Butter Cracker Toffee {Easy, Nut-free}

Cracker toffee is amazing. It's so DARNED easy-it's sorta kinda dangerous. And I know you all still are probably thinking about your resolutions but....everything in moderation, ya know? Honestly, I made this toffee over the holidays aaaand you probably could've used it then. But...life happens. So I suggest you make it now, anyway. Or bookmark it for next year! Follow your heart.

My brother-in-law's girlfriend has a nut allergy, so I made this toffee nut-free and really...you don't miss the nuts. The toffee is so buttery and sugary and addictive and then the chocolate gives it that little extra bit of decadence and THEN I made half with salt on top and half without for that sweet and salty combo. Truth=I prefer with the salt. Next time I'd probably do all salt...if it's just for me. I know not everyone feels this way (even though I have totally made myself a salt-on-desserts missionary, going around and bringing people the good word of balancing the sweet with the salty.) Katie (the girlfriend) totally loved them-everyone did! 

And again...I cannot emphasize enough HOW EASY these are. Like...put some crackers on a baking sheet (lined with foil). Boil some butter and sugar. Pour on top of crackers. Bake. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Spread. Let sit. Chill. EAT THE EVER-LOVING CRAP OUT OF THEM. Or ya know...just be good and have 1 or 2. Personally I think that's no way to live, but I'm not here to tell you what to do.

...but seriously...at least eat 5 of them.

Homemade Mexican Guacamole

Lately...I've been craving guacamole. And I haven't been able to get it (I keep meaning to go to this one Mexican restaurant we love but it hasn't happened yet) so...I finally just decided to make my own. Because that's what we food bloggers do. Or...at least...that's usually what I do. And really...there's no reason that all of us shouldn't make our own guacamole! IT IS SO EASY! And insaaanely quick to make!

Funny fact--apparently my dad and grandma (heck..probably all of my grandparents) have never tried guacamole. And one time (a time my brother and I still enjoy a good giggle over) my mom pronounced guac "GWYE-ACK" (admittedly on accident--she does know how to correctly pronounce it). So...I don't come from a particularly adventurous food background. But somehow...I love guacamole. And I am so happy that I do.

First a little tip on avocado ripeness--you're going to want the avocado skin to be very dark and have give when you squeeze it. If it's suuuper soft when you squeeze it-it may be over-ripe, but you can still cut it open and use any parts that are still green and not brown! Another tip for good guac is DO NOT BE AFRAID OF SALT! Seriously...you're gonna want to be generous. And also, this recipe is definitely one of those taste and adjust sort of situations--some of the ingredients aren't going to have amounts because you should sort of just add however much tastes good to you, you know? I know the first time you make something that is super frustrating but I promise after you make it once and figure it out...it just makes sense!

Oh and after you've made the guacamole, if you don't finish it and want some leftovers and are concerned about it turning brown here's another little tip: spray the top of the guacamole with cooking spray and cover the top with plastic wrap (so that the wrap is pressing on all of the guacamole)--it helps!

Avocadoes are potentially the only thing that I like and Michael doesn't, so I had to eat all the guacamole myself. Which...even though it didn't look like much...it actually was. So this might be best to serve if you're entertaining or have at least a couple people to eat it--because I had a difficult time finishing it by myself. 

Also--don't limit yourself to eating this deliciousness with just chips! Quesadillas, flautas, and even french fries are so good dipped in the guac and it's also tasty on sandwiches!

Guacamole is too good to only enjoy one way. 

Homemade Cheddar Pierogi {with Caramelized Onions}

This is a big one, guys. This is one of those recipes that like...changes your life. Ok...maybe that's dramatic.

...OR IS IT?

No but forrealsies, these are definitely a new favorite. Turns out-making homemade, from scratch, pierogi isn't that hard (I will admit that it dirties a lot of dishes, but it is TOTALLY worth it!)

Now, first of all, if you aren't familiar with pierogi: they're pretty much a pasta that is filled with mashed potatoes (and, in this case, cheddar cheese) and usually served with sauteed or caramelized onions. There's a bunch of variations but, in my opinion, this version is the best.

The pasta shell is tender. The cheddar mashed potato filling is perfectly flavorful and comforting. Sauteeing the pierogi in butter after boiling makes the texture and flavor even better. And serving them with caramelized onions is just perfection. I'm legit. obsessed. Michael is too. He took one bite and gave me a wide-eyed look, "These are amazing!" He was impressed. I was sort of impressed. You'll be impressed. If you need a perfect pierogi recipe-look no further! Or, if you just want a new idea for dinner tomorrow-also look no further! You need homemade cheddar pierogi in your life!

Graham Cracker Toffee

I love toffee. It's brown sugar and butter cooked into tasty goodness so...yeah. And this is a crazy easy recipe for it--no candy thermometer needed. All you need is butter, sugar, and graham crackers! (and chocolate to top it because...chocolate is always a good idea.)

