Rockland Bakery and Thanksgiving Recap

I am back after being away for a couple of days in NJ visiting family for the Thanksgiving Day holiday. We spend each Thanksgiving with my in-laws and even though it's usually only immediate family for dinner, it's always a full house. This year we had 22 at the dinner table.

My SIL usually divvies up dinner duties. Someone does the turkey, another person the sides, another the wine,another the appetizers and someone does the desserts. This year, she assigned me to picking up bread and desserts. I went to the Rockland bakery in Nanuet, NY (just 10 minutes from my SIL's house in northern NJ).

The Rockland bakery is a staple in this area and for good reason. Even before you get in the door, the aroma of fresh baked goods wafts through the air. It is always busy, but so worth it. What makes this place so special and unique is that you get your breads, rolls and bagels right off the conveyor belt in the back "baking room". I brought both my kids and they were allowed to eat dinner rolls for free while in the baking room...how great is that?! If you are in the area, this place is definitely worth stopping by.

Rows and rows of fresh breads!

Fresh hot bagels!

They also have amazing cakes and pastries.


Here are a couple of pictures from Thanksgiving.

My little Jersey girl.

My son loved visiting with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and many cousins.
Some of the sides...sweet potato, squash and green bean casserole.

No, I'm not drunk yet :)

With so many for dinner, we didn't fit in the dining room. We had to set up 3 large tables in the family room and kitchen.
Canolli cake from the Rockland bakery...so, so good!

Holiday Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago a friend asked if I would be interested in taking a cupcake cooking class at Sur la Table. She didn't have to ask me twice...I love cupcakes!

We took the "Holiday Cupcakes" class this past weekend and here are the cupcakes we made: snowflake (coconut), peppermint with peppermint buttercream, chocolate cranberry with cranberry orange frosting, almond praline with mascarpone frosting and carrot with orange glaze.

I'll be posting the recipe for these cupcakes in the upcoming days. Enjoy!

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. I love the fact that the entire day is dedicated to eating, relaxing and spending quality with those we love. It is also a time to reflect on the many things we are thankful for.

The thing I am most thankful for is these two little turkeys :)



They are the sweetest, smartest and funniest little people I know (but I'm a little biased). They fill my life with so much love everyday.

I am thankful for my husband, who works so hard for our little family and is always there offering support and encouraging me. I am thankful for family and friends, both far and near.

And lastly, for all those who read this blog and take the time to leave me a comment or send an email. I love hearing from everyone and have learned so much about cooking and baking in just these last few months. Thank you, thank you.

This year, like last, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving with our family in NJ and I won't be doing any of the cooking. My 3 SIL's have this covered :) So, since I knew I wouldn't be buying any food for my family this Thanksgiving, I decided to buy food for another family through Our Daily Bread. ODB is a volunteer-based organization focused on easing the plight of low income residents in Fairfax county, VA.

During the holidays, they have an "adopt a family" program, in which you provide a needy family with a basket of food. The organization places you with a family based on your criteria. I said I was interested in helping a family with small children and/or a family with special needs child/children. The family I was matched up with is a single mom with three kids (an 11yr old, 3yr old and 7 month old).

This is the basket I made for them.



It included:
Gift card (to buy a turkey or anything else they might need), potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, crackers, butter spread, apple pie, whipped cream, assortment of fruit,aluminum roasting pan and Thanksgiving plates and napkins. I put everything in a sturdy, re-usable laundry basket.

Since there are small children I also included the following:
Apple juice, variety of baby food, Goldfish, Cherrios, mac n'cheese, and oatmeal cookies.

I'm really glad I did this and hope to make it a tradition.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Pumpkin Cupcakes (November)

Yay! This month's "cupcake of the month" entry is here. I made pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. This batch was made for a mom's group luncheon this week and they turned out GREAT!

I have to thank Bridget and Kelsey for turning me on to this recipe by David Leite. I'm not even a huge fan of pumpkin but these are really, really good. Bridget has a great pumpkin cupcake comparison in her blog, so be sure to check that out.

