Sasha's Kitchen: Designer Handbag Cupcakes

Next up in my cupcake series (this might be my last for a bit, as we are going on vacation over the holidays somewhere warm), I decided to do handbag cupcakes. I had thought about this for awhile, and had always considered making small handbags out of fondant or gum paste. However, I wanted to make these a bit more taste-friendly (I always take off the fondant to eat the cupcakes), so instead I decided to make each cupcake look like the front of a designer purse. I had initially planned on using either pipe cleaners or red shoestring licorice to create a handle as well, but couldn't find either in a pinch. I didn't really matter - I think they came out great. I bought some fine tips for my pastry bag so that I could pipe out the icing colors that I made to get detail on the handbags, and I used a tube for the black and red (all the other colors are homemade). And the cupcakes? They are delicious - I made chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with two kinds of frosting - chocolate and plain buttercream (which I dyed every color imaginable with my Ateco  gel food colorings). I will share the recipe below, but first, the cupcakes:

First, I did a couple of different Louis Vuitton styles (also pictured at the top).

Next I did a couple of Chanel cupcakes, which were pretty simple:

The Gucci ones were my favorites:

I did a colorful Birkin bag

And I also did a couple of Fendi ones too:

And now for the recipe - Its from my favorite cupcake book, Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcakes, with my own frosting recipes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes (I did 1.5x the recipe below)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup milk (I used skim)

First, combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. In the basin of your electric stand mixer, beat the sugars with the butter until smooth and combined, on high for about five minutes. Beat in the peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Then alternatively add and beat in the dry ingredients and the milk. Scoop batter into lined silicon cupcake molds (about 3/4 to the top) and bake for about 25 minutes at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean when you test them.

For my frostings: The chocolate frosting: 1 stick butter, 2 cups confectioner's sugar, 1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa, 1/4 cup heavy cream

Buttercream frosting: 1 stick butter, 2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar, 2 T heavy cream, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sasha's Kitchen: Designer Handbag Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Veal with Roasted Red Peppers and Mushrooms

I was excited to use the delicious looking jar of roasted red peppers from Greece that I had received from Shop-Rite in the mail as a participant in the ShopRite "Potluck" blog panel. I had already planned on making veal marsala for dinner. Then, I decided to go with the marsala theme, but vary things up a bit. This dish is kind of a take on veal marsala, but its quite untraditional - and better than even our best veal marsala. I jazzed up the sauce with a bit of lemon and some Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce that I got some coupons for as part of a Foodbuzz  promotion. So this is all about some great ways to use the goodies that I received. The roasted peppers from ShopRite in particular were delicious - and made a perfect complement to the marsala sauce and the mushrooms. The Lea & Perrins really jazzed up the marsala sauce in the best way ever - and is a must (in small amounts) in all of my marsala dishes from here on out.  I also used some of ShopRite's extra virgin olive oil that I received - fresh from Italy. It was delicious, and great quality and complemented a nice dish.

Sasha's Veal with Roasted Red Peppers and Mushrooms
flour
1 lb veal scaloppine or veal cutlet
ShopRite extra virgin olive oil
baby bella mushrooms (one package)
1 jar ShopRite roasted red peppers
1 onion, diced
3 sprigs of thyme
1 cup marsala wine
1 cup of chicken stock
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce

First, dredge the veal in flour and season with salt and pepper. Sear on all sides, and set aside. Dice an onion and saute in olive oil. Add a bit more olive oil, as well as the mushrooms and red peppers and thyme, and cook until softened. Add 1 cup of marsala wine and cook over medium high heat, and allow to reduce by half, as the mushrooms, pepper and onions will soak up the flavor of the marsala. Add the chicken stock and reduce until you have a proper sauce.  In the meantime, you can cook the veal to your liking in the oven before adding it back into the sauce and cooking over medium heat for another few minutes, as the sauce thickens. Add the Lea & Perrins and juice of half of a lemon towards the end. Enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: Veal with Roasted Red Peppers and Mushrooms

Sasha's Kitchen: Asian-Style Sesame Chicken

I wanted to create an Asian-style sesame chicken dish that was lighter than typical chinese food, and healthier - avoiding frying the chicken and using high quality meat and ingredients. As a member of the Shop Rite blog panel, I received a bottle of ShopRite's Asian Style Garlic Sesame Sauce to try out in creating this dish - that was my inspiration. As it turns out, the combination of the high quality Empire kosher chicken and the ShopRite Asian Style Garlic Sesame Sauce was stellar - a healthy and delicious twist on a classic dish. This was a high favorite with my husband, who requested that I make the dish again the next week. ShopRite's sauce would also likely combine well with beef or salmon. I paired the sauce and chicken dish with traditional snow peas and jasmine rice.

