So Long 2011! Hello 2012

So I just read an article a few days ago about some hot foods in 2012. I figured I would share them with you today so you could get a leg up on the other foodies around town. I read the article on Nutrition Unplugged website. Don't let the name fool you. It isn't about healthy food or anything. While I am prepping, chopping, and baking for a few friends that are coming over tonight I wanted to talk about a few of the highlights on the list. 

Outside the Kitchen: Boston!

Cheddar Jalapeno Bagel.Cheeseburger.latte.cucumber mule.mushroom pizza

Greetings from Boston,Massachusetts! Toby and I spent two days of our vacation in our favorite hotel, The Omni Parker House. This hotel is amazing. It is one of the most historic buildings in Boston. It was still decorated for Christmas and was so beautiful. Plus it is near some of the best restaurants in Boston. I'm salavating. 

The Nest's Recipe Swap: Mungo's Salad

Greetings from my couch. I am starting to get familiar with sleeping late and sitting on my couch for endless hours in my pajamas. God I love vacation. 

Check out my Guest Post for Melting Snowman Cookies!!

Hi Everyone!

Just a reminder, I had the privilege to write a guest bog for the amazing blog Oh Shine On. These are my new favorite holiday treat, The Melting Snowman cookies! If you have the week off spend some time to make them with someone you love! And don't forget to check out some of Katie's amazing posts on Oh Shine On!

Here is the direct link to the recipe on her page

A Very Merry Foodie Christmas!!

The day after Christmas. wow. It is now the day after Christmas and I am sitting on my couch in PJ's and I have no desire to move from my current state. Except to maybe get some more food. Now, while I am cozy and sitting let me tell you a bit about my Christmas day. 

Feast of Seven Fishes( Kind Of): Coconut Shrimp

First off, "Merry Christmas Readers"! I hope you all had amazing holidays with your families and got everything you wanted this year! Today I want to talk about my Christmas Eve Celebration with my family and the yummy coconut shrimp I made. Traditionally my family eats lots of fish on Christmas Eve. This year we got "creative" with the seven fishes. We had coconut shrimp,crab cakes, and sushi. That's right. Can you picture a bunch of Italian people eating sushi on Christmas Eve? Classic. I think it makes things a little different. Plus who eats salted cod or eel anyway? Here is the recipe for coconut shrimp that I used from Paula Deen. I usually use panko, but I realized I had no breadcrumbs at home! There is no way I was going to the supermarket with it being so close to Christmas and all so I drove to my sisters and stole whatever breadcrumbs she had on hand. Regular breadcrumbs it is. I served these little morsels of goodness with an orange marmalade sauce Yum.

Coconut Shrimp with Orange Marmalade

Ingredients

·2 cups shredded sweetened coconut

·2 cups bread crumbs

·Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

·2 cups all-purpose flour

·4 large eggs, beaten

·24 large shrimp, peeled and deveined

·Vegetable oil, for frying

Dipping Sauce:

·1/2 cup of orange marmalade

·1-2 tsp of dark rumDirections

In a large bowl, combine coconut and bread crumbs and season with salt and pepper. Place flour, eggs, and bread crumb mixture into 3 separate bowls. Dredge the shrimp in flour and shake off excess. Next, dip the shrimp thoroughly in the egg and rub against the side of the bowl to lightly remove excess. Finally, coat the shrimp thoroughly with the bread crumb mixture. Lay out the shrimp so they do not touch on a parchment-lined baking sheet or platter until ready to fry. In a large Dutch oven, heat several inches of oil to 350 degrees F. Fry the shrimp in batches until golden brown and cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Be careful not to overcrowd shrimp in the oil while frying. Drain on paper towels.

For the Dipping Sauce: heat the marmalade in a small saucepan over low heat. Thin with rum as desired.

Chicken Alfredo Stuffed Shells

How have I not made these before? I love chicken alfredo. What a fun new twist! My husband Toby told me at 3pm on Monday that he had a pot luck at work the next day. Right....Ok.  It didn't help that the amazing people in his department were already bringing pulled,pork,enchilladas,chilli, desserts. I had zero ideas. So I took to the internet to see what I could bring. Then I hit the mother load. Chicken Alfredo Stufed Shells. The original recipe did not have broccolli or bacon in them, but I figured it couldn't hurt. These would even be great with artichokes and spinach too. 

In A Professional Kitchen: Gnocchi Making Class

Chef Sousa in action

I was super excited to go to the gnocchi making cooking class at Trio Restaurant (http://www.trio-ri.com/)  in Narragansett, RI this week. Darci and I have been to a few of the cooking classes there and they are so much fun! For $20 you get a glass of wine and a great class (with samples of course.) Past classes have included: pie making, pizza making, ravioli making, and what I think was the best so far, gnocchi.

Hot Cocoa Cookies

I was very excited to help my friend Julie make these chocolate morsels of decadence this weekend for her family's annual cookies swap. We scoured the internet for the perfect recipe and we came across Rachael Ray's Hot cocoa cookies. They are chocolate cookies with pieces of molten chocolate stuffed in and a marshmallow on top. Once we found this recipe there was no need to look further. 

Need Help for the Holidays? Watch my First Ever Cooking Videos!

So as I explained yesterday, today we (myself and Three Desert Films) will be releasing my first ever cooking demo just in time for the holidays! I know what it is like to host a holiday party and you  tend to stick with what you know how to cook (chips and dip or crudite platter etc.) Don’t get me wrong, nothing is wrong with these, but let’s branch out a bit, shall we? I also wanted to make this video in case people are stuck in a pinch. One of your appetizers was just incinerated in the oven; you forgot some ingredients for your bruschetta. It happens.

