best of the best

Never been one to have a long list of new year's resolutions since they become hard to keep because the list is too long thus overwhelming. This year, like last, my list will be small, but powerful.
Want to work on: my recipe creations (do more, make more), my health and getting back to california. My baking has grown, orders are coming in; so I hope to keep focused and grow that even more. Health is always top priority as I get older and being a baker/chef/recipe creator the weight is very easy to put on since food is everywhere, and everything gets tasted, retasted, devoured--and fast. Sugar is a hard lil guy to keep at a minimum isn't he?
Happy New Year everyone. And thank you for being here, in my lil corner of the world. Oh how I love it when you come for a sit and chat. Enjoy a few collages of years past of my favorite creations AND some of my favorites things in life. Oh there are movies, beach maps, and some shiny things. Nifty stuff, kind of long but worth the ride. Come on!

My other 'job' is critter care. Wouldn't give that up for the world. Here are a few of the lil critters I care for & love. Clockwise: Denny & Leo 'almost human' maine coons. My tater tot Tiki. Neighbors crazy badass rooster (how I love that fascinating creature, if you want to see a video of him busting a move click here). Dexter & dixie who make sure I get enough exercise. Anderson the cutest puppy that ever lived. Tomo the gentle giant Akita. Penny (rest in peace baby). Banshee the cat who loves to pose for the camera each & every time (rest in peace lil man). And my tiki is quite possibly the worlds cutest napper.

Some of the food finds that I dig. Clockwise: crazy dragon roll at sushi joy in plymouth, ma. Giant cupcakes perfectly decorated by the talented/fabulous people in the bakery at Whole Foods in Hingham, MA. Infamous Kelly's Roast Beef, Revere, MA--if you ever come to Boston please make sure you go here, you will remember the food, forever I promise. Cupcake Charlies on Cape Cod, MA: I am thankful they are on cape cod, hostess with the mostess cupcake is top winner. More cupcake charlies. My local Starbuck's who always remember who I am. Dim Sum at Golden Dragon at Foxwoods Casino, CT. Whoopie pies the size of your head at Dennis Market, Dennis, MA. Fried shrimp at Lindsey's Restaurant, Cape Cod, MA, family owned for decades and the recipes and portion sizes never ever change, thank goodness for that.

Betsey Johnson is a place where I spend way too much money and time. That bench is just fabulous--must have that.

Some of my favorite creations. Clockwise: general 'dawn' tso's chicken. Dark & white chocolate pb cups. Greek nachos (you must make these at least once in your life). Devils food cake w/ cream cheese peanut butter filling & ganache.

These are what my blog stats say you like best. Left to right: Creamsicle cheesecake. Devils food cupcakes with salty mascarpone frosting. Pumpkin and white Oreo ice cream.

More fan fav's: left to right: Pumpkin pop tarts with buttermilk glaze. Asian beef shortribs with warm balsamic potato salad. And the infamous levain bakery clone-like cookies--the most famous recipe of ALL time here on vanilla sugar.

More of my favorite creations. left to right: Espresso bars with cinnamon glaze. Pimento cheeseburger with tomato-balsamic reduction. Banana shortbread. Pumpkin cheesecake w/ nutella ganache.

Winter on cape cod. Clockwise: East sandwich marshlands at high tide. East dennis ghost town: Chapin Beach area. Ice on the ocean, it was that cold to freeze the ocean waters. Sandy Neck Beach in east sandwich where I love to walk. But during the winter its hard to walk there as the wind is so strong, so cold it literally slaps your face.

Summer is coming! I can't wait. Clockwise: Dennis beach, a "secret" lil area on the map in between corporation and howe st. My pool/my toes--I miss chilling in the hot sun. My hydrangeas which I did not kill. Here is a lil movie I did on cape cod traffic. Dig it!

More summer fun, hard to be patient for summer when it's 20 degrees outside and snowing.

I totally got published in this wild, fun, addictive ebook by a bunch of some the great top bloggers. I have two chapters, yep, two. Neat huh? It's a great read. It has recipes, photos and the best part stories from the chefs on how and why their recipes came to be. Click here if you want to buy one. And if you did buy one already. THANK you. I mean that :-)

cheesy sweet potato and corn chowder

Here's another quick & easy recipe for you; nothing glamorous or fancy here. Or we could call it cleaning out the cupboards? Ever make something, and on the first taste you think "holy crap this is so good" and then turn around dying to have someone around you to taste it and revel in your joy, but there is no one there? Yeah. That happened to me when I made this soup. Not a single human being near me to taste-test with me and say "OMG girl that soup!". Tempted to run out to the neighbors house (and yes they love when I come knocking) and have them taste-test, but there was snow on the ground and that meant I had to get out of slippers and pajamas, put real clothes on and go outside. Nah. Not happening.

