Lasagna Bolognese

With homemade meat sauce, fresh pasta, balsamella, and mozzarella

Crostata di Marmellata

Cherry

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Macaroons

Halloween Cookies

Trick or Treat?

A treat for sure!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

Ghoulish faces, Graves, Pumpkins, Ghosts and Black Cats.

Halloween Cupcakes

Halloween Cupcakes!!!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese filling and Milk Chocolate frosting

Vanilla Cupcakes with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

&

French Vanilla Cupcakes with French Vanilla custard filling, Milk Chocolate Frosting.

Gnocchi

Tonight I made Gnocchi and Gnocchi made with Basil Pesto. I employed my sister and mother to help me roll the Gnocchi, I am blaming the irregular sizes and shapes on them ;)

Pink Lemonade Cake

I made this cake after my mom found a similar recipe from Paula Deen.
The following is my variation of the recipe. I hope you like it :)

Get a box of plain white cake mix.
(You are going to save a ton of time using pre-made mix, but you are going to make up for it when making the frosting...from scratch!)

You will also need 4 or 5 lemons (depending on their size)

Vanilla Extract

2 pounds of Confectioners Sugar

3 eggs (or however many your cake mix calls for)

Vegetable Oil (or whatever kind of oil your cake mix calls for)

1 pound of Butter

1 can of Pink Lemonade Juice Concentrate

Pink Lemonade Drink Mix in the Powder Form. (You are going to need at least 4 teaspoons of it)

Red Food Coloring.

For this recipe I used a large electrical mixer.

*Preheat oven to 350F

*Combine your cake mix and called for ingrediants into the mixing bowl. Add in a teaspoon of fresh lemon zest, 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract, and 4 teaspoons of the pink lemonade powder. Add in 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice from the lemons you zested. Add 2 drops of red food coloring. Avoid seeds. Mix until all combined

*Using 2 8 inch cake pans, properly coated in butter or non stick spray, evenly fill the cake mix into the pans, bake on 350 F, the box from the cake mix will have directions on cook times. Use parchment paper to line the bottom of each pan. This is very important and a good tip anytime you are baking a cake.

*When the cakes are done, use a knife to seperate the sides and let the cakes cool COMPLETELY. Frosting too soon will cause the frosting to melt and become soupy.

*While the cakes are cooling. Combine 1 pound of butter, 1/2 a teaspoon of Vanilla Extract, 3/4 a cup of the pink lemonade concentrate (you can add more later if you want, depending on the consistency of your frosting. Add another teaspoon of fresh lemon zest. Mix on medium, while cupping in the 2 pounds of powdered sugar until its all in the mixing bowl and mix until combined. Frosting should be smooth, fluffy and tart :)

*Now that the cake is fully cooled, place one down on your cake server or plate. Cover it with frosting, layer on top the next cake, and cover with frosting as usual. Use more lemon zest over the top of the cake, and decorate with lemon slices and garnishes.

Enjoy =)

Cookie Stuffed Cookies

Cookie Stuffed Cookies.

An Oreo cookie baked inside a classic chocolate chip cookie.

I originally saw the recipe for these cookies here:

http://http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/02/oreo-nutter-butter-chocolate-chip-stuffed-cookies-recipes.html

Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons

& Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons.

"You put the beer in the coconut and throw the can away" - Homer J. Simpson

Calzoni

Also known as pocket pizza

These are filled with different things, mozzerella cheese, ricotta cheese, sausage, pepperoni and sundried tomatoes aswell as herbs and spices.

I served these with marinara sauce and a olive oil and spices dipping sauce.

These are super simple to make.

I bought a pre-made dough from Trader Joes, and let it stand for 45 minutes. (The package says 20min, but trust me on the 45)

With 3 packs of dough, I was able to make 16 calzoni.

I filled them with mozzerella cheese, Italian sausage that I bought whole, cooked over half way (just a little pink left) and chopped up. You want to strain them so all the crease isn't saturating the calzone.

I also put pepperoni in them.

They also had ricotta cheese, with cracked red pepper, garlic, black pepper, and a pinch of salt to spice it. Fresh basil would be yummy aswell.

Be very generous with the cheese.

Roll each piece of dough out to a circle, the size depends on the size of the calzone you want. Once in a circle, fill the center of one side with your fillings, moisten the sides with a little water and fold over, use a fork to stamp the opening shut.

Bast with some olive oil and your choice of spices. If you don't use all the same variations of fillings in each calzone, you can identify them from the other by putting a pepperoni or sausage on the outside on the calzone like I did.

Through out the cooking, keep lightly basting with olive oil, it will give a light crunch to the calzone.

All ovens are different, in my oven I used 380 F but hotter ovens might need to use a lower setting.

Bake till golden

:)

under 200 calories :)

We celebrated Spring Today with a family party, we kept dessert light,

Mini angelfood cakes with fresh fruit and fresh crema chantilly

Schiacciata alla Fiorentina

I had this cake while visiting my friends in Florence.

With some help from my friend Silvia who I stayed with there, I got a recipe to try it out here.

Of course the original was much better, but my first time attempting this wasn't bad, and I really surprised myself.

The cake is a lightly orange flavored sponge cake sliced thinly in half and filled with crema chantilly.

Powdered sugar and cocoa decorate the top :)

Donuts. Is there anything they can't do? --Homer Simpson

Homemade Oven Baked Donuts

I saw a donut molded pan in a bakery supply in downtown Los Angeles and it seemed like a cute idea. I found a recipe for making donuts in the oven, and I iced them with chocolate, peanuts, coconut, cinnamon sugar, and powdered sugar.

Fresh Fruit Tarts

Fresh Fruit Tarts.

I made these for my mothers birthday dinner tonight.

This was my first time making these.

A sweet pastry tart crust, with a slight orange flavor, with the insides coated in chocolate.

An Italian custard like cream recipe topped with fresh kiwifruit, strawberries, mandarin oranges, blackberries, blueberries and sliced almonds.

An apricot glaze is usually used to cover the entire tart, till it cools and dries, but we didn't end up having it on ours because we wanted the fresh fruit taste. Really, really good :)