Getting ready for 2010

Wow! Time sure does fly, here we are at the weenie-dog-tail end of 2009. Once again, I dropped off the map in a big way and it was for a great reason.....We MOVED!! Ok, not far, only 4 blocks actually, which is a good thing because I do love me some Culver City, CA. It was time for a bigger place, our family grew last year, when little Arthur joined the mix and we have never had a kitchen we love, until NOW.
I suppose it is partly ironic that I am typing this first update in ages while away from our new home, on vacation, in cold & snowy Mammoth Lakes, CA.



Many months before the thought of moving even entered our minds, we decided we wanted to have a big spectacular New Years Eve, in the snow, with good friends, yummy food and the weenie dogs, of course.
Throw an unplanned, but much appreciated move into the mix two weekends before Christmas, and that pretty much sums up my recent absence from the blogosphere.

In the spirit of my last post, and the fact that we had to get pretty creative with our time-savers this year, here is one of my FAVORITE quick, easy and delicious time-saving desserts. When I am not mid-moving in December, I try to measure out about 4-5 Ziploc bags of the dry ingredients for this crisp- and keep them in the freezer. That way, any time, just soften up the 1/3 cup butter and use frozen fruit for a stellar homemade crisp in about 40 minutes, all prep and baking included!!



In getting ready for our trip up here, I grabbed a few apples, measured out the oats, sugar and spices into a plastic bag and noted the fresh cranberries I had frozen a few weeks ago when they were on major sale.

As I unpacked all the food and kitchen goodies I realized I totally spaced out on bringing the cranberries!! So I shot Nate a quick text and when he got finished with his last run of the day, he hit the store and brought me a can of cranberry sauce, the chunky stuff, not the gel....Hmmm, what's this? He let me know the store they stopped at was a little less like a grocery store and definitely did not have a produce section. No problem, pretty sure I can make this work AND now I have a great recipe for left over cranberry relish after Thanksgiving!!



Cranberry Apple Crisp
Inspired by a recipe from Country Living Magazine

3 Gala apples, cored and chopped into little bite sized bits
about 15oz/one container of chunky cranberry relish (the cranberry orange relish from Trader Joe's would be good!)
3/4 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. flour
1/2 C. quick oats
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/3 cup softened butter

Preheat the oven to 350, and lightly grease a pie plate or pyrex pan. In a medium bowl mix the sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter until all ingredients are moistened/well combined.
Toss the apples into the greased baking dish and spread the cranberry sauce over the apples. Spread the sugar, oat and spice mixture evenly over the apples and cranberries and bake uncovered, about 35 minutes, until top of crisp is golden brown.
Serve with vanilla ice cream and hot coffee~ HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

What Are Your Favortie Holiday Time-Savers?

WOW. Is it seriously almost Thanksgiving?! No, really, I mean it. HOW IS IT NEAR-HALFWAY THROUGH NOVEMBER!!??
Since time is very much FLYING, I thought I'd talk about SAVING time instead! Over on the Sweet Life Kitchen Facebook page I asked ~ WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY TIME SAVERS?! ...and that's what I wanna know! Here I will share some of mine, and in 30 days when I've gathered some feedback, ideas from you fabulous people I'll share a fun, helpful list of truly terrific time saving tips!!

I make enough cookies each December to feed a small army of REALLY hungry cookie-monsters. I do this while throwing & attending Holiday parties, working (PS the jewelry biz tends to get a wee bit busier this time of year), plus balancing all those other little things that make up the usual day-to-day... and then some!
About 4 years ago I started a time-saving tradition that seriously changed my life in the cookie department!!
The Sunday after Thanksgiving I spend the ENTIRE day making cookie DOUGH...I double wrap the batches in Press-n-Seal, then double bag them in heavy duty freezer bags. This way I can thaw and bake the cookies on weeknights or Saturdays through out December with out a mess in the kitchen or any major dishes to do!
Read more HERE



I also always take a day or half-day off work in early December for the extra errands, getting the holiday cards sent out, and making some week night dinners and appetizers that freeze well to get through to the New Year. I also always make MY CHILI in the crock pot that day, for our dinner that night AND yummy leftovers!



Visit our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE or post a comment here and share YOUR favorite tips!!

