Fresh Lemon Bars

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Hi friends! I got this amazing lemon bar recipe from Food Network - they are phenomenal. This is the second time I've made them and they were a huge hit. This recipe makes about 24 bars (depending on how big or small you want them) and they are almost all gone after a BBQ or party.

People have told me that they really like these, because often times people make or bring chocolate themed desserts to summer parties. This tart, citrus treat is a stark contrast to a heavy chocolate say, cake, and they find them refreshing and summery. Who am I to judge? Give the people what they want damn it! I also like the fresh crust  mixed with the tartness of the lemon - perfection.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

For the Crust:
Vegetable oil, for greasing
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, diced
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, plus more for garnish
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Filling:
4 large eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 8 lemons)


1. Make the crust: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with vegetable oil and line with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides; grease the foil with oil. Pulse the butter, flour, both sugars and the salt in a food processor until the dough comes together, about 1 minute. Press evenly into the bottom and about 1/2 inch up the sides of the prepared pan, making sure there are no cracks. Bake until the crust is golden, about 25 minutes.


2. Meanwhile, make the filling: Whisk the whole eggs and yolks, sugar and flour in a bowl until smooth. Whisk in the lemon zest and juice. Remove the crust from the oven and reduce the temperature to 300 degrees F. Pour the filling over the warm crust and return to the oven. Bake until the filling is just set, 30 to 35 minutes.

3. Let the bars cool in the pan on a rack, then refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours. Lift out of the pan using the foil and slice. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.


And you're done! I've done this recipe both ways - made them the morning of a party and the night before. I think they set better with more time in the refrigerator, but didn't see a huge difference in texture when I made them the morning of. I'm a big believer in prepping ahead of time, and these will be just as good (if not a little better) if you make them the night before.

Both times I thought of halving the recipe, but I'm really glad I didn't - people wanted to take the extras home because they loved them so much! That's a success in my book. This recipe wasn't difficult to make either. The only part that I hated was squeezing EIGHT lemons to get the cup of lemon juice - what a job! Once I tasted the bars it was worth it though.

Here's the original post from Food Network:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/classic-lemon-bars-recipe.html

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend - back to the grind! 

These Mini Cupcakes Look Like Ice Cream Sundaes!

Hi friends! My coworker and I made these for our boss's birthday, and they were of course a big hit! The three of us are all bakers (strange but true) so we wanted to knock these out of the park and make something really cute and fun.

They are mini funfetti cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting (not ice cream!), hardened chocolate, sprinkles and a cherry on top! These little things were a huge hit and were probably on everyone's Snapchat and Instagram feed by the end of the party. There's also something so awesome about making your own funfetti cake vs. buying the pre-made mix - it's so much better and super easy! You can also control how colorful you want your batch to be by simply adding more sprinkles.

As many bakers do, we did have a few challenges along the way though:

• The recipe makes regular sized cupcakes - we made minis. We cut all ingredients in half, and had to watch the bake time so we didn't burn them. I find myself making minis most of the time - especially if other dessert is present, it's unlikely that people will eat a whole, regular-sized cupcake.

• Getting the cherries to stay on the top was hard, guys! Since the melted chocolate hardens into a shell, it's a little tough to balance the cherry on top and have it stay there. We made the cupcakes and iced them the night before, then put the on the cherries right before serving. I don't think they would have survived the commute!

•  This isn't exactly a challenge per se, but this is usually a lot more icing than I would have normally put. Since it's supposed to look like an ice cream scoop, there is a lot of icing on that tiny cupcake! Could be too much icing for some people.

Other than that, i'm so glad we went with making these. For original recipe, click here.

Thanks for reading!

Tiger Tomato on Youtube - The Coolest Pancake Art on the Planet

Hi friends! I found this insanely cool youtube channel and wanted to share. It combines my two favorite things - art and baking/cooking. This father and son duo created the youtube channel TigerTomato - they create all different types of cartoon character pancakes and I can't stop watching their videos!

