The Kari AnnAlysis

Archive for the ‘FOOD!’ Category

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to bake at least once a month. Yeah, that didn’t really last. I baked in January, for my cousin’s baby shower, then took a few months off. I have no excuse for the winter months, but for the warmer month’s I can blame that on our faulty air conditioner. If you even thought about turning the oven on, the air would just quit working. Good news, we got a new AC and I’ve been able to get back in the kitchen.

More good news? I have found some awesome cooking apps for my iPhone. That’s where I found the recipe for Berry Pound Cake. It is on the Campbell’s Kitchen app. Love it!

Ingredients:
1 box of pound cake mix
3/4 cup of V8 Splash Berry Blend Juice for the cake
1 1/2 teaspoons of juice for drizzle
2 eggs
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

Recipe:
*Heat oven to 350 and grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan
*Beat the cake mix, 3/4 cup of V8 juice, and eggs int a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3 minutes or until batter is thick and smooth. Pour into pan
*Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted in the center and comes out clean
*Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes
*Still the confectioners’ sugar and remaining juice drink in a small bowl until the mixture is smooth. Drizzle over the cake

Voila! That’s it! Now if you look at a picture of what this is supposed to look like, it’s much prettier than how mine turned out, but let me tell you, it was amazing, and it smelled delicious. It’s a nice little summer treat that is yummy with vanilla ice cream.

One of my 2011 Resolutions/Goals was to bake once (at least) a month. I am on par for my goal with one baking session in January.

I know I won’t have an event for every month of the year to cook for, but luckily, I had one in January that made me get a jump start. And it was my cousin’s baby shower.

Her second born, Lane, came to us on January 20. A week before, we held a small get together. Her big boy, Logan, wasn’t as thrilled. He said something along the lines of not wanting to go to his brother’s party. This could get interesting!

It just so happened that earlier in the week, a coworker brought in Oreo Truffle Balls. I had never stumbled upon these heavenly creations before, and actually ate 4 of them that night. I couldn’t stop myself.

I instantly knew those were what I wanted to take to the baby shower. I had no idea what my cousin was craving, but I knew that there was no way she could turn those bad boys down. So, I Google’d “Oreo Truffle Balls” and found a nice quick recipe.

 I’m not going to lie. This wasn’t my easiest baking endeavor. My husband is a master cook and walked me a through a few steps. Like crunching up all the cookies. We don’t have a food processor so we tried a couple of ideas. We started with the blender, yeah, don’t try that. We ended up doing the majority of the crushing with our handy-dandy little Magic Bullet. Let me tell you, this part was messy. We probably had enough Oreo crumbs on the counter and the floor for another ball.

Oreos mixed with cream cheese (notice I didn’t take pics of the crushing mess)

Oreos balled up and ready for the fridge

The next couple of steps were easy, then it got to the chocolate dipping stage. I have never done anything like this before in my life. Yes, I’ve dipped a strawberry or two in a little fondue kit I got for graduation, but I’d never melted chocolate before.

I read the instructions and started to melt, but it didn’t look like it was doing anything, so I kept the chocolate going. BAD IDEA! Follow the directions! Unfortunately, I scorched my regular chocolate. Luckily, I got white chocolate as well. It was supposed to be my drizzle, but ended up being my coating.

In the end, it all worked pretty well. I had about 30 Oreo Balls and they were all snatched up with many asking for the recipe. And little big brother kept asking people if they wanted some. I think he ate two. *Sorry mom!*

Mmm don’t those look fabulous?

Here’s the recipe from Food.com:

Ingredients:
* 1 lb. Oreo Cookies (3 sleeves – one whole package)
* 8 oz. cream cheese, room temp
* 1 lb. milk chocolate
* 1.2 lb. white chocolate
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract if you want extra flavor. Can also use mint (I did not use)

Directions:
1. Using a food processor, grind cookies to fine fine powder.
2. With a mixer, blend cookie powder, cream cheese and vanilla extract (if using) until thoroughly mixed. There should be no white traces of cream cheese.
3. Roll into small balls and place on wax-lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate for 45 mins.
4. Line two cookie sheets with wax paper. Melt milk chocolate and dip balls and coat thoroughly. With a slotted spoon (I used a fork), lift balls out of chocolate and let excess chocolate drip off
5. Melt white chocolate. Using a fork, drizzle white chocolate over balls.
6. Let cool then refrigerate.

As you could see from my pics, I used all white chocolate on mine. It wasn’t the intention, but it worked. I actually like white chocolate on them better. I think it brings out the flavor of the cream between the two cookies.

Tip: I like them much better when they are cold. After setting out for a couple of hours, they are still scrumptious, but there is something about when they are just out of the fridge that makes them melt in your mouth.

I seriously think I’m a 60-year-old woman trapped in the body of a 24-year-old girl (I still consider myself a girl, yes I do). I prefer to sit at home in my pjs, with a book and a cup of tea or coffee in hand than being at a rowdy party. I know, it’s a sign of growing up, but I went from 18 to 80 in the matter of a couple of years. I’m not complaining though. I get quality reading and writing time and quality picking on my husband time, which we all know if the best way to keep the marriage fresh. Nothing like a little staring contest on a Friday night. I stare at him, he does his best to ignore me

I get off on a tangent so easily! The point of this post is TEA! I guess I was trying to say in the above paragraph that I love tea! My dad makes a mean sweet tea that I’ve never been able to perfect and have given up on duplicating. But I am becoming a little queen of hot tea. Last Christmas, my sister-in-law got me a really cute red teapot that matches our kitchen. I used it a few times, but mainly just let it sit there and look cute.

But now….

This my friends, is my new teapot and new tea cup! These were souvenirs from when my husband went to Japan. I love them. The teapot has a strainer that fits right under the lid for tea leaves.

