Chocolate Coconut Pie

A Martha Stewart recipe, found via Pinterest.

Source

I pinned it because: coconut. chocolate. 4 ingredients. Need I say more?

1 stick of butter, softened
11 oz. bag shredded, sweetened coconut
8 oz. heavy cream
8 oz. dark chocolate

In a food processor, blend together the butter and half of the coconut, until it forms a ball. Scrape down the edges and pulse in the remaining coconut. Turn out into a 9" pie plate, and press to form a crust. (I found a wide, flat bottomed glass helped with this step.) Cover the edges with foil and bake in a 350° oven for approximately 15 minutes, until the center begins to brown. Remove the foil and bake about 5 more minutes.

Over medium heat, bring the cream up to heat, just below a boil. Pour into a heat-proof bowl, over the dark chocolate. (The recipe recommended 61% cocoa, I used 70%.) Let sit for 10 minutes, then carefully whisk until smooth.

Pour the ganache into the crust and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, up to 24 hours before serving.


My pictures aren't that lovely because my plastic wrap fell onto the ganache. Also, the crust was a little hard to get out in one piece.

The crust was delicious, you could definitely eat it on its own. My mom said it was like a coconut macaroon. The chocolate ganache was so creamy and silky, it was heavenly to eat. 

We served with a healthy dollop of the remaining heavy cream, whipped. Go big or go home, right? 


Disclaimer: not diet friendly at all. I entered it in My Fitness Pal while making, and the stats are: 578 calories and 48g of fat per slice, when cut into 8 pieces.

Cereal and Yogurt Parfait (Giveaway Post)

Hello everybody! I have a special treat to share with you and a chance to win a $25 Wal*Mart gift card, so stay tuned for the information at the bottom of this post!

Pillsbury has created a new site, Bake-Off.com, which showcases over 100 recipes chosen from recipe contest finalists across the country. I was asked to peruse the site and choose a recipe to share with you, and I chose a simple, low-fat dessert.

Of course I changed it up, but the original recipe can be found here.

2 cups Cheerios cereal (I used the new peanut butter kind!)
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp butter, melted
whipped topping of choice
2 containers Yoplait fat free yogurt (I used Boston cream pie mmm)

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large zip bag, using a rolling pin, crush your cereal to resemble a coarse crumb. Add the sugar, water, and melted butter to the bag and reseal. Move everything around until it's fully incorporated and moistened.

Grease a baking sheet and pour the cereal mixture in the center. Lay a piece of wax paper over the top and use your rolling pin to roll the mixture out to about 1/8" thickness. Pop in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until browned. Watch closely, the edges can start to burn quickly near the end. Remove from oven and let cool, then crumble.

In a pretty glass, layer cereal crumbles, Yoplait yogurt, and whipped topping. Garnish the top with a few extra cereal crumbles. Enjoy!

This was really, really good. A nice after-dinner snack for me when I made it. My favorite part, by far, was the Cheerio crumble. After baking, it got nutty and crunchy and delicious. I'd love to make a pie crust or experiment more with other cereals.

Ok, now for the fun part! I have another $25 Wal*Mart gift card to give to a lucky Dinner at Christina's reader. Giveaway will end Monday, April 23rd at midnight. I'll announce the winner on Tuesday, April 24th.

 

To enter, just leave a comment answering: What is your favorite cereal!? 
 

Mine is a toss-up between Golden Grahams and Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch. We always have both on hand. We also usually have Lucky Charms or Froot Loops too! What can I say? We like sugary kids cereal more than the healthy, bland stuff!

Giveaway packaged provided by MyBlogSpark, General Mills, and Wal*Mart. The opinions, photos, and recipe adaption are my own.

Let them eat (Wedding) cake!

To be honest, I really didn't care about having a wedding cake when we started planning a year ago. It just seemed silly to spend hundreds of dollars on one cake, especially since neither of us are big cake fans.

As luck would have it, our venue included the cake with our wedding package. I asked about excluding it, thinking we could make our own pies and Christmas cookies. We would have only received a $100 credit, so it ended up being worth it to have a cake!


