Meringue Cookies

I bet with this recipe, you have all the ingredients in your kitchen. They are so easy to make, but at the same time they are slightly difficult.

For this recipe you will need egg whites, caster sugar and vanilla. That's it. Caster sugar is difficult to track down but you can make your own. Remember that blog about the food processor? Well I got to actually use it to make caster sugar.

The step by step:

Ingredients:

3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (sub with 1/4tsp lemon juice)
3/4 superfine or caster sugar
1/4 tsp  vanilla

Put rack in center. Preheat your oven to 200ºF. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

To make the caster sugar, place into a food processor for 30 to 60 seconds until it's finer than normal sugar, but not quite powder. This may take some practice.

Using a hand mixer, beat the egg whites, on low-medium, until they are foamy. Add cream of tartar (or lemon juice) then beat until soft peaks form.

Add sugar in little by little. About a quarter to half cup at a time. Mix until the egg whites and sugar no longer feel gritty between your fingers.

Boost the mixer medium-high speed and continue to mix the meringue until stiff peaks form. You can tell you have stiff peaks by turning off the mixer and looking at the end of the beaters. The peaks will stand straight up.

Using two spoons, a pastry bag or in my case, as ziploc bag, carefully start putting dollops of meringue about 1/2 inch apart across the cookie sheet.

Place in oven and bake for 90 minutes. Once they are finished, remove from oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from baking sheet.

The meringue, if finished, should come right off the parchment sheets. The outsides will be hard and have a slight satin-y sheen to them while the insides will be soft, light and fluffy.

Summer Peach Panna Cotta

I had a craving for panna cotta, I also had some frozen peaches in my freezer. It was time to make panna cotta. But I didn't have all the ingredients. I didn't feel like making my own heavy cream for this recipe so I did some research to find out what would be a good substitute and potentially healthier for you.

So I trekked to the store and picked up the ingredients that I needed. Heavy cream is also ridiculously expensive.

Better alternatives are: Whole milk, sour cream, almond milk or Half and Half. I opted for half and half so it would still have that super creamy texture. I have made panna cotta with almond milk and it was good too.

What is panna cotta you ask? Well it basically translates to cooked cream.

How do I make it? Well...

What you'll need:


1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups half and half (Use the rest for your coffee)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (or splenda)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup diced peaches*

1 tbsp honey

In a small bowl sprinkle gelatin over the milk and leave sit until gelatin is softened, which takes about 5 minutes.

Take a large sauce pan and combine the half and half with the sugar. Heat up until the sugar is dissolved. DO NOT BOIL. Add the vanilla.

Once you have a simmer going, whisk in the milk and gelatin. Keep whisking gently until all the gelatin has dissolved.

Remove from heat and mix in the peaches.

Carefully pour the mixture into small bowls or ramekins. Chill for 3 hours to over night.

To remove the panna cotta, take a bowl of hot water bigger than the dish and place the dish into it for up to 2 minutes. Run a knife gently along the edge. Remove from water and place a plate on top of the bowl, then flip. Tap on the bottom of the bowl to release.

Top with more peaches and drizzle honey. Then enjoy!

* Peaches can be fresh, frozen, canned. However make sure they are well drained and rinsed of syrup. You can also use the syrup from the peaches in place of the honey.

Wild Rice Cakes

Upon discovery of a neat little list of all the WoW foods in the game, I decided to embark upon one dish in particular. Wild rice cakes. Yum. My reasoning for this is I have friend who is a vegetarian. He and his girlfriend are trying a lot of my recipes, so I figured this would be acceptable for them. Plus any of my other friends who don't eat meat. This recipe was graciously adapted from Epicurious.

6c (or more) canned vegetable (or chicken) broth

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1c chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/3c long grain white rice

1/3c wild rice
1/2c dry white wine (Don't use cooking wine; too much salt.)
1/4c coarsely grated low-fat mozzarella cheese
1/4c sharp cheddar cheese

1/3c plain dry panko (or bread crumbs)
1/4c grated Parmesan cheese

Bring the broth to a boil, remove from heat, then cover.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; saute until tender then add garlic. Stir frequently to avoid burning.