Sasha's Asian Style Sesame Chicken
3 T low sodium soy sauce
2 T Sesame Oil
2 T honey
1 package chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
3 scallions, thinly sliced
2-3 cups snow peas
3-4 T ShopRite Asian Style Garlic Sesame Sauce
1 cup jasmine rice

Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil and honey in a bowl and whisk together. Marinate the chicken for about 30 minutes. Remove the chicken from the marinade and saute in a pan until cooked through with the scallions. Shortly before the chicken is done, add the ShopRite Asian Style Garlic Sesame Sauce and cook to completion. Meanwhile, steam the snow peas and cook a cup of rice to serve with the sesame chicken dish.

Sasha's Kitchen: Asian-Style Sesame Chicken

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Two desserts to impress your in-laws

This Thanksgiving, I knew I couldn't do much to help the meal planning.

We were planning to arrive the day before the big feast, and it turned out weather delayed us until the morning of -- not to mention the turkey and sides have been traditionally taken care of by my new in-laws, and I didn't want to step on anyone's toes.

However, I had some beautiful, hand-picked cranberries (from my mom, plucked from the cranberry bogs of Whidbey Island) that I really wanted to do something impressive with. I also had just found a recipe that has a slightly embarrassing origin but is *delicious* (more on that in a second).
So, dessert.

I started with that recipe, which comes from Relish magazine. Yes, the food equivalent of Parade. Which is where the embarrassment comes in. As a newspaper employee, I try to read a lot of the paper (classifieds and sports section aside), including Parade and Relish, despite their broad, broad appeal to midAmerica and its bland tastes. Fortunately, Relish is a little better than Parade at breaking those strictures, so occasionally I'm interested in something they print. Like this:

Pear Frangipane:

It. Is. Delicious.

Pear-y, marzipan-y, even good as two-week-old leftovers (says the baker who admits to eating the last piece from the trial batch two days ago). I initially made it with a cake pan, the kind that has the little bar you move under the cake to loosen it after it has baked, and that was OK, but the one I made in the tart pan with the removable bottom was pretty much the star of the show (I do recommend that you fold the edges of the pastry over the top edges of the pan; otherwise, during prebaking it shrinks in too much). My father-in-law requested -- nay, insisted -- I leave the leftovers with him.

So that was one successful dessert, but it hadn't taken care of the amazing, tiny, tart cranberries.
For that, I turned to the intertubes.

I'm honestly not much of a baker. I've gotten into bread moods, and even received the very good Bread Alone cookbook as a gift (though not used it nearly as much as I'd like to). I'm still intimidated by baking and its precision.
Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise that I've never made a cheesecake in my adult life. But that didn't stop me from thinking that cranberry would be a good combination with cheesecake (that is, after I rejected the implausibility of traveling with and/or making in small portions and without a reliably available oven, cranberry creme brulee. I still *need* to make that).

And the good old intertubes came through again, giving me this recipe, which AllRecipes.com apparently purloined from Taste of Home.
It's really good. Really full of cream cheese, and really good.

I used a little less sugar and a little more lemon juice because I wanted the tartness of the cranberry to shine. Additionally, the sides of the pan were so low (do I have the wrong kind of pan?) that I had to swirl the cranberry directly into the cheesecake, not leaving the layer of sauce on top that is shown in the AllRecipes photo. It looked pretty awesome, although the cheesecake did crack, which I had understood the sitting in a cooling oven is supposed to prevent.
As it turned out, it tasted pretty awesome too, a run for the money with the pear frangipane.

So. If you have in-laws, bosses, or other discriminating folks to impress this holiday season, these two desserts are what I suggest. If you're so lucky as to be stuck with the last course, that is!

