Grilled Jalapenos

That's right, jalapenos!  Unfortunately, I'm still having issues with my oven and thought you might enjoy a simple, yet absolutely DELICIOUS appetizer.  Once you've tasted one, you'll become addicted!  I came across this recipe on Tasty Kitchen and have been making them ever since!  There are only 3 ingredients:

jalapeno peppers

cream cheese

bacon

Cut the peppers in half and scoop out the seeds. (leaving in a few seeds will give them a little kick!)  I placed them on this great grill basket from Pampered Chef.

Fill the pepper cavity with a little cream cheese.

Cut bacon strips into thirds and wrap each pepper with bacon.  You can secure with a toothpick or leave as is.

Grill the peppers until the bacon gets crispy.

I didn't even have time to get them on a plate!  They went straight from the grill into our mouths!  One bite and you'll be hooked!

Pinkalicious

Well, my ovens are out of commission for the next two weeks while we're waiting for some parts from Thermador.  I'm having serious withdrawal . . . . already!!  Hopefully the problem will be fixed soon and I can get back to baking!  Until then, I thought you might enjoy the treats I made for my daughter's 5th birthday.

If you have a little girl, I'm sure this looks familiar.

Since it is one of Ava's favorite stories, I decided to use it as the theme of her party and make some Pinkalicious treats!

This was my first attempt at decorated sugar cookies.  Definitely not my best work, but not bad for a first try!

 The pink popcorn was simply a bag of Smart Food popcorn that I "spray painted" with this Wilton food color.  I spread the popcorn onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and just kept spraying and mixing until it was coated.

 These cupcake truffles were made using this silicone mold.

 I filled the cavity with candy melt that I tinted hot pink.  (To color chocolate, you must use oil based candy coloring)  Next, I placed a cake ball into the candy while it was still wet and then popped it into the freezer to harden.  Once I got them out of the mold, I dipped the top in light pink candy melt and immediately placed an m&m on top as well as sprinkled white nonpareils.

For the magic wands, I used the basic cake pop recipe and used a small, star shaped cookie cutter to shape the dough.  I dipped the pops in white candy melt and let them dry.  Next, I quickly dipped them into warm water and immediately sprinkled them with gold sprinkles.

And let's not forget the chocolate covered pretzels!

Instead of cake, we had pink cupcakes.  I used a boxed vanilla cupcake mix and tinted them pink.  Then, I used regular vanilla frosting from a can, tinted that pink as well, and put a few drops of cotton candy flavoring into it.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take close up shots of them!  

The kids loved everything.  

Ava was tickled pink!

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

For as long as I can remember, my brother has been a Vegan.  A few years ago, I decided to make him some cookies for his birthday and stumbled upon this recipe which looked very easy and contained ingredients that I already had in my house.  They were a huge hit among all my family members and they are often requested.

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

*1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

*To keep this recipe vegan,  make sure the chocolate chips do not contain milk.  I have found that the store brand varieties (in my case, ShopRite)  do not.

Mix together applesauce, sugars, peanut butter and vanilla until smooth.

Add flour, baking soda and baking powder.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Chill several hours.

Form cookies using a cookie scoop and then roll into balls.  Place on a lined cookie sheet.

 Flatten cookies with a fork and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

 The cookies will seem very soft when you take them out.  Transfer them to a rack to cool.  They will firm up on the outside and stay soft and chewy on the inside.

Teacher Appreciation

This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week.  The PTO at my kids' school is having a luncheon for the teachers and my contribution is the cookies!

I used my sugar cookie recipe and decorated them with lemon flavored Royal Icing.

For my kids teachers, I made caramel apples.

I started with Granny Smith apples.  I removed the stems and washed them with hot water to try to remove some of the waxy coating.   Then, I inserted wooden sticks that I purchased at the craft store.

As much as I wanted to make my own caramel, I just didn't have the time, so I used good old Kraft caramels.  I put them in a glass bowl with a little bit of cream and microwaved at 30 second intervals until they were melted and then stirred until smooth.  I dipped the apples and let the extra caramel drip back into the bowl.  Then, I set them on parchment paper sprayed with Pam and refrigerated them to firm up.

Next, I dipped them into milk chocolate candy melts that I melted in my Wilton melting pot.  I let the excess chocolate drip back into the pot and then immediately covered them in toffee bits. (Heath)

To finish them off, I melted pink, yellow and white candy melts in separate plastic bags.  I snipped the corners off and drizzled it over the apples.

Here they are all packaged up.  The cute tags came from Living Locurto.

Many, many thanks to all of the teachers at Hanover Elementary School!  Your hard work is greatly appreciated every day!