Tutti i frutti cocktail

On our last trip up to NYC we found this amazing pizza place with fried pizza (I thought pizza couldn't get better- but it can!) and these amazing cocktails. The restaurant is called Don Antonio's if you are ever in New York! Since we live a little far away from New York we decided to try to recreate them. The Tutti i Frutti had tons of fruit on it and was delicious! 

Here is our interpretation: 

1-1 1/2 oz dark rum

3 oz simple syrup

3 oz fresh squeezed lime juice 

1 tsp maple syrup

Pineapple purée 

Top with seasonal berries (we used blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries) 

Chop or blend the pineapple until the desired consistency. Combine the rum, maple syrup, simple syrup, and lime juice  and shake with ice. Serve over ice and top with pineapple purée and berries. 

Pungo Strawberry Lime Sorbet

One of my favorite parts about spring is strawberry season. We go out to Pungo to pick strawberries every year. This strawberry lime sorbet is the perfect flavor combination, the slight tartness of the lime counterbalances the sweet strawberry. 

5 cups fresh strawberries pureed with 1/3 lime juice until smooth

2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoon vodka (I used unflavored, but feel free to experiment with various flavors, etc.) 

lime zest (about 1/2 - 1 tablespoon)

1. Pulse strawberries and lime juice in a food processor until smooth (if you want strawberry pieces in the sorbet do not pulse as long). Combine berry puree, sugar, lime zest and vodka in large bowl. Stir on and off for several minutes until sugar has dissolved. (Or, to speed chilling process in next step, combine ingredients in a metal bowl set over a larger bowl filled with ice water.) Rub finger along bottom of bowl to see if sugar has dissolved.

1. 2. Pour mixture into small container. Seal and refrigerate until mixture is no more than 40 degrees. (If mixture has been stirred over a bowl of ice water, it may already be cold enough, and this step may be omitted.)
2. 3. Pour chilled mixture into container of an ice cream machine and churn until frozen, about 20-30 minutes depending on your ice cream machine.
3. 4. Scoop frozen sorbet into a container. Seal and transfer container to freezer for several hours to allow sorbet to firm up. (Sorbet can be kept frozen for up to 3 days.)
   
   
   The alcohol in the sorbet allows for a very creamy, smooth texture; however, the sorbet will never be very hard, even after freezing for several hours. 

Faux Bordeaux Candies

Our favorite candy company is See's Candies - but you can only buy it locally at certain times of the year. So we found a recipe and decided to try it out! This recipe is for faux Bordeaux candies, which is a brown sugar fudge covered with chocolate. The following recipe turned out quite well - I made a few minor adjustments to the original recipe I found that I personally think made it taste more closely to the real See's candy. 

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup salted butter

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

12 ounces chocolate (you can choose which kind of chocolate to use - dark/semisweet/milk, or do a variety) 

Chocolate jimmies

Melt the butter and brown sugar together in a heavy pan and stir to combine. Bring to a boil and boil for two minutes.

Use about a tablespoon of very hot water to dissolve the instant coffee. 

Stir in cream, vanilla and instant coffee and boil for another 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes. 

Add sifted powdered sugar to mixture and stir to incorporate. Chill mixture until it holds the shape of a small ball. 

After cooled, roll into 2-inch balls. Melt chocolate either in the microwave or in a double broiler and dip each candy in the chocolate. Cover with chocolate jimmies and let set - about 2 hours depending on the consistency of the chocolate. 

Cilantro and Lime Salad with Chicken

This salad is from the Nordstrom Cafe Cookbook. The salad is served in the Nordstrom Cafe and is one of my mom and I's favorite salads and we always make excuses to go out to Norfolk to get it! It is so fresh and delicious but very filling and satisfying. We've had the cookbook for a while but kept put off making it had home because it looked a little daunting because of the long ingredient list. We had an over abundance of cilantro so we knew that we had to make it- and it turned out to be pretty simple! We ended up making the vinaigrette a few days ahead and just kept it in the refrigerator and then assembled the rest of the salad the night we wanted to eat it. 

Chipotle-Lime Vinaigrette

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1 clove garlic, minced

2 teaspoons pureed chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup canola oil

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 ears corn, shucked and grilled or boiled

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked and julienned

1 1/2 cups diced plum or cherry tomatoes

1 pound mixed baby greens

2 cups grated jack cheese

1/2 cup chopped roasted red bell pepper

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup toasted salted pumpkin seeds

fresh cilantro for garnish

lime wedges for serving

Chipotle-Lime Vinaigrette

In a blender or a food processor combine the vinegar, lime juice, garlic, chipotle chile, honey, and salt and process until thoroughly combined.  Gradually add the canola oil in a steady steam. Add the cilantro and pulse or process to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Lime and Cilantro Salad with Chicken

To assemble the salad, cut off the corn kernals from the cob (you can also you frozen corn if its off seasons! ). Add the chicken, tomatoes, greens, cheese, and bell pepper*.

Top with pumpkin seeds and fresh cilantro and serve immediately with vinaigrette.      

*To roast red pepper, roast over a grill or a gas burner, about 2-3 minutes on each side, turning once black marks appear. After roasted, let rest until cool, and then slice, deseed, and chop. 

No Knead Bread

This is the first time I've made this type of bread and it turned out great! It was super easy and surprisingly few steps! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has been wanting to make bread but has been reluctant to do so because of the amount of time it takes. The no knead aspect of this bread allows for most of the work to be done over night and eliminated the second proofing, making it less difficult- but it is still a very tasty, crusty bread. 