Yum!

Ready for the oven.

All packed up and ready to go. I made some minis also.


Ingredients
makes 18 cupcakes

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for greasing pans
1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
½ cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla
1¼ cups canned solid-pack pumpkin

1. Preheat the oven to 350° (175°C). Line a cupcake pan with 18 liners.

2. In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and pepper into a medium bowl.

3. Add the eggs 1 at a time to the mixer, scraping down the sides after each addition. Alternate adding the flour and milk mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat in the pumpkin until smooth. Divide the batter equally between the cups. (They’ll be about ¾ full). Tap the filled pans once on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on racks completely.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese,softened
¼ cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon good vanilla
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 (1-pound) box confectioners’ sugar (more if stiffer consistency is needed)

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Blend in vanilla. Sift powdered sugar. Gradually beat together. Add cinnamon and continue to beat till frosting is smooth.

Brie Bites

With the holidays quickly approaching you might be looking for a quick, easy and tasty appetizer, well look no further...introducing brie bites!

This recipe comes from the blog for the love of cooking and these taste great! However, the best part is that they truly go from freezer/fridge to table in under 10minutes...got to love that :)

Ingredients:
2 packages of mini phyllo shells
8 oz brie cheese, double cream
Raspberry preserves
Apricot preserves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the mini shells on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Carefully cut the rind off of the brie. Cut the brie into 1/2 inch cubes and put one into each shell. Top each brie bite with either apricot or raspberry preserves. Bake in the oven for 6-7 minutes or until the brie has melted and the phyllo shells are golden brown. Enjoy.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

I'll admit it...I sometimes use box cake mix to make my cupcakes. But one thing I don't use is canned frosting. I just don't like the stuff and much prefer a simple homemade buttercream.

Here is the recipe I use.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened
3 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoons of vanilla extract (either regular or clear)
3-4 tablespoons of whipping cream or whole milk
1/8 teaspoon salt

Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is fluffy. Add the vanilla and salt and beat a little more. Add about a 1/4 of the sugar and cream/milk. Blend the the sugar into the butter with a spoon/spatula (this prevents powdered sugar from flying everywhere), then beat with a mixer. Continue adding the sugar and milk and mixing until the frosting is smooth. If the frosting seems too soft add a little more powdered sugar. If it seems too stiff, add a little more milk. Mix in food coloring if desired.

Sesame Street Cupcakes

Sesame Street recently celebrated its 40th birthday and on Sunday we joined in the celebration at George Washington University in Washington DC.

In collaboration with the Smithsonian Discovery Theater, the executive producer of Sesame Street along with Sonya Manzano (Maria) and several of the other cast members (Elmo included)were at GW for a Q & A, book signing, and photo opportunity with fans of the show.

I decided to make these cupcakes to celebrate as well. Plus, my daughter's 2nd birthday might be Sesame Street themed, so this was the perfect chance to do a practice run. They came out pretty good overall for my first try and they were certainly yummy (I ate 3 myself :) )but next time I will make a couple of changes.

I think the eyes need to be bigger on all the characters. Instead of mini cookies for Cookie Monster, I'll use a regular size one. Also, my Big Bird looks a little demented to me. He will need the most work. Hopefully, if I play around a bit more with the piping tips, I can give him a more feathered look.

I won't post a recipe for these b/c I just used a boxed devil's food cake mix (made a bit tastier by subing buttermilk for water) and homemade buttercream (I'll post the recipe soon). The eyes and Elmo's nose were made with fondant and mini Chips Ahoy were used for Cookie Monster.

My favorite.

I piped the frosting 2 different ways. Which do you think looks best?


Here are some pictures of our fun day.

Family picture with the real Zoe, Elmo & Abby.
The Sesame Street cast: Leslie Carrara-Rudolph (Abby Caddaby),Sonia Manzano (Maria),Fran Brill (Prairie Dawn & Zoe) Kevin Clash (Elmo), Karen Fowler (Executive Producer)
Maria and Maria

My little girl wearing her brother's hand-me-down Elmo shirt.

