Bourbon Pumpkin Seeds

Every year when Justin carves pumpkins for Halloween, he saves all the seeds to make some sort of snack for himself. The past few times, he's been disappointed with the result, so this year he tried 4 different options to come up with one he really liked. This one was his favorite, which I could have predicted since it has bourbon in the recipe.

Halloween Buttercream Fudge

Before I get to the recipe, I just want to apologize for the lack of updates in the past couple weeks. Justin and I were kind of busy for a bit there. Our first wedding anniversary was also earlier this month, and so we were out and about some, including a day trip to Williamsburg to go ziplining. (It was great fun, by the way--sometimes terrifying, but great fun.) Then I had a few recipes that I tried out and intended to post. However, they just didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, and I didn't want to post anything that I thought was subpar. A lot of things combined to cause my lack of posts. Either way, I'm back now, and hopefully I should be back to posting with semi-regularity.

My first post back is this lovely, simple fudge. It tastes like buttercream frosting, and just for Halloween, I made it in layers that look like candy corn. I've made fudge from scratch before, and I even have a specific pot that I refer to as my fudge pot. It was given to me by my mom, and it's the only pot she ever used to make fudge. (It's a Club aluminium pot with a super thick bottom that makes it a lot more difficult to accidentally burn whatever anything delicate that you make in it.) Still, fudge can be somewhat of a hassle to make from scratch. You have to make sure it gets to the exact right temperature, or it won't set properly. It can't be too humid out, or it won't set properly. You can't look at it wrong, or it won't set properly. You get the idea. This fudge involves none of that. Honestly, the most difficult and time-consuming part of this process was cutting it into triangles. This is seriously the easiest dessert you will ever make. You have no excuse not to make a batch or three.

Red Pepper & Gouda Soup

I'm going to start by letting you know that this soup is dangerous. I know, you think I'm going to say, "It's dangerously good." While that is true, that's not what I was going to say. I actually injured myself making this soup. It starts out with eight red bell peppers, and by the time that I finished dicing up all of them, I had a blister on my hand. I told you, it's dangerous. Be warned.

That being said, it was totally worth it because this soup really is delicious. It doesn't have complicated, multi-layered flavors all working in harmony to produce an excellent overall flavor; the taste is simple and straight forward, and sometimes that's all you really need. You can taste the red peppers. You can taste the gouda. What else do you need?

Macaroni & Cheese Muffins

Ok, so these aren't really muffins. They're more like muffin-shaped baked mac and cheese. Because of that, they would really make great party food; you can just pick them up and eat them--no fork needed! They're also good for when you just want something a little different and fun. I made them to go with some creamy red pepper and gouda soup. A couple of the ingredients overlap nicely between the recipes. I hate buying something like half-and-half and then only using half a cup of it with the rest going to waste. Therefore, this recipe and the soup recipe together use up all of the half-and-half and gouda that I bought. You don't have to make them together, but that's part of the reason that I did.

Amish Friendship Bread

Justin and I went to our 10 year high school reunion this past summer. In addition to getting to hang out with people we haven't seen in 10 years, I also picked up a tasty new recipe. After leaving the official reunion, a few of us went back to a classmate's home where she offered us some Amish friendship bread. I'd never even heard of it, but I'm not one to turn down something that sounds awesome. It may be called bread, but it's really more of a cake--and I've hardly ever met a cake I didn't like. I'm glad I tried it because it really is quite yummy. I immediately asked for the recipe, and when the weather turned cooler this past weekend, it was the first thing I thought to bake.

The reason that this is called friendship bread (I'm not sure about the Amish part, and neither is Wikipedia apparently) is because you're supposed to make several cups of a starter mixture and then share the starter with friends so that they can make their own bread, retaining enough to make some for yourself as well, obviously. You can also just make the starter for yourself, one batch worth at a time, if you don't feel like sharing. I've included the instructions for both versions of the starter below, so you're free to make it however you like.

Chicken & Dumplings

The weather has finally cooled off enough here in Virginia for me to start making soup. I love soup. I could almost eat soup every night and not get tired of it--there are just so many wonderful options!

I have this Paul Prudhomme cookbook (If you don't know Paul Prudhomme, you should check him out; he's one of the quintessential Cajun cooking authorities.) that has a recipe for Creole chicken and dumplings. Justin and I like the idea of it, so we thought we'd make our own version. I started with Prudhomme's recipe which has you begin by frying the chicken, which gives it great flavor and texture. I've never had fried chicken in a soup before, but I really enjoyed it. From there, I adapted my usual chicken and dumpling recipe, and altogether it morphed into what you see here. It was really delicious, and Justin and I are both looking forward to making this again soon.

Ultimate Fall Float

Who doesn't like fall? It's clearly the best season, and if you disagree, I just don't think that we can be friends anymore. The weather here in Virginia can't seem to make up its mind as to whether or not it's fall yet though, which makes this float the perfect dessert right now. Floats are an essential summer treat, but this one gives you all the flavors of fall together in one glass. It's the perfect treat to cool you off from the late summer-like warmth and give you delicious dreams of the weather and wonderfulness fall will bring.

