Welcome To My Blog!

For the past year, I've had the experience of being a part of the Niagara Falls Boys and Girls Club Cookbook Committee. Our committee is in the process of finishing our cookbook, A Stir In The Mist: Tastes and Traditions of Niagara Falls. It is a collection of recipes from the Niagara Falls community and local restaurants. All proceeds from the sale of this book will go directly to the Niagara Falls Boys and Girls Club. Just recently I have relocated to Ohio, but still wanted to be involved with the book. After watching the movie Julie and Julia, I was inspired to share the great recipes from our cookbook and the experience I had making each of them. I hope you will enjoy the journey I will take stirring my way through A Stir In The Mist!

Let the "stirring" begin!

Well I have started this venture through the cookbook. First things first, each recipe I do will only be a little story about the steps it took to get to the final product. There will be no ingredients given out and no steps to how I got every great tasting recipe to turn out so delicious. That is for you to find out when you purchase or when someone else purchases"A Stir in the Mist" for you!!

I will apologize now for any grammar or punctuation mistakes I may make. I know I am coming from a family of educators, therefore I should know better about these things, but I may make a few mistakes. Soo lets get started....

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Caramel Apple Dip

Well it is that time of year to go pick some fresh apples. What better way to enjoy a nice crisp apple than with a tasty caramel dip.
If you love caramel with an apple, all you have to do is add two more ingredients and you will be able to enjoy this recipe.


This recipe is so easy to make. There is not a lot of preparing and there is no need to bake!
The only real work you have to do is chop up your toffee bar of choice. Mine was a Heath Bar. I used my hand chopper because I would have never been able to break this candy bar apart with my hands.
Once that is all chopped up and your ingredients are layered,  you can top everything off with the Heath Bar.
The recipe calls for Granny Smith apples. You can use an apple of your choice. Well I hope you enjoy and this is one recipe that you will love!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Rice Pilaf

When it comes to cooking and following the recipe. I sometimes look into a recipe to much. That is what usually can turn me away from making some recipes. Once I see an ingredient that I am not sure of or exactly where to find it in a grocery store, I usually will turn it away.
This Rice Pilaf dish at first was one of those recipes. The first ingredient that it calls for is Rosa Marina Pasta. At first I just assumed it would be next to all the other types of Barilla Pasta in the grocery store. Come to find out it was not. Then I went to, two other Italian specialty stores that carry strictly Italian ingredients. I even had an employee at the store searching the shelves for Rosa Marina. Well with the Internet today, "Google" should have been my first place to look. If it was not for Google, how could you ever get questions answered that you have no clue of.
So I "googled" Rosa marina pasta. Come to find out Rosamarina or Rosa marina pasta is basically identified as a synonym for orzo, which may also be called manestra.
Well now that is better. Orzo here I come.
Your first step in this recipe is going to get your the golden brown rice you will need in rice pilaf. You will brown the orzo in butter until it is brown. It is pretty neat to see the transformation.
 The Orzo starts off the same color as a normal long grain rice. Once it is done you will notice the big difference in color.
Now you can combine the rest of your ingredients. The recipe does call for white rice, I decided to use brown rice. It does not change much. The taste of the final recipe is just as good but healthier.
You will continue to stir and cook the rice and pasta together in the chicken broth. Until the chicken broth is totally absorbed and the rice is nice and tender. This recipe takes about 15-20 minutes to make. So if you are making a dish to go along with it, time it well, so your rice is nice and hot and ready to serve along with the other dish.
This is a great side dish to serve along with any type of dinner or lunch. It is easy and quick and it tastes even better heated up the next day. I hope you try this Rice Pilaf dish once your purchase your own cookbook!!

Remember November 20, 2010 and December 4, 2010
There will be a table set up at the Fashion Outlets Mall in Niagara Falls, NY from 10am-8pm selling "A Stir in The Mist" Taste and Traditions of Niagara Falls, NY!!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Peanutty Gems

 This is a Niagara Falls Boys and Girls Club favorite. It is made for the Annual Auction by one of the Boys and Girls Club volunteers.
Peanutty Gems caught my eye because Marco and I both love Reese's and this cookie is a peanut butter cookie with half of the cookie dipped in melted chocolate.
There are a couple different peanut butter cookies in "A Stir in The Mist".
This one is nice because you can do it a couple different ways.
You can make large cookies (get up to 4 dozen), or you can make small cookies, like I have and I got close to 7 dozen. When you put the chocolate on you can cover the whole top, just like i did with the Howe's cookies, or to make them actual "Peanutty Gems" you will dip half of the cookie into the chocolate.






























As you mix the first part of all your ingredients, you can get all your dry ingredients mixed up and ready to add together. The one thing I noticed while making cookies. There is always a lot of flour and like a teaspoon of baking soda. It is such a small amount of baking soda, how could it possibly effect anything? Is it that powerful? Just something that blows my mind as I stir all my dry ingredients together.































Remember to add the flour mixture nice and slowly, It will fly up and get you if you add to much at one time. (the flour all over my counter was my hint to add slowly).
The cookie dough will stiffen up towards the end of the flour mixture being added. Make sure you use all the flour.
The dough should be easy to work with, sticky but yet you are able to form little balls by rolling them in between your palms.

I chose to make little balls this way I would be able to make a large batch. It is entirely up to you.
Once you have made your balls and placed them on your cookie sheets, you will then take the bottom of a glass and lightly push down to flatten out just a little. You still want the cookie to be thick just not round.



You will notice that the cookie dough may crack a little. That is okay, it will happen.
These cookies do not expand to much more in size, so feel free to put as many as you can on the cookie sheet. Just as long as there is enough space in between to bake.
The recipe says to bake for 5 minutes on the bottom rack and then 5 min on the top rack. I did exactly what it said, and they came out nice and chewy.

Once the cookies are cooled down, you can go ahead and melt your chocolate. I only used a pound of the chocolate that the recipe calls for. Again my cookies may be smaller than most. So you may need the full 2 pounds of chocolate wafers.

If you melt the chocolate in the microwave as I did. Make sure you keep a close eye on it. The bottom may melt first and the top may look like the wafers are still whole. Still take the bowl out and stir it around. The chocolate is going to be soft and it will cream together once you mix it.
You do not want to burn the chocolate, so just heat it up a little bit at a time. Keep stirring.
I dipped half of the cookie into the chocolate. I only dropped one cookie totally into the chocolate, so I did well. I just left that one for Marco to taste!

Here is the final cookie!
These cookies are very easy to make. I got close to 7 dozen, so they are perfect if you are having company or would like to bring them somewhere to enjoy.
I hope you try this recipe once you purchase your own "A Stir in The Mist" cookbook.