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Two desserts to impress your in-laws

Sasha's Kitchen: Star Wars Themed Cupcake Series

It was nice for a new cupcake series. I'm not really a big Star Wars or Science Fiction fan, but I have certainly seen the classic movies, and thought they would translate well into a good series of cupcakes, made using fondant from New York Cake. Rather than buy a bunch of different colors of fondant, I bought plain white fondant, and used gel food coloring to make different colors of fondant. I didn't do all the characters, but I did the important ones and/or the ones I thought I could pull off: Princess Leia, Yoda, Jabba the Hut, Strormtrooper, Darth Vader, C3PO and R2D2. The cupcakes are just plain vanilla cupcakes that I made using the recipe from Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcakes. I frosted them with yellow/gold icing and added the fondant creations atop. Here are some pictures below:

Sasha's Kitchen: Star Wars Themed Cupcake Series

Sasha's Kitchen: Signature Macaroni & Cheese

Macaroni & cheese is one of the best all time comfort foods. Its not one of the most healthy pasta dishes out there. In the next week or two, I will be sharing two recent lowfat, healthy pasta dishes. This is not one of them, but oh is it amazing to eat every once and a while. Although not traditional, I made it for Thanksgiving, and it made for a perfect side dish to the maple glazed turkey.  You can make it a little bit healthier, if you use lowfat cheese, I guess. But I personally recommend making it as a side dish for a large group and just indulging once a year or so.

Sasha's Mac & Cheese
1 box elbow macaroni
2 T butter, melted
1/3 cup flour
3 cups skim milk
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
8 oz pepper jack cheese, grated
3 oz cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup Japanese-style panko bread crumbs
2 diced tomatoes
2 tsp ancho chile powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
salt and pepper to taste

First, cook the macaroni. Combine the flour and skim milk in a pot and cook over medium heat until it thickens, for about 10 minutes. Sir in the grated cheeses and spices. Once the cheeses are melted and combined, remove from the heat. Mix in the diced tomatoes and panko. Combine this mixture with the pasta. Top with additional panko and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, until the top is crunchy. This was a big hit among the side dishes at our Thanksgiving table - it was a terrific last minute addition to the Thanksgiving menu that everyone really enjoyed.

Sasha's Kitchen: Signature Macaroni & Cheese

Sasha's Kitchen: Indian-Spiced Hanukkah Potato Latkes

Tonight is the second night of Hanukkah, the eight day long Jewish festival of lights. Traditionally, Jews make potato latkes - basically fried grated potatoes to celebrate Hanukkah. While traditional latkes are fun, I like to make my potato pancakes for the holiday with a bit of a twist. Last year I made these sweet potato chipotle latkes with Swedish lingonberries, which are still my favorite. We made those for Thanksgiving as the sweet potato side dish and they were amazing, as usual. Click here for the recipe.

This year for Hanukkah, however, I decided to do my latkes with an Indian spice variation, inspired by Floyd Cardoz's recipe from Tabla. Sadly, Tabla is closing its doors soon after a great run in New York, but its recipes live on. Anyhow, based on their recipe, I loosely crafted my own using my favorite Indian spices. You can find my inspiration recipe here. My changes - I prefer it with a couple eggs, added the cumin and left out the chat masala.

Both of these recipes are reasonably healthy if you fry them in Canola Oil, as I did - or at least a lot healthier than they would otherwise be! Happy Hanukkah!

Sasha's Indian Inspired Potato Latkes
4 large Idaho potatoes
2 eggs
2 Macintosh Apples
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 cup diced fresh cilantro
2 T grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled
pepper to taste
1/2 of a diced jalapeno pepper (optional- I left it out this time)
Canola oil for frying

First, grate the potatoes. Then, peel and grate the apples and mix in the grated apple mush with the potatoes.  Mix in the grated ginger, cumin, coriander, eggs, and diced cilantro. Stir in the blue cheese crumble, and the diced jalapeno if you choose to add it. Allow the canola oil (about 1/3 of a cup to start) to heat up in the pan and then fry the latkes in the oil on both sides until done, cooked through and browned.