Singing Dog Vanilla Review & Recipes

I told you all a while back that I received a sample of Singing Dog Vanilla and was VERY excited to use it!! Top notch vanilla is one of those things in the kitchen that is well worth splurging on. I feel like Singing Dog is very well priced considering that it is a fantastic, quality vanilla extract. This was my first experience with a 100% Organic Vanilla extract and I did find that though it had a slightly different flavor than vanilla I had purchased in the past, it was excellent. I like the fact that this is an "all natural, fair-trade, organic" product, companies that share these beliefs are more fun to shop with because they are working hard to promote ethical practices and sustainable agriculture.


The first go I had with this was making PEACH GINGER VANILLA ICE CREAM, and it was delicious! The primary flavor of this recipe was vanilla so we got a good opportunity to really get a taste of it and really liked it!! The last time I made vanilla ice cream I used vanilla beans and Nate had no idea that I hadn't done the same this with this batch, so I give that a thumbs up~


Next up I made APPLE BUTTERMILK SPICE CAKE , which was a recipe I made up on the fly one weekend to use up some apples.


Then I made the PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE PIES and often add vanilla to any cheesecakey goodness I am making, so this one was fun and tasted fantastic with the Singing Dog Vanilla!!


I also used it in the CARAMEL BOTTOM GINGERSNAP CHEESECAKE , of course!

I've still got a good amount of it left, and just found THIS ARTICLE on About.com listing the The Very Best Premium Vanilla Extract Brands and there's Singing Dog at #8, woooohooo!! YAY!

Caramel Bottom Gingersnap Cheesecake

I love cheesecake ever so much. One of the reasons I think cheesecake is so fabulous is that it's awesome plain, but also fantastic with all kinds of yummy seasonal or other-desserty flavors mixed in! A few years ago I made PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BARS http://www.sweetlifekitchen.com/2007/09/pumpkin-cheesecake-bars.html, but since I had recently made MINI PUMPKIN CHEESECAKES this fall, I wanted to try something with caramel instead of pumpkin.
This cheesecake has a gingersnap cookie crust that seriously tastes like candy, it's really good!!

I made this one up on the fly- so email me if you have any questions or if my explanation of crust measurements is confusing beth@sweetlifekichen.com



Crust
Heaping 3/4 cup of graham cracker crumbs
Heaping 3/4 cup of ginger snap cookie crumbs (I put a few handfuls of cookies in the food processor and blasted them)
6 T butter melted
2-3 T Brown sugar
1 T white sugar
Teeny pinch of cinnamon

Filling
2 handfuls of caramel cubes

2 8oz bricks cream cheese, room temp
2 eggs room temp
1 T brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla



Pre-heat the oven to 375. Spray a 9-inch spring form pan with some non-stick spray and mix the graham cracker and gingersnap crumbs with the sugar and pinch of cinnamon in a medium bowl. Drizzle the melted butter into the crumb mixture and toss with a fork and your fingers until all the crumbs are moistened with butter. Dump the crust mixture into the spring form pan and use the back of a spoon or bottom of a measuring cup to press it as evenly as possible into place. Bake crust 8 minutes, then allow to cool while you melt the caramel.
In a microwave safe bowl, slowly melt the caramel at 40 % power in 30-45 second intervals in the microwave. Stir after each zap until it is melty and there are no chunks.
Slowly drizzle the caramel over the crust, you won't really be able to spread it cuz that will pull the crust apart, so just lightly drizzle it very slowly all over the bottom of the pan to get as even of coverage as possible. Let the caramel cool in the crust while you mix up the cheesecake filling.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, mix cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy add eggs one at a time and then the vanilla. Mix until completely smooth- scraping down the sides of the bowl and the bottom of the bowl once or twice to be sure you get any lumpiness outta there.
Pour the cheesecake mix over the caramel in the crust. Place a 9 x 13 pan half full of warm water on the bottom rack of the oven and the cheese cake right above it on the middle rack.
Bake at 400 for 55 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
let cool then refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving. The caramel starts to melt right away when you slice this and serve it. DELICIOUS.

