Sunday, November 29, 2009

Every dog has its day....birthday day that is!

Here is a sneak peek on a project that I am working on for a client of mine. It's a birthday theme. Stay tuned....

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Holy Cannoli!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

If you follow my blog, you know that as much as I love fried foods. I am scared to actually fry foods in my house. The thought of the hot oil splattering all over the place. Don't get me started on trying to figure out what to do with the oil afterward.

Did you know that you can bake a cannoli? Yes, you read that right bake! My ears perked when I read the posting that cannoli. I actually complete the challenge two weeks ago, but my lazy butt only got around to posting the blog today.

I had to get all Macgyver for this challenge. This challenged required cannoli tubes. I decided to forgo purchasing cannoli tubes and used my mixing spoon and fondant roller as the tubes.

I filled the cannoli with mascarpone cheese flavored with pumpkin puree. Delicious. I love mascarpone cheese. I do not think I would ever go back to regular cream cheese again. The baked cannoli tasted like a cookie filled sandwich. When I get the guts to deep fry, I wouldn't mind giving this recipe a whirl.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Can you roll with me??

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

I had a feeling that Audax would do a sushi challenge because there were some previous challenges that Audax created that looked very sushi like. :)

This was a very fun challenge. I have been craving sushi and this fit the bill perfectly.

Preping the ahi tuna....

I heart my rice cooker....




















Sushi rolled and ready to be sliced. Now take a look at the finished product.


I made some california rolls to accompany the dragon rolls.
The husband was quite pleased with dinner that night. I finished the sushi making with a twist of my own. Fried chicken sushi roll. Sushi and some Japanese beer=a great dinner.