Coloring a picture of Elmo.

My son, pretending to give a speech at the GW podium.

The kids exploring GW.

Garden Harvest Cake

I know this little bread doesn't look like much but I just love it! It's so delicious and moist. Loaded with healthy veggies and fruit, it's a perfect snack or breakfast food for the kids.

I made this recipe exactly as written but omitted the walnuts because my daughter can't eat nuts yet. Next time, to make it even healthier I might sub half of the flour for whole wheat flour and also cut down on the sugar a bit. I made these in mini loaf pans which brought the cooking time down to about 35 minutes.

You might have noticed that the last few posts have been recipes like this one or some other dessert type food. While I have been cooking dinner every night because of the time change, I haven't been able to photography any of it. I really need to construct or purchase a "light box" like this one ASAP.

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup grated peeled Granny Smith apple (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup grated carrot (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup shredded zucchini
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup nonfat buttermilk
2 large eggs
Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add grated apple, grated carrot, shredded zucchini, and walnuts to flour mixture; toss well. Combine canola oil, buttermilk, and eggs in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Spoon batter into an 8 x 4–inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove cake from pan. Cool completely on wire rack before slicing.

M & M Cookies

I made these M&M cookies (along with dinner) for my neighbor who is recovering from a mastectomy. You can read about it HERE on her blog.

I used the pink M&M candies that were sold in October for breast cancer awareness but obviously any color M&M works here. These cookies are quick and easy to make. They would make a great cooking activity for kids too.

They are soft and chewy but don't worry about eating a ton of them. This recipe only makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies...anymore than that could cause some real trouble. If you are making them for a group though, the recipe easily doubles. Enjoy!

Pre-Bake

Post-Bake


Ingredients
Makes about 1 1/2- 2 dozen cookies

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup M & M's

In a bowl mix together flour, salt, and baking soda. In another large bowl, mix sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla thoroughly. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture. Blend well. Add 3/4 cup of M&M candies and mix by to blend.
Scoop tablespoon size amounts of dough and form into a ball. Drop dough ball onto cookie sheet and gently flatten tops with the palm of your hand. Press 3-4 more M&M's on top of each dough ball with remaining candies.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 9 to 11 minutes. Do not over bake. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to complete cooling.

Cranberry Apple Nut Bread

I got this great cranberry apple nut bread recipe from my friend ,Tiffany,who has been making it for years.

The recipe comes from Betty Crocker. It's nutty and Cinnamon-y, plus super moist thanks to the apple. You'll love how your kitchen smells when this is baking. And you don't even need to get the mixer out for this one. Just mix up the ingredients with a wooden mixing spoon.

I also like that you can really make this kind of healthy. For example, I traded out 1/2 cup of regular flour for whole wheat flour and left some of the peel on the apple for extra fiber.

This makes for a perfect holiday snack cake thanks to the cranberries and walnuts.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup shredded peeled apple (about 1 medium)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 8x4- or 9x5-inch loaf pan with shortening.
2. In large bowl, mix 3/4 cup sugar, the oil and egg. Stir in apple, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in walnuts and cranberries. Pour batter into pan. In small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon sugar and the cinnamon; sprinkle over batter.
3. Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaf from pan; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours, before slicing.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Bake 50 to 60 minutes

Mini Cheesecakes

My husband and I are big fans of the AMC series Mad Men. Last Sunday was the season finale and I wanted to make a special dish to enjoy while we watched the show.

I found this perfect 60's inspired menu on the blog, EzraPoundCake. All of the food looked so fab but we already had plans to go over some friend's that night for dinner. So, I decided to only make dessert and am really glad I did!

I made Peggy's New York style mini cheesecakes and used the Kraft foods recipe the blog links to. I loved the fact that they were "mini" (built-in portion control, right?) and they tasted so rich and creamy--yum,yum!!

Ingredients:
1 cup HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
3 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs

PREHEAT oven to 300°F. Mix cracker crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and the butter; press scant 1/3 cup crumb mixture onto bottom of each of four mini (4-1/2-inch) springform pans. (I found mine at Michaels's) Bake 7 min.

