Friday, October 29, 2010

Happy Halloweenie!


I made these with a friend yesterday, via Bakerella's insight. Ours were nowhere near as great as hers, but they were fun to make and even more fun to share (READ: we did this in lieu of school work and then passed them out during our afternoon class).

Trick or treat everyone :)

What you'll need:

*brownies. (You can use cake mixed with cream cheese frosting but we decided to go the easy low maintenance way). We bought premade brownies- So you can too! Just make sure they are cooled before you begin the fun, especially if you make em yourself.
*candy melts, chocolate, etc. We used Orange and White Candy Melts that were white chocolate flavored. (You can cut the thickness of the metled candy melts by adding some vegetable oil- add only a little at a time!)
*lollipop sticks.
*edible Ink pen. I could not find this at my local crafts store, so we used a fine tip gel frosting tube and some tooth picks for application.
*pretzels. For the pumpkin stems, of course! Break em into bitty pieces as you go.

Step 1.
Make sure the brownies are cool. Are they cool? Okay, continue.

Cut into 25 pieces (for the math-delayed that is a 5x5. It's okay, I had to do it out myself :P)
Take each piece and roll into a ball.

To SHAPE: For ghosts, you want a kind of bell shape, with the bottom wider and flatter than the top. For punkins, you want little balls that do not need to be perfectly round! Lumps are good!

You want the result to be a fairly small brownie ball. If you have to split some in half and start over, do it. Smaller pieces are easier to dip and will result in fewer causalities.

Then, stick a lollipop stick into the bottom of each brownie ball.

The result



Step 2.
K, now we are going to dip/frost them! I am not going to lie, this is the hardest part. You will most likely have a few causalities (not that you would ever happen to purposefully make a causality so that you can eat it. No. That has never, ever happened.)

You will need to melt the candy melts/chocolate per instructions on the package, or using a double burner. Again, if it's too thick, add some vegetable oil, little by little.

Dip each brownie bit into the designated candy (white for ghosts, orange for pumpkins, or you could even get a little crazy if you want). It helps to have a spoon nearby to adjust the candy coating. It's okay if it's a little lumpy- both pumpkins and ghosts have some lumps here and there. Also, the quicker you do this the better. The candy can make the brownie pops heavy, which results in casualties.



Do this until all of the little brownie pops are covered. For the pumpkins, you want to also stick a piece of pretzel at the top like the stem. To do this, dip the pretzel piece in the candy melt, and then stick onto the pumpkin while the candy is still wet.

Step 3.
Put into refrigerator. After about 30 mins-1 hr take out and decorate your ghosts and punkins! You can make them scary, cute, funny, creative- whatever! After you are done decorating, you will have this






Step 4.
Enjoy.

Monday, October 18, 2010

A little late to the game but....



..it's fall! So why not go out and make something fall-ish, like sweet potato ravioli?


Doesn't that look good? Nod emphatically.

I tried this recipe from
A Cozy Kitchen last week and while it was my virginal pasta attempt, it actually tasted legit. It was definitely a good amount of work (as in the dough was stuck to my kitchen table for a couple of days) but it's worth a try.


I substituted almonds for the pecans, and used poultry seasoning in lieu of sage. Enjoy!

Oh Hey....

Woops. We forgot to introduce ourselves. We were too busy looking at the architectural displays of pancakes and autumn inspired ravioli. But really, who could blame us.

Well... my name is Vanessa. I'm a twenty-something year old professional student (read graduate student) who loves to spend time cooking healthy, natural foods! I then like to eat said foods. I am really big on finding useful yet healthy alternatives that people can supplement into their daily cooking. Healthy eating does not require that you sacrifice taste!!! I'm hoping this blog will be an area where such ideas can be organized and shared. If little else, it's just an excuse to cook and eat more food.... :-P

Aside from enjoying fine homemade meals, I also fancy myself a night out. So, we will be reviewing some of our go-to restaurants and maybe even some novel finds.

There may also be some random, miscellaneous blog posts involving the likes of art, pop culture, psychology, and research.

Hope you guys enjoy the blog!

Making Art with Pancakes



The other day my friend Jaime sent me this link.  I was absolutely amazed. The intricate detail that this guy puts into his tasty little cakes are unbelievable. 


Check out his other creations at http://www.jimspancakes.com/