I wanted to have this post for Tiramisu Jars up for National Coffee Day (September 29th) but. Well. I didn’t. So instead, we will finish off the week with this yummy recipe! Also, honestly, isn’t every day National Coffee Day?
For the past three years, I have had the opportunity to help spread the word about World Vision, and each year they are kind enough to offer a giveaway to go along with the post! Last year, I made Star Anise Snickerdoodles to highlight the Prosperity Cinnamon and the year before I made Couscous with Dried Cranberries and Pine Nuts featuring beautiful Hand-Carved Serving Spoons. This year, I’m using Fair Trade Coffee to make a fun spin on Tiramisu.
World Vision is an organization that helps sponsor children in need and helps fight world hunger through your donations. One of the ways you can help the organization is by purchasing products within their Gift Catalog, which allows you to give a truly meaningful gift this holiday season. The 2014 Christmas season marks the 19th annual edition of the World Vision Gift Catalog. In the 2013 fiscal year, more than 186,000 donors purchased more than 475,000 items that raised over $33.7 million. These items help more than 844,000 people around the world!
The catalog is filled with items for every budget ($16 to $39,000) that help children and families in need worldwide. The World Vision Gift Catalog offers an alternative (or addition to) traditional holiday gift giving. You can choose a gift for these families that fits your financial abilities and personal tastes. For example, a gardener may enjoy donating $17 towards hybrid or drought-resistant seeds, which is enough to feed one family. With a financial contribution, the gift giver can select from more than 250 items at www.worldvisiongifts.org, as well as Handcrafted Gifts for those who want to give a tangible gift to a loved one.
The Fair Trade Coffee I used within this recipe is available with a donation of $65. The 12 oz. coffee set is blended by OneCup.org, using delicious flavors from Ethiopia, Sumatra, and Costa Rica, and is delivered in a gift bag of African fabric hand-sewn by local women. World Vision Gift Catalog has offered to give a Fair Trade Coffee Set away to one lucky reader! Details after the recipe.
I used the coffee to make a strong overnight cold-brewed coffee to use in place of espresso in Tiramisu. Because I am visiting friends this weekend and always try to bring them a treat, I decided to make individual mason jar Tiramisu Trifles because they travel better than a large baking dish. I adapted a recipe from Food Network to make these Tiramisu jars.
Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
1 pound mascarpone cheese
1 1/2 cups cold-brewed coffee (recipe below)
1 tablespoon coffee liqueur
24 packaged ladyfingers, cut into small pieces (I cut mine into 1/6ths)
cocoa powder, for dusting
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate shavings, for garnish
I’ve waited long enough. It’s time to give in to the most wonderful time of year. No, not Christmas. Autumn! And the best way to really dive in to the season? Pumpkins, of course!
I love pumpkin. Like, really love pumpkin. I actually hoard Green Mountain Pumpkin Spice K-Cups around this time of year so that I can drink them year-round. From sweet to savory, pumpkin is just the best. I have so many pumpkin recipes on here so if you’re a pumpkin aficionado like myself, be sure to check them all out! (Just a sample of some pumpkin-filled recipes: Cheesecake bars, Flan, Whoopie Pies, Eggnog, Trifle, Ravioli, Bread, Soup… you get the idea)
So, I came across this recipe looking for a Pumpkin Brownie. Despite this recipe being called Pumpkin Brownies in the original recipe, it is most certainly cake. But who am I to worry about semantics? It’s still delicious! I added more pumpkin-y spices to give the pumpkin flavor a boost and added in some dark chocolate chips because, why not?
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Annually, OXO highlights this month with a program benefiting Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, founded by two OXO employees who’s son battled pediatric cancer. Cookies for Kids’ Cancer provides inspiration and support to allow anyone to easily get involved in fundraising to find a cure for pediatric cancer.
To show support, OXO will donate up to $100,000* to support Cookies for Kids’ Cancer through the sales of specially marked items, bake sale matches, and other fundraising efforts. And that’s where this post comes in! OXO sent me a set of cookie-baking tools including specially marked OXO baking products with this Cookies for Kids’ Cancer sticker:
But they aren’t stopping there. For every stickered item sold, OXO will donate 25 cents in support of pediatric cancer research as part of its $100,000* pledge to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. Look for specially marked OXO products at participating retailers in September. (Here’s a list of OXO products that include the sticker.)
* In 2014, OXO will donate up to $100,000 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer through specially marked baking tools, bake sale matches and other fundraising efforts. Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is a recognized 501c(3) public charity duly incorporated under the laws of the state of New Jersey. Your donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. 100% of proceeds raised by Cookies for Kids’ Cancer fund pediatric cancer research.
