Christmas Cream Wafer

My family makes these every Christmas. These cream wafers are a tad time consuming but so darn addicting to eat. The cookie is very light & flaky & with the buttercream in the middle it really does compliment very nicely. Everytime I make these (and I do mean EVERY time) they are gobbled up in minutes. People love these things. If you want to try them out for yourself here is the recipe I used:

2 c. flour
1 c. butter

1/3 c. whipping or heavy cream

Dish of sugar

Mix, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out 1/3 of dough at a time, 1/8" thick, cut, coat both sides with sugar. Prick with fork about 4 times. Bake until set but not brown (7 to 9 minutes). Cool.

Filling I used the buttercream dream recipe. I don't even use a recipe anymore because I know it by heart, so I just toss in equal amounts of butter & crisco, powdered sugar, vanilla & Milk. Enjoy!!

Dark Chocolate Mint Cupcakes With Vanilla Buttercream

So I have been on a baking haitus lately & wanted to bake something to take into work tomorrow. I got my inspiration from fellow blogger Em at The Repressed Pastry Chef. Love her blog, her pictures & her recipes....especially her version of buttercream frosting. So tonight I made the cake recipe off the back of the Hershey's Dark Cocoa, put a little mint extract in (could have used a tad bit more) and then topped with vanilla buttercream tinted green. For the sprinkles on top I bought an Oreo pie crust & crumbled it up & used for the final touch. Mmmm these are really really good. Very rich and chocolately with a slight hint of mint. Definitely want a big glass of cold milk on hand.

Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cake Recipe

Buttercream Dream Frosting (thanks Em)

Bun Thit Nuong

I have a favorite Vietnamese restaurant that I frequent whenever I go to the North Market in downtown Columbus. I stopped by there one afternoon on a whim, having never had Vietnamese food, looked at the menu & picked what sounded best to me. That dish was Bun Thit Nuong. It's a mixture of rice noodles, pork typically however you can use whatever meat you like, fresh veggies (salad, sprouts, cucumbers, cilantro, carrots) and a yummy sauce. Well I found myself going to North Market just to eat lunch there, so I had to search around & try to find a recipe. Low & behold I found a phenomenal recipe & it tastes just like (if not better) than my beloved North Market restaurant. I just love the mixture of fresh crisp veggies, chicken & rice noodles mixed with the sauce. It's a very light type of meal but is VERY filling. Take a look at some of the pictures & read on for the recipe below. If you've never tried Vietnamese recipes let alone cooking, give it a whirl, you may just surprise yourself & find your new most favorite dish ever!

Chicken marinating

Lettuce, cilantro, cucumbers & carrots

The finished products All mixed together

Bun Thit Nuong

Thit Nuong

1lb. chicken breast, sliced thin

1Tbs. diced garlic

2Tbs. oyster sauce

1/4C. sugar

1/4C. fish sauce

1/4C. vegetable oil

1/2tsp. black pepper

Nuoc Mam (sweet fish sauce)

1/2C. fish sauce

1/2C. sugar

1C. hot water (must be very hot)

1/4tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1tsp. minced garlic

1/2 fresh lime squeezed

Bun (vermicelli or rice stick)

4C. rice stick/vermicelli

2C. bean sprouts (mung)

2C. lettuce chopped (I chopped up leafy romaine)

1C. cilantro chopped

1 carrott julienned

1 cucumber julienned

1/2C. chopped peanuts

hoisin sauce, to taste

Mix all Thit Nuong ingredients together in a large ziplog baggie. Add thinly sliced chicken and let marinate in fridge for 1/2 hour. While meat is marinating, add Nuoc Mam ingredients in a blender & pulse till sugar is dissolved (will be cream tan color but once settles will look amber). Set this sauce aside. Boil rice stick according to package (3 min) and drain. Remove chicken from fridge & cook either by frying in pan or broiling (I broiled and like this better) till done.