Add white rice and wild rice; stir 1 minute. 

Add wine, cook until absorbed, about 2 minutes. Stir in 2 cups warm broth, bring to boil. 

Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer 15 minutes. Repeat and stir occasionally until rice is tender.

Uncover; simmer until rice is tender and broth is absorbed, stirring often and adding broth by 1/4 cupfuls if rice is not tender, about 10 minutes longer. Stir in mozzarella; season with pepper. Cool until you are able to handle the rice easily with your hands.

To bake: 

Preheat oven to 375º F. 

Take a muffin pan and spray it with non stick cooking spray. Sprinkle panko and Parmesan cheese in the bottom of each cup. Take a heaping spoonful and gently pack it into each cup. Top with more panko/parm mix and bake for 20 minutes.

To pan fry:

Make patties of rice and place them in the panko/parm. Coat both sides.

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium-low heat and place the rice patties into the pan. Cook until both sides are golden brown. Drain well on paper towel.

Muffin pan Rice Cakes.

Westfall Mud Pie

Today is March 14th. Also know as Pi day. And to celebrate pi day, I made a pie. Not just any pie. I made a Westfall Mud Pie. I'm not talking the dirt in a makeshift container that you used to feed to a younger sibling. I'm talking edible deliciousness in a pie pan.

Bonus to this. This requires NO BAKING! So don't preheat your oven.

Ingredients for the crust:

24 oreos or other chocolate and cream filled cookie, smashed.
1/4 c butter, melted. (10 second intervals in microwave, STIR!)

Using a food processor, or a rolling pin, crumble the cookies until you have a nice crumby mixture. Press into an ungreased pie plate

What you need for the the filling

1 pk of instant pudding/pie filling. Follow directions on how to make this
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 chocolate cookies (I used chocolate animal crackers) coarsely chopped.
1/2 oz white chocolate (optional) chopped
5 or 6 gummy worms

When the pudding is mixed until smooth, add the rest of the ingredients and blend well. Should be lumpy. Pour into crust filled pie plate. Press worms in at various angles and places.

Topping

1 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c.whipped topping (like cool whip)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 c. powdered sugar

Blend by hand (this part is important so you don't have powder going everywhere!) the cream cheese, sugar and cocoa until smooth and well combined. Fold the whipped cream into it and keep stirring. It will be creamy and thick (and brown...pervs.)

Pour on top of pudding mix and gently spread it over the top. Add more gummy worms.

Chill at least 2 hours before serving.

Sin'dorei Crème Brulee

When I hear crème brulee, the beautiful, selfish and often misunderstood Sin'dorei come to mind. Perhaps this recipe will be enough to sweeten your tastes on them If not... well then you'll at least have a good dessert.

Unlike traditional crème brulee, this version will be made without a torch (but if you got one, use it.) It will also not have heavy cream. Heavy cream is hard to find in my neck of the woods, so I've whipped up this version after extensive searching on the internet.

You will need:

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 can of evaporated milk
5 large yolks
2 teaspoons of vanilla
Granulated sugar for the topping

Preheat oven to 350ºF

Add all of the ingredients to a medium sized bowl and mix well with a whisk.

Once mixed, pour the liquid into a large measuring cup and pour into your ceramic ramekins or other small oven safe dish.

Place the ramekins into a larger oven safe dish, fill half way with cold water.

Bake 40-45 minutes, until they are firm but wiggle like jello when you knock against the pan.

Remove them immediately from the hot water (this can be tricky!) and onto a small sheet pan

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, blot off any moisture with a paper towel.

Once completely chilled, take a spoonful of granulated sugar and coat the top. At this point you can use aforementioned blow torch or if you don't have one:

Turn on broiler, place baking sheet with ramekins into oven. At this point you will literally need to watch the crème brulee. Carefully turn the baking sheet 90º every 2 minutes. Once the sugar is nice and caramelized, remove from oven and serve.

Pre-caramelized topping

Mmm.

Runn Tum Tuber Suprise

It should come as no surprise that I use some recipes from The Gamer's Fridge. They are really really great recipes. On there is a recipe for Runn Tum Tuber Surprise, I made it that way, but I wanted to enhance that recipe further.