So my cookie-baking set came with a Cookie Press with Disk Storage Case, as well as a Cookie Spatula and a 3 Piece Spatula Set. OXO was even kind enough to send over their newest Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons! I have never made Spritz cookies before so I was really excited to try the Cookie Press out. Although Spritz cookies are typically thought of as a holiday cookie, OXO’s Cookie Press comes with plenty of other non-winter shapes, including a Leaf, Daisy, Sunflower, Buttercup, Fleur-de-lis, Butterfly, Shell, and Heart! (More winter-y shapes include a Bear, Snowflake, Tree, and Wreath)
The Republic of Tea is one of my favorite tea companies, their tea is so good! (One of my go-to’s is their Earl Greyer Tea) I also really like their packaging; the tins make it easy to transport and keep the tea bags more fresh than they would be in a box.
What makes this tea particularly noteworthy is that the caffeine content of this tea is enhanced with green tea extract and pure caffeine isolated from premium tea leaves, so it’s a great morning pick-me-up. This tea also has a natural coconut flavor and a touch of licorice flavor, making for quite the tasty tea! It’s really yummy with a splash of milk. To really enhance the coconut flavor, add a little turbinado sugar to your tea too. (You can now understand why my boyfriend stole this tea from me!) The HiCAF Toasted Coconut Black Tea is also gluten free, carb free, with no added sugars.
I love using tea and coffee in recipes and the flavors of this tea just begged to be used in a dessert! The inspiration for this recipe was a Sunset recipe for a Blackberry-Black Tea Sorbet. Because there is already a flavor of coconut in the tea, I wanted to further enhance that by turning this recipe for a sorbet into a vegan ice cream using coconut milk.
Making ice cream is really easy but it takes quite a bit of preparation. First, you need an ice cream maker. (Luckily my mom had one!) The bowl of the ice cream maker has to be frozen for at least 24 hours before it’s ready to use. For this particular recipe, the tea bags need to be steeped in the coconut milk, cooled, and refrigerated before making the ice cream. Plus the whole ice cream mixture needs a few hours in the fridge to get cold. Whew!
So, if you’re making this, be sure to prepare ahead!
#spon: I’m required to disclose a relationship between our site and Sara Lee. This could include the Sara Lee providing us w/content, product, access or other forms of payment.
My boyfriend and I were visiting friends this weekend and I wanted to bring a little something for everyone to enjoy. This month’s Cooking Light gave me the perfect recipe: Blueberry Coffee Cake with Almond Streusel.
Coffee cake can refer to two different dishes: a cake made with coffee, or a cake that is served with coffee. This coffeecake is the latter and can be served for breakfast or as a dessert.
Every Mother’s Day, I make my mom a citrus-themed dessert. She loves lemon desserts, so I’ve made Earl Grey Lemon Squares and a Lemon Tart with Raspberry Shortbread Crust in the past. This year, I decided to make cupcakes, specifically Lemon Angel Food Cupcakes!
I’m so ready for spring. I am trying to will the warmer weather to be here ASAP by making a bunch of spring-themed posts. Sara Lee must have read my mind because they contacted me about using their yummy pound cake in a recipe — what better way to show off Sara Lee Pound Cake than with a trifle?
These mini berry trifles use fresh berries, pound cake, and fresh whipped cream with lemon curd, making a yummy and bright spring dessert. I made them in mini trifle bowls but you can adapt this recipe to go in a traditional trifle bowl.
Ingredients (makes 4 mini trifles):
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 jar ( roughly 11 oz) lemon curd
1 Sara Lee pound cake, defrosted
strawberry jam
1 pint blueberries
1 pint raspberries
2 strawberries, halved
#spon: I’m required to disclose a relationship between our site and Sara Lee. This could include the Sara Lee providing us w/content, product, access or other forms of payment.
These Bourbon Truffles are another recipe I made for New Year’s Eve. I have actually made this a few times and have altered it slightly from the original Williams-Sonoma recipe to suit my tastes.
I lowered the amount of bourbon so that there is a hint to enhance the flavor of the chocolate without overpowering. (The first round of making these it was like taking a shot with every bite, whew!) I also kept having trouble with the coating (my chocolate kept seizing) so I’ve altered that a bit to make a smoother coating that’s easier to work with.
Here’s another delicious dessert I made for New Years Eve – Brownie Petit Fours. (You can read about my New Years Eve party and get a recipe for Honey Citrus Champange Cupcakes here) The original BHG recipe included bourbon, but I already had Bourbon Truffles on the menu so I decided to go without it in this recipe.
I was a little wary of making these little guys, petit fours seem pretty difficult to make. But I was surprised with how simple it was to make these!
