essence of roses

June 25, 2013

I am working on a menu for a charity garden tour, so I have been experimenting with recipes for both sweet and savory items that utilize flower and herb components. I fell in love with the combination of the Middle Eastern flavors of rosewater and pistachios when I made a Persian Love Cake. Thinking about the flavors of that wonderful cake and still having roses in my thoughts, I decided to try and create a rosewater meringue.

I was very happy with the result and wanted to share the recipe with you. This light and airy cookie has a wonderful essence of roses…perfect for my garden tour menu!

Recipe for Rosewater Meringues

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 whites from large eggs
¼ teaspoon rosewater (you can purchase bottled rosewater…if you make your own, be sure to use organic rose petals!)
1/3 cup finely chopped unsalted natural pistachios

Preheat oven to 175 degrees F. Line 1 large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sift the confectioners’ sugar twice to remove all lumps and divide into two equal portions.

Put the egg whites in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until foamy. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until the whites hold soft peaks. Continue beating while gradually adding one portion of confectioners’ sugar. Beat until firm, glossy peaks form. Add the rosewater and mix briefly. Sift the remaining confectioners’ sugar over the meringue and gently fold in until blended.

Scoop the meringue into a large pastry bag fitting with a large star tip. Pipe swirls (about 1 ½” wide and 2″ high) about 1 inch apart onto the prepared cookie sheet. (If not using a pastry bag, just drop the meringue by 2 Tablespoonfuls). Sprinkle the finely chopped pistachios over the meringues.

Bake until dry and crisp, about 3 hours. Turn the oven off and let the meringues cool in the oven for 1 hour. Serve immediately or cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 week. (And since I don’t have air conditioning, I can strongly recommend from experience to store your cookies in a cool place until you are ready to serve.)

This recipe was adapted from a meringue recipe in a wonderful book called Desserts 4 Today by Abigail Johnson Dodge that contains recipes for flavorful desserts using just four ingredients.

I hope you enjoyed sharing my rosewater meringues recipe. Thank you so much for stopping by.

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at Timewashed and Mona’s Picturesque.

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little cakes with big attitudes

June 21, 2013

Do you like cupcakes? For the second time, a Connecticut team won the top prize on the Food Network show Cupcake Wars.

SuzieCakes of Milford won the top prize of $1,000 and the opportunity to make 1,000 cupcakes for a Hollywood inspired poker party!

The bestselling “All About Ethel” cupcake at SuzieCakes in Milford, Connecticut, winners of Food Network’s Cupcake Wars.

Cousins Sue Schowerer and Darlene Delaney are the owners that create “little cakes with big attitudes” at the newly opened shop on River Street and I ~~wanted~~ needed to check it out!

After seeing the episode featuring the Connecticut store, I knew I had to feature it on a Friday field trip. Of course, this required tasting some of the products!

I sampled five different varieties, including the top seller inspired by the show I Love Lucy. Seeing themselves as a modern day Lucy and Ethel, Sue and Darlene named their bestselling cupcake “All About Ethel.” This tribute to Ethel Mertz is a chocolate cake filled with peanut butter mousse, topped with chocolate mascarpone frosting, and finished off with a mini peanut butter cup. Intense!

But, my favorite was a different chocolate and peanut butter creation called “Mail Guy.” A chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and caramel drizzle garnished with a chocolate dipped pretzel and crunchy pretzel salt.

The shop features some of their most popular flavors on a daily basis, but also rotates additional flavors each day. I decided I need to go back on a Wednesday to try a “Rosie.” This is a pistachio and rosewater cupcake with rosewater buttercream, custard filling, dark honey/vanilla buttercream and crushed pistachios on top. Sounds wonderful! If you find yourself in the vicinity of Milford, the shop is definitely worth an exploratory visit. ;) Bet you can’t try just one!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed Friday field trip to Cupcake Wars winner SuzieCakes in Milford, Connecticut.

Remember to take pleasure in simple things and have a wonderful weekend, Jackie

Sharing at The Tablescaper, and Crafts a la mode.

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diy patriotic spoons

June 11, 2013

We make a lot of hand churned ice cream in my family and the batches are huge…so, ultimately we eat a lot of ice cream also. A really fun thing to do when serving ice-cream, particularly at the beach, is to decorate disposable spoons for the occasion. This is a fun and easy way to add a festive spirit to your beach or yard get together.

