Balsamic and Honey Glazed Ginger Roasted Carrots

Okay, so now that the birthday month is over, and the chocolate holiday has passed, I suppose it is time to start eating some vegetables again. I suppose so.

Now I know I am a little late posting about these heirloom carrots (a.k.a purple and white carrots) because they are typically found in the late fall. But you can do ths recipe with any type of carrots. Even the genetically modified baby carrots that come in a bag.

The purple ones are my favourite! Even though there really isn't that much difference between the colors, I think there is a subtle sweetness to them. And the orange ones are more - carroty... ya you heard me. Whatever, eating purple food is cool and you know it.

Beet and Goat Cheese Risotto

It's the big V-day tomorrow and I have the perfect dish. Why? Because it pleases both the coupled and singles out there. Hear me out...

Snack Tip: Chocolate Popcorn

Have a sweet craving? What about a salty craving? Oh crap you have both...

It is one of the greatest dilemmas of life. Sweet or salty.

Along with soft or strong Charmin toliet paper, regular fries or sweet potato fries...or most importantly ... shower before bed and sleep in but risk bed head... or get up early and guarantee gorgeousness.

So tough.

But luckily you can once again have both. This is a little trick a friend of mine taught me and I've been hooked ever since. Super easy, super duper delicious.

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée

Mmmm... crème brûlée.... mmmm....

Crème brûlée is like the Kim Kardashian of desserts. Sexy, smooth, a little intimidating and appears out of reach to most... but when you look closely at it, just a hard shell on top but really easy to get into .. WHAMMY.

Haha ... creme brulee can be a birthday cake too!

I get it, it crème brûlée looks challenging. It is custard-like-thing... I was intimidated. I never thought I could even attempt it. And vanilla beans? Ya friggan right! Not in this girl's budget.

But..BUT... it was my foodie friend's birthday. And for her, cupcakes just wouldn't do. I needed to take it up a notch. I needed to go where no student ever thought they could go. And I knew her dad had a mini torch so I thought it was a perfect opportunity.

Now I know there are 100,000,000 different crème brûlée recipes out there. So mine isn't anything remotely special. I just wanted to share with you the one that worked for me. Because yes I tried it TWICE before success. Turned out the least complex recipe was the one that worked the best.

So here it is, my most successful therefore favourite crème brûlée recipe, adapted from The Sweet Pea Chef.  No tempering of eggs, no double boilers, no mess and fess.

How To: Make Modeling Chocolate



Birthday cake I made for a beautiful lady. I actually did make this whole thing from scratch!

Following up on my post on Chocolate Buttercream Icing that focuses on turning ordinary box-cake into your own masterpiece. What is a cake/cupcake without some decorations?

Now if you have ever ventured into the world of cake decorating, you would know what I am talking about when I say fondant, gumpaste, marzipan, etc.... if not... don't worry about it, you are not missing much, all you need to know is that this stuff is quite difficult to make at home but extremely expensive to buy. Am I right? Or am I right.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Okay. A personal confession, I think cake from a box... is amazing. I hate to admit that anything from a box is amazing. Except for mac and cheese of course. But honestly, it's hard to compete with. Box cake is usually super moist and delicious and it is super duper easy to make not to mention cheap as hell.

So yes, I sometimes make cake from a box. But that isn't gourmet! But what is gourmet is sprucing it up with some homemade icing. That's right, you can do something fancy and call it your own.

And comeon.. anything with the word "butter" in the title has to be friggan fantastic.