Sugar Coated Pecans

I enjoy all types of nuts but when I was pregnant, I cut them completely out of my diet. I had been reading some articles about how eating nuts while pregnant could cause your child to have a nut allergy. Well of course, I freaked out and cleared the entire house of all nut products. It wasn’t until my third trimester I felt comfortable enough to eat peanut butter toast.

Since I am no longer pregnant, I have been on the hunt to find as many recipes as I can that include nuts. One of my favorite things to eat are the roasted pecans that are covered in sugar that they sell in carts around the monuments here in DC.

The nuts actually help to satisfy my sweet craving so I am not eating cookies and cake. I also add a bit more salt then you see with the recipes on the internet this allows you to have the salty sweet taste. I can’t wait to try this recipe with some almonds. I used pecans this time around because I love the buttery taste of them and the sugar just made them that much better.

Recipe
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
1 pound any variety of nut ( I used pecans)
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoon salt (I like the salty sweet taste. You may want to add less if you want a sweeter taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees

With a whisk mix together egg white and water until combined. The mixture will have a froth to it. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, salt and cinnamon.

Add the nuts to the egg white mixture and stir to coat the nuts. Once the nuts are covered evenly with the egg white mixture add to the bowl with sugar. Mix until the nuts are coated.

Once nuts are covered with the sugar mixture spread nuts onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake the nuts at 250 for about an hour. Stir the nuts every 15 minutes, make sure you keep an eye on the nuts. If you have ever burned nuts you will know it is the most awful smell that takes forever to leave the house.

This picture shows the nuts after their egg bath and coated in the sugar mixture.

This is not the best picture but the nuts after ther are done roasting. I have already made two more batches!!!! Enjoy

Homemade Cheez-its

My husband and I are both trying to lose that baby weight we gained (only 10 pounds to go). In an effort to support my husband I have stopped buying snack foods, including cheez its, which are my husband’s favorite late night snack. I personally don’t like them I find them too greasy but whatever makes him happy.

My new favorite obsession is pinterest. You can find ideas for dinner, desert and multiple crafts. I can’t wait to try some of the awesome things I found. So the first thing I had to try was a recipe for homemade cheez its. The first batch I followed the recipe to the letter and found the dough was too crumbly and the cheese flavor a bit too mild. Therefore, I altered the amount of cheese and milk added. I do have to say this is now one of my husband’s favorite and I have already made two other batches with different types of cheese (cheddar and pepper jack). I am sure these will also be a family favorite in your house as well.

Recipe
2 ½ cups of cheese (cheddar, pepper jack, parmesan etc.)
¾ cup flour, you will need more for dusting and rolling out dough
4 tablespoons of salted butter cut into pieces
½ teaspoon salt and pepper
3 table spoons milk (this was perfect for the cheddar I would probably do 2 tbl for the pepper jack )
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a mixer, combine the cheese, butter flour salt and pepper. Mix until the butter is the size of peas and the mixture is course. Add the milk and mix until the dough forms a ball.



On a lightly floured surface, with a rolling pin roll the dough into a rectangle about 1/16 inches. An easy way to accomplish this is to place the dough in between two rulers and once the rolling pin hits the ruler, the dough is perfect. I used a pastry cutter to cut out the cheez its. I eyeballed the size of the cheez its. The recipe says 1x1 inch but I was running into feeding time and wanted to get them into the oven before I had to feed the baby.


Once the cheez its are cut place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Use a chop stick or anything with a dull end poke a hole in the middle of the cheez it. You can sprinkle with sea salt but I opted out because I used salted butter and the cheese is also salty.



Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the ends are browned. Remove from the oven and let cool. These will not stay in your house for long so make sure you get to eat some before they are gone.

Baby O is here

There have been many changes in the past couple of months. The biggest would have to be the birth of my daughter “Baby O”. She is the light of my life. I am lucky enough to have the next six months to spend with her. I already want to stop the clock because she is growing up too fast.