 

Sonic has always been one of my favorite video game characters!

I mean come on, how is this even edible?! It's so perfect!

Their tutorials are short, to the point, and so damn creative. (I never really mastered anything close to pancake art - just half-assed attempts at lopsided pancake hearts).

I love people who re imagine classic food items into something unbelievable.  Seeing these familiar characters appear on a frying pan is really super neat. To watch, here is the link to their site:
Tiger Tomato

See below for some still shots of their work. Count me as a fan!

 

Thanks for reading!

Making Homemade Pizza - What We've Learned

Guys - we finally got our pizza to be ROUND! Such a big accomplishment if you've ever made and rolled out your own dough. We've come a long way -> Click here to check out our pizza step by step.

Since my first post, our pizza game has definitely improved - technique, taste, crispness of crust, cheese to sauce ratio, etc. Here's some of the changes we made that seemed to work for the better (written by my husband and me!)

• We let the dough mix in the KitchenAid mixer LONGER. The key is when the dough actually starts to climb up the dough hook.

• After letting the dough rest in the mixer for 2 minutes, we did another 30 seconds in the mixer to make sure the dough really came together.

• Make sure you take the time to really knead the dough well by hand. It should be a smooth ball with no cracks. We think that this batch of dough was the best we've made so far, and may have contributed to our pizza being nice and round

• As I said in my last post - experimenting with different toppings is fun! This time, we made a new creation - buffalo chicken pizza! We cooked chicken breast in a grill pan and diced it really small. We used Frank's Hot Sauce as our buffalo base, and smoked mozzarella for our cheese. It was a fun alternative to plain pizza!

• Here's the biggest change we made - we cooked our pizza on the grill vs. in the oven. We used the same pizza stone as last time. My dad is somewhat of a pizza master (he's been making it at home for years and loves having friends and family over for pizza parties) and he exclusively cooks his pizza on the grill as well. We totally get why. The crust gets so crisp - something that was difficult to achieve in the oven. The grill also cooks/melts the toppings perfectly without burning the bottom.

• Our last tip is - have fun!! Take a day on the weekend that's not busy so you can relax and enjoy what you're doing. The end product is completely worth it!

My dad making his famous pizza! He always cuts up all his cheese and toppings beforehand to make it easier. He's experimented with so many different recipes and toppings - everything from sausage and peppers to ham and pineapple. We leaned a lot of pizza skills from him!

Thanks for reading guys! 

A Beautiful Trip - the Long Island Vineyards

Who says you have to hop on a plane to travel somewhere cool? We live in NJ, but my husband is from Long Island. I fell in love with the vineyards out there when we first started dating. The endless rows of grape vines get me every time. The company is always great. This year and last year we had absolutely gorgeous weather. And hey, WINE!!!

Here are a collection of photos from our trip over MDW. Below is also a list of my favorite vineyards in Long Island, and a little about each. Enjoy!

I mean seriously?! It doesn't get much better than this!
We were so lucky to have great weather!

My husband and I on this gorgeous day!

I call this my Betty Draper from Mad Men look haha

My brother and I!
This was at Sparkling Pointe vineyard.


 

Sparkling Pointe is awesome. Sparkling wines only!
The owners of this place are obsessed with Brazil - as am I.
The whole place is decked out in paintings and decor of Brazil.

 The inside of Sparkling Pointe. Not too shabby.

Our vineyards crew! Same as last year.

Always a great time with them!

Hanging out at Jamesport vineyard.
This was my first time there - I liked the rustic feel of this place.

 

I thought these were so pretty! 

We stopped for some fresh corn to bring home for our BBQ, and came across these fresh honey sticks.

The wine grape chart. Intense!!

Sigh.

Another one of me and the hubs.

Not a bad backdrop.

 

 Here's us at Duckwalk vineyard. Another one of my favorites!

We get a bottle of wine from here each time we visit (or 2...)

 Along our wine journey, we also visited Greenport Harbor Brewery!