Calabrese Pasta~ Sunday Dinner

Nate and I are both Italian on our mother's side, and happen to really, really love Italian food. We make HOMEMADE RAVIOLI with his family every Easter, and love making homemade pasta and LASAGNA here at home when ever we can.
I recently received a copy of Cucina Di Calabria and I've been VERY excited try one of the recipes!
My mother's family comes from Calabria, which is in Southern (the "tip of the boot" to be exact)Italy. When I was working on the post for BRACIOLA I realized that both Nate and I grew up with Sunday Dinner. Every week, no matter what was going on, on Sunday the whole family gathers for togetherness and homemade dinner. There are so many things that make it hard for the whole family to get together for dinner; soccer practice, play rehearsal, board meetings, but not on Sunday. I am sure this is not just an Italian thing and that many families have this tradition, but it was something that as we've grown older and moved away from our parents, I'd not thought about it in a while.
SO...
I thought it would be fun to share this tradition with you by posting a great Sunday family dinner at least once every month!
This Sunday dinner is my first recipe from Cucina Di Calabria, for basic pasta. I was trying to keep dinner a little lighter, so I added some veggies and basil and served this with an easy, flavorful chicken.



Serves 6

Pasta
1 1/4 cup flour
2 egg
pinch of salt

Lightly dust a clean surface with flour. Pour out the 1 1/4 cups flour into a mountain and use the back of a 1/2 c measuring cup to create a crater in the top- making the flour look like a volcano/ Crack the eggs into the crater. Use fork and your well-floured fingers to mix in a bit..then use hands to fully incorporate egg into flour~ knead, knead, knead about 5 minutes....
Separate the dough into golf ball sized balls and let rest on a flour coated towel, lightly covered with another flour dusted towel about 10 minutes. Using a pasta roller, take one of the pasta golf balls and smash it flat with your hand, then feed it through largest setting on the pasta roller twice, then fold in half lengthwise, run through again, fold again lengthwise and run through again, then move to second largest setting and run through, fold and run through once more before moving to third largest setting- repeat until you are on the 5th setting, then run through 6 th setting once, don't fold and set the sheet of dough on floured cloth- repeat with all 6 golf balls of pasta- then run sheets through pasta slicer and dry on rack or floured cloth to dry until ready to fridge, freeze or boil.



Wile the pasta dries, chop up and prepare the veggies~
1/2 yellow squash diced
1/2 zucchini diced
1 T garlic, minced
2-3 T fresh Basil, chopped
Salt, pepper
Balsamic drizzle
Parmesan & Romano

Set veggies aside and make the chicken.
While you make the chicken, put on 8 cups of water to bring to a boil for the pasta.

Chicken
6 chicken breasts
Juice of one lemon
1 T garlic
2 T olive oil + more for cooking
2 T balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper

Rinse 6 chicken breasts and pat dry. Lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in a shallow dish. In a small bowl mix the lemon juice, garlic, 2 T oil and 2 T balsamic and whisk until combined.
Pour the lemon juice mix over the chicken and let stand 5 minutes.
Heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet, then add chicken.
Cook chicken about 7 seconds each side.
Meanwhile when the 8 cups of water comes to a boil, add the pasta and boil about 8 minutes.
When the chicken is cooked through and golden on both sides, remove from heat and set aside.
Drain pasta. Place drained pasta in a large bowl and toss in the squash, zucchini, garlic and basil.
Add a serving of pasta with zucchini, squash, garlic and basil to each plate, drizzle balsamic over the pasta and sprinkle with Romano and Parmesan cheese, serve with chicken cut up on top or on the side.



MENU:
KELLE SALAD
CALABRESE PASTA
MINI CHOCOLATE MOLTEN CAKES!!!
~Happy Sunday~

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Pies

Well, it's about time! This is the first pumpkin recipe I've posted this season and it's darn near Halloween already!!
I have been pretty swamped at work, holiday time = busy jewelry bees. I had the pleasure of career coaching down at G.I.A. last Friday and as I enjoyed a gorgeous day by the Pacific Ocean in Carlsbad, glowing in the 85+ degree heat, I actually found myself thinking about Fall...no, really! We got a wee little peek at Fall earlier last week, with some yummy, rainy weather, but it only lasted a moment. In hopes of some cooler temperatures I'm sharing this very easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie recipe to help lure the Fall back to L.A.