BEAT cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour one-fourth of the batter (about 1 cup) into each of four bowls. If desired, add one of the Stir-In Ideas to each bowl of batter. Pour over crusts. Place pans on baking sheet.

BAKE 40 to 45 min. or until centers are almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around rims of pans to loosen cakes; cool before removing rims. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Stir-In Ideas
For each one-fourth portion of batter, stir in one of the following before pouring batter over crust and baking as directed:
Apple Pie: Stir in 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon. Top baked cheesecake with combined 1/2 cup warmed apple pie filling and 1/2 tsp. brown sugar. S'Mores: Stir in 3 Tbsp. milk chocolate chips. Top baked cheesecake with 1/4 cup JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows and 1 Tbsp. broken HONEY MAID Honey Grahams. Citrus: Stir in 1 tsp. lemon, orange or lime juice; 1 tsp. flour and 1/4 tsp. grated lemon, orange or lime peel. Chocolate Chunk: Stir in 1 square BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, chopped. New York: Stir in 1/4 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream and 1 Tbsp. flour. Cookies and Cream: Stir in 1/4 cup chopped OREO Cookies. Chocolate Royale: Stir in 2 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted. Peanut Butter: Stir in 2 Tbsp. peanut butter and 1 Tbsp. milk. Mocha: Mix 1 tsp. MAXWELL HOUSE Instant Coffee granules with 2 tsp. hot water. Stir into batter along with 2 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted. Cherry: Bake mini cheesecake as directed without Stir-Ins. Just before serving, top with 1/3 cup cherry pie filling.

Giada de Laurentiis Book Signing

This past Saturday, I got to meet Giada de Laurentiis at the Metro Cooking and Entertaining show in Washington DC at the Convention Center.

My husband and both kids were supposed to join me but my husband decided to go home at the last moment with my daughter because she was getting cranky and really needed a nap. It was a good thing too because this was definitely a grown up event. They had advertised a kid's area but it was really lame and I found myself soon wishing my son had gone home too.

He did do OK for most of it. He walked around, sampled a bunch of food and enjoyed a ridiculously expensive smoothie. After about an hour and a half of this we needed something else to do. So, I decided to get our book signing wristbands and wait for Giada. Amazingly, he occupied himself with a small book for the next 45 minutes. Then, Giada showed up and we only had a short (10-15 min) wait for our turn to meet her. However, by this time, my son had had it! He was tired of waiting and bored. He started really acting up....I was so close but now had an impeding melt down on my hands...damn!

When it was our turn, amazingly my son did a complete 360. He ran right up and started shouting "Giada! Giada!"...it was pretty funny and everyone in the room, Giada included, started laughing. She chatted with him a bit and as we were leaving my son turns to her and says "ciao bella!" (he learned that from our sitter who knows some Italian)...Giada quickly said "ciao bello" back. It was such a great little moment and for that reason alone, I was happy my son stayed with me for the show.

Here are some more pictures from our day.

Isn't she lovely...

Chatting it up with Giada.

Not the most flattering picture of us but we were all laughing at my son.

A view of the DC Convention Center. This was taken at 4:30PM and it had cleared out quite a bit.Earlier in the day it was packed!!
So, I think that is the end of my celebrity chef stalking opportunities for the time being. However, I would love to meet Ina and Emeril some day. How about you? What celeb chef would you like to meet?

Jaime and Bobby Deen Book Signing

Here is my latest installment of celebrity chef stalking...Jaime and Bobby Deen (a.k.a Paula Deen's sons).

The little boy in the brown shirt will look familiar to some of you. He is Jack Deen, Jaime's son. He is in several of Paula's cooking magazines and cookbooks. He is also on the cover of the current issue of Good Housekeeping magazine with Paula.


The other little boy, is of course, my son. He seems to enjoy celebrity chef stalking as much as I do :)

Watch out Giada...I'm coming for you next!

Stay Tuned...