So let me tell you this soup is amazing. I was blown away by how warm and comforting it tasted. The roasted sweet potatoes paired with corn and then mild cheddar cheese all in a nice hot creamy bath was a perfect pairing. This is now a staple in our house. And yes it freezes nicely. Very rich, so this is not diet food, but this is food that you make a ton of: freeze some for those nights when you feel like crap/had a bad day/want "feel good soup".

Hope you love as much as I do.

Cook notes:
Make sure to get your sweet potatoes nice and crisp; you need that texture in the soup. Those chicken bouillons really do make a difference, so try to use them. This soup freezes really well, just make sure to freeze it straight away after about 15 minutes of a cooldown. You might want to serve this in a sourdough, marble, rye bread bowl. That would be fabulous. Adding roasted or grilled chicken to this would be great too. Even chunks of lobster meat.

cheesy sweet potato & corn chowder
print recipe

3 – 4 large sweet potatoes, cut into 2 inch chunks and roasted
1 cup of chick stock
2 cans of creamed corn
8 ounces of cream cheese, room temp
½ cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup of half & half
1 – 2 TB chicken bouillon powder or you can use crushed bouillon cubes
1 & ½ cups of shredded Monterey jack cheese

This is a very thick, rich soup.
Peel and cut up sweet potatoes into 2 inch chunks. Throw them in a bowl and drizzle them with olive oil and salt & pepper. Transfer to a roasting pan and roast in 400 degree oven till nice and crisp. About 45 minutes?
In stockpot, mix the creamed corn with chicken stock, cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, half & half , and chicken bouillon till heated through. Keep warm over low heat till sweet potatoes are done. When potatoes are done throw them in the soup pot. Mix and taste test. See if it needs salt & pepper. When ready to serve turn up heat a bit and add in the shredded cheese. Serve nice and hot. This is great served in a bread bowl. Freezes great too.
Should serve 4.

molasses-peanut chews

So I set out to make caramels. Truly not knowing what I wanted when I first poured the sugar and milk into the pot what was going to come of it. (I love making new recipes that way--going in totally blind when the thermometer gauge is ticking away). I did have a little bit of inspiration from an article in the NYT article about a famous chocolate-caramel recipe from 1881? Wild, from 1881. So the first batch was awful, very molasses overpowering, and no chocolate taste whatsoever. (sorry NYT, but still love you and look up to you). I know I followed everything to the T and know you have to literally "set up camp by the stove, do not leave pot" when making candy and/or caramels. The end result needed a lot more "ummphf". So the second batch I added in more butter, more salt, used half & half, and added in salty peanuts. BINGO. This recipe is a keeper. And I swear the second day they tasted even better. Everyone who was my taste-tester loved them. So I renamed them molasses-peanut chews because, well, thats what they taste like.
Super easy to make too. If you are familiar with making caramels then these will be a breeze for you. Are there some of you out there that still have last minute baking gifts to give? Use this. Trust me, these will knock their socks off.
I don't know if I will have another post before Christmas...Sooooo. I want to wish you all a merry christmas, happy holidays, etc... But more importantly: thank you truly for being such wonderful, awesome, incredible and loving fans. As I've said before "you guys rock my world"!

Cook Notes: if you have trouble with caramels here are a few things I can suggest to help you out. Get a good candy thermometer. Do not leave the stove when your mixture starts to boil. Set up camp at your stove until it's ready to pour. Stir like crazy. Be patient, it takes a good 15 - 20 minutes to get your caramels at the right temperature. The right temperature is 248 degrees (maybe minus 1 or 2 degrees)--watch that thermometer; anything higher in temp and you'll have hard candy.

molasses peanut chews
Inspired from 1881: Chocolate Caramels as seen in NYT
print recipe

4 TB salted butter
About 1 TB butter to grease ceramic dish
4 ounces high quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup half & half
1 cup molasses
1 cup white sugar
1 ts high quality vanilla extract
Giant pinch of sea salt
½ cup of salted, roasted peanuts

Wax paper squares for wrapping caramels
Extra butter for greasing up your knife when cutting caramels