For our upcoming Fourth of July bash on the beach, spoons of the patriotic variety are in order!

I am providing some easy DIY directions for you to make patriotic spoons, but there are so many more ways you can personalize spoons with your own colors or themes just by using different colors, motifs, or letters…so be sure to experiment!

Here are the supplies my project required:

disposable wooden spoons*
permanent stamp pad ink in red and blue
a sponge cut into a thin rectangle, approximately ½” wide and at least 1” long
a pencil with an unused eraser
an X-Acto knife
natural twine
red & white baker’s twine
glue

I used the X-Acto knife to very carefully cut a star shape into the eraser of the pencil to use as a stamp. Then I cut a strip of sponge ½’ wide to use as my stripe stamp.

These two stamps will serve as the way to imprint the stars and stripes on the handles of my spoons.

Using the stamp pad ink, I added the stripes and stars to the spoons using my stamps. Using permanent ink ensures the ink doesn’t come off on hands or clothes should the spoon handles get wet.

Striped disposable spoons are easy to make and give a festive flair to any get together!

For a fun addition, I added some twine “finger grips” to some of the spoons by simply wrapping twine around the spoon a few times – adding a dot of glue on the beginning and ending spot of the twine.

That’s it! Easy, right? And so cute! They are hard to throw away!

Going back for seconds on the ice-cream? Don’t want to lose a favorite spoon? You can always wear your spoon as a necklace ; ) … just add some extra twine! Problem solved.

Hope you enjoyed this easy tutorial on making patriotic spoons for your Fourth of July shindig! You can easily make up some forks and knives also!

*P.S. I get my spoons at Garnish.

Thanks so much for visiting! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at City Farmhouse, The Shabby Nest, Finding Silver Pennies, and Craftberry Bush.

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patriotic marshmallows

May 21, 2013

The patriotic holidays always motivate people to create red, white, and blue food creations. Who hasn’t made a flag atop a cake using strawberries and blueberries? Watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries can all become elements of the creative process come Memorial Day or the 4th of July.

Me? Although I have been know to make a red, white, and blue fruit skewer, I am more apt to cut food into star shapes (like in this watermelon salad) or use linens to create the patriotic spirit.

But, with Memorial Day so close, I used some red, white, and blue sprinkles as an easy way to add a little patriotic flair to these simple-to-make marshmallow sweets. Perfect for a post-parade picnic and sure to be a hit with kids of all ages!

This marshmallow creation came about after receiving a gift of the extra large marshmallows from my mom last year…seems like a strange gift? Not really. It was motivated by my love of gourmet s’mores. I found the marshmallows were too big to create the correct proportions for my ideal s’more.

So, in experimenting with how to use the extra large variety marshmallow in the best way, I came up with marshmallows on a pretzel stick dipped in white chocolate…the white chocolate and extra large marshmallow are the perfect combination! The extra large marshmallow makes for the perfect proportion of marshmallow to chocolate ratio. For Memorial Day, I just added a few sprinkles.

Do you have a favorite way to make a picnic food patriotic for Memorial Day?

Thanks for visiting.

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at A Pinch of Joy, Craftberry Bush, Little Red House, and Coastal Charm.

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a hip brunch in philly

May 17, 2013

peanut butter chocolate dessert tapas at Continental Mid-town in Philly

Enjoying the tapas-style desserts at The Continental Mid-town in Philadelphia.

When you say the name Stephen Starr in Philly, it means two things: good food and long lines. Starr is the restaurateur who owns over a dozen restaurants in the city – all hot spots. For this week’s Friday field trip, we are visiting one of Starr’s restaurants.

On my last trip to Philadelphia, we were looking for a different place to go to brunch and decided on The Continental Mid-town. We knew it was a Stephen Starr restaurant and that was enough of a recommendation.

Trendy, fun, and looking like a perfect set for a Mad Men episode, Continental is easy to spot by the big martini olive adorning the outside corner of the restaurant.