Pulled from the dirt!

4 medium baking potatoes
1 c of colby jack and mozzarella blended cheese, divided
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tbsp hot sauce
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1/2 c milk
1/4 sour cream

Preheat oven to 325ºF

In a small bowl, mix the salt, pepper and olive oil and brush that on to the unpeeled potatoes. Poke small holes in skin. Place on middle rack for about an hour.

Remove potatoes, let cool about 15 minutes before handling and use ovenmit to handle. Taking a sharp knife, cut a portion of the top off. Spoon the flesh into a bowl. Leaving 1/4 inch for stability.

Add butter, milk, sour cream, garlic powder and mix thoroughly. Mashing as you go. Add salt and pepper to taste as well as hot sauce. At this point you also want to add the hot sauce, you can add more if you like a kick or less if you don't. Mix until potato is orange.

Take half of the cheese and spoon about a tablespoon into each shell. Then add the mashed part back into the shell. Top with the rest of the cheese. Place back into oven for 15 minutes or until slightly golden brown on top.

Remove from oven and carefully serve.

Conjured Mana Muffin

I completely under why mages conjure this food and don't take the time to go through by hand to make these. My shoulder is killing me from the amount of mixing that had to be done. The batter is more of a dough at first and you may find it easier in the beginning few steps to mix it by hand.

To make mana muffins, the first thing you need to keep in mind is not to over mix the batter. You end up with a muffin that has a huge bubble like dome.  I did this and some of my muffins look goofy. They still taste good, though. I also cut back on the amount of sugar in this recipe, which I lovingly adapted from here.

Components you will need:

1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. light brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 large eggs at room temp.
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c raspberries, whole
1/2 c strawberries
Turbinado sugar

Preheat the over to 375ºF. Line muffin tin, or grease only the bottoms. Muffins tend to rise better when they have something to cling to.

Using a mixer (hand or stand,) combine all the wet ingredients until well blended. In another bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

This is where you may want to use your hands if you don't have a stand mixer. Takes the dry and wet and mix until just combined. It should have a semi-crumbly look. Fold in the sour cream. Make sure that you do not over fold as you will need to add the berries next.

Be gentle with the berries, they are soft and you do not want your mix to be exploded with bursts of pink and red from berries that have have turned to mush.

An ice cream scoop will be useful to spoon in enough mix into each muffin cup. Sprinkle a little bit of the sugar in the raw on the tops for a nice crispy sweet top. Fill about 3/4 of the way and put in over for 20-25 minutes. Check the centers with a toothpick. When you remove them, carefully pull them from the muffin pan and cool on a rack. Wait 10 to 15 minutes before eating.

Enjoy with a nice large glass of Ice Cold Milk.

Crystal Song Carrots

While I was doing my daily in Dalaran today, I thought to myself, what else can be done with crystal song carrots. The carrots I came up with and adapted from Wegman's turned out to be perfect!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb carrots, peeled and cut on the bias (that means slanted)
1/4 tsp. thyme
3 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 c. no pulp orange juice
1/2 c. chicken stock (I use bouillon granules to 1 c. boiling water)
1/2 c. heavy cream (see below on substitute for this.)
2 tbsp butter, diced
3 green onion stalks, greens only, thinly sliced on the bias
1/2 tbsp parsley (fresh or dried)

Put olive oil in pan and heat on high for a few minutes, add carrots, thyme, vanilla, and chili powder. Salt to taste. Braise in pan for 5 minutes or until carrots become just slightly tender. Stir frequently.

Add orange juice, stock, and heavy cream. Bring to a boil for 12-15 minutes. This will cause the liquid to reduce into a syrup like consistency. Turn heat down to simmer and let cook until carrots are fork tender.

Remove from heat and add butter, green onion and parsley. Stir until butter is melted. Let cool for 5 minutes to allow the liquid-syrup to thicken more.

To make your own heavy cream:

2/3 c. whole milk
1/3 c. unsalted butter

Stir in pot over medium low heat until butter is melted. Add to dish.