Ingredients:
BROWNIES
1/2 cup butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons coffee grounds (I measured them out from a k cup)
Boy did I start my cookie baking late this year! I can’t believe Christmas is just days away. I was recently sent a beautiful carved cinnamon bark box with 3 oz of Vietnam cinnamon by World Vision so I wanted to make a cookie recipe that would feature cinnamon, so I had to make snickerdoodles! This recipe for Star Anise Snickerdoodles from Cooking Light adds ground star anise to traditional sugar cookies for a subtle different take on the classic.
World Vision is a Gift Catalog that allows you to give a truly meaningful gift this holiday season. The catalog is filled with items for every budget ($16 to $39,000) that help children and families in need worldwide. The World Vision Gift Catalog offers an alternative (or addition to) traditional holiday gift giving. You can choose a gift for these families that fits your financial abilities and personal tastes. For example, a gardener may enjoy giving hybrid or drought-resistant seeds to a farmer with a donation of just $17 to help one family.
With a financial contribution, the gift giver can select one of 36 items that you will get while helping a person in need. The cinnamon used in this recipe comes with a donation of $85. The wonderful people at World Vision Gift Catalog have offered to give another Prosperity Cinnamon Box away to a lucky reader!
More after the recipe …
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground star anise (about 2 pods)
It’s that time of year again! I signed up for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap again this year and got some great ideas for what to bake for Christmas!
In its third year, the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap helps raise money for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, a national non-profit organization committed to funding new therapies used in the fight against pediatric cancer, which claims the lives of more children in the US than any other disease. The swap raised $13,778.40 this year, raised through blogger participants donations and matching donations from OXO, Dixie Crystals, Gold Medal, and Grandma’s Molasses. The goal was $10,000, so to get nearly $4,000 more in donations is amazing!
So here’s how the actual swapping part of this works: I was assigned three food bloggers and made one dozen cookies for each of them. In return, I received three different boxes of cookies from other bloggers.
Last year, I received a batch of hot cocoa cookies that were SO good I was craving them again this year. So I decided to make some myself! The chocolate cookies are topped with mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, and a touch of grated chocolate. I based my recipe off of Rachel Ray’s Hot Cocoa Cookies recipe.
You can never have too many pie recipes during the holidays! This one for Caramel Apple Pie is a great spin on a traditional apple pie that adds caramel to really amp up the flavor. The recipe comes from Organic Valley and uses their Salted Butter, Whole Milk, and Eggs. Note: I was sent a coupon to receive one Organic Valley product for free.
Organic Valley is a co-op of organic farmers based in La Farge, Wisconsin. The cooperative was founded in 1988 and markets its products in all 50 states as well as Canada and Japan. Organic Valley promotes organic agricultural methods, with each participating farm certified as organic by the National Organic Program.
A problem I still run into when cooking/baking is I rarely read the directions all the way though before starting (a huge no no). So I made a completely different pie crust by accident because I got confused as to where the sugar and egg was supposed to go in the original recipe. Luckily it turned out fine (whew!) but for the original recipe, be sure to head over to the Organic Valley website.
2 pounds organic Granny Smith apples (10-11 medium-sized apples or 4 large), peeled, cored and cut into ½-inch thick slices (coat slices with juice of 1 lemon to prevent browning)
I love fall treats, but I can’t really justify making a whole apple pie for just my boyfriend and I; we would be eating it for days! So I love that this month’s Cooking Light had a recipe for mini spiced apple two bite tarts that I can also share with friends. I adapted the recipe slightly, adding some more fall spices. I also didn’t have any 1% milk on hand so I substituted heavy cream. I also topped mine with mascarpone instead of crème fraîche because I thought it would taste great with these tarts.
These are really easy to make; the most difficult part (a.k.a. most time consuming) is dicing the apples. But you definitely want to cut them nice and small so that they fit in the tarts. You also need a mini cupcake tin for this, but you can adapt it to make normal cupcake sized ones if you wanted, just increase the baking time.
Ingredients:
CRUST
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/3 cup very finely chopped toasted pecans
Baking spray with flour
FILLING
2 cups finely diced peeled Granny Smith apple (~4 apples)
With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I wanted to do a post about Traveling with Food and Drinks for Thanksgiving. My family meets in North Jersey for Thanksgiving, with most of us bringing a side or dessert along with us. My aunt and uncle who host Thanksgiving still get stuck with a lot of the work, but every little bit helps. This year, I am still trying to decide what dessert I will bring. Although my number one job is still to mix up my grandpa’s famous recipe for Bloody Mary’s; priorities! 🙂
Content and/or other value provided by our partner, Target.