Remember this is hot sugar, never touch the hot sugar, never be tempted to taste test, and always use oven mits.
Butter an 8-by-8-inch or 8 x 9 baking dish. Get out a candy thermometer and clip onto pot.
In a large heavy duty pot (with high sides preferably) combine the butter, chocolate, milk, molasses, sugar, and salt. Place over a medium heat and stir constantly and CONSTANTLY scraping the bottom of pan. (You will be doing this for a while). Let it boil and cook until the temperature reaches around 247 -249 (soft ball stage). Once it hits this temperature remove from heat
And add in the vanilla extract (it will make a lot of noise and sizzle, just add in and stand back then stir in)
Once mixed, pour the hot mixture into your prepared buttered baking dish.
Sprinkle the peanuts on top of the caramel. Push peanuts down into caramel using rubber spatula—do not use your hands!
In about an hour or 45 minutes you should be able to handle caramel. Gently lift if out of baking dish and transfer to a wooden board or plastic cutting board.
Using a sharp knife cut long strips about ¾ of an inch, then cut those strips into 1 or 2 inch pieces.) Wrap in wax paper.
Should make about 70 pieces; all dependant on how you cut them (what size).

sea salted buttermilk biscuits stuffed w/ chocolate

Years ago when I lived in Washington, DC for a stint there was this place called Bread & Chocolate. When I first saw the sign I thought now there's a great concept: bread and chocolate, how fabulous is that? And I literally thought they sold bread with chocolate in some sort of manner; curious of course to see how and which way they did it; also thinking this is a great fondue idea too. But no they just sold regular bakery goods and fresh french bread. Very dissapointing. In all my food travels, meeting other foodies, I've learned from others that bread, salt and chocolate do pair very well together and I've seen it done many ways. My favorite being a sourdough french toast stuffed with milk chocolate. (I need to recreate that at home). But for now here is my take on three of my favorite ingredients: buttermilk biscuits, Scharffen Berger chocolate and sea salt. Seriously this combo is incredible, especially when they are just warm, fresh out of the oven.

One could make this a fancy dessert by adding fresh chopped strawberries and freshly whipped cream. Delightful.

Sea salted buttermilk biscuits stuffed w/ milk chocolate
biscuit recipe loosely adapted from Cook's Illustrated
print recipe

2 cups flour
1 TB baking powder
1 TB sugar
1 ts salt
½ ts baking soda
5 TB unsalted butter, grated
1 ½ cup buttermilk
1-inch of 2-inch chunks of high quality milk chocolate
Additional flour
2 TB melted butter
Pinches of sea salt for lightly dusting the tops

A small bowl with ¼ cup of flour, set aside (used for your hands when touching the flour)
Grate your 5 TB of butter with a cheese grater or food processor, place back in freezer till ready to use.
Preheat oven to 500ºF. Spray a jellyroll pan with nonstick spray and/or parchment paper.
Get your additional 2 TB of melted butter ready to go.

In a large bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.
Using a fork or pastry blender, mix the butter until you have small little crumbles.
Next fold in the buttermilk until everything is just blended, and there are no streaks of flour remain.
Do not overmix, the mixture should still be fairly lumpy—lumpy is good!
These next parts you need to work fairly fast as we want to keep the dough nice and chilled and not work it too much. Coat your hands with flour and using a spoon scoop out about an 1/8 of a cup of dough. Form into a bottom half of a biscuit, place in a chunk of chocolate; don’t let the chocolate touch the edges. Then scoop out another 1/8 of a cup of dough and place on top. Pinch the two halves together, so the biscuit is nice and sealed up. Flour up your hands again and repeat.
Place the dough balls into the prepared cookie sheet. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter, then dust them with the sea salt (light coating of sea salt).
Bake for 5 minutes at 500ºF (middle rack) and then lower the temperature to 450ºF and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes. (cooks Illustrated says 15 but I'm telling you to watch them at the 10 minute mark).
Should make about 10 – 12; depending on size you make your biscuits.

white chocolate bark w/ Oreo's and Cheez Its

Let's call this PMS Christmas bark shall we? :-)
Whoa. I mean whoa dude. This stuff is crazy good. Very addicting. I have a bunch of leftovers at my house. Please come get it? It's free to a good home?
I swear I can hear you all now saying "where in the world does this crazy woman come up with this stuff?" My cravings for sweet & salty run high and deep. I am on a never-ending quest to find the ultimate in sweet & savory.
For those foodies in your life (or you) make them a batch of this for Chrismtas. They will swoon.....they will remember you forever and a day.

white chocolate bark with Oreo’s & Cheez Its
from vanillasugarblog.com
print recipe

2 bags or 22 ounces of high quality white chocolate
About 10-12 Oreo's (chocolate filled) cookies cut in half or quarters
2 large handfuls of Cheez It’s cut in half or quarters
2 TB or more of heavy cream
Generous pinch of sea salt

Have all your ingredients chopped up and ready to go as white chocolate does not stay melted long. Place parchment paper on a regular cookie sheet.
Over double boiler melt the white chocolate chips with the heavy cream, add in the salt, stirring a lot until it comes to a nice Ganache. Take off the heat, working fast add in the chopped Oreo’s and cheez its. Mix well and fast, then pour out onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Let harden about 3 hours. Cut into squares.