white chocolate s'mores cake bars

I'm back! I didn't know I was taking a blog break until the holidays hit and I felt overwhelmed with so much going on (I know, we all did). I hope everyone had a great holiday and happy New Year! I spent the holidays in California this year visiting my family and could not have been happier. It was the first time my younger brother and I have visited my parents in San Jose since they moved this past August. And they took us on the full Northern California tour, we went to Pebble Beach and did the 17-mile drive of the coast, Monterey, San Francisco, Sonoma and Napa. Here are some of the highlights (thank you, instagram):

Cliff Lede Winery in Napa Valley

Golden Gate Bridge

Bi-Rite Creamery Ricanelas Ice Cream
(cinnamon ice cream with snickerdoodle cookie pieces)

Family time (don't ask where I got the blonde hair)

Cheering NC State on in the Belk Bowl

Never heard of these until I got to San Fran, they are ice
cream sandwiches made with oatmeal cookies, mmm mmm

Ok now we need to talk about these white chocolate s'mores cake bars. They are exactly as described and hopefully exactly like you are imagining! Oooey gooey doughy buttery cake layer topped with graham crackers, white chocolate chips, marshmallows, more cake layer and then drizzled with sweet condensed milk to give the top a slightly crispy, sugary outside. The recipe is easy to put together, the hardest part is waiting for the bars to cool before cutting into them. The best part about these bars, they are good cold, room temp or heat one up in the microwave and scoop some ice cream on top.

White Chocolate S'mores Cake Bars
recipe adapted from: Picky Palate

for the cake mix:
1 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

4 1/2 full graham crackers
10 oz bag of white chocolate chips
2 cups of marshmallows (I used regular size cut into chunks)
1/ 2 c. sweet condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 


Line an 8x8 inch pan with aluminum foil, this will save you a lot of clean-up time. Grease the aluminum foil lined pan. 


Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking powder until combined. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined. Add in vanilla and egg and mix until a dough forms. Press half the cake dough into the bottom of the pan. Layer with graham crackers, white chocolate chips then marshmallows. Top with remaining cake dough and press down evenly. Drizzle sweet condensed milk over top and bake for 28-30 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes and then run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the sticky marshmallow. Let cool completely and then remove bars from pan with foil edges. Cut into squares and serve.

salted white chocolate, pretzel and peanut butter cookies

Salted white chocolate, pretzel, peanut butter cookies. Do I really need to say anything else?

Two amazing food bloggers, Julie and Lindsey organized the first Food Blogger Cookie Swap where each blogger bakes three batches of cookies and sends them to three randomly assigned bloggers and in return each blogger receives three batches of cookies from three different bloggers. As soon as I signed up to participate in the swap, I had my mind set on a sweet and salty cookie. So here it is! These cookies are thick and chewy and really the perfect balance of sweet and salty. I sent my cookies to...

The Fromagette
House of Belonging
Red Pepper, Green Pepper

Hopefully they enjoyed them as much as I did!

After sending my cookies off, I couldn't wait to get my three batches of cookies in the mail. I obsessively checked my mailbox for an entire week waiting for the last box to arrive. After all that waiting, I was the lucky recipient of cookies/bars from...

Foodnook: Gingerbread Butterscotch Chip Cookies
Cooking with Nettie: Caramel Almond Revel Bars
Every Little Thing Blog: White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies

Go check out their cookie recipes, they were delicious and perfect treats for the holidays.

Salted White Chocolate, Pretzel and Peanut Butter Cookies
recipe adapted from Picky Palate

1 stick butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. white chocolate chips, to melt
1 c. plus 2 tbsp peanut butter
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. broken pretzel pieces
1 c. white chocolate chips
sea salt

Preheat the oven to 400F. 

Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Melt white chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter over a double boiler until melted. Add the melted chocolate mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and mix. Mix in peanut butter. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add to wet ingredients until just combined then pour in pretzels and additional white chocolate chips. Using a large cookie scoop, drop cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Gently press down each cookie and sprinkle each cookie with sea salt. Bake for 20 minutes or until edges become golden. Remove from cookie sheet immediately for soft, chewy cookies or after 10 minutes for crunchier cookies.

short ribs

Last week my mom came and stayed with me for a week in Charlotte and asked me if there was anything special I wanted her to make while she in town. Um short ribs please! Ever since my mom made short ribs for the first time, I have been a short rib fanatic. If I see short ribs on a restaurant menu, it's my go-to choice. Just last weekend I had a short rib quesadilla from the KoKyu BBQ food truck in Durham, it was seriously delicious and so different. Short ribs are a really tender piece of beef that you can literally break apart without a knife. It's not a meal that I can quickly throw together when I get home from work so it was such a treat for my mom to make them. I rarely cook red meat when I'm cooking for myself so it was a nice change from my usual go-to protein, chicken. It's easier and healthier than you would think, just make sure you serve them on top of a big spoonful of mashed potatoes. 

