What’s in the Middle? The White Stuff.

Let’s not talk about the events of last night.

So instead I’ll just talk about the food that I just happen to make for this particular Sunday night ;)

I made two items to bring over to my friends place, and one I’ve been dying to make since I first tried it back in September!

Pizza Monkey Bread!!  Elina made it for a little after-work shin-dig that she hosted back in September, and ever since then I knew it would be the PERFECT food to serve for a party!  I’d been waiting for a good opportunity and I' finally decided that the Superbowl (there, I said it) would be the best excuse to eat little hot balls of dough stuffed with cheese and pepperoni! 

I used the same recipe she used, from Confessions of a Foodie Bride, and since I was also making a dessert, I opted to purchase the dough and sauce to make my life easier.

I grabbed a ball of plain and a ball of multi-grain pizza dough from Whole Foods.

I also used the suggestion of weighing out the pieces for uniformity.

Brian helped me with this one, and as I divided up the dough, he started flattening each piece and filling them with a slice of pepperoni and a chunk of mozzarella cheese.

Teamwork!!  I then coated each piece in garlic butter, filled up the Bundt pan, wrapped it in plastic wrap and headed to our friend’s apartment where I baked it up hot and fresh!

Not surprisingly this was a huge hit!!  I mean, who doesn’t love pizza in bite size form!      

I also made something on the sweet side.

I knew I wanted to make a dessert, and this wasn’t actually my first choice, but my friends rave about these cookies from Flour Bakery and I have wanted to try my hand at them.  Plus I love making something I know people will get excited about!

Oh-Oreo’s, Oh-Oreo’s,   What’s in the Middle?   The WHITE stuff! (sung to the tune of NKOTB “The Right Stuff”…no?  no one ever sang that version back in the day?)   Nevermind…

Here in the Boston area, Flour bakery is pretty well known for these replica’s of the iconic chocolate wafer cookie.  In fact, they sell out often!  I remember one time I went to Flour, and really wanted an Oreo…the line was so long and in the time I was waiting someone phoned in an order and took them ALL!!  I WAS SO SAD!

No more sadness now, because these are actually quite simple to make.

Lucky for you the recipe is online here!  The cookbook also has an option for a Peanut Butter filling, so I did half and half. 

The dough comes together pretty fast and easy. 

Lots of butter and chocolate!

I used salted butter for everything, and just omitted the salt that the recipe called for…I usually do this when I bake and everything comes out great.

I forgot to grab a picture before I added the dry to the wet ingredients, but the butter, chocolate, sugar, egg mixture solidifies fast!  It’s still very soft and workable, I was just surprised.

At this point the recipe recommends diving in with your hands to mix the dough.  Make sure you WASH YOUR HANDS GOOD FIRST…then dig in!

Once the dough is mixed, it sits out for an hour to firm up.  Then form into a log on wax paper.

The recipe calls for a 2.5” diameter roll…I wanted my cookies smaller so I just made my log longer and narrower…mine was just under 2” in diameter.

At this point it’s hard to get the long nice and round, mine was more of a long rectangle.  But once you wrap it up you can roll it out a bit, and from there you chill it for 2 hours, taking it out every 15min or so to roll it and make sure it’s not getting a flat bottom.

I didn’t do that every 15 min…I did it maybe 2 or 3 times during the 2 hours and it turned out just fine.

I did this the night before, and this was my dough log the next morning.

(so many jokes…)

Ready to be sliced into cookies!

I actually used my measuring tape and scored off 1/4” slices to get them roughly the same size.

I found that my cookies baked up in 16-18 min.

Once cool, I arranged them in pairs, and tried to match them up by size.  They are all fairly uniform but some definitely were bigger than others.

The filling was a simple butter cream…my FAVORITE kind!

Your standard butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, milk.  Classic.

I filled about half of the cookie pairs.

Then used the same bowl to whip up the PB filling.

I can’t pick a favorite, both were delicious!!

My Oreo-loving friends were thrilled! 

Kind of want one right now with some milk…  Good night!! 

What was the best thing you ate last night???

Mid-week Parties and Rescue Dogs!