I looked through the bakery's portfolio and instantly chose "Snowflake Tessie." It was simple and elegant. White icing with some white snowflakes. The topper was understated greenery, which went with my decor. In the sample the ribbons were red, but I knew that'd be a simple switch to my color choice of green.

In September we tasted wedding cakes and all of you guessed correctly - I went with Cannoli!

The thing I didn't count on was having to provide the topper and ribbon! I planned the wedding as frugally as possible, so I actually made the topper myself. I used the trimmed bottom of a plastic bowl, fake greenery I bought to make all the bouquets/boutonnieres, and lots and lots of hot glue! I was so proud of how it came out.

Thankfully, the women at the bakery tied the bows, I would never have been able to make them look so beautiful!

Because cannoli cream contains Ricotta cheese, Johnny chose to avoid it because chances were high that it had whey. Allergic reactions on your wedding day don't sound fun!

Instead of a "first slice," we did a "first bite" with some gingerbread men we bought ahead of time.

Chomp! We each bit off the other's head!

At the end of the day, I'm glad we had the cake. We took the top home and I had a few slices for breakfasts in the days after the wedding, since we weren't saving it to eat together. The rest I froze in individual slices to enjoy with my mom throughout the year when we get a craving!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

This sort of falls under the "semi-home made" category, but it was my first ever Pineapple Upside Down Cake and we all enjoyed it, so it's worth sharing.

We had some family friends and my parents over for dinner. I've known Jack and Sylvia pretty much my whole life. They live out in western NC now, but occasionally come to the Outer Banks to visit.

My dad tipped me off ahead of time to make this cake for them, and to be honest I was a little nervous. Last time I made an upside down cake it stuck to the pan and I had to patch it back together! I used a highly reviewed Dunkin Hines recipe, with a few alterations to cut back on fat, calories, and sugar.

Topping:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
20 oz can of pineapple rings
cherries or walnuts, optional

Cake:
Dunkin Hines Pineapple Supreme cake mix
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding (I used fat free, sugar free)
4 eggs
1 cup water (I used the 100% pineapple juice from the can)
1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350°. Generously grease a 12" baking pan.

Melt butter for the topping in a medium bowl in the microwave. Stir in the brown sugar until dissolved. Spread into the bottom of the baking pan and arrange the pineapple rings, cherries, and/or walnuts, if using.

Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water (or juice), and oil in a mixing bowl. Mix at medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes. Pour batter over the pineapple rings. (Note: All of the batter may not fit in the pan. Make a smaller cake alongside, or reserve for later use.)

Bake for 1 hour, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool a few minutes, then invert onto serving plate while still warm.


I was so excited it popped out of the pan cleanly! The cake itself was really moist and rich. I've heard people boasting about including instant pudding in cake mix before, but never tried it myself.

And my will power is happy to report we sent the leftover half of the cake home with Jack and Sylvia!

Christina's Birthday Dinner Party!

First, I would like to apologize for my entire lack of food photos in this post. I'm an out of shape, rusty blogger. Once things started happening I completely forgot about my camera on the side table until long after my guests left.

October 23rd was my 27th birthday. My bosses Jeffrey and Linda had been trying to get up with me for weeks about going out to dinner, them cooking dinner, coming here for dinner, etc. Eventually when we had a plan in place, they had both had dental work so weren't much in the mood for chewing.

(recycled photo)

My butternut squash soup would do the trick perfectly for my birthday dinner party!

I used our rental home's nice dinnerware to make the evening feel more special. I find if you set the table ahead of time and make sure everything is at the ready it makes your guests feel special and the evening runs smoother. The dinner centerpiece was a huge, fresh salad I cut everything by hand for. Lots of the toppings were in small bowls so guests could customize the toppings based on their preferences.

As Johnny pointed out, the orange soup would look great served in these beautiful bowls! With the dinnerware being so busy, I chose to omit dinner decorations, and let the bold plates and bowls speak for themselves!

Appetizers were fresh shrimp cocktail my dad brought, olives, pickles, and bread with a vegetable tapenade. (<--Spell check wants me to change that to tapeworm -- ewwww!)

Dinner started with a huge salad. I used the seeds from the butternut squash as a crunchy topping to connect the courses.

