Gearing up for "V" day!

That's right, Valentine's Day!

 Shown above are some chocolate covered strawberries I made for a party last night. I used Ghirardelli - 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Bar mixed with Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Baking Chips. I have this small chocolate fondue pot that melts chocolate perfectly.  I prefer dark chocolate myself, but most folks like a mix of dark and milk. But I think I went overboard on the milk chocolate this time. Ah well, still tasted yummy! The pink drizzle is Wilton's Pink Candy Melts. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I like Wilton's products, but the candy melts are NOT chocolate. And they do not melt or pour like chocolate. So I had to rig a small piping bag out of a sandwich baggie. I cut a tiny snip away from one corner and it worked perfectly to make the cute drizzles. I got creative with them as you can see, hehe.

The strawberries have a slight glean to them because I stored them in the fridge overnight, and the moisture condensed on the outside. Its a quick way to get the chocolate to set up quickly, but it can make the strawberries a tad runny. I would recommend a short time in the fridge to urge the chocolate to set up, then store them in a container at room temperature. On to other V day goodies!

Today I made a batch of Rice Krispy treats. Since I'm taking them to a pot-luck, and its near Valentine's day, I dyed the marshmallows pink! I used one drop of red paste food coloring, and wow! I bought the food coloring from Williams Sonoma. Here is the mixture in the pot getting stirred up. I haven't made these treats in ages and I don't know why not. They are so quick and easy!!

Latest foodie creation - nutter butter snowmen

So I saw these cute Nutter Butter Snowmen on the browneyedbaker's blog that I read. I thought they were so cute and I wanted to give them a try. So here's my first attempt!

 I used Wilton brand white & pink candy melts. (I had left over pink melts, so I decided to give that color a go too.) The buttons are mini M&M's and the face is just ready-to-use black icing piped on with a #2 tip.  These candy melts are the ones sold in chip form that you melt in the microwave or double boiler and pour into candy molds. They are vanilla flavor so they should blend well with the salty & peanut buttery cookies. 

However, I have no idea how the browneyedbaker got her snowmen dips to be so smooth. The candy melts are considered "confectionary coating". (Which do not have the same properties and "pourability" as real chocolate.)  I was not able to get the melts to pour over the nutter buttters. I just had to dip them in, pick them up on a fork and tap off the access candy melt. That gave the smoothest appearance that I could manage. But I think they turned out pretty good otherwise, no? 

*Lesson learned: I will stick to using candy melts in candy molds. They are much easier to deal with that way because you can put the melts into a baggie or frosting bag and just pipe the melts into your mold. But I do want to try to make chocolate dipped pretzel rods. So maybe I will give the melts another try...

The crafty bug finally bit me again

Ok, so here's a pic of the homemade chicken enchiladas with green sauce that my honey and I made last week.

I don't use a recipe, we just wing it usually. This time we used chicken, pinto beans, cheese and pico de gallo for the filling. We stuffed all of that into flour tortillas (this dish is usually made with corn tortillas, but I prefer it with flour ones.) The topping is more cheese, a dash of the pico and green enchilada sauce. We use the canned version made with tomatillos. Yum!!  It was so good with the pinto beans instead of rice. Definitely a keeper!

And my friend and I finished her apron. Here's the finished product.

She is a novice sewer, so we both worked on the apron. The apron is based on this JoAnn's pattern.  Its the one I mentioned in a previous post. We ended up tweaking the pattern a bit. She wanted to add the brown band at the waist to give it some more appeal. And we added a couple inches to the width of it, because let's face it, we are not tiny women! I think it turned out great!!  I've already cut out fabric to make myself one as well. My theme is going to be blue colors. Can't wait to get it posted when I finish!

Homemade goodies

My honey and I have been trying to do more cooking at home to eat better and save money. I was digging through some pic files and wanted to share some of the stuff we've made over the last few months. Yummo!!

This is homemade pizza, the dough and all. (OK so we didn't make the toppings or the cheese...hehe) Since making this pizza, we did end up buying a pizza stone. We love it because it makes the crust nice and crispy while allowing the rest of the dough to be chewy. Although, we are having lots of trouble getting the pizza with toppings from the counter onto the stone. I think we are going to have to break down and buy a peel.

Here are the dishes from our Mexican fiesta night. We made the guacamole, the corn tortillas and the beef & turkey crumbles for yummy tacos. I really enjoy the freshness of homemade corn tortillas. My first attempt at using prepared masa flour went well. I ended up using a rolling pin to make the tortillas. Then I decided I liked the tortillas so much, it was time to invest in a tortilla press. Its much easier to get even, flat tortillas with a press.

Note: the links I've given are for Bed Bath and Beyond. I did purchase my pizza stone there. But I have yet to buy a pizza peel. And the tortilla press was purchased at a local mexican supermercado called El Rancho. (I really love that damn place!)