Minny’s chocolate pie

For those of you who read or saw The Help know about Minny’s chocolate pie.   It sounded great in the book, but I didn’t start drooling until I saw the pie in the movie.  I have been wanting to make this pie for months, and finally did today.  I took it to a friend’s BBQ and it was a hit.  If you are looking for something that is simple to make and a crowd pleaser look no further.

oooh…doesn’t this look absolutely scrumptious!

recipe from foodandwine.com

Ingredients

• 1. 1 packaged pie dough crust, such as Pillsbury
  2. 1 1/2 cups sugar
  3. 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  4. 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  5. 2 large eggs, beaten
  6. 3/4 cup evaporated milk
  7. 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  8. 1/4 teaspoon salt
  9. Whipped cream, for serving – I used one small container of whipping cream: whip with a beater until peaks form, stir in vanilla and sugar (about 4 tablespoons).  TIP: stir in the sugar by hand after the whipped cream is to the proper consistency, otherwise it gets funky.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Ease the pie crust into a 9-inch pie plate and crimp the edges decoratively. Prick the crust lightly with a fork. Line the crust with foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes or until set. Remove the foil and weights and bake for about 5 minutes longer, just until the crust is dry but not browned.
2. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk the sugar with the cocoa powder, butter, eggs, evaporated milk, vanilla and salt until smooth.
3. Pour the filling into the pie shell and bake for about 45 minutes, until the filling is set around the edges but a little jiggly in the center. Cover the crust with strips of foil halfway through baking. Transfer the pie to a rack and let cool completely before cutting into wedges. Serve with whipped cream.

Make Ahead

The chocolate pie can be refrigerated overnight.

photo booth fun

I have been married for over 6 months now, and I have realized I have not posted many wedding pictures on here.  I started to, and got busy with life I guess.

Here are a few fun ones of the “photo booth”

I am still alive.

Life has been a busy whirl-wind the past few months.  After our awesome month long vacation/honeymoon in Chile, I started my new job the following week.  After long hours of commuting, and utter exhaustion after getting home, we move (with about 3 weeks to pack).  Unpacking was fun! Yay!  Glad that is over.

So, while I had success in traveling, getting a new job, finding a house and moving I did not have success in baking a cake.  Colorado, me, and baking cakes do not work well together.  Or cookies, either for that matter – they are more like cupcakes.  Oh well.  My friend’s birthday was coming up, and I thought that it would be cool to make her a bad ass ombre cake to sit in the middle of the cool decorated table with my DIY handicraft.  The cake failed, and I forgot to take pictures of the gold spray painted DIY decor.  Double fail.

this is what the cake was supposed to look like:

honey kennedy pink ombre cake

instead, this is what I got (yes, from a boxed cake mix!!):

I was super duper exited for this cake, and made sure all of the colors were perfect.  At least the cake tasted yummy!! And thank god for Whole Food’s bakery!

headboards.

I figured I should post something other than food.  But don’t you worry! there will be more food items posted soon – this weekend maybe?  All I do is make and eat GOOD food…so it’s totally natural that like 95% of my blog posts are about food (now that I’m married and over that temporary insanity).

Last night my husband was searching the pages of reddit, and came upon this, and called me into the living room to look.  Cracked me up that he thought of me.  That got me thinking, and realizing once again, that I seriously need a headboard.  I don’t know why I want one so badly, I guess I feel that it just completes a bedroom. It holds things together.  It makes you look all grownup and mature.  And god knows I need all of the help that I can get!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love etsy! find

I think these are totally adorable and fun.

Handmade miniature food sculpture and food art jewelry by kawaiiculture

sliced avacado

peach

artichoke

animal cookies

coconut

chocolate banana

urban cheesecraft

My sister got my the coolest gift this holiday season.  She knows that I love to cook, and that I am a DIY-aholic.  She talked to me on the phone shortly after I got home from Chile, and said that if I got a weird item in the mail it was from her.  I opened the box and found this:

paneer and queso blanco

Holy cow! What a fun, creative and unique gift! Thanks sis!

To visit the urban cheesecraft blog, visit here (it’s also a wordpress blog!)

