Peach Cobbler

This is by far the best peach cobbler I have ever had. It takes just a little bit of time, but for the most part it's super easy. I promise if you try it you will love it and I will never post anything on this site I haven't tried and just loved. For love of your country, I urge you to make this. Anything I have made from America's Test Kitchen has been amazing.

Fruit Filling: 8 peaches

Peel, halve, core and cut into chunks

1 Tbs cornstarch

1/3 to 2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp fresh lemon juice and 1 tsp vanilla

Stir together in a large bowl.

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup plus 2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup buttermilk chilled

6 Tbs (3/4 stick) butter melted and slightly cooled

1/8 tsp. ground ginger

3 Tbs. crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a 9-inch deep-dish glass pie plate put the fruit filling, cover it with foil, and set the pie plate on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Line a second rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, 1/4 cup of the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and crystallized ginger together in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, stir the chilled buttermilk and melted butter together until the butter forms small clumps. Stir the buttermilk mixture with the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just incorporated and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Using a greased 1/4- cup measure, scoop out and drop 8 mounds of dough onto the parchment lined baking sheet, spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart. Toss the remaining 2 tsp sugar with the ground ginger and sprnkle the ginger sugar over the biscuit tops. Bake the biscuits until puffed and lightly browned on the bottom, about 10 minutes.

Remove the biscuits from the oven and set aside. Place the fruit in the oven and bake until it is hot and has released its juices, 20 to 25.

Remove the fruit from the oven, uncover, and stir gently. Arrange the biscuits over the top, squeezing them slightly as needed to fit into the dish. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown and the fruit is bubbling, about 15 minutes, rotating the dish halfway through baking (unless you have a convected oven, then you don't need to worry about rotating). Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Taco Soup

Sorry no picture for this one friends! But I promise it is real good. I never post anything on here that is just so-so. It is 43 degrees outside right now and pretty much freezing so this soup really hit the spot. It is so easy you can make it in ten minutes!

Ingredients:

1 diced onion

1 lb. ground turkey

1 lb. lean ground beef

2 tbs. sugar

2 cans kidney beans

2 cans corn

4 cans diced tomatoes

2 cans beef broth

2 4 oz. cans diced chiles or 1 cup fresh salsa

2 packets or 6 Tbs. taco seasoning

Brown the onion and the meat at the same time and add the sugar. After the meat is browned add the rest of the ingredients and heat through. Yummy yummy yummy! This is such a hearty soup and will keep you warm on a cold day.

Sichuan Green Beans

I first became obsessed with green beans done Sichuan style when I had them for the first time in Chinatown, NYC. A friend of a friend recommended that we order them and they were a.m.a.z.i.n.g! I came straight home and tried to find a recipe. This recipe isn't the exact same as the dish I had in Chinatown, but they are pretty close.

Cooking note: Be careful not to overcook the beans. You want crisp and not mushy beans.

Sauce:

4 Tbs water

4 Tbs soy sauce

2 Tbs cooking sherry

2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp. ground white pepper

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

Mix all of the ingredients for the sauce together in a small bowl and set aside for the moment.

Beans:

2 Tbs olive oil

2 pounds fresh green beans trimmed

1/2 pound ground pork

6 med garlic cloves mined

2 Tbs minced fresh ginger

6 scallions green parts only sliced thin

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan until shimmering. Add the beans and cook until the beans are slightly browned/blackened on medium-high heat. Transfer the beans to a large bowl.

But wait wait don't turn off the heat! Add the ground pork to the skillet and break it up while it is cooking until it is completely browned. Make a little hole in the middle and add the garlic and ginger and cook for about a minute. Re-stir the sauce to recombine and add the sauce to the frying pan and cook for about 30 seconds. Off the heat, stir the contents of the skillet into the bowl with the green beans. Toss the beans, pork, etc. with the scallions and the sesame oil and serve immediately.

Even if you don't particularly like green beans I promise you will like this dish!

Balsamic Salad

Who doesn't love Balsamic Vinagrette? I know all you ladies out there do. This is by far the best balsamic vinagrette I have had. You can make it for any kind of salad you want. I have used it for both pasta salad and regular lettuce salad. Whatever you use it with, I promise you will never buy balsamic vinagrette from the store again.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. water

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1 Tbs. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 garlic clove

2 tsp. dijon mustard

1/4 c. balsamic vinegar

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

All you do is put it in a cup and mix it up with a hand blender. A regular blender would work too, but it's a lot less hassle with a hand blender.

