Funfetti For All!

My friend Scott, from Scotland,* has never tried a funfetti cake. You know funfetti, the cake mix that has rainbow specks throughout. It's a miracle that Scott turned out half way decent considering the depravity of his childhood.

I feel it is my duty as his American friend to end the tragic quarter of a century that has been Scott's life without funfetti. Wait, that sounds bad, I'm not going to kill Scott, I'm just going to feed him some funfetti. Not just any funfetti, but these AMAZING funfetti cookies I found at Serious Eats**.

* Hilarious I know, I asked to see his ID when he first told me his name.

**I always feel bad taking recipes off of other blogs BUT I am including my step-by -step pictures and humorous commentary so there is some value added!

Funfetti Cake Mix Cookie Sandwiches

From Serious Eats and adapted from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book

Makes about 18 sandwiches

Ingredients

For the cookies:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 package funfetti or rainbow chip cake mix

For the Filling:

1 1/2 sticks of butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 to 4 cups of confections' sugar, depending on your desired consistency

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cream the butter and cheese. Blend in egg and vanilla.

You are going to need the big guns (stand mixer) for this recipe.

3. Add cake mix in two parts, mixing well (it will be a super thick batter- if the batter seems too stiff add a small amount of heavy cream to the batter and mix well).

The picture doesn't do the funfetti justice. Just looking at the cake mix, it didn't seem very colorful, but as the flour dissolved in the wet ingredients the colorful specks magically appeared.

4. Using a small cooking scoop, drop balls of cookie dough on an ungreased backing sheet. Leave about 2 inches between the cookies.

5. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool cookies at least 15 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving to a wire cooling rack; the cookies are very delicate when they first come out of the oven and will break if you transfer them too soon.

6. Once completely cool, add a generous dollop of frosting to the bottom half of the cookies, and then sandwich the rest of the cookies on top to from something that vaguely resembles a whoopie pie, but tastes like something else entirely.

I thought about picking a different color for the icing, but I'm a sucker for pink.

Yes, the cookies are totally adorable, but how do they taste? Heavenly, light, fluffy, and delicious! You may never want a regular funfetti cupcake again.

Eat with Your Eyes: Market Edition

Due to the crazy success* of my last "Eat with Your Eyes" blog I decided to post another, this time it's the Market Edition. Taking pictures of food is fun, and while my food photography skills have improved I still have a long way to go before my pictures end up on magazine covers. Usually I take pictures of a dish at a restaurant or one I made at home, but I also have a few pictures from stores and markets. Mass quantities of fruits, vegetables, even packaged goods are fun photography subjects.

* My mom, boyfriend, and a few random twitter followers read it!

An ingredient I recently discovered and really love: chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. They are smokey, spicy, and delicious! See the Tortilla Soup recipe. I had a hard time finding them the first time, hopefully this pic will make it easier for you.

Wegman's

75 Locations in PA, VA, MD, NJ and NY

Massive quantity of olives.

Dellalo's

101 Lincoln Highway

Jeanette, PA 15644

Dried peppers or pretty hanging decorations? Both! This was taken at one of the most famous markets in the world.

Pikes Place Market in Seattle

1531 Western Avenue

Seattle, Washington 98101

Carrots at a lovely farmer's market in Olympia, Washington.

Olympia Farmers Market

700 Capital Way North

Olympia, Washington 98512

Eat with Your Eyes: Madison Edition

I take pictures of my food all the time with the intent to blog about it later. Some of the pictures become part of my blog, but most of them just sit on my phone, never to be seen again....until now! This is the first in a series of blogs featuring those lost food photos. In honor of my move from Petersburg, VA to Madison, WI here's some pics of the good eats I've enjoyed in Madison.

I'm not a steak person, but my first trip to the Tornado Room I was jealous of Phil's peppercorn encrusted filet. Phil is a pretty humble guy, except when it comes to ordering food. He's confident that he always picks the best dish on the menu. I have to admit, he is pretty good, I find myself jealous of his food pretty often. Luckily he will share as long as I don't let him eat it all first. You can bet I ordered the peppercorn steak on our second visit. Phil ordered the lamb.

Tornado Room

116 South Hamilton Street
Madison, WI

Steak too fancy for you? How about some macaroni and cheese pizza? After a night out on State Street Ian's Pizza makes the best late-night munchies. This pictures is from the State Street location. Apparently they have a BYOB Ian's in Chicago!