I didn't have a solid pound of carrots, to make up for this I added some frozen. This did not affect the taste.

Stormwind Baked Mac and Cheese

Growing up in my house meant several things would happen through out the year for a meal. Apple dumplings, potato soup and homemade baked macaroni and cheese. My dad used to tell us when he was going to make it and by the time dinner rolled around we were salivating like crazy in anticipation for the meal to come.

This recipe is simple and surprising fulfilling.  While it's not my father's, it is still really tasty, and my own version of this classic dish.

This is also very popular at the school house and orphanages all over Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdom. 

You will need:

1 lb elbow noodles
1 16 oz block sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 8oz block colby jack cheese, shredded
1/4 c. milk
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Grease a shallow baking dish. I recommend a 9 x 12 glass baking dish

Cook noodles in lightly salted water until tender. Drain.

Mix the milk, sharp cheddar and the noodles in pot until well coated and all cheese is melted. Carefully dump noodles into baking dish and sprinkle colby jack on the top. Add salt and pepper.

Bake for 30 minutes until edges are golden brown. Remove and let cool about five minutes before serving.

I like to put mine under the broiler for a few minutes and let the cheese get nice and crispy on top. The more cooked without being burned, the happier I am.

This is not burned. This is just the way I like it.

Dalaran Brownies

It was after I made these brownies that I realized they weren't actually Dalaran brownies. Seeing that Dalaran brownies are indeed brown. These ones are not. So we shall call them a variation of Dalaran brownies and hybrid of the brownies and red velvet cupcakes.

To make the brownie:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 oz tablespoons red food coloring
1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a square cake pan.

In a small bowl, combine cocoa powder, red food coloring, 1 teaspoon vanilla and water to create a paste.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. This will look very dry before it looks "whipped"

Add the eggs one at a time, then add remaining teaspoon of vanilla. Use a hand mixer on medium speed, add in red-cocoa paste. Beat until batter is completely red. Add more coloring if desired

Add flour and salt, mixing until just combined.

Spread in the pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cool completely before frosting.

Butter-cream Frosting


1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

Blend all ingredients in a bowl until smooth.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

This recipe is still a work in progress, as it's updated I will repost. I decorated mine with chocolate curls from unsweetened bakers chocolate. Just for show, I don't recommend eating them.

Curiously Tasty Omelet

Some days you wake up and the hunger isn't really there but when it is, its more of a OH MY GOD FEED ME HUMAN BEFORE I--*Murloc angry growl.* I woke up feeling like that today. I knew I wanted eggs and cheese but that wasn't enough. My husband and one of our friends had just gotten home from night school and I knew they would be hungry too. What to make, what to make?

It was about the third angry murloc growl that I gave in and went to go forage in the kitchen for food. Specifically eggs.

 After rummaging through my fridge I discovered:

1/2 dozen eggs
4 cheese shredded blend
1/2 lb breakfast sausage
1 red pepper (you will only need half
1/4 c. chopped onions
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp Curious house blend of herbs (This means you may use what you would like. Though recipe will follow at the bottom.)
Tasty ketchup and steak sauce mixture (recipe follows)

Huzzah! I would have food for sure. But what to make still that I could cook all of this all at once and we could eat it together?

This is when I remembered I had a cake pan. I had used disposable ones for the Chocolate Celebration Cake. Finally, I knew what I was going to do. I was going to make an omelet, but not just any omelet, it had to be WoW inspired. Going to wowhead I type omelet in the search bar and decided that the Curiously Tasty Omelet would be my safest bet.

Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Grease cake pan with non-stick spray. (Those Goblins think of everything!)
Take sausage, crumble and partially cook in a frying pan. Let cool.
Crack six eggs into a bowl along with the milk and whisk them until they are a pale yellow. From there you want to add the onions and peppers and pour into the cake pan.
Once the sausage is cooled enough spoon into the egg mix. Sprinkle with herbs. Top with cheese and place in oven for 30-35 minutes until eggs have no jiggle left.
Remove from oven and let rest for two minutes then serve with the ketchup steak sauce. Enjoy.