For the best lettuce salad with this dressing (and the one pictured) use romaine hearts, dried cherries, toasted pine nuts, and grated parmesan cheese the fresher the better.

Pasta salad it's good with grape tomatoes, cucumbers, green olives, and whatever else you like to have in your pasta salad. Enjoy!

Boston Cream Cupcakes

If you like Bismarck doughnuts or cream in the middle of everything you will die over these cupcakes. They take a little bit of effort, and they can be hard to assemble, but not to fear! The chocolate topping covers any mistakes you might make on your first try.

Ingredients:

Cream--1 1/2 cups heavy cream

3 large egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

Pinch salt

4 tsp. cornstarch

2 Tbs butter cut into 2 pieces

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cupcakes--

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

12 Tbs. butter softened

3 large eggs

3/4 cup whole milk

1 1/2 tsps vanilla

Glaze--

8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tsp. vanilla

For the cream: Simmer the cream in a saucepan over medium heat. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt together then whisk in the cornstarch until mixture changes to a pale yellow and thickens.

Whisk the hot cream into the egg mixture to cool a bit, then return the mixture to the pan and cook over medium heat. Whisk constantly until mixture becomes glossy and thick. IMPORTANT: do not let the mixture boil because if you do it will separate later. Take the saucepan off the heat as soon as it looks thick. Off the heat whisk in the butter and vanilla needed for the cream recipe. Transfer the finished cream to a bowl and place plastic wrap directly on the cream (to keep in the moisture) and place in refridgerator until chilled for about 2 hours.

For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin tin. It is important that you grease and flour the tin because the cupcakes come out rather light and fluffy, which is good, but easy to fall apart.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Grab your electric mixer and beat the softened butter into the flour mixture until it resembles little yellow moist crumbs. After, beat in the eggs one at a time until just combined. Beat in the milk and vanilla about 1 to 3 minutes more until the batter is light and fluffy.

Once the batter is finished, use a 1/4 cup measuring cup and pour the batter into the muffin tin. It is important to note you ONLY fill the cups 3/4 of the way full. Put in less than you think you need. If you overfill, it is bad news to try to get the cupcakes out of the muffin tin. The smaller the cupcakes, the easier they are to work with.

Cook the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until the tops are firm and springy. Another way to tell cupcakes are done is to insert a toothpick into the center and if it comes out with just a few moist crumbs they are finished. Let the cakes cool in a pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.

For the Glaze: Microwave all of the ingredients together, whisking half-way through, for about a minute or until the mixture is smooth. Let the glaze cool for about 20 minutes so it can thicken, but still pour easily.

Assembly: Cut a small cone shaped area out of the top/middle of the cupcake so there is a big hole in the center. Be carful not to cut into the sides or bottom of the cupcake, but remember the more room you have the more cream you can put in later. Cut the top off of the cone shape you cut out of the cupcake so you have a little round disk of cupcake to place on top once you fill the cupcake with cream. Fill each cupcake with the pastry cream in your refridgerator and then place the round cupcake disk on top of the cream. After all the cupcakes are filled, pour or spoon a generous amount of the chocolate topping on top. The chocolate topping hides all of the cuts you made in the top of the cupcakes. Let the mixture drip down the sides of the cupcakes. A little tip is to place parchment paper under the cupcakes so it is easier to clean up.

Phew! And you are done! Like I said, a little complicated, but these cupcakes will change your life and will make you guaranteed the most popular. *Special thanks to America's Test Kitchen for the recipe.

Yummy Yummy Burgers

Thanks to my good friend I was put on to thepioneerwoman.com. Her name is Ree Drummond and she sounds like a wonderful person. Not only am I obsessed with her website but I love her food! I have made this burger at least three times in the last three weeks. I urge you to try it and you will not be sorry. Not only does it taste amazing, it's also super easy!