It didn't hurt switching it up a little bit. 

This place was really cute - and you got to keep the little tasting glass!

 We all thought this giant roll of paper was a cool way to display the beer menu

 They had these neat tables made of kegs and wood blocks!

 
 Lenz vineyard is wonderful. We get wine shipped from here to our house.
A coworker suggested we visit, and it totally made sense why.
It's almost like Christmas when this package arrives at our doorstep!
Also - whoever does this chalk art is really awesome.

 This was my first time at Mattebella vineyards.
The name came from the owners' 2 children - Matthew and Isabella.
Their faces are even on the wine labels, even though the photo was taken about 10 years ago!

 My brother and his girlfriend, Steph! Drinking wine all day is hard work.

Favorites/Vineyards of Note:

• Sparkling Pointe – all champagne. Really pretty inside and big outdoor area, as seen in the photos above!

• Duckwalk North – great wine. We get bottles from here every time we go. More laid back vs. fancy. The employees are great and very knowledgeable about the wine.

• Lenz – the best wine by far in my opinion. This is where we get the wine shipments from every quarter. Smaller vineyard/more rustic but really cute. People bring picnics and stuff here.

• Martha Clara – great atmosphere. Our friend got married here – it was gorgeous.

• Raphael – really fancy and pretty. They have weddings and parties there.

• Vineyard 48 – this is like a party vineyard. Lots of young people, music, big outdoor space.

 Thanks for reading! Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

Mini Dessert Inspiration - Mini Strawberry Shortcakes!

 

I could not take my eyes off of this little treat - how adorable is it?! We went to brunch for Mother's Day to the Chandelier Restaurant in Bayonne, NJ. They had a beautiful spread of food, but I have to say the dessert bar was the most impressive. Aside from these cutesy strawberry shortcakes, they had an ice cream bar, various cakes, cupcakes, Jello, and even a chocolate fountain. Talk about eye candy!

I've always loved mini cupcakes - great for parties or large groups, people don't feel like they are eating "too much," pop one in your mouth and go. This little shortcake made me want to experiment with different mini cakes. To be continued!

Here are some more fun photos from brunch!

 My beautiful little cousin Laura getting her chocolate fountain fix!

Love this kid.

 Chocolate. Fountain. 

What is more awesome than one of this at brunch? Besides alcohol...

 Jello for daysssssssssss

The 4 of us! We are the best.

Thanks for reading!

Snickers Popcorn

Hi friends! I made this pretty cool treat for our company's bake sale - Snickers popcorn! Our annual bake sale is usually overrun with tons of cupcakes, so I wanted to try something different this year. It was a huge hit! All of my bags sold out! I tried to dress up the brown bags a bit - I got the hearts from Michael's craft store, and the popcorn tags I printed out from Pinterest. Now to the most important part - the popcorn!

This is what my kitchen counter looked like ha! Here is how to make your own, it's pretty simple:

Serves 10 people

2 bags of popcorn (I used bagged popcorn that had a small amount of salt and butter)

2 cups of chocolate chips or candy melts

10 fun sized Snickers bars

Parchment paper

Large bowl

Rubber spatula

• Make popcorn using your favorite method - microwave or stove top. 
• While popcorn is poppin, cut your snickers bars into small pieces. You want them to be small enough to melt easily. 
• Empty popcorn into a large mixing bowl. I split mine up in two bowls to make it a little more manageable. 
• Melt the chocolate chips or candy melts in the microwave until it's nice and smooth. We found that the more melted it is, the easier it is to work with. 
• Pour melted chocolate and dump snickers pieces into the popcorn bowl and use a spatula to combine. Mix until well coated. 
• Spread your mixture onto parchment paper to dry. Try to separate the bigger pieces that are clumped together with your spatula or a knife. 
• Let dry for about 45 minutes to an hour on parchment paper.
• If you are eating them the same day, shove them in your mouth. If you are making them ahead of time for a party or something, refrigerate them. 

Thanks for reading!