My friends and I also met for a “Friendsgiving” last year. It was potluck, with the hosting house making the turkey and the rest of us signing on to do sides, drinks, and desserts. It was so fun to see a spectacular Thanksgiving meal come together as people brought in their creations, dish by dish.
Keeping cold foods cold and warm foods warm while traveling is crucial and can be kind of difficult. Also trying to choose what to bring can be tough too; you don’t want to bring something that requires a lot of assembly when you arrive. I have included some of my favorite past recipes below that would be perfect for Thanksgiving, along with how to pack up the food for travel. As a member of the Target Influencer Network, I thought it would be helpful to include some Target products that help make transporting the food and drinks a lot easier as well!
Drinks:
I brought this Applejack-Spiked Hot Apple Cider to Friendsgiving last year and it was a hit! Just prepare at home and fill a Thermos (like this 40 oz Thermos). If you want, you can bring a carafe to transfer the cider to for serving, or for short distances you could just use the carafe to transport as well.
Pumpkin Eggnog is the perfect way to enjoy the flavors of fall. This is served cold, so be sure to store it in the Thermos already chilled. You can stir in the pumpkin vodka before leaving, or keep it separate so that you also have a non alcoholic version to serve.
Every year around Christmas, my aunt and uncle serve Wassail, a mulled wine that is just so comforting. So why not extend its usage to Thanksgiving as well? This is best warm so keep in the Thermos. You may want to warm it up when you arrive as well. It works great kept in a slow cooker on low; this 2 quart Crock Pot would be great and not take up a lot of room!
Sides:
Every Thanksgiving dinner needs cranberry sauce! And there is nothing wrong with the canned version. But, if you want to add some pizzazz to your cranberry sauce this year, this Slow Cooker recipe is really tasty and makes a bunch.
The best part is that it is really easy to transport. Just spoon the cranberry sauce into a 24 oz. Ball jar, screw on the top tightly, and you’re good to go. Cranberry sauce should be kept refrigerated, so just pop it into a cooler, like this Igloo Roller Cooler, with some ice packs and it will stay cold while traveling.
This Green Bean Casserole with Mushrooms replaces the traditional canned mushroom soup and tops it with homemade onion rings. This can surprisingly travel pretty well! You just might need to reheat it when you arrive. I’d suggest putting it under the broiler for a minute or two before serving to crisp up the onion rings as well. The Anchor Hocking Bake ‘N Take is perfect for transporting this meal and any other casseroles you may have; the 6-piece set has 2 baking dishes with lids, a hot-or-cold pack and an insulated carrying case. You can cook the casserole in the baking dish and then transport it inside the case.
These Horseradish Cheddar Mashed Potatoes with Bacon and Apples are a great spin on traditional potatoes. The sweetness of the apples balances out the flavor from the Horseradish Cheddar cheese making this one people will come back for seconds (or thirds)! To transport, keep the mashed potatoes separate from the topping. Store each in an airtight container, such as containers from Sterilite’s Ultra-Seal line. You can make this a day or so ahead and just reheat when you arrive at your destination. After heating each component separately, top the mashed potatoes with the bacon and apple mixture.
Desserts:
These Mini Preserves Tarts can be made a couple of days ahead of time. My family sets up desserts buffet style, and everyone goes down the line taking a little bit of everything. These mini tarts are great for our set up, allowing us to have a tiny bite without taking up too much precious space on our plates. We can always come back for more if we want!
Because the crust can be a bit delicate on these, the best way to store them would be in a shallow container with a lid so that they can be arranged flat. I love using my Pyrex Storage Set to transport tarts and the like; I usually use the square containers and just line up the tarts inside. This Rubbermaid Food Storage Container would work great as well if you’re making a few batches!
Trifles can be a bit more difficult to transport but this Gingerbread Chocolate Pumpkin Trifle is worth the extra care. Be sure to get a sturdy trifle bowl like this Luigi Bormioli Footed Trifle Bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Be sure to bring some extra crumbs and pecans in case you need to fix the top when you arrive. If you are traveling a relatively long distance and need to keep it cold, put it in your cooler first and fit the ice packs around it. Add in a towel in the empty spaces to keep it from moving around too much.
These Nutella Swirled Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars are one of my favorite desserts I’ve ever made. They are that good! Traveling with them is easier than you’d think. You can either keep them in the container you baked them in, cover with plastic wrap, and cut when you arrive, or you can cut them up and place a layer in a container like the Ziploc Versa Glass Container. To stack additional bars, add a layer of wax or parchment paper on top of the bars, add more bars, and repeat.
Do you have any other tips for transporting food or have a specific food that you are trying to transport and don’t know how? Leave a comment below!