How should you serve these? The best way would probably be with an Indian chutney, maybe slightly on the spicy side. I didn't feel like making chutney tonight, so I used some Fig-Pear jam from Hurd Orchards, with a little bit of sour cream, which was also a delicious combination. Yum! The spices were great with the potatoes and a bit of apple - it really jazzed up a holiday tradition.

Sasha's Kitchen: Indian-Spiced Hanukkah Potato Latkes

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Panna Cotta with Gingerbread Crust

I first made panna cotta for Thanksgiving last year, but it was just a plain panna cotta with a gingerbread/walnut crust. This year, I decided to instead go with a lovely pale orange pumpkin flavored panna cotta with a gingerbread/almond crust. This was a bit hit with the family at the Thanksgiving dinner that Brad and I hosted at our place with some of the people we are most thankful to have as part of our lives. This is quite easy to make. Other than baking the crust, it is no bake, and firms up fairly quickly in the refrigerator.  I am a huge fan of pumpkin anything this year, and so incorporating pumpkin into a dessert was a no-brainer. I had considered doing a pumpkin cheesecake (which I may do soon, regardless) but this is much healthier, but still showcases fall's favorite vegetable, the pumpkin.

Sasha's Pumpkin Panna Cotta With Almond-Gingerbread Crust
Crust
20 gingersnap cookies
2/3 cup almond slivers
1 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 T butter, melted
Filling
1 packed unflavored powdered gelatin
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 T honey
1 1/2 cups 2% Greek yogurt
1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 T water

Preheat the oven to 325. In a food processor, separately puree the almonds and cookies. Combine in the food processor with the brown sugar and salt. Mix in the melted butter until the mixture has a wet but sandy texture. Press crumbs into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate that has been sprayed with PAM or Canola oil. Bake until golden brown for about 25 minutes and allow to cool.

To make the filling, place the water in a bowl with the contents of the gelatin packed and let stand for five minutes. In a small saucepan, add the cream, honey and salt and bring to a simmer. Add the gelatin and stir until dissolved. In a large bowl, combine the Greek yogurt, vanilla and pumpkin puree. Add the hot cream mixture to the bowl, and whisk to combine. Pour the mixture into the crust/pie plate. Allow to chill in the refrigerator, covered, for at least two hours.

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Panna Cotta with Gingerbread Crust

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Pudding Bars from the New Baked Cookbook

My parents came to our house for Thanksgiving and my mom brought me the new baking cookbook, Baked, from the famous Brooklyn Bakery, Baked. The book looks to have so many great recipes, that I decided to make a couple as part of our Thanksgiving dinner. These were a delicious indulgence - perhaps not something you should be eating every day, but so decedent and perfect for a holiday meal, especially if you love chocolate pudding like I do. This recipe, termed "Aunt Sabra's Pudding Bars" in the Baked cookbook was enjoyed by our dinner guests over Thanksgiving. The graham crust was the perfect combination. I made a few minor modifications from the original recipe, which are noted in the adaption below (I used a bit less butter in the crust and it worked out just fine, and substituted rum for whiskey).

Baked's Aunt Sabra King's Pudding Bars (makes 24 bars)
Graham Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 T dark brown sugar
8 T (one stick) of melted butter (you could probably use even less and still get a good result)
Chocolate Pudding Filling
4 oz dark chocolate
3 T cornstarch
3/4 cup granulated sugar
6 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 T rum or whiskey

As the book suggests, you can serve with powdered chocolate or whipped cream, but we served ours plain. To make the crust, combine the brown sugar, melted butter and graham cracker crumbs. Press into a 9x13 inch, or appropriate sized prepared pan, to form the crust. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, and then bake at 325 for 10 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool while making the filling.

In a large, heatproof bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar. Add the egg yolks and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and whisk again. In a saucepan, whisk together the remaining sugar, milk and cream. Bring just to a boil. Add the egg mixture, whisking constantly, adding the egg mixture one third at a time. Bring mixture back to a boil over medium heat, and boil for two to three minutes until the pudding is very thick.  Pour the hot mixture over the chocolate and stir until combined into a chocolate pudding. Allow the pudding to cool for 20 minutes, before pouring over the graham crust, spreading evenly with a spatula. Refrigerate for at least four hours before cutting and eating the bars.