We were in a breakfast mood, and ordered some ‘brunchy’ type food, but with all the creative tapas-style desserts on the menu, we couldn’t resist trying some out after our meal – which ended up being our favorite part since we felt justified in ordering several ‘tastes’!

s'more dessert tapas at The Continental Mid-town in Philly

A S’more tapas-style dessert at The Continental Mid-town in Philadelphia.

lime cotton candy at The Continental Mid-town in Philly

The cotton candy chef’s selection (lime) of the day on our trip to Continental Mid-town in Philadelphia.

After finishing our food, we investigated the three floors of the restaurant before we left and decided it must be a popular Rittenhouse Square nightspot since it has a really cool rooftop dining and lounge area on the third floor.

A fun spot to visit on your next Philly trip!

The remains of a flavorful salad during brunch at The Continental Mid-town in Philadelphia.

Thanks for visiting today’s Friday field trip to The Continental Mid-Town in Philadelphia.

Have a fabulous weekend, Jackie

Sharing at The Tablescaper and Little Red House.

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the best of jelly shots

April 23, 2013

As soon as the weather gets nice and picnics come to mind, so do jelly shots. My sister always makes Jell-O eggs (yes, Jell-O in the shape of eggs) for Easter …I always wonder what it would be like to create a jelly shot egg! I have never tried it since I have a niece and some nephews well below the legal drinking age, but Easter always seems to start me thinking about making jelly shots.

Back in my college years, I discovered Jell-O shots and started making and bringing them to parties. I would prepare Jell-O, substituting most of the water in the recipe to some type of alcohol and pour it into small paper cups. I loved experimenting with flavors of Jell-O and liquors to come up with some cool combinations.

Over the years, I discovered that using Knox gelatin opened up a whole creative avenue…no longer were my creations limited by the flavors of Jell-O…Knox could make any liquid become a gelatin! Flavor combinations became much more sophisticated. And, small paper cups were replaced…shapes were cut or fancy molds were used.

A fun way to serve a school of fish shaped jelly shots is on skewers. These are vodka pink lemonade jelly shots.

If you are less adventurous and would like some recipes already proven to be winners, check out the recipes of Michelle Palm. Her blog, with tons of recipes for jelly shots, is amazing and contains more recipes than you could ever think of…for any occasion! Today, I adapted one of her recipes for my ‘fish’ shots. I chose the vodka pink lemonade for this post because it is pretty basic – a real crowd pleaser – everyone seems to like pink lemonade!

Vodka Pink Lemonade Jelly Shots Recipe (makes a school of fish)

2/3 cup frozen canned pink lemonade, thawed
2/3 cup water
2 envelopes + 1 tsp. Knox gelatin
2/3 cup vodka

Pour the lemonade mix and water through a strainer into a medium size sauce pan. Sprinkle the gelatin over the surface, letting it saturate for about 2 minutes. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly to dissolve – about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vodka. Spoon into molds and refrigerate until set.

I used fish shaped ice cube trays that I purchased at IKEA. There are 12 fish in each tray and this recipe filled 4 trays.

Please remember that this recipe contains alcohol. It should not be used or consumed by anyone except a responsible adult that is of the legal drinking age.

If you want to make some shots for the under 21 set, you can also use Jell-O brand gelatin to make Jell-O jigglers which only require adding water, or you can use your own fruit juice to make Knox Blox… these can be made from any fruit juice and the instructions to make them is right on the Knox gelatin envelope. Another really fun idea for the kids is to make glow–in-the-dark gelatin by using tonic water.

Hope this inspired you to create your own ‘school’ of jelly shots… (with or without alcohol), they are a fun warm weather treat!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at Coastal Charm, Little Red House, The Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush, and A Pinch of Joy.

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lemon floral place setting

April 2, 2013

For a great pop of spring color at a place setting, arrange some flowers in a fresh lemon. Since you only need a few flowers and some lemons to create these cheery floral arrangements, they are an economical way to add some pretty freshness to a spring table.

You will need half of a large lemon for each place set at your table, in addition to some fresh flowers and some floral oasis. As you can see, I am reusing an old piece of oasis. After slicing a large lemon in half, cut and remove the insides of each half, keeping the rind intact. (Don’t waste the insides…I used mine to make Arnold Palmers.) Cut a piece of floral oasis to fit snugly in each lemon half. Saturate the oasis so that it is wet but not dripping.

