Back From The Beach

Tartlet 4 walking along Navarre Beach where we picked up great shells

We had a good time in Florida, resting or swimming most of the time. We thought we would make like Boy Scouts this time and be prepared. So, rather than purchase the traditional souvenir bottle of aloe after we were burnt to a crisp, we took several half-empty bottles of sunscreen from last year *and* a bottle of aloe with us. Our first full day we lathered up with sunscreen and went for a bike ride (not long, about 5 miles). When we came back to the condo we basted ourselves in a cocoa butter scented sauce again before setting out for the beach — we were so proud of ourselves for being so smart. When we got back to the condo for lunch it seemed several of us had reddish splotches that looked amazingly like sunburn. What? but we had used sunscreen! That night I decided that maybe our old sunscreen had gone bad and ran out to the store for a new bottle. The next day we could all tell the difference when we put on the new stuff and it worked great. All the old bottles went in the trash, but we were glad we brought our aloe along!

Lemonade Mix Blueberry Muffins

We bracketed our stay in Destin with dinners at The Crab Trap, a beach-side open air restaurant with super cool ceiling fans, great crab, grouper, shrimp and anything else we’ve eaten there. It’s our favorite place to eat. And they serve a decent mango daiquiri. One of the things the kids love best about it is they serve kids meals in a plastic pail with a little beach shovel. They get a lot of use, actually.

The condo had the basics for the kitchen and I bought groceries that I planned for us to use entirely before we left and packed very little, about as close to camping as I like to get (especially with the nice bed and warm shower, toilet, and washer/dryer) . I made blueberry muffins one day but didn’t have lemons or lemon extract on hand and was using the last of my 2 lb bag of sugar, so I added a couple of tablespoons of lemonade mix to the batter and reserved a little sugar for the tops of the muffins. They turned out decently enough. It’s not what I would do all the time, but it worked in a pinch.

Brownies

We had a great dinner of grilled chicken, saffron rice from a package mixed with frozen peas, salad, and a mixture of strawberries and mangoes one night. I didn’t take a picture. That was also the night I cut my little finger with the crappy knife in the condo when the mango slipped out of my hand. The Husband did a great job finishing up dinner for us that night while I sat on the sofa flipping between HGTV and the Food Network, holding my finger in a paper towel. Maybe I didn’t watch at the right times during this trip, but I was really unimpressed with the Food Network this time. I don’t have cable at home so these trips are my only exposure and last year we didn’t have cable so it’s been two years, but I wasn’t as inspired as I was in the past.

Another day I tossed together a brownie/cake-ish dessert — I mixed flour, baking powder, sugar, melted butter, half a bag of melted chocolate chips, vanilla, a little yogurt, and a couple eggs and then stirred in more chocolate chips and baked it for 20 min or so. I made a frosting by heating a little butter, milk, and sugar in a pan and after it came to a boil I stirred in the remaining chocolate chips until they were well melted. It was pretty tasty. Now that I’m back to my fully equipped kitchen, we’ll have to see what I can whip up . . .

While I’m Gone . . .

please check out the new Daring Bakers Public Forum, which ever so perfectly is in the *kitchen*. I love it! We will not discuss the upcoming challenge in the public forum, but it’s a place to talk about general baking questions, past challenge recipes, and other fun stuff.

Also, you have seen the ‘FoodBuzz Featured Publisher’ badge on the blog for about a month now, I hope you have taken time to check out the good stuff at FoodBuzz. Click on them now——> and check out the foodies and the dining reviews in your area, or where you plan to go on *your* next vacation!

I’ll plan to be back in a few days!

Chocolate Caramel Cookies

As you may have noticed, I really like the combination of chocolate and caramel, especially with pecans. So it’s a no-brainer that I would like these cookies.

This cookie recipe is another Pillsbury Bake-Off recipe, and it won a $2000 prize in 1990! It appears in several different Pillsbury cookbooks, which is just a sign that Pillsbury knows a good recipe to sell cookbooks. I made these for the men’s retreat, but I made a double batch and saved some for us. In fact, these cookies are so good that I think you should always make a double batch. They freeze well if you don’t put the white candy coating on first so you can have a good supply in the freezer for those sudden cravings and surprise guests and, if you make these cookies, you’ll find that you have more friends who drop by unexpectedly! They are especially good while still warm from the oven, when the caramel is softer.

Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies (from the 34th Pillsbury Bake-Off)

2 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 t. baking soda

1 c. sugar
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 c. margarine or butter, softened
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs

1/2 c. chopped pecans
48 Rolo Chewy Caramels in Milk Chocolate, unwrapped
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1 Tbsp. sugar
4 oz. vanilla-flavored candy coating, if desired

Lightly spoon flour into measure cup; level off. In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa and baking soda; mix well.

In large bowl, combine sugars and butter; beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Add flour mixture; blend well. Stir in 1/2 c. of the pecans. If necessary; cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes for easier handling.

Heat oven to 375 F. For each cookie, with floured hands, shape about 1 Tbsp dough around 1 caramel candy, covering completely.

In small bowl, combine remaining 1/2 c. pecans and 1 Tbsp. sugar. Press one side of each ball into pecan mixture. Place, nut side up, 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 375 F for 7-10 minutes or until set and slightly cracked. Cool 2 minutes; removed from cookie sheets. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes or until completely cooled.

Melt candy coating in small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Drizzle over cookies.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Truffling With Your Affections

Today was the farewell for Mrs. V. The astute reader may remember there was a farewell last fall but only Mr. V. left us for TX at that time. Now their house has finally sold and they will be reunited (*yay!*) but we are sad to see them leave (*boo!*). Once again I wanted to make something that would suit her particular list of allergies. I made truffles.

You may be saying to yourself, “That doesn’t seem allergy friendly at all,” but I made several kinds. I saw some recipes online for goat cheese truffles, from several sources so I don’t have a specific link, and decided to play with that concept a little to make it edible for our friend. For the savory batch I simply copied a recipe I saw repeatedly — smooth some goat cheese around a grape and roll it in ground pistachios, all foods Mrs. V. can eat!

For the ’sweet’ ones, I used agave syrup for the sweetener and used both unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder to flavor the cheese. I rolled some of these in pistachios and some in cocoa powder.

In addition, I made some non-allergy friendly cold s’mores. I rolled a large marshmallow (small ones would have been nice, if I had some) in chocolate ganache (heat whipping to simmering and add chopped chocolate, stir until melted and smooth), allowing the ‘excess chocolate’ (is there such a thing?!) to drip off before rolling the marshmallow in graham cracker crumbs. I made some ‘regular’ truffles as well.

And now I leave you for a week while we go play at the beach, my most favorite week of the year! I have a little something in store for you next week while I’m gone, so hopefully you won’t miss me too much.

Chocolate Goat Cheese Truffles

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
5 Tbsp. agave syrup
2 Tbsp. canola oil
5 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
12 oz. plain goat cheese

In a small bowl, stir together chocolate, agave syrup, oil, and cocoa until smooth. In a medium bowl, beat the goat cheese for 30 seconds. Add the chocolate mixture and beat well. Roll into balls and toppings of your choice.

Orange Cranberry Scones

When I volunteered to make breakfasty snacks for the men’s retreat last weekend, I made several kinds of muffins (although clearly the bacon muffins were the favorite) and I made orange cranberry scones. I used the same basic recipe from which I made the orange, fig & coconut scones but added dried cranberries rather than figs and coconut. I also didn’t put any frosting on them. The men may not have enjoyed them as well as the bacon muffins, but they are one of my favorites!