Curious house blend herbs
1 tbsp thyme, rosemary, mint, sage, basil, oregano.
Mix until combined. Place in air tight container.

Ketchup-Steak sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup A1 steak sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk until well blended

Herbed Baked Egg

My husband is in the Navy, and currently he is still doing schooling but they have so many students that the classroom hours are far from normal. Oftentimes I will find myself having a meal alone or doing things alone during the day because he's usually asleep.

Today is no different.

However, to amuse myself I made another WoW inspired recipe. Adapted from The Gamer's Fridge. This recipe can be adjusted to however many people there are for breakfast. Or in my case lunch.

Ingredients:

6 eggs
Butter or margarine
1/4 c.Thinly sliced or dice ham
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 c diced green pepper
1/8 tsp basil (for each)
6 pieces loaf bread of choice
shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Grease a muffin pan with spray or butter. I used cupcake wrappers because wildly enough I don't actually own a muffin tin. (This will be remedied.)

Cut the crust off the bread and place in the muffin tin. This will act like a pocket. Add ham and green pepper to the bottom, salt and pepper to taste.

Whisk the egg into submission and pour into the bread pocket. Sprinkle with basil and top with cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the egg doesn't jiggle anymore. Remove, cool for 5 minutes and enjoy.

I do have a picture of this, however I'm technologically impaired when it comes to getting them off my husband iPod. My phone seems to have disappeared magically. I'm sure the gnomes have stolen it. :)

Update: Picture. I figured out the iPod after it refused to send the picture to my email or my phone. Fancy that.

Chocolate + Cake + Celebration =

A Very delicious lie.

Today is my husbands birthday. So I decided that I wanted to make him a cake as well as one of his favorite meals for dinner.

Tonight we are having Manicotti and a Chocolate Celebration Cake.Which will be so delicious and moist.

I asked my husband what sort of filling he wanted for his cake, he decided strawberry so it's going to be a variation of the already delicious cake.

To make the cake:

Cake:
3 oz. semisweet chocolate
1 ½ c. hot brewed coffee
3 eggs, room temperature
¾ c. vegetable oil
1 ½ c. buttermilk
¾ tsp vanilla
3 c. sugar
2 ½ c. all purpose flour
1 ½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp salt

Filling:
1 (16 oz) bag frozen strawberries, thawed
¼ c. sugar
4 tbsp cornstarch

Frosting:
Betty, Duncan, Dough Boy, I'm lazy and prefer the pre-made confections to the homemade ones. I find them too sweet.

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Grease 8 inch baking pans. Set aside.


You will need several bowls for this recipe.

Medium: Combine chocolate and coffee and stir until all the chocolate is melted.

Large bowl: Beat the eggs three to five minutes then add all wet ingredients; oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and coffe-chocolate

Other large bowl: Dry goods here; sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined evenly and everything is a nice tan-ish color.

Add the wet to the dry and mix until it's smooth. I know it will be tempting to lick the beaters, and it's something I've done as a kid with no repercussion, however, I do not recommend this due to the raw egg. 

Divide between three pans and bake between 55-60 minutes. Insert a tooth pick into center of each cake to see if it is done. A clean tooth pick means it's ready to be pulled, dirty and crumby means bake a little longer.

While you are waiting for the cake, now would  be a good time to start on the strawberry filling. Take the thawed berries and put them in a blender or a food processor. Puree until lumpy, but smooth. Add to a sauce pan, along with sugar and corn starch. Stir and stir and stir. The mixture will thicken up as it heats up.

Now once your cakes are done, leave them cool in the pans about five minutes before switching to a wire rack. Cool the cakes completely before frosting otherwise it will melt and you'll have soggy cake and frosting soup.

Once the cakes are cooled, take a long sharp knife and level out the tops of the cakes.

Go on. It's alright to eat the leftover pieces.

spoon some of the strawberry filling on the first layer and spread around until there is about an inch left, place second layer and repeat. Dirty ice the cake with a thin layer of frosting and then coat generously with the rest of the frosting.

Add curly or sparkler candles, light and enjoy the happy.

Recipe adapted/borrow from Baking Junkie. Thank you :)