Arrange a few flowers in the color(s) of your choice – purchased or from your garden – in the foam. You will only need a few for each half. I have also added a little Spanish moss to mine.

The perfect little arrangement to adorn a place setting :)

Hope you enjoyed today’s easy diy fresh lemon floral place setting arrangements. A fast, easy, and inexpensive way to add some bright freshness to your spring table.

Thanks so much for visiting. Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing this post at Coastal Charm, Common Ground, Craftionary, and Craftberry Bush.

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easter butter cookies

March 19, 2013

I always loved the butter cookies my friend Kim would bring to bridal showers…rich, buttery cookies that looked so sweet and tasted wonderful. They were small round sandwich style cookies, with a pastel tinted filling. At one point I finally asked her if I could have the recipe and I started calling them “Kim’s shower cookies” whenever I would make them.

For Easter, I decided to make “Kim’s shower cookies” but cut them in egg shapes rather than circles. I chose to tint the filling a lavender color.

Don’t they make a great “Kim’s Easter cookies?”

Easter Butter Cookies Recipe

Cookies

1 cup softened unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 cups flour

Filling

1/4 cup softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
food coloring

Combine the cookie ingredients and chill for 1 to 2 hours. Roll dough out to 1/8″ and use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies, putting on an ungreased baking sheet.

Sprinkle with granulated sugar and pierce each cookie 3 times with a fork. Bake in a 375 degree pre-heated oven for 7 to 9 minutes. Cool cookies.

Combine filling ingredients and mix well. Tint the filling to desired color with food coloring.

Assemble the cookies, sandwich style, spreading the filling on one cookie and placing a second cookie on top.

The number of cookies will vary depending on the size of your cookie cutter. I made two dozen completed cookies using a 2 1/2″ egg shaped cookie cutter.

These cookies can be made ahead and stored in your fridge to make your holiday a little less hectic :)

I hope you enjoyed sharing my Easter butter cookie recipe. Thanks Kim ;)

Thanks so much for visiting, Jackie

I am sharing this post at Coastal Charm, Timewashed, The Well Crafted Home, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Nest, A Pinch of Joy, and Craftionary.

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a gift of saffron

February 19, 2013

I enjoy some Middle Eastern foods, but as far as preparing authentic dishes myself, I can’t say I have a big Middle Eastern selection in my personal repertoire. Like many people I know, I have made hummus and I have toasted pita bread to make my own chips…not much else.

Many years ago, when I landed my first ‘real’ job I made a good friend that was of Middle Eastern heritage…not yet a U.S. citizen when we first met. He taught me how to make baklava…if you can perfect only one Middle Eastern recipe, believe me, this is the one to perfect!

I was thrilled to learn how to make an authentic baklava and for many years this became my ‘go to’ dessert to make and bring to parties and holiday gatherings.

Like the cool discovery of baklava with my friend long ago, a recent discovery with a new friend has gotten me excited once again about Middle Eastern flavors. This time, the motivation was a gift of a Middle Eastern spice called saffron from this friend’s native country…the largest producer of the spice. Most people have heard of saffron, but I don’t think many know exactly what it is. Saffron is the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus. And because these stigmas need to be collected by hand, and only a few are contained in each individual flower, saffron is the most expensive spice in the world!

I discovered rosewater as an ingredient for the first time when I learned to make baklava. Now in much the same way, I am exploring saffron and cardamom ….and using these flavors in combinations with additional Middle Eastern flavors of the rosewater and pistachios. Using these flavors in various combinations and recipes really illustrates to me that there is so much more to Middle Eastern cuisine than just hummus and baklava.

One of my favorite recipes is the one I found for Persian Love Cake from a 2005 issue of Bon Appetit (aah, the beauty of the internet!). This cake really embraces a subtle saffron flavor as well as cardamom, rosewater, and pistachio. It is so wonderfully delicious, it was gone – devoured by my family – before I could even finish making the candied rose petal garnish!

If you are a frequent visitor to my blog, you know how I get on my ‘secret ingredient’ kicks… In true Iron Chef style, in my house we have been experimenting with our gift of saffron as our secret ingredient…recipes for appetizers, main dishes, and desserts are being explored…the Persian Love Cake is a wonderful example.

