Turn on food processor and mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
Doesn’t that look yummy? Hard to believe there are pinto beans in there!!!!
Pour the mixture into a greased 9″ x 13″ pan and spread evenly.
Chop up 4 ounces of walnuts (optional)
The recipe I have from www.food.com mixes the walnuts into the fudge. I thought it would be nicer sprinkled on top. What do you think??
No Bake Pinto Bean Fudge
www.food.com
Ingredients:
1 – 15.5 ounce can of pinto beans
3/4 C cocoa powder
1/2 C margarine/butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla
2 pounds powdered sugar
1 pound sugar substitute (or equivalent to 1 pound of sugar*) I used splenda baking blend
4 ounces walnuts, chopped (optional)
Directions:
*Make sure to read the sugar substitute package to get the correct measurement to equal 1 pound of regular sugar.
If you like cake and you like fudge, you have to try making Cake Batter Fudge. One of the coolest things about this recipe is that you can change the flavor of the cake mix you use to make many different kinds of fudge. Today I decided to make it with Red Velvet Cake mix.
In a microwave safe bowl, mix 1 cup of cake mix with 1 cup of confectioners sugar.
Add 1/4 cup butter, cut up, and 1/4 cup of milk to the bowl. DO NOT MIX…yet.
Microwave cake mix, confectioners sugar, butter and milk for two minutes.
Stir immediately until completely combined.
Add 1/4 cup sprinkles and 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. Fold in gently as to keep sprinkle from bleeding into cake mix.
Spread mixture into a greased pan and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Cut into pieces and enjoy.
Cake Batter Fudge
Ingredients
1 C cake mix of your choice
1 C confectioners sugar
1/4 C butter, cut into small squares
1/4 C milk
1/4 C chocolate chips (or white chocolate, butterscotch, cinnamon. Make it go with your cake mix choice)
1/4 C sprinkles
Directions
This makes on 6″ x 6″ container, or double for an 8″ x 8″ pan.
Note: If the batter comes out too runny, stir in 1 tsp of sugar or cake mix at a time until stiff. If too thick, slowly add 1/2 tsp of milk at a time. The batter is supposed to be thick.
I’ve kind of gotten out of blogging regularly about my food adventures. It’s not that I’m not having those adventures, it is more that I haven’t been enjoying the blogging part. Besides this blog, I have a page on Examiner.com. It is more of an informational page and it has a lot of rules, such as…you can’t write in first person. While I have done really well there and have managed to improve my writing, I enjoy writing at Mrs. H and Food Glorious Food a whole lot better. Between the strict rules at Examiner and the whole blogging thing feeling more like a job, I believe I will be giving up on the Examiner page and just sticking to this one.
With the major “food holidays” coming up, I believe I’d rather concentrate on my fun site and leave the serious writing to the professionals.
Here’s to having fun with food again.
After 11.5 hours, we finally arrived safely in New Jersey. What did I choose to eat when we stopped at a REAL diner at 10 pm??? Yup, Taylor ham, egg, and cheese on a hard roll. The stressful day melted away as I bit into the delicious layers of pork roll, cheese, and egg on the flakey roll. Ahhh….delicious happiness.
This {_______} life 