Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Happy Birthday Cupcake Shooters



Happy Birthday Confetti




Today is my Boss, Joan's Birthday so I decided to make her some Birthday Cupcake Shooters!  
                                                                               Yum!!!


Cupcake Pudding Shooters

Ingredients:
Chocolate cups
( Instruction below on how to make the cups in a mold,however for my recipe I  bought them)
  • 6 oz. chocolate, melted
  • Mold- *The mold to used for this recipe can be found here.
Pudding shooter
  • 1 3.9oz Instant Vanilla Pudding (Short cut use snack pack pudding )
  • ¾ cup milk, cold
  • 1/2 cup Pinnacle Cake Vodka
  • 1/3 cup  White Chocolate Liqueur
  • 8oz Cool Whip
  • 1 tablespoon nonpareil sprinkles
Instructions:
To make chocolate shells:
1. Melt chocolate. Using a small paint brush, cover the walls of form* and chill for 5 minutes. Remove and apply a second coat and chill once more. The chocolate cups can be made 3 days in advance and kept at room temperature or stored in the refrigerator.

To make Cupcake pudding mix:
1. Place pudding mix and milk in a bowl and whisk to combine.
 (I used Snack pack-4 cups)

 Add in Pinnacle Cake Vodka and  White Chocolate Liqueur and vigorously whisk to combine.

 Fold in Cool Whip until no streaks remain.



Assembly:
1. Fill a pastry bag with pudding mix and fit with preferred tip.
(I used a zip lock bag and cut the corner)


 Pipe into chocolate shells.


2. Top with sprinkles




3.Refrigerate until you are ready to do some shots !


Notes:
  • If you opt to make the pudding make sure to buy instant pudding. Do not use the cook and serve pudding.
  • Great Recipe to celebrate a Girlfriend's Birthday!
  • The pudding shots can be made a day in advance.
                         Like I did- You know I had to try one- Nightcap for me !

                                                       
                                                                         Cheers !

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Happy St Patty's Day

                                     I however did not indulge in any green beer this year . 
                                   The Clark's Household could use some Good Luck!
                                        Few pics of my Go green for St Patty's Day!













Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Whats for Dinner ? -Pigs in the Blanket

          
                            Pigs in a Blanket 

When you think of Pig in a blanket you will get a dish that looks like this :
  

In the United States, the term "pigs in a blanket" often refers to hot dogs, Vienna sausages, or breakfast/link sausages wrapped in biscuit dough, pancake, or croissant dough, and baked.

The Hungarian's as well growing up in my Italian family, my Grandma Russo's Pigs in the Blanket is  Stuffed cabbage made with ground beef and pork cooked in  tomato sauce (Grandma's Sunday's Gravy)  . 

We changed the recipe just a tad towards the low-fat version by using ground turkey and lean ground beef. 



Ingredients
  • 1 medium head cabbage
  • water to cover
  • 1/2 pound ground beef
  • ½ pound ground turkey
  • 1 cup cooked rice
  • 1 clove garlic (minced)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 (12 fluid ounce) can of your favorite  tomato sauce or your homemade marinara
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • ¼ cup of white onion finely chopped
  • ¼ cup of red pepper(optional) finely chopped

Directions
1.   Place the head of cabbage in a large pot over high heat and add water and vinegar to cover. Boil cabbage for 15 minutes , or until it is pliable and soft. Drain and allow to cool completely. Remove the hard outer vein from the leaves.
2.   In a separate large bowl, combine the beef and turkey, rice, garlic and the egg,onion& pepper, mixing well. Place a small amount, about the size of your palm,(I used an ice cream scoop) into the center of a cabbage leaf and fold leaf over, tucking in the sides of the leaf to keep meat mixture inside. 



3.   Pile up the filled leaves in the crock pot, putting the larger leaves on the bottom. Add salt & pepper  then top with  tomato sauce to cover. Simmer on low heat for about 60 minutes. Then Enjoy!

Note: Our family recipe we  serve our Pigs in the blanket with mash potatoes.