One of the awesome things about having blogger friends, is blogger-friend parties :)  I mean, you know there will be an endless supply of delicious food and lots of stuff to talk about!

Tuesday night, Elina had a little party at her condo so that we could enjoy some time on her patio before it gets too cold!

There were friends, bloggers, and some blogger +1’s, not to mention a delicious spread of eats

warning: crappy dark iphone photos..

Off the top of my head, some of the delicious items were:

• Elina made pepperoni monkey bread (hot out of the oven), and Russian cheesecake pops!  Both were amazing.
• Shannon brought a savory cheesecake topped with homemade tomato jam.  That jam was delicious, we were brainstorming different uses for it :)
• Cara made some zucchini roll-ups stuffed with goat cheese, pistachios, and mint.
• Megan and Meghan picked up some tasty Whole Foods treats, such as slices of baguette topped with ricotta and sour cherry jam…this combo was AWESOME!
• I made a quick batch of Feta and Roasted Red Pepper dip the night before, and just kept it in the fridge at work during the day.

It was a beautiful night and I had a fantastic time talking with everyone!  The one downfall of mid-week parties is being extra tired at work tomorrow, but it’s worth it sometimes :)

Big thank you to Elina! 

The other thing I wanted to talk about was my Fur-baby.

Tomorrow marks our 1 year anniversary of when this little bundle of love came into our life!  (yeah I jumped the gun on twitter…it’s actually the 30th, but that was a Thursday last year!)

I just wanted to that this opportunity to just remind everyone that if you’re thinking of getting a dog PLEASE consider a Rescue!

Before I started looking, I didn’t know that much about Rescue dogs, and so I’m sure I’m not the only one.

I think sometimes the word “rescue” or “shelter” dog gets a bad rep.  Some people think it means troubled dogs, or dogs with behavior issues, or the not-as-popular breeds.  Now, unfortunately there are many dogs out there that are troubled and have issues…not that their born that way, but the poor things ended up in bad homes and weren’t properly cared for.  Still even some of those dogs just need a little love and attention to become your perfect pet :)

On the other hand, there are also TONS of dogs out there that were surrendered for nothing that they did, but simply that their owners couldn’t care for them for some reason or another.  Sad but true.  A lot of people get pets when they really shouldn’t or aren’t ready.

Sure, it might take a little more effort than just buying a puppy from a breeder or a store, but putting in that extra effort can be incredibly rewarding.  Even better if you find a great shelter or rescue to work with…they want to make sure to match you with the dog that best suits your life.  They don't want to risk someone ending up with a dog that they might take back to the shelter.

There are also rescues for ALL breeds!  I knew I wanted a Shih Tzu or something similar, so I ended up working with a rescue that focuses on small dogs :)  Getting all Rescued and Rehomed was very thorough and worked with me until we found a perfect match… 

This was him right after we brought him home:

I seriously don’t think I could have asked for a better dog for me and Brian.  I’ll still never know why he was brought to a shelter, but the woman at the rescue found him there (at a high-kill shelter) and brought him home to eventually come to his forever-home with us.

He was house broken, calm, loves car rides, LOVES to cuddle, always wants to be near us, we can leave him home with free range of the house and not have to worry about him getting into anything, doesn’t chew on anything except his toys, and just makes me SO incredibly happy every time I see his little face.

Well anyways…enough typing.  Just wanted to say how amazing this year has been with our newest family member, and it makes me that much happier to know we saved him :)

 

I think he needs a furry sibling… ;)

Dogs make me happy. 

Whole Foods for the Holidays

This past Wednesday, the Whole Foods Market on River Street in Cambridge invited a group of local bloggers to come check out and sample their affordable holiday entertaining ideas!

I don’t think most people associated the word “affordable” with “Whole Foods”, but if you look for their specials and deals you really don’t have to spend a fortune on their high quality food!  I think we all learned new ideas and money saving tips for entertaining that night.

p.s. I only had my point & shoot camera which looks so grainy to me now compared to my DSLR! 

There were 4 “stations” if you will: Cheese (!!!), wine/beer, appetizers, and dessert.