I found the recipe for this on a blog called Simply So Good, she has great directions and tips. 

No Knead Bread

3 cups all purpose flour (good quality works best- like King Arthur) 

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon Instant of Rapid-rise yeast

1 1/2 cups water

In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, and yeast. Add water and mix until it comes together, it will not be neat/smooth, but don't worry. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12-18 hours. Overnight works great because you can just go to bed and resume work in the morning.

This is what the dough will look like after resting for 12 hours 

Heat oven to 450 degrees. When the oven is preheated, place a cast iron pot with a lid (or any pot that will sustain 450 degree heat) in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. While the pot is in the oven, turn the dough onto a well floured surface and shape into a ball. Make sure there is plenty of flour as the dough will be rather wet and sticky (and this is okay!). Cover the ball with plastic wrap and let rest while the pot heats. After the 30 minutes, remove the pot from the oven and drop the dough in, being careful, as the pot will be extremely hot. Also, be sure to keep the oven door closed as you are doing your dough transfer as to keep the oven at 450 degrees. Put the lid on and place in the over for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven and place on a cooling rack. 

I wanted to try the bread plain for the first go round, but this bread lends itself to add ins such as nuts, fruits, herbs, and cheese. I think tomorrow I am going to try a Cheddar-Chive variation and a Dried Cranberry-Orange variation. I will post about how they turn out!  

There is nothing better than a slice of fresh bread with a bit of butter and some good jam! Now I can't wait for spring to roll around so that we can start making our own jams again! 

Vanilla Raspberry Lollipops

A cold, snowy day inspired me to finally try making lollipops. I was stuck at home (it did snow a fair amount, and I'm not too fond of driving in the snow/ice) and had all the supplies on hand. It ended up being relatively easy, as far as candy making goes! 

I modified a recipe from Martha Stewart: 

- lollipop molds (or a non stick mat such as a Silpat)

- 2 1/4 cup granulated sugar

- 3/4 cup water 

- 2/3 cup light corn syrup

- 3 drops raspberry flavored oil

- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

- food coloring, if desired

- vegetable oil to spray molds

If using lollipop molds, spray lightly with vegetable oil, making sure to get into all of the creases. If you are not using molds, just use a non stick mat such as a Silpat, no oil necessary.

Combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a heavy bottom saucepan, and place over medium-high heat. If sugar crystals start to form on the sides of the pan use a pastry brush dipped in cold water to brush down the sides. Use a candy thermometer and cook the mixture until it reaches 310 degrees, the hard crack stage. When using your thermometer, make sure it does not touch the bottom of the pan as that will skew the reading. 

Remove from heat, and pour sugar mixture into a heatproof measuring cup with a spout (anything that is heatproof and has a spout for pouring will do the trick, its just not really feasible to pour from the saucepan). Add the raspberry flavor, vanilla, and food coloring if desired and stir with a wooden skewer or chopstick. Pour immediately into the molds or onto the Silpat in circles of desired size, then immediately place lollipop sticks into sugar. 

**If you have never worked with hot sugar before, I would recommend enlisting the help of a friend to place the sticks as you move onto the next lollipops. The sugar mixture will cool rather quickly, so it is crucial that you work quickly and efficiently. Another way to help manage your time is to make sure that you have all of the items you will need set out in advance before you start. 

Afternoon Tea

It's always been a tradition to have tea, whether for special occasions, while exploring other cities, or just at home with family and friends. My best friend, Gabby, will soon be going back to Indiana, where she is in a PhD program for Classical Studies, so I wanted to have tea before she left. 

On the menu was Pistachio Raspberry cupcakes (I made minis this time because there were a few other items, but I think the concensus was we prefer the regular size ones), cream scones, and currant scones. 

My sister Emily helped me make the scones and we had a variety of loose tea - English breakfast, blueberry, and apricot! 

Here are the recipes for the two scones. The cream scones are smaller, but you could cut the currant scones into rounds instead of triangles if you wanted them to be smaller as well. 

I like to serve my scones with lemon curd, raspberry preserves, and Devanshire cream. 

Cream Scones

Currant Scones

Dimple Stitch Cashmere Hat

The cold weather and my new found post-college free time had me thinking about getting back into knitting. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to make, so I just started looking at the yarns that we already had in our yarn stash and found this gorgeous pink cashmere. 

While looking for patterns I found this beautiful pattern on the Purl Bee blog that I absolutely loved and did not look too terribly hard! I love the Purl Bee blog- it is the blog for the knitting/sewing/craft store called Purl Soho in NYC. Coincidentally, we were taking a trip to NYC to visit my cousin Meghan this winter and a stop by Purl Soho was on the list of things to do, so I was extra motivated to start knitting!  

I ended up finishing my hat in the hotel in New York the night before we went to Purl Soho, and I was glad I did because it ended up being freezing cold and snowing that day! I was a little reticent to wear it out in the city as I have a history of loosing beloved homemade hats in New York cabs (to my defense I was much younger), but I was just extra careful and my hat has made it home safely and been put to good use during our chilly winter. 

That day we went to Purl Soho, and it was just as wonderful as I remember. I got an early Christmas gift of soft merino wool- which I will be using to make my next project- and had a lovely time just looking around at all of the different projects and yarns. We also had a lovely tea prior to going to Purl Soho at the Harney & Sons Tea Shop. It worked out perfectly because they were literally a block away from each other, and the tea was delicious. Harney & Sons was mostly a tea shop, but they had a small tea room in the back where we stopped in a had scones, tea, and macaroons, the perfect afternoon treat on a cold winter day.