Picky Palate Giveaway

So, I frequent a really cute and totally mouthwatering food blog called Picky Palate. It is run by a woman named Jenny Flake out of CA, and she creates some of the neatest recipes I've ever seen. (I made ice cream sundae brownies from her site, and they were the best brownies EVER!)
Anyways, every so often there are giveaways on the site. This week, she has a giveaway for a $100 Visa Gift Card/Meal Makeover Kit and a Ragu Review. This is to celebrate that Ragu has packed TWO cups of vegetables into every half cup of sauce! Yum!
Head on over to Picky Palate and check out all the amazing recipes!

In-and-Out Tye Dye Cake

This one is from a while back! (Around a month and a half.) My cousin turned 16 in August (yay!) and she decided she wanted a family party... but not just any old party... she wanted a TYE DYE PARTY! *Confetti* Anyways, I love to experiment with decorating cakes, so I thought "What would be better than a tye dye cake for a tye dye party!?".

So basically, I got boxed cake mix (I had some in the cabinet already), and made it according to the boxes directions. Normally I use applesauce instead of the oil, but I didn't want to mess around with my cousin's birthday cake. Once the batter was made (and some necessary "tasting" had occurred) I was ready to make a colorful cake! I first scooped the batter into the baking pans (8in. rounds). After each scoop, I added a glob of gel food coloring and swirled it around. Every time I scooped batter in, I swirled a different color of coloring. This didn't change the entire cake's color, it just created a marble-like effect.






All baked and ready for the frosting!

The frosting was more of a challenge, but not too bad. I separated the frosting (a homemade recipe from my mother's falling apart edition of the "New Cook Book") into smaller bowls and stirred in food coloring to make it a solid color. I stuck with white for the sides and middle layer for simplicity's sake. I spooned the colored frostings in a bulls-eye pattern on the top of the cake, then took a toothpick and dragged it in and out and all about. At first I wasn't sure it was going to look good, but I loved the results.



I finished off the cake by putting leftover colored frosting in a bag and piping a border. FAUX-PAS: I forgot to stiffen the frosting before I piped, so it sagged a wee bit. Oh well, its all going to the same place (mainly, my belly).




Sixteen candles on that cake!


The birthday girl!


Okay, so she's not the best cake-cutter, but somehow it seems that this is the only way a cake like this should be cut.


Like I said, into my belly.

LONG TIME; NO POSTS

Ah! I'm sorry! I haven't posted anything in over a month!

My life has been so hectic lately! Starting college (oh no, no kitchen!), classes, independent living! It's insane! I have some old posts to tack up here, so those will be coming soon! Really soon (I'd rather blog than study for my Biology exam).

Blueberry Pancake Topping

*Shine, Shine**Sparkle, Sparkle*

Bonjour! Happy Tuesday evening to all!
So for this tested recipe I did a blueberry pancake topping. I've been buying pints of blueberries at the farmer's market in my town every weekend, so I really wanted to do something with them. They are so delicious at this time of year!

I found this recipe on a website called Hillbilly Housewife (classy, I know). It just one of those small random cooking sites with no pictures or pizzaz, but it gets the job done. After all, it gave me this recipe.

The ingredients go as followed:
-1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
-1/4 cup cool tap water
-2 teaspoons cornstarch
-2 tablespoons apple or white grape juice concentrate
-Dash nutmeg
-1 tablespoon lemon juice
-Dash salt


Well, get ready for my faux pas:
1. I ditched the salt, not on purpose, but I just did. No big deal, though.
2. I sized-down the recipe, as I often do, but my water measurments were all off.
3. This one is GRAND! It was early in the morning, so I grabbed my ground cinnamon (so I thought), but as you can see in the picture above, it was actually ground CUMIN. I PUT CUMIN IN IT. Luckily I realized it before I mixed it in, so I scraped nearly all of it off and then just ignored the cinnamon in the recipe. All I had were sticks.


JUDGING (1worst-5 Best):
Ease: 3
Time: 3
Taste: 4

I imagine that if I were more awake and alert with making this, it may not have taken as long, but it still requires boiling and simmering time.


Above: Plump blueberries waiting to be devoured!
Below: In the midst of making my topping.


Above: All done!
Below: Yum! Enough said.



Have a great week!

Claire Robinson's Dry Rubbed Chicken

Wow! Sorry about the long wait, but I had some major camera troubles that I was barely able to solve!

Anyways, the last recipe I did was Dry Rubbed Chicken, courtesy of Claire Robinson. I had originally seen it on her show Five Ingredient Fix, then about a week later I saw it featured in a pop culture magazine. It was a sign! I had to try it!

Here is the ingredient line-up:
-3/4 cup kosher salt, plus 1tsp
-3/4 cup light brown sugar, plus 1 tsp
-3/4 cup white vinegar
-3 tbsp dry barbeque seasoning
-2 large bone-in, skin on chicken breast halves (about 2 1/4 pounds)


FAUX PAS
Only a few faux pas for this recipe! I didn't have kosher salt (and it slipped my mind in the grocery store) so I used regualr iodized. I know that kosher salt is bigger, and less refined than iodized, but I'm no salt expert. In the end, the chicken was quite salty, but not too salty to eat (and still very delicious!). Perhaps the iodized salt had something to do with it, or maybe it was sprinkling the remaining rub blend on top of the chikcen, as the blend is also full of sodium! All in all, it was still great!


Here's the judging (5best-1worst):
Ease: 2
Time: 3
Taste: 4

While it is really tasty, there is a lot of preperation, such as creating the brine, soakng and then rubbing plus baking.


Above: The line-up: Only FIVE ingredients!
Below:Finishing the brine with some BBQ seasoning!


Above: About to bathe for a few hours.
Below: All rubbed up and ready to bake!


Et voila! The finished product!


Devoured! Plated with Rhodes Bake'N'Serve White Dinner Rolls and Sauteed Apples!

Below is the picture found on the web for this recipe:

No Posts.

Sorry, haven't posted in a while. In all fairness, I have been away without steady internet access for two weeks. New posts coming soon (possibly tomorrow)!

Un-Fried French Fries

First recipe! I found the recipe for these Un-Fried French Fries in a Food and Family Magazine (distributed by Kraft). The Recipe was pretty simple, with only THREE ingredients! Here it is:
1. 1-1/2 lbs baking potatoes (~3 medium)
2. 1/4 cup Italian Dressing (Recipe calls for Kraft reduced fat)
3. 1/4 cup Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese (Recipe calls for Kraft reduced fat)

Surprisingly, this recipe came with no faux-pas! It was very simple to carry out and easy to bake! My fries required no additional salt, the dressing adds the saltiness along with other flavors!

My judging goes as follows (5 Best-1 Worst):
Ease: 5
Time: 4
Flavor: 4

Above: Mid-Preperation, just before putting them on the baking sheet!
Below: Finished product! Yum!

Below is the picture shown in the magazine and on the website for this recipe... how does it compare?