Cake Balls

For Valentine's Day, I wanted to make something sweet.  I chose to try out some cake balls.  They're super easy and really fun to decorate :)

What you'll need:
a box of chocolate cake mix (and whatever it says you need to make the cake)
a tub of chocolate frosting
a LOT of dark chocolate chips (probably two bags)
icing in a the color of your choice

Bake your cake according to the box instructions.
Once it's cooled, crumble it into fine crumbs.  Add the entire tub of frosting. (Yeah, that's right, the whole thing...)  Mix it together as best you can with a fork (or your hands...).

Roll into little balls.
Heat up your chocolate to 120 degrees in the microwave, and then let it cool to about 95 degrees. (This is called "tempering;" it makes the chocolate harden a little more cleanly.)
Dip the balls in the chocolate and then set them on wax paper to cool and harden.
Once dry, decorate!

Bizcuits.

It's a Southern thang - ya know?
Nashville is the home of the world's best biscuit (at The Loveless Cafe), but unfortunately that's like 30 minutes away from where I live so I just don't have time to eat those biscuits whenever I'd like.  So I thought I'd try to make my own.  I tried a couple of recipes, but these are the ones I like the best:

You'll need:
1 1/3 c. flour
2 T. sugar
3 t. baking powder
a dash of salt
5 T. cold butter cut into pieces
1/2 c. milk

Preheat your oven to 425 and grease a baking sheet.
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl so your biscuits will be nice and fluffy
Cut in the butter with a pastry blender (or crumble it together with your hands) until the mixture makes course crumbs.
Pour in the milk, stirring with a fork as you go, and soon a soft dough will form.
Roll out the dough about 1/4 inch thick and cut circles into it, either with a cookie cutter or a knife.
Bake until golden, about 10-12 minutes.
Enjoy with butter or jam or even mixed fruit and whipped cream!

Easy (and Skinny) Cookies and Cream Shake!

I'm indulgent and I love Oreos.  So here you go.
What you'll need:
2 c. fat free vanilla fro yo
1/2 c. skim milk
6 oreos

Throw the fro yo and the milk into a blender for a few seconds until creamy, and then add in the oreos and blend till thoroughly distributed.  If you want to spice it up, you could add mint extract or maybe even almond!

It's delicious.  It makes either one VERY LARGE glass, or 2 smallish glasses!
Throw some cute straws in there and you've got a precious treat for two. :)

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

While fall is rapidly approaching, I thought I'd sprinkle in another warm weather recipe that might be nice on those beautiful 70 degree days we've been experiencing.
It sounds a bit involved, but it only took me maybe 15 minutes to prepare and then you're enjoying it in no time.
You'll need:
1 full c. chopped strawberries
2 T. sugar
1 t. lemon juice
a pinch of salt
2 T. cold water

and separately:
2/3 c. sugar
1 c. very hot water
1-1 1/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
4 1/2 c. cold seltzer

To make the strawberry component, combine those first five ingredients in a blender. (I used my magic bullet.)  Puree until smooth.
For the lemonade, combine your hot water and sugar in the pitcher you intend to use (the water being hot will help the sugar to dissolve more rapidly).  Add the lemon juice, strawberry mixture, and seltzer.
To make a fancy glass, I used one of my squeezed-out lemon wedges and rubbed it around the rim of a wine glass and then dipped it in sugar.
Serve on ice or chilled.
Enjoy!

Orange Cranberry Scones

I promised a more exciting scone... and I'm delivering!
Okay, seriously, these were delicious.  So make them.

Here's what you need:
2 not quite full cups of flour
1 1/2 T. baking powder
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
5 T. butter, cut up
5 T. margarine, cut up
grated rind of 1 orange
1/3 c. craisins/dried cranberries
a little more than 1/2 c. buttermilk.

Preheat your oven to 425.  Grease/flour a large baking sheet.  Combine your dry ingredients in a large bowl and cut in with a pastry cutter until you have crumbs.

Add the orange rind and craisins.  Gradually stir in your buttermilk.
The mixture should be very moist and sticky.  It will be kind of hard to work with, but so worth it... your scones will be incredibly moist and tasty!
Roughly make triangles with the dough/batter on your cookie sheet and bake until the tops are hard, about 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

Scones!

My boyfriend, Jake, asked me to learn how to make scones... so I did!  They're not triangles like you'd see at Starbucks or something, instead they are more traditional; they're circles, like you'd find at tea time with the Queen :)  They're whole wheat with raisins... not very exciting, but they were DELICIOUS with blackberry jam.  I'm thinking of trying some different scones with a fruit in it.. maybe orange?  Stay tuned...

What you'll need:
1/4 c. cold butter
2 c. whole wheat flower
1 c. all purpose flour
2 T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
2 1/2 t. baking soda
2 eggs
3/4 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. raisins

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Grease and flour a baking sheet (there's a kind of Pam specifically for baking that has flour in it).
Cut your butter up into small pieces.
Stir up your dry ingredients (flours, sugar, salt, baking soda).  Then add in the butter and use a pastry blender (or your hands) to make big crumbs.
In a separate bowl, whisk your eggs and buttermilk.  Take out 2 T. for glazing and set aside in a small bowl.
Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients so that it holds together.  Stir in the raisins.
Roll out your dough, about 3/4 in. thick.  Use a circle cookie cutter to stamp out your perfect scones.  Put them on the cookie sheet and brush with your glaze.
Bake them until golden, around 10 min.
Enjoy!
They're real easy to split in half to put butter or jam on :)

Tropical Sangria

It seems summer is rapidly coming to a close, (I start graduate school tomorrow - eek!) so I thought I'd post one last fun summer recipe.  I made this a few weeks ago, and my boyfriend and I LOVED it and drank it for a few nights in a row... but watch out, it's a little alcohol heavy so it'll getchya!

You'll need:
1 bottle of Chardonnay (750 ml), you can use a different white wine, but a cheap chardonnay will keep it from getting too sweet
1 12 oz. can of frozen lemonade
1/2 c. of light rum (I used Bacardi because that's what we had on hand)
1/2 c. of triple sec
3/4 c. simple syrup (take 1/2 c. sugar and 1/2 c. of water and heat in microwave until completely clear, stirring occasionally, allow to cool to room temp and it will become a syrup)
1 20 oz. can of pineapple chunks in juice
1 apple, unpeeled, cored, and cut into chunks (I used a granny smith)
1 orange, in thin slices
1 lemon, in thin slices
1 c. strawberries, halved
1 can of lemon-lime soda (I used Squirt, but anything would work)

In a pitcher (a gallon size is what I used), pour in your wine, lemonade, rum, triple sec, and simple syrup.  Stir it up pretty good so that the ingredients mix together rather than separating.  Pour in the entire can of pineapples (including the juice).  Then add in all your fruits.  Stir and refrigerate -- the longer the better.  If you let it sit, the fruit soaks up the mix and becomes softer, and the flavors from the fruit mix in the drink.  Don't add in the soda until right before you serve so that it doesn't go flat.  Pour over ice.
And you're done!  Yum :)