My First Cooking Demo- Behind the Scenes!!

My and Kevin the awesome camera man/director

Today I want to talk about this awesome project I have been working on with my friends who are a part of the film group, Three Desert Films. They helped me film my first cooking video! We did two videos. One making easy holiday party snacks! We made spinach and feta puff pastry bites! Yum! Then we made some fun a festive holiday cocktail, sweet & Spicy eggnog with Spice Box Whiskey!

Looking for a Healthy Start to a New You? Try Quinoa Cakes

Let me start this post by saying these delectable cakes were quite possibly my first kitchen disaster. I was really excited to try the recipe since I love quinoa so much, but I was nervous.  The first time I saw quinoa I was thinking “what the heck is quinoa and how do I even pronounce it?" Well, its a super grain and its pronounced “keen-wah”. If you’re looking for a highly nutritious carbohydrate you have found it in quinoa. It has a pretty similar nutritional profile to that of brown rice except it’s slightly higher in overall protein content.

So you can understand my excitement when I saw this take on quinoa cakes (similar to crab cakes.) You could also use it between two burger buns, which I’m sure would make a great veggie burger. Below you will find the recipe I used which I modified after my "kitchen disaster." 

Melting Snowman Sugar Cookies

How Cute is this Little Guy??

I love sugar cookies. I remember making them every Christmas with my Mom. We had such a blast. My new obsession is Pinterest. Has anyone ever been on this website? OMG. It is amazing. You can pin things literally for HOURS. It has given me so many ideas for things I want to make and other DIY crafts I need to try during Christmas break.

Three Desert Films: Foodie Special

Very Happy to announce I will be working with Three Desert Film to be shooting my first ever cooking video featuring some quick tips for panicking holiday hosts! Stay Tuned! If you have any suggestions for Holiday cocktails or easy appetizers to feature leave a comment!!

Three Desert Films: Foodie Special: So we are happy to announce that we have teamed up with Leanne Johnson @tiniest_bean to film our first ever foodie special and just in time ...

Outside the Kitchen: The Blue Plate Diner

So I have been wanting to go to the Blue Plate Diner for a long time now. I have heard rave reviews from locals that have had amazing meals there.When the Newport & Bristol County Convention & Visitor's Bureau asked me to write a piece on a restaurant in Newport & Bristol County area this was my first choice.I decided to go with my friend Darci after work on a Friday night.Can I just say what a breathe of fresh air it is to have a upscale diner in Middletown amongst a strip of franchised food chains. Check out their blog if you get a chance. Great local sweepstakes and events! Visit them at:  http://blog.gonewport.com/

Around the World: Last days in Paris

My last days in Paris were amazing. Toby was not working anymore so we had time to spend together- and boy did we ever. Marjorie, Toby an I went to Momantre, which has a beautiful town on a hill and a huge church that has the most amazing view of Paris below. 

Around the World: Paris Day 3-4

So today was my somewhat lazy day. I slept in since my amazing tour guide had class. Toby left me to wake up to 2 croissants with nutella,which I ate in bed. Now being full,I was ready to get my day started.

Around the World: Paris Day 2

Day 2. Marjorie and I called today the day of deals. We started the day off at the Eiffel Tower where we got an awesome crepe ( Marjorie got chestnut and I got lemon and sugar.) Both were delicious. Great snack. We then made out was to the Arc de Triumph.

Around the World: Paris

Just an FYI- my iPad is being weird in France and all of these pictures/posts may come out weird!
Today was the most amazing day. I basically grazed all day on savory and sweet. I could have cared less about calories and just cared about eating the most amazing things in sight. And so it started....

Reliving Past Food Adventures

In honor of my foodie extravaganza to Paris this week I thought I would do a montage of my favorite foodie adventures so far. Anywhere I go I tried to order food that I cannot get anywhere else or that is popular in that area. The trips I have included in this post are the London, and Australia. These two have been my most recent trips and they were foodie adventures indeed.

Booze Cake: Mudslide Cake

Alcohol + Cake= Amazing Idea. Toby and I found a cookbook entitled Booze Cakes. They had me at booze. The book is filled with great recipes like margarita cheesecake ( made with tequila) and jello shot cake. Genius. Saturday night I was invited to a Christmas party with some work friends ( Thanks Geoff and Jason!) I wanted to bring something delicious and alcohol ridden. This fit the bill pretty easily!

Peanut Butter & Nutella Cookie Sandwiches & Decorating our First Christmas Tree

We finally have put up our first ever Christmas Tree as a married couple. Exciting! We actually went to a tree farm in Rhode Island and tagged it Columbus Day weekend and picked it up this week! I slowly started to realize as I got the ornaments out and put them on the tree we had an awful lot of cooking related ornaments. Can you tell we like food much??? Take a look at some I found( the S'mores guy is my favorite):

Holiday Gift Idea Alert: Orange & Cinnamon Scented Sugar

As little as two ingredients. SO EASY

I am super exciting to be writing this post because I got a great lightbulb moment from the foodie talk show The Chew. Let's start with the simple,easy(and might I mention cheap)holiday gift idea for friends and family. Today the show  featured easy and inexpensive holiday gifts. One great idea they presented was FLAVORED SUGARS!  I know. How have I not done this before?