With some major tailgating ahead this Saturday, it'd be fun to get out the hoodies & jeans for this game!! C'mon Fall!!

I used 4 mini-tart pans for this recipe, but it would also work in a regular 8" diameter pyrex pie dish.

2 prepared 9 inch pie crust (you'll need about 1 1/2 for the 4 mini tarts and 1 crust if you are going with the 8 inch pie)
1 8oz brick of cream cheese softened
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 T brown sugar
1/2 15 oz can pumpkin
1/4 heaping tsp cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla

Pre heat oven to 400 and line 4 mini tart pans or single pie place with prepared pie crust. Butter a piece or pieces of foil and, press, buttered side down into the crust. Bake 8 minutes at 400 remove foil, and bake another 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 350.
To make filling, mix cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment until fluffy. Add the vanilla, then spices then pumpkin. Until all ingredients are well combined. Fill a separate pyrex with a few inches of water and place on the bottom rack.
Fill each mini pie or the single pie plate 4/5 full bake on the middle rack about 30 min for the minis and about 45 minutes for a regular sized pie or until butter knife comes out clean.

More pumpkin recipes (and hopefully FALL WEATHER to come...)

Pillsbury Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls- Apples & Bannans~

Last fall I was blessed to receive some sample product from Pillsbury! Check out some of the recipes I already posted HERE.



We had gobs of great stuff and wanted to each create something different with the packages of Pillsbury Cinnabon Grands Cinnamon Rolls. Nate chose to make a cinnamon roll apple pie pocket, and I made mini-cinnamon roll bananas foster bites.



To get an idea of the taste and texture of the rolls, I baked up one regular size and two mini rolls before we got started.



Ironically, Nate and I BOTH happen to be people who do not like cinnamon rolls and have never actually had Cinnabon, (GASP!) but we still enjoyed these ooey-gooey rolls and the fun creations that we made! Just to be sure, we had some friends taste-test as well and they gave the thumbs-up. I think for a super-easy, hot, sticky cinnamon roll these are a great time saving dessert or component to a dessert.



BANANAS FOSTER CINNABON CINNAMON ROLLS
By Beth G

1 package Mini Pillsbury Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls

Bananas Foster Filling
1/4 c unsalted butter
2/3 c packed brown sugar
3 T dark rum
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp fine vanilla extract
3-4 bananas sliced (lengthwise, in slices, in bits)- depends on how you are serving it...for this recipe I cut the banana in to little bits
A big hand full of coarsely chopped pecans

Combine the butter, brown sugar, rum, cinnamon and vanilla in a skillet and heat to boiling. Add bananas and cook stirring constantly for about 2-3 minutes.
Grease a mini muffin tin and start peeling the mini cinnamon rolls apart, pretty much un-wrapping them. Rip strips off and layer them in the mini-muffin tin and press down to create a little cinnamon roll dough cup.
Then spoon the bananas foster into the cinnamon roll cup & bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until cinnamon rolls are golden.
This makes 12 mini-rolls, I actually set aside two of the mini rolls that I pushed the center out toward the outside creating a hole in the middle, like a doughnut. Then I spooned the bananas foster into the center, and baked on a greased cookie sheet at the same temp and time above. We liked both styles, the second method- creating the hole in the middle was even easier than taking them apart and would make a great party dessert!



APPLE PIE POCKETS with PILLSBURY CINNABON CINNAMON ROLL CRUST
By Nate G

Nate used the large/regular sized cinnamon rolls, he got super messy and creative and used the cinnamon roll dough as a personal pie pocket crust.



1 package Pillsbury Cinnabon Grands Cinnamon Rolls
(6 rolls, makes 4 pies)
3 apples, cored and chopped into little pieces
2 T water
2 T flour
2 T sugar
2 T brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 T butter



Unroll the cinnamon rolls on a covered work surface (lay out some wax paper) and kneed into 4 flat ovals.
In a saucepan over medium heat combine the water, flour, butter, sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon, bring to a boil and reduce heat, add apples and cook stirring often for about 5 minutes.
Spoon apple pie filling onto the cinnamon roll dough discs and fold over to create a pie pocket. Press the edges firmly to seal. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until dough is golden brown.