Ian's Pizza

151 State Street

Madison, WI

*or*

3463 North Clark Street

Chicago, IL

Confession of a Food-a-holic

I've been really slacking on the blog posts this month! It's not that I haven' t been cooking, in fact, I've been cooking more than normal, and tons of new recipes too. Truth is, I'm a tiny bit embarrassed because I've been keeping a secret from you, blog world. So here it is... I'm on Weight Watchers. I know, nothing to be ashamed of really, but I love food and watching every morsel that goes into my mouth doesn't allow for complete cooking and eating freedom. Also, I feel kind of guilty because I'm always that friend who is saying "come on!! eat the ice-cream!!! it's no big deal!!" and now I'm the one who says "umm can I get a salad instead of the onion rings??"

Despite being worried that I would be depriving myself of the joys of food, I have been surprised how good the recipes from Weight Watchers have been. Don't get me wrong, there are some foods that just aren't the same when you scale them down (french fries!) but the great thing about Weight Watchers is that you can eat anything, you just have to plan accordingly and control your portions. One of my biggest challenges is my sweet tooth, so I decided to see what the Weight Watchers recipe bank had in the way of sugary goodness.

I decided on the Berry-licious Cupcakes because the picture of them looked so cute. I realize that these aren't *healthy* but they have less calories and fat that regular cupcakes, and taste just as good, proving you can have your cupcake and eat it too!

Berry-licious Cupcakes

150 calories and 2.5g fat (with frosting)

Dunken Hines Yellow Cupcake

270 calories and 12g fat (not including frosting)

Berry-licious Cupcakes

Courtesy of Hungry Girl and Weight Watchers, comments by Amanda

Makes 12 cupcakes

Prep time 20 min

Cooking time 20 min

Ingredients:

4 oz (or half an 8oz container) fat free Cool Whip

1/4 cup fat-free cream cheese, softened

2 tbsp SPLENDA No Calorie Sweetner When recipes call for artificial sweetener, you can't just use sugar instead because 1 tbsp sweetener might not equal 1 tbsp sugar. Also, baking is a science as well as an art, so you might mess up the chemistry if you sub sweetener for sugar or vis-versa

1/8 tsp vanilla extract

2 drops neon pink food coloring (1 drop for icing, 1 drop for batter) I skipped this part because I wanted to have white icing so my sprinkles would look cool

1/2 Tbsp sugar free raspberry or strawberry syrup again, skipped it for white icing

9 1/8 oz (about half a package) regular white cake mix I weighed this out just to be sure I had exactly half, remember, this is science! Also, I used yellow, but I would recommend white, read on to find out why.

1 cup diet cola, black cherry flavor I used Diet Dr. Pepper

4 large egg whites (about 1/2 cup)

6 medium strawberries, pureed I used my mini food processor

2 sprays cooking spray or cupcake liners

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a medium bowl, comine whipped topping, cream cheese, Splenda, vanilla extract, 1 drop of food coloring (optional but looks cute and girly) and syrup (also optional, but tastes good).

Using electric mixer at medium-low speed, blend frosting until mixed thoroughly, about 1 minute. Chill frosting in freezer for 20 minutes and then transfer to refrigerator until ready to frost cupcakes.

3. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, soda and egg whites; add pureed straberries and remaining drop of food coloring. Mix with electric mixer at medium-high speed until smooth, about 45 seconds. I used yellow cake mix because it was on hand, and left out the pink food coloring. This caused the batter to be a slightly unpleasant yellowish-brownish-pinkish color, tasted fine, but not so pretty looking.

4. Coat a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray or line with cupcake wrappers. Evenly spoon batter into prepared muffin pan.

5. Bake until firm, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely in pan. Once cool, remove cupcakes from pan and evenly spread with frosting. As I was decorating I noticed that the icing had tiny chunks in it where the cream cheese didn't incorporate into the cool whip all the way. I didn't like the way this looked, but as soon as I started topping each cake with sprinkles, not only did they look adorable, but I couldn't stop smiling! Oh, the magic of sprinkles.

Ingredients for the frosting

Ingredients for the batter

Showing off my new cupcake tree!

Practicing my food photography skillz! (with a z cuz I learned them on the streetz)

Does that look low-cal to you?

Final thoughts? These cupcakes are moist, sweet, and simply adorable. Everything a cupcake should be!

So what does Amanda's new eating habits mean for Down 2 Eat?

A few changes, like more vegetables, and less Amanda (I've lost 7 lbs so far, woo hoo!), but plenty of good eats!