Photo of Persian Love Cake…a recipe that embraces the Middle Eastern flavors of saffron, rosewater, pistachio, and cardamom.

Thanks for sharing my gift of saffron. I would love to hear about your favorite Middle Eastern recipes. My next project will be using the wonderful golden-yellow hue of saffron as an Easter egg dye…

I am also sharing at A Pinch of Joy.

Thanks for visiting, Jackie

6 comments

in search of bubble tea

February 8, 2013

This week, our Friday field trip is to an Asian market to get the scoop on making bubble tea.

Bubble tea is a sweetened cold tea drink mixed with chewy tapioca pearls (boba). If you have had it, you probably have thought, like me, ‘how the heck do they make this?’

Since it originated in Taiwan, I thought an Asian market would be the best place to do some research on how to authentically create this beverage.

I made a trip to the most authentic Asian market I could find and discovered the manager was from Taiwan…perfect!

If you are a bubble tea lover, you know that the two most important requirements are 1. the tapioca pearls or boba, and 2. the straws… Yes, the straws are major. An extra wide straw is needed to accommodate the boba. Without the availability of the special straws, continuing the research seemed a waste…so, I first needed to confirm these two items were available in the market. They were!! I was so worried the straws would be hard to find. But, the market carried them and a package was only 99 cents!

Now to figure out how to actually make the beverage…It quickly became evident that the manager did indeed know how to make bubble tea, but my accurate translation of her explanation was another story completely! She barely spoke English and most every product in the store had few markings in English. This would be a challenge!

I did find that the store sold a commercial mix for bubble tea in a variety of flavors, but I decided against using a mix since I thought this would be cheating! I wanted to have an authentic bubble tea experience. Plus, I wanted to forgo adding any unnecessary artifical ingredients to my beverage.

So, after quite a bit of discussion (and some creative sign language) I learned how to prepare bubble tea. The store manager suggested coconut as my flavor of choice…I ran with it!

The items I purchased at the market were: boba, a can of coconut milk, STRAWS, and palm sugar.

Although it is not a difficult drink to make, the tapioca or boba used in the drink require some advance preparation.

The preparation of a sugar syrup also requires advance preparation. I discovered, after some experimentation, I preferred the sugar syrup over the palm sugar as a sweetener for the drink. Palm sugar was a sweetener option that was suggested to me.

A photo of tapioca pearls (or boba) prepared for Bubble Tea.

Tapioca preparation

Add one cup of tapioca pearls to a couple of cups of boiling water. The pearls should float – keep them stirred so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Boil the pearls for 25 minutes and then turn off the heat and let the pearls sit in the water for another 25 minutes. Drain and rinse the pearls with lukewarm water. The final consistency of the pearls will be like chewing gum. I only prepared enough pearls for what I was going to use because I was told they harden over time.

Sweetener preparation

Combine 1 cup white sugar and 1 cup dark brown sugar with a cup of water. Cook over medium heat until the sugars cook down and the mixture boils. Cool and store in the fridge. (If you don’t care about being authentic, you can sweeten your tea with honey or sugar while still hot and forgo this preparation.)

Coconut Bubble Tea Recipe

Prepare black tea. You will need 4 oz. for each serving. Put in fridge to cool.

Combine 4 oz. of water, 4 oz. of coconut milk, 2 oz. of milk, and 4 oz. of prepared tea for each serving. Add 1 or 2 Tablespoons of the prepared sugar syrup sweetener. Blend until fully mixed.

Spoon 4 Tablespoons of cooked tapioca into the bottom of a large glass. Pour coconut mixture into the glass. Add ice. Serve with an extra wide straw. ENJOY!

I hope you enjoyed sharing today’s field trip. I was so excited to discover the authentic way to make bubble tea! I don’t think it is something I will make on a regular basis, but it will be nice to be able to make it when the mood strikes… and, I may try making some other flavors in addition to the coconut!

Have a wonderful weekend…here in Connecticut we are expecting BIG snow…

Thanks for visiting and remember to enjoy pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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little cakes with big attitudes

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the best of jelly shots

lemon floral place setting

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a gift of saffron

in search of bubble tea