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Pudding Bars from the New Baked Cookbook

Sasha's Kitchen: Maple Glazed Thanksgiving Turkey with Oranges, Paired with Wagner Vineyards Riesling

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. This year, my family came in from Rochester for Thanksgiving and Brad and I hosted, which meant quite a bit of holiday cooking. It was such a nice meal, and everything turned out great, just the way I had hoped. There is so much to be thankful for - my family, my wonderful husband, our health and all the things we have. Sometimes it is so easy to just think about the things we want and don't have more often, but there has to be a balance between the two. At any rate, this year, we made quite a few recipes for Thanksgiving - some new recipes and some old favorites. I look forward to sharing them here over the next week or so.

For the turkey, I decided to do an orange-maple flavored turkey, which seemed perfect for the season. Of course, and not surprisingly, they key to an amazing turkey, the centerpiece of Thanksgiving, is the quality of the bird you start with. Our turkey was a free-range, organic turkey from Plainville Farms, which might just be the best turkey I have ever had. When cooked properly, it is succulent, juicy and just perfect. You can order these delicious, organic turkeys from Fresh Direct.

We paired the Turkey with Wagner Vineyards' semi dry Riesling, a light, refreshing citrus infused wine, that was more citrus than sweet and an excellent table wine. We also noticed hints of pear and peach.

Sasha's Orange-Maple Roast Turkey
1 12-14 lb organic turkey
sea salt and pepper
paprika
two oranges
1 onion
fresh thyme
fresh oregano
1 stalk of celery
bay leaf
fresh tarragon
6 T of butter
1 cup of orange juice
1/3 cup of Vermont maple syrup
1 T of fresh grated ginger

Gravy
2/3 cup Riesling (I used Wagner Vineyards' Semi Dry Riesling, which I received in a generous shipment several months ago with several bottles of their other wonderful wines)
3 cups of turkey stock
3 T flour
1 T canola oil
1 T butter

Heat the oven to 425 and wash the turkey inside and out with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels and empty the body cavity. Keep the various turkey parts from the body cavity, and put in a pot to make the turkey stock. Add three cups of water, a stalk of celery, a dice onion, a couple carrots and some herbs to the stock solution (tarragon, thyme, a bay leaf and oregano). Bring the pot to a boil and allow to simmer for about two hours on low until you can strain the vegetables and turkey parts and keep the stock.

In the meantime, fill the cavity of the turkey with the two oranges, chopped celery, quartered onion, and fresh bay leaf, thyme, oregano and tarragon. This should be bulging out of the turkey cavity. Generously season the bird with sea salt (which is much healthier than regular salt) and pepper. Rub the turkey with paprika as well, to season. Set the bird in a roasting pan. Cover with a double layer of cheesecloth. Melt two tablespoons of butter and combine with 1/3 of a cup of orange juice. If you prefer, you can based with canola oil instead, but I recommend butter. Use the butter/orange juice solution to baste the turkey with a baster.  You can add a bit of water to the bottom of the roasting pan after you baste the turkey. Roast for 30 minutes. Then, take the turkey out and rebaste with another 2 T of melted butter combined with 1/3 cup of orange juice.  Lower the heat to 350, and loosely cover with a piece of aluminum foil. Roast for thirty minutes more and rebaste. Continue roasting at 350 for approximately three hours, basing periodically (about twice) during the interim. The turkey should be done after about three hours, when a mean thermometer registers 170 degrees in the breast and 180 degrees in the leg.

Heat 1 T of grated ginger in a pot with the maple syrup over medium heat until combined.  Glaze the turkey with this solution using a pastry brush, and allow to sit for about 20 minutes until you carve the turkey.

To make the gravy, combine the flour with a tablespoon of canola oil. Add to the three cups of turkey stock that you prepared and heat for about five minutes over medium heat. Add the Riesling and cook until reduced by half, and longer until the gravy thickens. Season with a bit of pepper.

Carve the turkey using an electric knife, and serve with the gravy and plenty of delicious side dishes (recipes soon!). Yum!

Sasha's Kitchen: Maple Glazed Thanksgiving Turkey with Oranges, Paired with Wagner Vineyards Riesling