For the seeds I simply tossed them with:

vegetable oil
paprika
garlic powder
salt
pepper

And baked at 350° for about 30 minutes, stirring them a few times to make sure they were evenly toasty and nobody stuck together.

Dessert was a delicious home made key lime pie my boss Jeffrey made from scratch! That's real whipped cream with key lime zest in it! So good!

Disclosure: There are paid links included in this post. Please note, it really was my birthday, and the photos and words are all genuine Christina, unaffected by this opportunity. Just simply a chance to earn a little cash for the upcoming wedding!

Lemon Bars

My dad is a sucker for all things lemon. The other night he pulled out a Company's Coming "Most Loved Treats" cookbook, turned to lemon bars and let me know I should make them, if I had the time.

The crust called for 2 sticks of butter, so I got to googling, trying to find some waist-friendly alternatives.

I used David Lebovitz's crust, because it reduced the sugar and butter:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a large, microwave safe bowl, melt the butter. Add the flour, sugar, salt, and vanilla, stirring until well-mixed. Spread out into a 7" x 11" pan. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes, until browned. Remove and let cool while you make the filling.

For the filling, I adjusted the cookbook's recipe to include less sugar:

4 eggs
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 Tbsp peel (I didn't have any, so I omitted)
1 1/4 cup sugar (it called for 2!!)
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
confectioner's sugar, optional

Whisk the eggs until frothy. Add the sugar, flour, baking powder, and peel if using, mixing until incorporated. Stir in the lemon juice. Pour into the cooled crust. Bake for ~20 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Sprinkle the top with confectioner's sugar if desired.

Cut into bars and enjoy!!

Wedding Cake Tasting!

When I think of wedding planning I think of two things: a nervous girl trying on dresses and an excited couple stuffing their faces with cake samples.

Since I already tried on dresses, I've had the cake tasting to look forward to for months!

Our venue works hand-in-hand with Homestyle Desserts, a local bakery to include the cake with the reception cost. At first I was a little weary because I wasn't sure if it was a good bakery. I read some online reviews and the locals just go ga-ga over them! My nerves were settled!

When we opened the doors to get out of the car in the parking lot, we both nearly fainted from the scent. There were people rushing in and out with huge white boxes full of tasty treats. The display cases were filled top to bottom with every Italian dessert, pastry, and treat you could imagine.

We were ushered behind the counter to a table and given 4 slices to try.

Starting at the top was Chocolate Mousse with chocolate cake and chocolate mousse. Going clockwise, next was Double Temptation, chocolate cake with cheesecake. Next was the Amaretto Cake, vanilla amaretto cake with vanilla and chocolate custard filling. Last was Cannoli Cake, an Italian sponge cake with Cannoli cream and chocolate chips.

In about 4 seconds the plate looked like this. When I looked at the selections back in February I pretty much already made up my mind. The tasting just solidified that choice!

Which one would you pick?
Which do you think I picked!?!

Korean Pancakes

When I opened the box from Sophia, this was one of the things I was most excited about. To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect. I saw "Hot" and I saw "Sweet." I thought it would be like a sweet batter with a spicy filling.

The photos on the back are adorable. Why can't our American packages have cute little cartoons showing us how to cook each step!?

I saw the brown spoonful of filling and thought perhaps some sort of bean paste?

Well, needless to say, I was wrong! First, you mixed water, an included packet of yeast, and the pancake mix in a bowl and kneaded for 5 minutes. You rolled this mixture into 10 balls.

Next, you rolled out the dough into your hand, put a spoonful of the mixture, and sealed it. You placed it in a hot pan with a little oil. After the bottom browned, you were instructed to flip it over and mash it with a spatula. Then, you cooked each side an additional 1-2 minutes.

I anxiously broke into the first one and promptly burnt my mouth on the molten hot filling. Turns out, it is like a cinnamon sugar mixture. It melts down to this gooey, maple syrup kind of jam with little bits of nuts in it. Sinfully delicious! Thank you, Sophia!

FroYo

You guys post about fro yo all the time and I have never been! Sure, I've eaten frozen yogurt in cartons you buy at home, or made my own. But as far as these trendy little by-weight froyo places? Never been.