Braised Short Ribs

recipe from Food Network

6 short ribs (bone-in or boneless; you can find them at the grocery meat counter)

salt

olive oil

1 large onion, diced

2 celery ribs, diced

2 carrots, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 c. tomato paste

2-3 c. hearty red wine

2 c. water

1 bunch fresh thyme; bundled 

2 bay leaves

Preheat the oven to 400F. 

Season each short rib with a good amount of salt. Using a pot that is big enough to fit all the vegetables and meat, coat the bottom of the pot with olive oil and bring to high heat. Add the short ribs to the pan and brown 2-3 minutes per side. When the short ribs are done browning, remove them from the pot and drain the fat. Set them aside. 

Puree all the vegetables and garlic in a food processor until it is a paste consistency. Coat the same pot with fresh olive oil and add the pureed vegetables. Add salt to the vegetables and brown for 5-7 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen the vegetable puree and then add the tomato paste. Brown the tomato paste for 4-5 minutes. Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan. Lower the heat and let the mixture reduce down. 

Return the short ribs to the pan with the vegetables and wine. Add 2 cups water or until the water has just covered the top of the meat. Add the thyme bundle and bay leaves. 

Add the diced onion, ribs and carrots to a pot that is big enough to fit the meat. Cover the pan and place in the oven for 3 hours. Turn the ribs over halfway through the cooking time. Remove the lid during the last 20 minutes of cooking to let them brown and let the sauce reduce. Serve over mashed potatoes.

my grandma's biscuits

 

A little late but hope every one had a great Thanksgiving! My parents flew from California, younger brother from Raleigh, older brother from Singapore to all meet at my grandparents in Nashville this year. Our Thanksgiving menu always includes cornbread stuffing, dumplings, rolls, turkey, spiral cut ham, green beans, cranberry sauce and marshmallow covered sweet potatoes. I love it all but the stuffing is special because it has my grandma's homemade biscuits and cornbread in it. And my grandma's biscuits are the best. I know I might be biased but I like to think living in the South has taught me something about biscuits. Whenever we visit my grandma, we eat biscuits for breakfast every morning topped with a little butter and preserves (my favorite is blackberry). She usually makes a few batches of biscuits before we all get there and freezes them so she can quickly throw them in the oven for a quick, delicious breakfast to keep us all happy. It really doesn't get much better. I added leftover Thanksgiving salty ham to my biscuits with blackberry preserves the day after Thanksgiving, so good!

My Grandma's Biscuits
recipe originally from Southern Living

4 c. self-rising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 c. shortening
2 c. buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400F. 

Combine flour and baking soda; cut in shortening with a pastry blender or with your fingers. Add the buttermilk and stir until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Place ball of dough on a lightly floured surface and kneed 3 or 4 times. Pat or roll dough out to 3/4 inch thickness and cut 2 inch round cutter. Place on biscuit round on lightly greased baking sheets. Bake or 10-12 minutes.

To freeze these, put in an airtight container or freezer ziploc bag.

And I couldn't resist posting this picture from Thanksgiving with my grandma and brothers.

three- day coconut cake

I am guest posting on Whatever Dee-Dee Wants today, go check it out to get the recipe for this coconut cake!

roasted tomato soup & grilled cheese croutons

I am so anxious for Thanksgiving because you know what Thanksgiving means? Yes, good food and entertaining family time. But it also means in less than a month I will be listening to Christmas music and searching for the perfect Christmas tree. Pure happiness. In the mean time, I'm making soup and grilled cheese while dreaming about my grandma's turkey, marshmallow covered sweet potatoes, dumplings and biscuit stuffing.

The tomato soup is so fresh and flavorful and I'm not sure it gets much healthier than this, at least not on this blog! I used my George Foreman to grill the grilled cheese and made sure to get it extra crispy so it wouldn't get too soggy in the tomato soup. And if you like a little heat, I loved the spicy kick from the colby/pepper jack cheese slices in the grilled cheese. I think a pimento cheese grilled cheese would go great with this soup too. But the best thing about a grilled cheese is that you can use any cheese you'd like! 

for the tomato soup:

recipe adapted from Closet Cooking 

2 pounds of tomatoes, diced

1 red pepper, diced and seeded

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced 

4 gloves of garlic, unpeeled

olive oil

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp paprika

1 tsp oregano

2 c. chicken stock

1/4 c. heavy cream, optional 

handful of basil, chopped

Preheat the oven to 375°F. 

Place the tomatoes, red pepper, carrot, onion and garlic on a baking pan and drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Place everything but the cream into a sauce pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Puree with a hand blender or regular blender to desired consistency and mix in the cream and basil. 

for the grilled cheese croutons:

 (makes one)

2 slices of sourdough bread

2 slices of cheese (I used colby jack & pepper jack slices)

1 tbsp butter

Butter one side of each slice of bread. Place one slice of the bread in the pan/grill, buttered side down, and top with cheese and the remaining piece of bread, buttered side up. Cook until golden brown and crispy, about 4 minutes on each side. Flip and cook the other side for about 4 minutes. Cut the edges from the grilled cheese and cut into squares.