 

 

sea scallops and blueberries

When we first got back from Chile the beginning of this month, I was not ready to give up eating seafood.  The seafood in Colorado is not bad, but because we’re a land-locked state it’s not the best.  It in no way compares with the seafood in Chile, which is why I ate as much seafood as I possibly could during the month of December.  So, during the first week we were home – and when I still had time to cook/before I started my new job – I made this amazing dish.  When I think a dish I made is amazing, I always tell my husband ‘I’d make this if I owned a restaurant’.  My husband doesn’t always agree with that statement, but he agreed this time (and I made him swear it was true).

Seared Sea Scallops with Satsuma, Parsley, and Shallot Salsa

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup minced shallots (about 2 small shallots)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons grated satsuma orange rind
• 2 tablespoons fresh satsuma orange juice
• 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 3/8 teaspoon salt, divided
• 3/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 2 satsuma oranges, peeled and sectioned
• Cooking spray
• 12 large sea scallops (about 19 ounces)
• 1 1/3 cups trimmed watercress (about 1 bunch)
• Satsuma orange wedges (optional)

Preparation

1. 1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl. Add 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper; stir well with a whisk. Add the satsuma orange sections. Let stand 30 minutes.
2. 2. Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add scallops to pan; cook 2 minutes or until browned. Turn scallops over. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook 2 minutes or until done.
3. 3. Place 1/3 cup watercress on each of 4 plates. Arrange 3 scallops on each serving; top each serving with 2 tablespoons salsa. Garnish with orange wedges, if desired.

The changes I made:

I used half of the sea scallops, and added a tuna steak.

I used clementine oranges instead of satsuma oranges.

I added fresh blueberries to the salsa.

In addition to the watercress, I added wilted spinach coated with olive oil & garlic with pine nuts (to make, heat a skillet on medium, add olive oil and get hot, then add crush garlic, dump in a bag of fresh spinach, add a handful of pine nuts, season with a little bit of salt & pepper, cover, and turn off the heat.

baked french toast

I got back from my month long honeymoon to Chile the other day.  During the month, we basically didn’t cook.  We BBQ’d a few times and made Chilena salad (sliced tomatoes, onions, and cilantro drizzled with olive oil & vinegar, and spiced with salt &  black pepper – some had spicy peppers on top too).   Not all of the hostel’s kitchens were great, and we didn’t want to buy and leave spices at every single hostel (we visited about 8 cities over the month), so we ate out.  I was craving to cook and be creative in the kitchen.

Our second morning home (today) I made this baked french toast.  It is super easy, and is made/refrigerated the night before.

the recipe:

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar (I melted the butter first/alone, then realized the brown sugar needed some melting, so I microwave the combined butter & brown sugar for about 45 seconds)

bourbon (breakfast is always better with bourbon!)

pour the butter/brown sugar mixture on the bottom of your baking pan. then combine:

1 cup milk

3 eggs

vanilla

bourbon (yep, I couldn’t help myself, I added a little more!)

cinnamon

salt

I sliced 6 pieces of french bread, laid them on top of the butter/brown sugar mixture, then poured the milk and egg mixture over the bread.  After that I sprinkled walnuts, chopped frozen cranberries, and fresh blueberries on top.  I covered the pan with plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge over night.

The next morning: take the pan out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature (I left it out for an hour).  Preheat your oven to 350, and bake for roughly 35-40 minutes.  Pour a little maple syrup over the cooked french toast to make it that much more amazing!

ready to be baked!

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,100 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 52 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

it’s snowing in CO and I’m going to Chile!

I was really hoping that this weekend would be cold.  It was.  It snowed.  Perfect.  Why?  Well, because tomorrow my husband and I are getting on an airplane for Chile!! Santiago will be a nice 85 degrees.  LOVE!

We will be spending the month of December, and a few days of January, in this country celebrating our honeymoon.  Even though we were married in August, we waited to go until now because it’s summer down there.  We will be spending a few days in Santiago, will visit some wineries that are close to the city, and will then visit Easter Island for a week.  When we fly back into Santiago we’ll head down south to the Lakes District.  After the week in the Lakes District we will most likely head north to Valparaiso.

lakes district

1 of 7 manmade wonders of the world: Moai on Easter Island

seaport town of Valparaiso

images: lakes district, Easter Island, Valparaiso