When I walked in, there was a brief description given of the cheeses, and I believe I spent the majority of my time hovering at that table ;)

But first…

Hors d'oeuvres:

Arancini

Chicken satay…I really liked this!  The dipping sauce was sweet but had a nice kick to it.

Behind the mushrooms were Swedish Meatballs which were delicious

After a quick check on the WF’s website, it looks like all of these items are $10/dozen.  These would be great to have if you were strapped for time and wanted to have some bites for your friends a little more substantial than just cheese and dips.

I think the money saving key here is to present the food as it was that night…cut into smaller bite size pieces.  1 whole arancini or meatball may be a bit much to stuff in your mouth all at once, and maybe you don’t want a whole piece of chicken on a skewer…esp if you might be tempted to double dip (!!).  This way the food will last longer and your guests can sample more items.

Beverages:

There were a few wines to sample, as well as prosecco and beer!

Did you know you can get a respectable bottle of wine at Whole Foods for only $3!?!!  I didn’t!

These are made by Three Wishes, and for $3/bottle you really can’t go wrong to have some extra bottles on hand for parties or last minute hostess gifts that won’t break the bank…heck give away 2 at a time!

The beer we tried was one that made an appearance at my House Thanksgiving… (picture from my old post, not from Whole Foods).  

For just over $10, this 22 oz. bottle would also make a great gift for your favorite beer lover.

My favorite drink of the evening, though, was a new Spanish wine that was only going to be available at this Whole Foods Market out of all the Cambridge/Boston area! 

 
(picture source)

It was a red wine with a bright flavor.  I got a nice fruit taste as soon as it hit my mouth.  I’m still a newbie when it comes to reds, so if you’re like me….and  can get a hold of this wine, try it.

It wasn't even released for sale at the store that night!  I DID go back Saturday though and purchase a couple bottles.  One I brought to a friends party and they all loved it as well!  This was also reasonably priced at $13. 

CHEESE…my favorite!’

Oh cheese, glorious cheese!  What would a party be without you!  So many delicious cheeses to try and I was pleasantly surprised that most of the table was dominated by goat cheese!

Like this..

a panko crusted goat cheese ball of deliciousness.  A bit greasy, but that didn’t stop me.

This is their affordable cheese tray!  (crackers and almonds added after I believe)

Basically for way less than you’d think, you can get a tray of various different high quality cheese all cut up and ready to be plated and served! 

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend my $10 on great cheese, than mediocre cheese with a few “extras” on the platter. 

This tray had Havarti, Brie, Danish Blue, cheddar, and cheese similar to an aged gouda.

My favorite, by far, was the gouda-esqe cheese.  It’s called Grana Padamo and was described to us as a cross between a gouda and a parmesan.  Amazing.

The cheddar on the platter was also special because it was TM Cheddar…as in “Team Member”.  The employees got to go up to Vermont to make cheese one day and now it’s sold in the store!

The other offerings on the cheese table involved items you can make from Goat Cheese…yes please!

Above, are 3 different spreads all made with a log of goat cheese and:

• olives
• oven dried tomatoes
• peppadew peppers -  these are a pickled pepper with a sweet but also slightly spicy taste.  I had never had them before and now I am HOOKED!  I even bought the peppers and cheese to make for a party this weekend!

Here we have goat cheese logs rolled in either candied walnuts, or marcona almonds.   

I basically had cheese for dinner that night and that is totally fine with me.

finally…DESSERT! 

A variety of mini pastries!  Even with a knife to cut them so we could try multiple items.

I had half of a refreshing sweet lemon tart :)

I wouldn’t mind coming to a party with this on hand…

These cupcakes were the Whole Foods “Two Bite” cupcakes that you can get in packs of 12.  They were taken out of the package, rolled in sprinkles and plated to look like a beautiful holiday spread…

I had a chocolate one and called it a night.   Cheese is filling :)

Now I believe Whole Foods new exactly what they were doing luring food bloggers into their store…I saw almost all the attendees with grocery baskets after leaving the event ;)

Thank you Whole Foods!