Recipe : Chocolate Whiskey Cream Pie

 

Just in time to add a last min dessert to your Thanksgiving menu, here is the recipe for the Chocolate Whiskey Cream Pie I made for my husbands birthday, which is today. Happy Birthday my love!

The recipe is adapted from one I saw in the latest Donna Hay magazine.

Ingredients:
12 oz crunchy chocolate cookies (I used these, you can also make your own)
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 2/3 c. milk
1 c. light cream (18%)
7oz 70% dark chocolate, chopped (I bought 2 3.5oz Lindt bars)
7oz dark chocolate chips
1/3 c. light brown sugar
1/3 c. pure cane sugar, fine ground
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/3c. Jameson Irish Whiskey
4 large egg yolks
2 additional c. light cream (18%)
1/2 c. sour cream
unsweetened cocoa for dusting

Finely crush all cookies. Transfer to a large bowl and slowly pour in melted butter while mixing to incorporate. (You can also use a food processor for this step.) Lightly grease a ceramic pie dish, and press cookie mixture over the bottom and up the sides to create the crust. Refrigerate for at least 30 min.

In a medium saucepan, combine milk, cream, and both chocolates. Cook over medium heat, stirring until mixture just comes to a boil.

In a large bowl, whisk both sugars, cornstarch, egg yolks and whiskey until well combined. Whisk in chocolate mixture. Transfer to a clean saucepan and cook over medium heat whiling continuing to whisk, until mixture comes to a boil. Whisk for an additional 2 min or until thickened. Set aside to cool slightly.

Pour chocolate custard into pie crust, and place back in the fridge for about 3 hours. Shortly before serving, place the additional cream and sour cream in a medium bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. Spoon over pie, and dust with cocoa.  This is supposed to serve 8, but I found it to serve 12.

Enjoy!

Easy Pumpkin Pancakes

 

There are a lot of great pumpkin pie pancake recipes out there, but I opted for a quick and easy version this morning. I made my usual pancake batter, then set it aside. In a small bowl I mixed 4tbsp pumpkin puree, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ground ginger, and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. The add the pumpkin mixture to your pancake batter, and you can add a couple more tablespoons of pancake mix if desired. Then cook as usual. I warmed our maple syrup, and added a sprinkling of cinnamon to make them extra yummy.

If you have a little more time on your hands, Martha Stewart has a great recipe.

Hawaiian White Sangria

 

Happy Monday! We have been enjoying our last days of vacation spending as much time as possible with our family and friends out here. In fact, we had a nice bbq last night, feasting on local food and sipping sangria. We came up with our own concoction, and aptly called it Hawaiian White Sangria. It was super yummy, and so I had to share the recipe! Continue reading

Cream Cheese & Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

I had a major sweet tooth last night, and was craving some yummy chocolate chip cookies. I also wanted pretzels, sweet and salty is my favorite combination. So why not pretzel and chocolate chip cookies?! And what the heck, I had some cream cheese I needed to use up, that sounds like a good addition… right? Right. Continue reading

Making Dinner Fun For Kids With Spring Rolls!

 

Good morning! Many of you probably already know that I’m always trying to come up with creative ways to get Syd to eat and enjoy her veggies. Well this weekend I came up with a way to get her excited about eating raw veggies, including salad. We had tons of fun making spring rolls!

I filled the table with fun plates and bowls of carrots, rice, salad, chicken, and boiled eggs.

Then, I let Syd go to town building and rolling her own spring rolls. (with just a little help) Continue reading

Mini Grilled Cheese and Kale Sandwiches for Kids

 

We have an entire loaf of cocktail pumpernickel bread leftover from the birthday party this past weekend, and I didn’t know what to do with it. Then I realized, the cute little slices are perfect for fun kid sized sandwiches! Continue reading

Quick & Easy Meatless Pasta Dinner

 

Today Sydney and I are planning to spend the afternoon at the pool, which of course won’t leave me much time to cook dinner tonight. On these types of days, I have a go to pasta dinner thats fairly quick and easy but not your ordinary spaghetti dinner.

I start with radiatori pasta, it’s hearty and does a good job scooping up chunky sauces. While the pasta boils I prepare the sauce. First, chop and saute red, yellow, orange, and green peppers in olive oil. Once the peppers are nicely golden on the edges, add the sauce to the pan. Add a little extra drizzle of olive oil if you’d like. Simmer the sauce on low,  and add a can of drained garbanzo beans. My husband it a big meat person, but he loves this dish and as long as these beans are in the sauce, he actually doesn’t miss the meat!

I then add the cooked pasta to the pan with sauce, and toss. Plate and top with fresh parmesan and basil. It’s really a fast and easy dish to prepare, and everyone in my family loves it, even Sydney!

Do you have a go to quick dinner recipe?

Recipe : Pretzel Poke Cake

 

Woohoo! So happy it’s Thursday, Cola is feeling better, and the weekend is nearly here! Yesterday Sydney and I spent some time in the kitchen and baked a yummy summer treat. Jello Poke Cake and Strawberry Pretzel Dessert are two of my summer favorites. I found myself craving both, and so we combined the two and made a hybrid. It’s already half gone! Here is the recipe: Continue reading

DIY Homemade Salt & Sugar Scrub Gift

 

Good Morning! I hope you had a great long weekend. We enjoyed relaxing, and enough sun to last us the rest of the week. But now it’s back to reality and getting things done. While I get caught up, I wanted to share some of the sugar scrubs I made for birthday and Mother’s Day gifts this past month. Continue reading

Lunch Muffins, Getting Kids to Eat Veggies

 

We still struggle with Sydney and getting her to eat veggies. Chopping up some broccoli and sneaking it into her mac n’ cheese never fails, but I am always trying to come up new ideas. She never turns down muffins or cupcakes, so I decided to try and make some veggie muffin cups for lunch the other day. And it worked, she loved them! I just filled the muffin tins with dough; you can use puff pastry, crescent roll, or really any other kind of dough. I then filled them with a concoction of different veggies and added a couple eggs to hold it all together. Filled the cups, and popped them in the oven at 350 for about 15 mins. I have to admit, I quite liked them as well. They are super easy, and you can use whatever you can find in your fridge and cupboards. Get creative! Continue reading

Salted Caramel Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

 

So last night was girls night at our house, we watched a girly movie, gossiped, and ate cookies. It was a perfect cozy night in. I made salted caramel chocolate chocolate chip cookies, they were easy to make, and so so yummy to eat! I used this recipe from allrecipes.com, and changed it up a bit. I used dark chocolate chunks instead of semi-sweet chips, and added an entire bag of kraft caramel bits into the dough. Then, I sprinkled each cookie with coarse sea salt before popping them into the oven. Perfection!

Continue reading

Quick & Easy Olive Tapenade Recipe

 

Yesterday was certainly a fun and productive day, especially in the kitchen. We made a fun lunch, baked, and even played around with some homemade slime. I’ll be posting the slime recipe later this week! Any how, today I feel as if the craziness from the weekend is finally catching up with me. And, thinking about the weekend, I thought I’d share my go-to dish for entertaining at home or taking over to a friend’s party (which we did both of this weekend). Olive tapenade. Continue reading

Recipe : Guinness Chocolate Sauce

I actually discovered this sauce while making Guinness cupcakes a couple months ago. I couldn’t help but sample as I baked, and when I tasted about halfway through I thought, ‘holy mackerel, this would be fantastic with vanilla bean ice cream!’ And so I experimented and tweaked it abit, and came up with a rich chocolate sauce laced with that bitter Guinness flavor I love so much. Perfect for St Patrick’s Day! Enjoy! Continue reading