Assembly: in 4 seperate bowls place rice stick, lettuce, sprouts & veggies & cilantro. Top with chicken & chopped peanuts. Drizzle Nuon Mam sauce evenly between the 4 bowls & top with hoisin sauce. Enjoy!!

TWD: White Peach & Strawberry Galette

So upon hearing what this weeks TWD challenge was I thought "what in the world is a galette?" I ran to get Dorie's Baking cookbook, found the recipe & then went to my best friend Google to see some pictures. Looks like a pie without the sides or top. You can make a fruit galette with anything you'd like. I went to whole foods this weekend and got the most amazing, juicy white peaches & nice looking strawberries. I used a ginger marmalade to spread over the dough thinking it would be a great compliment to the peaches & I was right. The crust..........OMG the crust is soooo good. Really sweet, flaky & perfect. It's not as dense as a pie crust, definitely more light. When I took my first bite.........mmmmm the sweet fruit, creamy custard mixed with the flaky crust. A symphony of flavors exploding in my mouth. I will definitely make this recipe again. I am taking it to work tomorrow for breakfast (I had to try a tiny piece though first to make sure the galette tasted good). But if you feel adventurous, definitely give this a try. It does looks very impressive to serve.

Basil Pesto

Tonight I went over to my friends Shawn & Bonnie's house for dinner. They along with their neighbor Ryan have a huge garden this year. Well in the garden they have a TON of fresh basil. I went out & picked a bunch tonight & came home to make basil pesto. I like this spread on crackers & tossed in warm pasta, which I will probably do for dinner tomorrow.




2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
2 tbs. toasted pine nuts
2 tbs. freshly grated parm (I cheated tonight & used the shaker grated)
1 tbs. sun dried tomatoes
1/4 tsp. minced garlic (I just threw in a large clove)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
couple shakes of rosemary (I prefer fresh but had to go with dried)
1/4 cup plus 1 tbs, EVOO

Mix everything in a food processor except the EVOO. Once blended drizzle EVOO. You can add more salt/pepper to taste. Enjoy!!

Tuesday's With Dorie ~~ Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler

This is my first every Tuesday's With Dorie & I was so excited to make something I normally wouldn't have otherwise. I'm not a huge rhubarb girl, so was kinda iffy on how I would like this dessert. I had all of the ingredients except the rhubarb, so made a quick trip to Whole Foods (LOVE this place) and picked up 4 stalks. I picked these cherries myself from a family members cherry tree. This dessert is a sweet, slighty tart fruit mixture with a very light slighty salty biscuit topping. The first bite was really good, then going on the 2nd bite, I found myself picking out the rhubarb. The sweet fruit blended nicely with the fluffy biscuit topping. The topping is made with both all-purpose & whole wheat flour. A nice scoop of vanilla ice cream would be great, or I topped with some dream whip & sprinkled with cinnamon.

Buttercream Pretzels

Yes you heard me right. Buttercream Pretzels. I was sitting in the kitchen munching on pretzels trying to figure out what I can do with some left over buttercream I had in the fridge. I sat straight up, was blinded by the lightbulb & OH SNAP............why not put buttercream on pretzels. Yeah yeah I know it's not off the pages of Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig but who gives a dern....I popped one of these little pieces in my mouth & woooooooo doggy......the sweet creamy buttercream mixed with the crunchy salty pretzels was like magic in my mouth. Ah I'll start WW tomorrow...these are too good to just be all cute & pretty. Try it out & I bet you my 401k you'll love it.

Disclaimer: The above referenced comment about my 401k is completely false, however an addendum is in place that should I turn my 401k over to you for not liking my creation, you must take me in, give me shelter, food & water for the rest of my life seeing as I'll be in the poor house after giving you my loot. Deal? Oh I might add, I require steak & lobster, champaign wishes & caviar dreams, oh & a foot massage each night..........................Yeah I'd turn this deal down too :)