Ingredients for four burgers:

2 pounds hamburger

2 red onions

blue cheese or gorgonzola crumbles

Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip

Tabasco Sauce

hamburger bun

Start by carmelizing the onions. Slice them up and heat them in a pan over the stove with a little olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar. Let them cook on low to medium-low heat for 20 minutes until they are caramelized.

Next start on the hamburger. Season the meat with some salt and pepper and a couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce to desired spice level. Shape hamburger into patties and grill. Toast the buns when you are almost done grilling.

You can have your mayo spicy or not spicy. I prefer it spicy because it nicely offsets the sweetness of the caramelized onions when it is all put together. Just put some mayo in a bowl and add a couple dashes of Tabasco until it's how you like it.

To assemble the burgers: spicy mayo on both sides followed by burger. Place caramelized onions and blue cheese crumbles on top of the burger with a slice of lettuce to top it off. Then enjoy! It is so awesome you will be grilling it the rest of the summer.

Raspberry Love

Look at those big and beautiful berries! I absolutely adore raspberries. When I was a little girl, we would go to my grandma's house and pick berries from her bushes. I would stain my mouth red eating straight from the bushes and get next to nothing in the bowl. It was the absolute best. Thankfully, my mom has carried on the tradition and we have quite a few thriving bushes in our own yard now. We have so many berries we are filling our fridge with them in ridiculous amounts. Is it possible to drown in raspberries? If so, that's how I want to go.

Since we have so many berries and they are my favorite fruit, I was bound and determined they wouldn't go to waste. We have been cooking up a raspberry storm and even if you don't have your own bushes, raspberries are super cheap in the grocery store right now so it's time to take advantage.

Raspberry Muffins

First up are raspberry muffins. My mom is so obsessed with these she literally had me make them three times in one week. They are that good. Pictured are raspberry muffin tops. They may look like cookies, but I promise they are muffins. You know the top part of the muffin everyone loves? There is actually a pan that will bake only the tops for you and it is

delightful. If you don't have a muffin top pan, a regular muffin pan will do just fine. Courtesy of the wonderful Curtis Stone, celebrity chef, we have been basking in their yumminess weekly.

Ingredients:

2 cups almond meal

2 cups powdered sugar

2/3 cup regular flour

1 tsp. salt

2 sticks butter

10 egg whites

2 cups raspberries

Whisk all of the dry ingredients together. Melt the butter and thoroughly wet all the dry ingredients. With an electric mixer, whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Fold the egg whites into the butter/dry ingredients mixture. After thoroughly combined, fold in raspberries. Bake at 350 degrees for 29 minutes in greased muffin (or muffin top) pans. Let cool 5 minutes and twist to release from pan.

Easy Peasy right? You are going to sing to these muffins they are so good. I promise.

Fresh Fruit Trifle

This dessert is pretty, fancy, and best of all EASY. Easy as pie doesn't even qualify for how easy this is because it is easier than pie.

Ok here's what you need:

4 cups vanilla instant pudding

6 cups combination of raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries (2 cups each)

2 cups heavy whipping cream (whip with powdered sugar to taste and 1 tsp. vanilla)

2 kiwis

1 store bought pound cake

To make the dessert all you have to do is layer! First layer pound cake, second layer fruit, third layer pudding, fourth layer cake, fifth layer fruit, sixth layer pudding, seventh layer cake, eighth layer whipped cream, with pretty kiwis on top. Serve and enjoy. Just watch who you serve it to because I promise people will try to steal more once they have had one taste.

Raspberry Freezer Jam

Ok I didn't make this but my mom did and it's the best.

Go to the store. Get Freezer Jam Pectin. Follow the directions. Freeze.

That's it, and you have delectable homemade jam.

Now go forth and cook my cronies!!

Welcome To My Tasty Life!

So my friends and family call me a food snob. I know it's not the most glamorous title in the world...but when you can't stand cool whip because of your deep love for real whipping cream I guess it's well deserved.

My philosophy is, "life is too short to eat bad food". Why waste your calories and energy on dollar menu burgers and processed box dinners when you can make something tasty and wonderful with fresh ingredients? With this blog I intend to document my food adventures and hopefully share a few tips and tasty recipes with you along the way!

Next up, please welcome with hearty applause, my favorite fruit in the whole world....the raspberry.

Stay tuned.