Until last week. Visiting my God daughter, we went for it after dinner since they ate all of their turkey.

You grabbed your bowl, filled it up with the flavor of your choice (under the spoons), then had fun with the toppings! There was a salad bar area with lots of fresh fruit and candies. Along the wall was a row of gumball machine-like devices for even more toppings like cereals and other crunchies.

The cash register had a scale in front of it, so you put your bowl there and it was .39c per ounce. I got strawberry yogurt, banana yogurt, and put fresh strawberries, blueberries, and crumbled sugar cone on top. It came out to about $3.

Here is my God daughter, Marissa with her bowl. I promise she's not always a blur! I'll have clear pics of her in future posts.

And her little sister, Cecelia, shouting "CHEEEEEEEEEESE" while she poses with her bowl!

Cream Cheese Cookies + Update Photos

I've been craving snacks and sweets lately. With none in the house, I decided to bake some up. We've gotten my dad hooked on Dexter, so while we worked our way through season 3, I snuck into the kitchen for refreshments.

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used sliced almonds)

Cream shortening with cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk. Add the dry ingredients and a sprinkle of water if too stiff. (Feel free to add chocolate chips, other nuts, or dried fruit also.)

Spoon in 2 Tbsp size blobs onto a cookie sheet. Using your straightened fingers, flatten the top of the cookies.

Bake in a 350° oven for about 15 minutes. The bottom and sides will begin to brown. Remove to a wire rack and try to let cool for a few minutes.



We've made a lot of progress on the house since I last showed you pictures. The entire downstairs is done, save for a few tiny details (installing the fire alarm, etc.) and scheduled professional installs (carpet and windows).

Downstairs doors and trim all up and stained.


Laundry room floor/doors repainted, old stuff taken out, and new (clean) insulation installed.

Downstairs bathroom done, except for mirror and new window. I'm so excited about this! For as long as I've lived here, this bathroom had been completely gutted. It's going to be awesome to have a 2nd operating bathroom.

So, now that the downstairs is done, we get to move upstairs!! Here's me geared up for demolition. Smashing out old tile can be a dangerous job!

Upstairs bathroom completely gutted. And that's where we are, now. There were a lot of imperfections in the original construction, which we found once stuff was ripped out. Right now we've been stalled by a lot of problem-solving, delays, and multiple trips to home improvement stores.

Hopefully the next update I give you will have a better ending, with another nice, new, shiny bathroom!

Various Reviews

Sometimes Blogger uploads my pictures sideways for no reason. Even J, the web developer/programmer, can't figure it out. I usually fiddle around and re-save them to fix it, but for now, since I'm posting from a random computer and don't have much time, I'm leaving them sideways. Sorry!

I got these Magnum ice cream bars with a coupon from Foodbuzz. They come in a 3 pack box, and are usually in the $4-5 range, but these were on sale for $3 at my local store. All of the flavors had whey (boo) so J couldn't test them, and I went with my choice since I'd most likely be the only one eating them. (My dad's not big on dairy.)

It was pretty good. The milk chocolate was my least favorite part, I think I would have preferred dark chocolate. I liked the crunchy of the almonds and the ice cream was amazingly delicious and creamy (maybe the whey?). Honestly, unless I had the coupon I probably wouldn't buy them. $1+ for a lone bar is way out of this cheap frugal girl's budget.

I won Ally's AMAZING giveaway a few weeks ago. I literally screamed and called J over. This is, hands down, the awesomest giveaway I've won! I got 4 of these little cookbooks, an (unpictured) grocery bag, and 52 coupons (1 year's worth) for FREE Organic Valley products. Our store carries their milks and butter, but I'm hoping NC will have a wider variety of their products. It'll still be cool to not have to buy milk for a whole year! Thanks again, Ally!!!

I saw a commercial for these and wanted to try them. I'm not usually a cookie person, but something about these caught my interest. I had a coupon from the Sunday paper, so I got them.

Wow, they're good. The peanut butter ones were my #1 choice and are reminiscent of Girl Scout's Tagalongs. Dangerous, but oh so delicious.

I received a coupon through Foodbuzz's Tastemaker program and Magnum ice cream to purchase the bars. The photos and opinions are my own.