Tips for Maximum Southern BBQ Enjoyment

By: a Northerner By Birth But Southerner By Choice

For: Midwesterners, Yankees, Hoosiers, West Coasties, and anyone who needs to know

1. BBQ Means Low and Slow- Many people misuse the word BBQ. If you plan on having some people over and throwing some hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill you are not having a BBQ. Repeat after me: BBQ means low and slow. The ribs, pulled pork, and brisket you get at a BBQ restaurant have been cooked for hours and hours, maybe even DAYS!

2. Pink Means Smoked- In this case, pink meat does not mean "CALL THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT", it means your meat has been smoked to maximum tastiness, usually the pinker, the better.

3. Don't be Scared by Crappy Exterior - Most tasty BBQ places are in tiny little buildings on the outskirts of town. Don't be surprised to see a collection of fat smiley pig figurines. My all time favorite BBQ restaurant, Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City is in a gas station. I am always skeptical of "fancier" BBQ joints, but there are some good ones, try The Pit in Raleigh, NC.

4. Coleslaw on the Pork = YUM - When I first saw people put coleslaw on their pulled pork sandwiches I thought it seemed weird. Don't knock it till you try it! It adds some cool freshness to your hot and spicy pork. Once my mom asked if she could get her coleslaw on the side instead of on the sandwich, and the waitress told her that if she wanted it on the sandwich, it was included, but if it was on the side, it cost extra! (This was years ago but I believe it occurred at Allen & Sons).


5. Choose Sides Wisely / Get Your Own Dang Coleslaw- Most places allow you to choose 2 (or more) sides to go with your meat. While side choices are personal, I always get coleslaw if I am having pulled pork and it doesn't come on the sandwich (see tip on coleslaw). I demonstrated the coleslaw on pork technique to my BF and he proceeded to eat all my coleslaw. Don't get me wrong, I love sharing food, but there's a limit- get your own coleslaw! In addition to coleslaw, I usually go with something unique and southern.... sweet potato fries are a favorite, and Olde Time BBQ in NC has apple pie sticks- fried batter filled with apples and cinnamon, yum!

6. BBQ Sauces Vary by Region- Each region has its own BBQ sauce "style". They come in different colors- red, yellow, white- and different flavors - sweet, tangy, or a combination. Here is a fun song to help you learn the types of BBQ. Sadly, they fail to mention MY home state of Virginia! In case you were curious, I think that Virginia mostly takes after North Carolina in our BBQ tastes- usually vinegar based, but sometimes you can find some red, sweet BBQ sauce.

Baking with Beer Part 2: Beer Bread

In the words of Homer (the fat yellow cartoon dude, not the blind ancient greek dude) "MMMM BEEER!"

I love beer. There are so many different tasty varieties to explore, and on top of that, its great to bake with! The bubbles in the beer help the dough rise, so there’s no need to mess with yeast. You can use all those yummy beer flavors to make all different kinds of tasty baked goods. I am particularly fond of this recipe from Cooking Light magazine because you can used different types of beer and different add-ins to make beer breads from around the world. To make all American beer bread, stick to the base recipe with Bud and monetary jack. Add some manchego cheese and Dos Equis (hey, it rhymes!) and, HOLA!, you’ve got Mexican beer bread. Got some Peroni and sausage? Bon Journo, Italian beer bread! I’ve tried the Mexican and American versions and both are superbly delicious and surprisingly low in fat/calories. In the future I might experiment with some more flavor combos. What about Blue Moon and some orange zest? Sounds like I just came up with the idea for a future blog post.

Beer Bread

From Cooking Light Magazine pictures by Amanda

Yield

16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 1 garlic clove, minced

• 13.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 3 cups) All-Purpose is essential! I used bread flour once and the bread didn’t rise enough and was very dense.

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

• 1 (12-ounce) bottle lager-style beer (such as Budweiser) I used Yuengling

• Cooking spray

• 2 tablespoons melted butter, divided

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Heat oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion to pan; cook 10 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Stir in pepper and garlic; cook 1 minute.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk; make a well in center of mixture. Add onion mixture, cheese, and beer to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

4. Spoon batter into a 9 x 5–inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Drizzle 1 tablespoon butter over batter. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes. Drizzle remaining 1 tablespoon butter over batter. Bake an additional 25 minutes or until deep golden brown and a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Once again I failed to take a good picture of the final product because I got so excited that I ate it :)

Apple-Cheddar Beer Bread: Substitute 1/2 cup minced shallots for onion. Place 1/2 cup shredded peeled Gala apple in paper towels; squeeze until barely moist. Cook shallots and apple in oil over medium heat for 7 minutes. Substitute 1 cup shredded extrasharp white cheddar cheese for Monterey Jack. Substitute 1 (12-ounce) bottle hard cider for lager. Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Manchego-Jalapeño Beer Bread: Substitute 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions and 1/4 cup finely chopped jalapeño pepper for onion; cook over medium heat for 3 minutes. Substitute 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Manchego cheese for Monterey Jack cheese. Substitute 1 (12-ounce) bottle Mexican beer (such as Dos Equis) for lager-style beer. Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice).