The good news is now that I am home for the next six months I have started to cook, clean, organize and do some projects around the house that I am very excited to start sharing with everyone again. Thank you for anyone who is still reading my blog I know it has been awhile but I promise to start updating on a regular basis.

I'm Back

Hi Everyone. I know it was has been a super super long time since I wrote, but I have a good excuse. My wonderful husband and I are expecting our first baby!!!! I am overjoyed and excited for this new chapter in our lives. I am done with my first trimester, and am finally able to eat without feeling sick and getting some of my energy back.

I don’t have the energy that I used to but I am starting to feel a little better. I have been able to stay up past 8 and have started to cook dinner again. I have not been cooking as much as I am used to but I have been doing many different crafts in bed. So, sorry but the next couple of posts are going to holiday crafts. I am super excited that this will be the first Thanksgiving and Christmas in our house. We ALWAYS travel to either NY or PA to celebrate the holidays with our families. While I love my family and I am going to miss them over the holidays there is something to be said about being able to stay home and be in your own house. I am excited to get a tree and hang up lights I cant wait.

The baby we dont know if it is a girl or boy but cant wait to find out.

It Has Been So Long

I am so sorry. It has been a crazy month. Work has been keeping me very,very busy but I have some great stuff coming. Again so sorry, but keep coming back I have some awesome stuff.

Shrimp and Grits

I have some wonderful co-workers on my current project. I feel like I have made some great friends and I am very grateful to have met them and having them in my life. My one friend is from the South and brought me a cookbook from her local town where she is originally from. I love southern cooking and wanted to try a traditional southern meal. Therefore, I made shrimp and grits.

My husband and I feel in love. It was so good. It is a very heavy meal calling for bacon and cheese but it was very worth it. I will admit the pictures do not make it look very appetizing but it was DELISH. I only have orange cheddar cheese so that is one reason why you will notice the grits to have a orange tint to them. But it was still delish. I am not going to post the recipe right now because I have some changes to it that I need to test before I post the changed recipe.

The grits, again I used orange cheese. My mistake but still is delish

The finished product. Loved it will be making it again very soon.

Second post for Pink Champagne Cake

So this is the 2nd part of the pink champagne cake post. It is a white cake recipe and added champagne to the batter to make it a “pink champagne cake” . One secret that I always do with my cakes is to slightly under bake them. It is so hard to make a cake from scratch that is both moist and not dry. You have to be so careful not to over mix the batter or to over bake. Baking cakes from scratch have been one of those things for me that I just can’t seem to completely master. This is either my third or fourth cake I have made from scratch and I still don’t have it down perfect.

As well as under baking the cake I try to under mix the batter. I keep an eye on the mixture and once I think it might be a minute or two of mixing left I take it off the kitchen-aid and pour it into my pans. I also do not use anything on my pans; I don’t add flour, butter or pam. I make sure that pans are non-stick and just keep my fingers crossed the cake does not stick.

Ingredients
18 tablespoons (2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
4 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising) I have used regular flour as well and it turns out fine
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 ½ cups Champagne
9 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 cups sugar

** The batter will be runny but it cooks really well. Just be aware that it will be somewhat runny.

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, stir together, milk, egg whites, champagne and extracts. Into a second medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. With machine running, gradually add the sugar. Continue beating until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary.

Add one-third of the flour mixture and one-third of the milk mixture, and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Add remaining flour and milk mixtures in 2 separate batches beating between additions to fully incorporate. Scrape down sides of bowl, and stir by hand to finish.
Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Smooth surface with a rubber spatula. I under bake my cakes, but if you want to completely bake it make sure a cake tester comes out clean when inserted.

Let cakes cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes. Run a small metal spatula around the sides of the pan, and invert cakes onto greased racks. Reinvert cakes onto cooling rack. Let cool completely before filling.

The cake when it first came out of the oven. You can see from the cake it is a light color like I said I under cook my cakes.

The second cake. Again you can see from the color I underbake the cake.

The cakes on on top of the other.

The finised product. So delish. Please try to mkae your own cake and let me know of any secerts you may have.