I apologize if I sound like a novice when explaining this, but, I am. I’ve always liked tea, but have been a tea bag in the cup kind of girl. But now, I’m getting into it! My only problem was, I didn’t have tea! And there weren’t many places in my area to get it. I’m sure if I searched far and wide and didn’t care to make a road trip out of it, I wouldn’t have a problem. But I wanted tea and I wanted it now. That’s where my friend Kelly came along. She’s been a tea kind of girl for years. I asked her what some good flavors were and she surprised me with these:

Kelly got these at a little shop in the Short North area of Columbus. I’m glad she dropped these off because even after I saw them, I wasn’t like “Oh yeah, that’s what I needed.” I would have been searching forever for tea leaves. It’s good to have good friends, with good taste and good tea.

I have tried a couple of these and loved them. I tried the Pomegranate White Tea, which I could drink every day for the rest of my life. It was so sweet and delicious! I also tried the Chamomile Lavender. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one and it was definitely different. I liked it and think with a lot my cups, I could love it. I was really spoiled by the Pomegranate first though.

Tonight my goal is to curl up with my Snuggie, my Nook, my laptop and a cup of tea and do some major reading and writing. And tonight, I think I’ll go with the chai! I’m actually a lot more excited than I think I should be!

I am a sucker for the flea market, especially in the fall. For some odd reason, fall weather just gives me the urge to go scrounge through other people’s goods.

The flea market in Gallipolis is held the second Saturday of every month. And since it’s the perfect time of year, mom and I had to take a trip yesterday. Thought I would take a little time out to share my finds.

Our first buy of the day were corn dogs. Unfortunately, mine was scarfed down so fast, I didn’t even have time to take out my camera. I didn’t make it to the 4th of July festivities or fairs this year, and I’ve been craving fair food all year. I was like a kid in a candy store.

But shortly after my brunch of a corndog, I found dessert.

If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you know I have a major obsession with pumpkin. I’m not really a pumpkin pie fan, had a bad experience with one that was a couple weeks old when we got it. But a pumpkin spice latte or a pumpkin whoopie pie and I am in.

I first ran across the whoopies a couple of years ago at our local grocery store. I got them every week that fall. And everyone laughed at me because the store called them “Pumpkin Blobs”. Once I gave my family and coworkers a taste, they fell in love.

Now these pumpkin whoopies above are the real deal. For $0.85 a piece,  I got one for me and my husband (so it really wasn’t corndog dessert) and I got them from the Amish. There were four or five Amish booths at the flea market with amazing baked goods. I am planning on saving it for dessert tonight. If I can last that long.

My next item is a pumpkin as well, but for decoration purposes, not eating.

I was never really a decorator growing up. Yes, I put up the occasional picture or two on the wall, but other than Christmas, my family isn’t really seasonal. I realized once I moved in with my husband that where they lacked in seasonal, I picked up. I have tons of fall, Halloween and Christmas decorations and I just keep getting more.

But I couldn’t turn this little punkin down! It was a whopping $10.  And I have little orange votives to go inside of it. And believe me, it’s already found it’s home on my bookshelf by my bed.

The little booth where I got this pumpkin had some amazing stuff. I can’t wait until next month where I can justify buying more fall decorations and maybe throw in an early Christmas one.

Now I did purchase one more item at the flea market, but it’s a Christmas present for my brother (great sis right?) and I would hate for him to happen to jump on the computer, find my blog and not be surprised Christmas day. He will love it though!

I also found a Christmas gift for myself. I pointed out a cute little Pandora bead ring to my mom. I know she would have bought it for me on site, but I always have a hard time making Christmas lists for the 6 people that buy for me (Spoiled? Better believe it!)

Are you guys flea marketers? What kinds of good buys have you found?

So I decided if I am going to keep cooking, might as well come up with a new feature. I think Kari in the Kitchen works well! I hope you enjoy it, but don’t expect it very often!

Today I have you for, my adventure in making lemon cupcakes with strawberry icing.

All of my ingredients...almost

First we start with the ingredients. I always like to take a picture of these before I start, and of course this time, I left out the eggs and oil, but you get the point lol.

Ingredients for the cupcakes: 1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist white cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake box
3 tablespoons grated lemon peel

Lemon peel

This recipe made me a little nervous. I wasn’t quite sure how many lemons to get, or even if I had a grater. I found a really nice one, must have been a wedding present.

Finished cupcakes

I only got three lemons, I would suggest at least getting 5 to get the full 3 tablespoons. I ended up having about 2 tablespoons, but the cupcakes turned out pretty good and you could still taste the lemon.

Icing ingredients

Icing Ingredients: 4-6 medium strawberries, hulled
1 container Betty Crocker Whipped Fluffy White Frosting

I wasn’t quite sure what the making of the icing was going to be like. I had to look up what it meant to hull something:

To remove the green stalk and cup (calix) from fruits such as strawberries, or the pods from peas or broad beans.

Yeah, that doesn’t help much. All you do is take a knife and cut around the stem to get it out, you cut down towards the center of the strawberry.

Mixing the icing

Once the strawberries are hulled, you put them in your blender, or Magic Bullet in my case (I love that thing).

You mix them until you get a nice little liquid mixture like you can see to the left in my mixing bowl. When you have that, you just stir it into the fluffy icing – and bam, strawberry icing! Who knew it would be so easy to make a flavored icing?

And lets eat!

Friends, there you have the finished product.  The one problem with these cupcakes, there is no easy way to eat them. I ended up eating mine with a fork. The icing was pretty sticky and I always transport them in my cupcake pan. I should get a travel case.

I hope you guys have a chance to make these. They are the perfect summer cupcake! Let me know how they go!