Sorry Ghostbusters. I know times are tough, but I think I’ll keep these ghosts around. A ghostly Oreo haunting is right up my alley.
Seriously, these Oreo truffle bites are SO good. Like, lick the bowl out good. And their chocolatey goodness comes from only 2 ingredients. So, delicious, easy, what more could you ask for?
Oh, they’re also freakin’ adorable. Continue reading
Happy almost-Halloween everyone! I love love LOVE this time of year. The time of year when my slightly (Ok, more than slightly.) odd love for all things strange can grab the reigns, and I can gobble up candy while scaring myself silly watching the commercials for horror films coming out soon. Yes, it’s true, I am not enough of a big girl to watch the actual movies, the commercials are frightening enough.
It’s also the time of year I get to post my Halloween series! This year there are treats both sweet and savory, time-consuming and quick, and those for the crafty and for the first-timer. Enjoy!
Sometimes you get that last minute Halloween invite. The one you didn’t see coming. So you pull your old Halloween costume out of the closet, and try to figure out what the heck you can bring that looks like you put effort in, but in reality took you less time than it did to throw together your disco-pirate costume. Sure, you say, like that’s possible.
This, my friends, is where the bat brownies come in. Continue reading
I have been so flattered by the number of requests I’ve received for a write up on this year’s Minnesota State Fair! The fact you are all reading my blog enough to remember I did a State Fair post last year is amazing, and now you want more. Wow! Thank you!
So here’s some of my new favorites at the State Fair, and a few tips on how to discover favorites of your own!
Sweety Balls – Potato Man and Sweetie
The guy who served these to me thanked me for not making a joke about their name. While it is a funny name, these deep-fried mashed sweet potatoes are no laughing matter. Drizzled with chocolate sauce and served with a side of whipped cream, these sweet potatoes are like nothing you’ve tasted before.
Even if you hate sweet potatoes, I’d encourage you to give these a try, they taste more like cinnamon than sweet potato and have a buttery texture that works beautifully with the crispy outside. A word of warning: These things come out HOT, so let them cool a bit before biting into one.
Cheesecake brownies…yum.
I was inspired to make these after a friend, and fellow belly dance troupe member, brought some her husband made for a pre-show costuming session. (Best husband ever, right?)
These were what I like to call “Oh Wow” treats. The kind of treats you bring into work, set on the designated “treats” counter, and watch as coworkers pass by and eye them up.
Eventually they’ll cave, the mid-morning/mid-afternoon urge to snack kicks in while they’re sipping some coffee and thinking about their next meeting or reminding themselves to remember to email so-and-so back.
This past weekend I got the chance to go to Minnesota Monthly’s GrillFest. I don’t know too much about grilling beyond the basic BBQ chicken or steaks, so it was exciting to see all the vendors and sample the creations that can be born on the grill.
There were vendors for grilling tools and toys (my favorite was the mini fishing-pole-style marshmallow roaster), wine and beer samplings and, of course, food!
There were local restaurants and caterers present as well as food trucks, and it was really interesting to see how many different ways pulled pork could be served. Sliders were also a hugely popular offering.
Top 5 standouts for me:
You’re going to notice a Nutella trend on this blog. I bought a jar to make some chocolate baklava and over estimated how much I would actually use.
To avoid sitting around and eating it with a spoon, I decided to come up with more creative ways to use up the rest of that jar. This cupcake was inspired by a crepe I love to get when in Paris – banana and Nutella. Seriously, best crepe flavor ever.
This is cake is denser than your average cupcake and holds up well to the richness of the frosting.
This recipe makes me think of my friends overseas for many reasons. But the main reason is this guy right here. Nutella.
I first had nutella on a crepe with sliced banana in Paris. It was truly the city of love that afternoon. Me and nutella. Soul mates.
My sister named these bars. You may think the name strange, but for her it’s tame. And it really is accurate. These bars come with a warning: if you make them, you will eat them all and your butt will get big.
Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything…
Anyway, this recipe is very special to me because it is my first originally developed recipe! Inspired by feed back from my previously blogged Monster Cookies, I entered it in Kowalski’s snack foods contest, all entries had to be unpublished originals, but sadly did not make the final cut.
However their loss is your (weight) gain, because I can now publish the recipe I’ve been sitting on (literally) for weeks now.
Now, I put the puns behind me (ha!) and reveal to you the Big Butt Bars!
I’ve always been a fan of Super Bowl parties. Not because I care too much about football, I’m really not a huge fan although live games are fun to go to.
No, I like the Super Bowl because it’s an excuse to get together with a bunch of friends in the middle of winter, get cozy on the couch and eat a few snacks. The Super Bowl is sort of like the New Years Eve of February, and I am always for a good party.
This year, I went overboard (really this shouldn’t surprise anyone) on the snacks. I just had too many recipes I wanted to try, and creating a cupcake that tasted like an Oreo was one of them.
I’m going to apologize in advance to you, my lovely readers. Half of the pictures that were supposed to be in this post were sadly lost in the great iPhone plunge of 2011. Sadly, all the gooey chocolately pictures were lost in the rescue attempt…but I would like to attribute the rest of the pictures in this post to a wonderful man named Dan at the Apple store who took pity on me and replaced my phone for free after that darn poltergeist I dropped it and shattered the screen.
This one’s for you Dan.
These treats are both tasty and disgusting, depending on how meticulously you choose to decorate them. If you can swallow (ha!) eating an eyeball, then you’ll be rewarded with the chocolatey goodness inside!
They were also tricker to make than I expected them to be. I’d never tried to coat my truffles with solid chocolate before, just cocoa powder, and before I figured out the trick of freezing them, I learned that dipping slightly refrigerated truffles in melted chocolate will only give you a giant mess. Oops. But a tasty oops none the less since I had to eat the evidence of my failure to maintain my baller rep.
Ingredients:
The Culinary Capers 