Crab Pot Pie

I don't often watch Paula Deen on TV. I find her slightly grating. I don't know why; I just do. There's also the fact that just watching her cook makes me fatter. For whatever reason, one afternoon a couple weeks ago I put on an episode of her show, and she was making crab pot pie. That's not something I'd ever considered before. Chicken or turkey, sure, but crab? How have I not thought of this?

I used Paula's recipe more as an idea and a jumping off point than as any sort of guide. This recipe actually more closely resembles Justin's mom's chicken pot pie recipe, though it's not directly based on that either. Basically, Justin and I sat down and said, what vegetables are required for pot pie and what vegetables would be tasty with crab? From there we narrowed it down to those included in this recipe. If I made it again, I don't think I'd change a thing (other than to maybe use an egg wash on the pie crust to make it come out more golden brown). It was really weird for the first few bites, but once I got over the expectation of poultry flavors, I really liked this.

Chopped Challenge #5, Part 3: Maple Bourbon Barbecue Sauce

I have to say, I really like this barbecue sauce. I'd never made homemade barbecue sauce before, and now I'm not really sure why. You just toss a bunch of stuff in a pot and let it cook down, stirring it occasionally. It's really easy, and you can make it taste like whatever you want really. I'm definitely going to make barbecue sauce more often now.

This sauce in particular is really sweet. I'm serious. There are 5 ingredients in there that have the main purpose of adding sweetness. A couple more add sweetness as well as other qualities. I also don't like my barbecue sauce to have a lot of spice to it, so if you're into that sort of thing, you might want to up the amount of cayenne you add or add in some other spicy ingredients.

Chopped Challenge #5, Part 2: White Cheddar Bread Pudding

When I worked at the coffee shop, my boss would always talk about taking the leftover croissants and making a savory bread pudding with them. He never did. He'd make chocolate bread pudding but never a savory one. Going into this challenge, I knew because of that that savory bread pudding was a thing, but I'd never actually had it. (I'd never even had normal, dessert bread pudding until I made this one for Thanksgiving last year.) I knew that this is what I wanted to try to make though, but I wasn't sure how it would come out.

Now that I've made it, I think it might be one of my new favorite things. Justin seemed a little weirded out by it because he said that the texture reminded him a little bit of quiche. (He doesn't like the texture of baked eggs at all, which is really sad because I love quiche.) That being said, he still ate it, so I guess that's something. I, however, can't wait to make this again. It was fluffy and flavorful and filled with cheese & garlic goodness. I might have to try to adapt it into a dinner recipe of its own. Throw in some more veggies and some meat and see where it takes me.

Chopped Challenge #5, Part 1: Coffee-Crusted Pork Loin

This time around, my ingredients for the Chopped challenge were pork, bourbon, Texas toast, and coffee. Something about those ingredients just clicked for me, and it took me all of 5 seconds to decide what I'd be making. I was actually really excited about this challenge, too, for whatever reason, so I definitely was looking forward to making it. I have to say, I was not disappointed. So far we've been pretty lucky and haven't made anything really terrible, or even halfway terrible for that matter. I know we're only 5 challenges in, but that's still pretty good.

For this challenge, I decided to make a coffee-crusted pork loin, maple bourbon barbecue sauce, and a savory, white cheddar bread pudding. (I'll discuss the barbecue sauce and bread pudding in separate posts and just stick to the pork loin in this one.) I've never actually made or even had coffee-crusted anything before. I know that it's a thing that a lot of restaurants do it, so I figured it can't be bad, right? I'm glad I gave it a try because it's really easy to do and tastes great. I liked the pork with the crust by itself, but Justin thought it was much better when paired with the barbecue sauce because the coffee crust is a little bitter and the sauce was nice and sweet. I agree that they complimented each other nicely, but I was just fine eating the pork alone as well. It made for a nice change to plain ol' roasted pork.

Ricotta Pasta Salad

I have to admit, I'm not as obsessed with Pinterest as everyone else seems to be. For quite a while there, I just didn't get the appeal at all. I've come around a bit though and used it to find inspiration for some DIY art projects for our master bathroom as well as some recipes. I don't spend hours and hours on the site, but I can see the usefulness of it now. (If you, on the other hand, are all about Pinterest, you can also access all of my recipes from the Cake & Coke Pinterest board. Feel free to re-pin and share your favorite recipes with friends!)

I happened across a photo of this recipe, but my attention was really captured by the caption which said that this pasta salad was made with ricotta instead of mayo. First of all, I love ricotta cheese. I can just eat it straight from the container. Second of all, I love creamy pasta salads but would like to be able to make them lighter (aside from just using light mayo). Justin, however, isn't a big fan of the texture of ricotta unless it's mixed into something like lasagna where he won't really notice it. This recipe, though, mixes in some pasta water to make the ricotta into a creamy sauce rather, which I thought would be a perfect way to hide the texture a bit. We adjusted the veggies to what we thought would be tasty and gave it a try. I think if we made this again I would maybe add a packet of ranch seasoning or something similar to the sauce to make it more flavorful--it was a little on the bland side--but otherwise I definitely liked this idea for a different take on pasta salad.