I have some new recipes to post but have been having trouble with my internet service the last few days and now can't upload pics...argh..... Hopefully, I will be able to get it fixed tomorrow...fingers crossed:)

In the meantime, check out where I'm going on Saturday...The Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show.

*Update*

Thanks Cox cable guy...I love you! My internet is all fixed. The culprit?...an old, out-dated modem. It got replaced with a shiny new modem and the best part was it was free---Yippee!!

The second best part, when I called Cox to have them take a look at the problem they scheduled me for between 1:00 and 3:00PM. When they hadn't arrived by 3:10, I called them back. They were very apologetic and credited my account with $20 b/c apparently they have an on-time guarantee. Pretty cool. The tech arrived at 3:40PM, and since I was $20 richer, I didn't care that he was running late.

Again, I love you Cox cable guy!

Garlic Shrimp Bruschetta

I found the recipe in Woman's Day and couldn't wait to try it.

It's easy to make, tastes delish and looks elegant. It's perfect for the upcoming holidays. The best part is that you can prepare the toasted bread and the tomato mixture 2 hours before serving.

Ingredients:
Makes 24

24 thin slices French bread
Olive oil cooking spray
1 cup diced plum tomatoes
1 Tbsp olive oil
3⁄4 tsp minced garlic
1⁄4 tsp each salt and pepper
24 medium shrimp
1⁄4 cup pesto
Garnish: small basil leaves (I didn't have any on hand :( )

Heat broiler. Place bread on baking sheet; coat with cooking spray. Broil 2 to 3 minutes, turning once, until lightly toasted.
Put tomatoes, 1 tsp of the oil, 1⁄2 tsp of the garlic, and the salt and pepper in a bowl. Toss to coat. Heat remaining 2 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add shrimp and remaining 1⁄4 tsp garlic. Saute 2 minutes or just until shrimp are cooked through. Remove from heat. To assemble, spread each piece of toasted bread with 1⁄2 tsp pesto. Top with about 1⁄2 Tbsp tomato mixture, then one shrimp.

WW POINTS = 1 (for 1 prepared bruschetta slice)

Candy Corn Mini Cupcakes (October)

Here is my contribution for October's "Cupcake of the Month"...yes, I know I'm a little late posting this but better late than never, right?

Anyway, these adorable little cupcakes come from Molly Jean (aka The Rookie Chef). I think she posted them on Friday and I made them on Saturday morning. Actually, just 2 hours before a Fall Festival we were taking the kids (and cupcakes) to. So, I was a bit rushed when making these but they turned out great and everyone loved them!

I used a doctored up (box)cake-mix recipe and homemade vanilla buttercream frosting. The cake-mix recipe comes from the cookbook Hello, Cupcake and seriously it might be my new favorite cupcake recipe. So easy, but so good! Give it a try next time you need to save a little prep time.

Next time, I'll mix in a little more orange and yellow to make the colors more pronounced.

I used half of the batter to make these regular sized cupcakes. These were a real rush job though, so the frosting looks a bit sloppy...but they tasted great.

Please scroll all the way down for the recipe.
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Here are some pictures of the kiddos on Halloween. They both had a blast and are still on a bit of a sugar high...lord help me :)

The cutest little pirate (my neighbor's daughter) and cowboy Woody (my son).
My kitty cat out on the prowl for some candy.

Candy....here we come!!

Enjoying the fruits of her labor :)

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Ingredients:

1 box (yes box) yellow cake mix
1 cup buttermilk (in place of water called for on box)
Vegetable oil (the amount on box)
4 eggs (instead of amount called for on box)
orange and yellow food coloring

1 can (yes can) white frosting or homemade vanilla buttercream frosting
Candy corn for decoration

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare cake batter as directed on the box. Separate batter into two different bowls.
Add food coloring to each bowl of batter until you reach desired orange and yellow colors.
Line your mini cupcake pan with cupcake liners
Pour yellow batter first into your mini cupcake liner. Then SLOWLY add orange batter on top. Bake as directed (about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
To decorate, pipe a small amount of frosting on top of cupcake and add one candy corn.