An Apple a Day...

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Well, Maybe Not These Apples...

And even though they are loaded with brown sugar and butter, the indulgence is oh-so-worth-it! They certainly made last night's Oscars a lot more tolerable for two of my closest friends. Over-the-top dresses, acceptance speeches and baked apples never tasted so good! Here is the recipe, if you would like to try them at home!

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Ingredients

4 large gala apples

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup raisins

1.2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tbsp ground ginger

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375˚.  In small bowl, combine brown sugar, walnuts, raisins, butter, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.

2. Slice ½ inch off top of each apple. With small end of melon baller or small spoon, scoop out inner core and seeds from inside of each apple up to bottom. Arrange apples, cavity side up, in 9 x 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Fill each cavity with 2 tablespoons brown sugar-walnut mixture. Sprinkle remaining brown sugar-walnut mixture on top of apples. Pour juice around apples.

3. Bake apples 30 to 40 minutes or until desired tenderness, rotating baking dish halfway through baking. Spoon juices remaining in dish over apples and serve warm.

Back to Basics | Mom's Cake

After a long and exhausting week, going back to the old days of mom making my favorite cake is exactly what one needs. And since mom is about 5,000 miles away, the next best thing is making the cake myself! A great and easy recipe to sweeten anyone's day...

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• Raw almonds

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and sugar for about 3 minutes. In a small bowl, combine yogurt and baking soda. Add yogurt to eggs and sugar and continue beating. Add oil. Lastly, add flour and baking powder, one cup at a time and beating continuously until well blended. Sprinkle almonds on top.

Prepare your pans by greasing them and dusting them with flour. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Just make sure you don't open the oven for the first 20 minutes or else they will deflate! Enjoy! 

The Easiest Alternative to Fries at Home

If you are looking for an easy side dish alternative to fries, you have just found it! It is tasty and fun to eat as you can pull each slice out and dip it in a condiment of choice! Here's how to make it:

• Thinly slice almost all the way through a large potato
• Sprinkle potato with olive oil
• Insert small pieces of butter in every other slot
• Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper
• Bake at 425° for 50 minutes

Possible additions? I think a sprinkle of shredded cheese on top and some chives might make it even tastier! 

Product Spotlight: For the Cheese Lovers

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For the Days to Indulge

I could literally live on a diet of cheese, bread and butter (well, I may have to admit to the occasional piece of bacon too). I try not to over-do it but every now and then, I do indulge in those cravings. And when I do, I like to do it in style! Not too long ago I came across these trays - they are made of slate and solid wood. What I love about them is that they act as a chalk board, a priceless feature when you are trying to keep track of all those new cheeses you are trying and you have never heard of (which is pretty typical for me). If you like one of these beauties, you can check them out at my store!

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Brie & Pear Crescent Rolls

Ingredients

Brie Cheese

Crescent Rolls

Halved Pecans

Honey

Pear

An Easy and Delicious Appetizer 

I found the recipe for these crescent rolls on Pinterest and I thought they would be a nice and quick appetizer for any occasion. The original recipe calls for apples, but as I was grocery shopping, I just couldn't resist the pears and I thought they would make a great pairing with the cheese. 

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°. Roll out the crescent rolls on a baking sheet. Peel and cut pear in half then slice into 1/4" pieces. On top of the wide side of the crescent roll, layer a piece of brie, a piece of pear, top with two pecan halves and drizzle with honey. Roll the crescent rolls and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden. 

Try with a glass of Chardonnay and enjoy!

Rosemary and Toasted-Caraway Shortbread

Ingredients

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into ½” pieces

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup powdered sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

2½ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary, plus whole leaves

1 large egg, beaten to blend

Coarse sanding sugar (for sprinkling)

Recipe Courtesy of Bon Apetit 

Over the winter break, I made these rosemary shortbread cookies for a second time (the first time was for Thanksgiving) and they came out as delicious as ever. Until I tried this recipe, I had never made cookies that combine rosemary and caraway seeds (for some reason, I always thought it was a meat spice?!?). And even though the spice combination is rather unexpected, the resulting taste is really refreshing! Double bonus points for how easy they are to make!  

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. Toast caraway seeds in a small dry skillet over medium-high heat, tossing occasionally, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Coarsely chop; set aside.

Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and salt until very light and fluffy, 7–10 minutes (beating air into butter makes for tender shortbread). Reduce speed to low and add flour, caraway, and 2 tsp. chopped rosemary; mix just to combine. Dough will look shaggy and a little dry (it’s not!).

Press dough into two 8”-diameter cake pans. Brush with egg, sprinkle with sanding sugar, and top with rosemary leaves.

Bake until shortbread is golden brown and sides pull away from pan, 20–25 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let cool in pan before turning out and cutting into wedges or bars.

Do Ahead

Shortbread dough can be made 1 month ahead; wrap tightly and freeze. Shortbread can be baked 1 week ahead; store wrapped tightly at room temperature.

Make-Ahead Christmas Breakfast

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To continue with my favorite topic for the holidays (food)... I have been thinking long and hard about making Christmas Day breakfast delicious, presentation-worthy and easy at the same time (for 8 people nonetheless!). In my search for a solution, I came across an article discussing the art of making breakfast ahead. So here is what I came up with for our family! Most of these can be made ahead of time and the rest are a quick 5-10 minute preparation. You can click on each picture and get the particular recipe. Also, since I will have a very international family gathering, I thought it would be fun to include a bit of fun/trivia information per each food item on the Menu... 

Oh, About the Parfait...

Almost a year ago, I attended a Leadership Summit at the Houston Sorella hotel. During my three-day meeting, I must have eaten about 16 delicious yogurt parfaits which fueled my obsession of finding the perfect ingredients to recreate it at home. After trying 12 different yogurt/granola/fruit combinations, I finally nailed it! Here is what I use:

1st Layer: Trader Joe's Organic Vanilla Bean Yogurt; 2nd Layer: Trader Joe's Praline Pecan Granola; 3rd Layer: A combination of Raspberries and Blueberries. The most important ingredient is honey though. I pour honey over the granola and the fruit. Amazingly delicious!

Hope you enjoy!!