Sopressata-Asiago Beer Bread: Substitute 1/2 cup minced shallots and 2 tablespoons chopped green onions for onion. Substitute 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded Asiago cheese for Monterey Jack cheese. Substitute 1 (12-ounce) bottle Italian lager beer (such as Peroni) for lager-style beer. Stir 2 ounces finely chopped Sopressata salami into batter. Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice).

Moussaka: Funny Name, Yummy Food

Every summer St. Constatine and Hellen Greek Orthodox Church in Newport News has an AWESOME Greek Festival. I have fond memories of sneaking Izzy (the family dog) in the back of the tent so I could chow down on some awesomely good eats! Gyros, slovaki, spanikopita, baklava and those little honey donuts that I don't remember the name of. But what about those Greek cravings during non-festival times? I have the recipe for you. I make the most FANTASTIC Mossakka. I pronounce it (moose-ahhh-kaaaa) but I could be wrong.

If you aren't familiar with Mossakka, it's kind of like a combination of eggplant parmesan and lasagna, but of course with Greek flavors. This particular recipe is actually quite time consuming but tastes better than any Mossaka I've ever had.

Moussaka

from the Dean & Deluca Cookbook with comments by Amanda

serves 8 2/3 of a recipe is perfect for 3 people, but you might as well make the whole thing because the leftovers are so good

3 pounds eggplant

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon course salt

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Greek extra virgin Olive oil I used italian EVOO, no big deal

3 cups minced yellow onions

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic

1 pound ground lamb

1/4 cup white wine

14- ounce can tomatoes in puree I used diced and it worked fine

1 bay leaf

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried oregano

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

1 stick (1/2 cup) plus 3 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup flour

5 cups milk heated to almost boiling

1 teaspoon of white pepper

1 1/4 cup freshly made bread crumbs

6 tablespoons freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano You can use regular parmesan, but luckily I had the good stuff on hand

1. Slice eggplant into 1/4-inch rounds and place on sheet pans. Using 1 tablespoon of coarse salt, sprinkle salt on each side of eggplant. Set aside to "sweat" for 30 minutes. Sweating and (later) frying the eggplant takes extra time but it is essential to getting the eggplant to have that meaty texture.

2. In a large saucepan (non-stick works best here) heat 1/4 cup of olive oil over moderate heat, and add onions, garlic, and 1 teaspoon of coarse salt. Cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes,

3. Increase heat to high, and add the ground lamb. Break up lamb with wooden spoon as it cooks. Cook until well browned, about 10 minutes. Removed as much fat from the pan as possible.

4. Add white wine and cook for 3 minutes scraping bottom of pan to loosen brown bits. Reduce eat to low and add tomatoes, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, thyme, oregano, nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir well, breaking up tomatoes with wooden spoon. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, add chopped parsley, mix well, and turn off heat.

5. Heat a large skillet over moderately high heat and very lightly coat the bottom with olive oil. When oil is hot, dry eggplant slices well and saute in batches until well browned about 4 minutes for side. (If it is necessary to add more oil to the skillet, add sparingly, as eggplant absorbs oil easily. Do not crowd the skillet.) Set aside cooked eggplant.

6. In a medium saucepan (yep, you need to dirty more dishes, woo!) melt 1/2 cup of butter over moderate heat. Add flour 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking well after each addition. Cook roux gently, whisking constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes, without letting color change. Add hot milk slowly, whisking constantly, and cook over low heat, whisking frequently, for about 20 minutes or until the sauce has the consistency of very thick cream. Season with 2 teaspoons coarse salt and white pepper.

7. Preheat oven to 350. Sprinkle 1.3 cup of the bread crumbs on the bottom of an 11 inch by 9 inch by 1 1/2 inch pan/ Next, layer half the eggplant slices over the bread crumbs. Spread lamb mixture evenly over the eggplant. Cover with 3 tablespoons of the Parmigiano-Reggiano and 1/4 cup of the bread crubs. Add the remaining eggplant slices, then top with the bechamel sauce. Sprinl;e with remaining cheese and bread crumbs. Dot with remaining butter.

8. Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes. Before serving, brown moussaka under the boiler for 3-4 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.

Ta-Da!