You're going to become irrevocably addicted after you make these--just a warning.

Because you get rich, buttery, sweet, delicious delicious toffee. The fresher it is, the tastier. You want to give your kid's teacher a gift? Toffee. You want to get your boyfriend to propose to you? Toffee. You want to make your husband worship you for the supreme goddess* you are? TOFFEE.

*ha....yeah right :P

Hmmm....you know.,...Christmas will be here before you know it (I KNOW I KNOW THAT'S INSANE) and these would be a fantastic gift. 

Assuming I can control myself from eating half of it by myself.

Chocolate Covered Potato Chips with Salted Caramel Drizzle

STOP IT!

Stop right now! You stop your thoughts of "Ew...chocolate covered potato chips??!" I am here to tell you that no...they are NOT gross. They are absolutely delicious (when done right). Let me tell you a little tale.

There have been a couple occasions are chocolate covered potato chips were presented to me. They were chips that were very thickly covered in a hunk of milk chocolate. And they were...meh. But I knew they had a greater potential. I knew they just weren't being executed correctly. I LOVE sweet + salty...and that's all this potato chip business is. So I knew that I would make my own chocolate covered potato chips...but I would use a thin layer of DARK chocolate (it gives a much nicer contrast and just tastes better) and add a salted caramel drizzle and sea salt...because...I mean...that just sounded great.

And so I waited.

I waited for the wedding to be over so I could make something sinful and decadent. I waited to make salted caramel sauce. And that day finally came last week. And so I made them. And they were GOOD.

Honestly...you barely taste the potato chip. It's just a little crunchy salty something underneath the rich dark chocolate and heavenly salted caramel. It may sound weird but...try them. You won't regret it. You'll just thank me as you shovel chip after chip into your face. Or fight with your husband over whether or not you or they should eat anymore because WHAT IF YOU EAT THEM ALL AND THEN THEY'RE GONE??!

Oh...maybe that's just at my house...

Raw Sugar Salted Caramel Sauce-Guest Post at Golden Barrel

By now we should all be aware of how enamored I am with salted caramel. So when it came time for me to have some more fun with Golden Barrel products for another blog post, I decided to use their raw sugar for an unprocessed, delicious twist on my fave caramel sauce recipe.

You might be wondering--oh, is caramel sauce hard to make? The answer is: NO! It's actually pretty quick and easy, so long as you use a deep enough pot to cook it so it doesn't spatter and burn you. And you may also be wondering--does raw sugar make the caramel sauce difficult, because of the larger sugar crystals? Answer: NOPE again! Still easy!

Really I mean...just look at that amber caramel perfection. It is so delicious. And makes your house smell fantastic. And makes you want to eat it with a spoon or maybe develop some recipes with it...? Hmmm...I suppose we'll have to wait and see :P

Now, enough jibber jabber, do you want to make this caramel sauce??

Head to the Golden Barrel blog to get the caramelicious recipe!

How to Freeze Celery (for Soups/Stews)

I don't like celery. 

I know...this isn't how you expected this post to begin. Stay with me, though. So-I don't like celery. And Michael can only eat so much before he's over it. BUT sometimes I like celery in things--such as soup. But then I always have leftover celery. And it's like...gahhh...what do I do with all of this?

Freeze it. Use it for future soups. DUH!

I came up with this idea while making this soup for Michael and I crossed my fingers that it would work...and it did! It's actually pretty simple-and is going to save you time in future recipes! You just chop up some celery (I could write poetry to my new chopper) and spoon into an ice cube tray. Freeze it. Pop little cubes of frozen celery out. Put them in a bag. Keep frozen until ready to use! And then--just pop them into whatever you're using. Generally the celery is just saute'd or cooked in a soup so really it will just add a smidgen bit of extra time to that step. Other than that it's pretty much normal. This is such a game changer.

How to Freeze Celery (for Soups/Stews)

Author: Kayle, "The Cooking Actress"

3-4 celery make approx. 6 cubes of frozen, chopped, celery.

Ingredients:

• celery

Preparation:

• Thoroughly wash celery and dry. Chop the celery up.
• Spoon chopped celery into a clean ice cube tray. Freeze (about 1-2 hours).
• Pop the frozen celery cubes out of the tray and place in an airtight container/freezer bag. Label how many celery are within the container (3-4 celery make approx. 6 cubes for me). 
• Store in the freezer for up to 6 months. Use as usual in soups or stews--just add a little bit of extra cook time. 

Look how cute the little chopped celery is. Knowing that I just saved myself future effort makes me seriously giddy :D

Multi-Nut Butter

I've been sitting on the idea of making a nut butter with a variety of nuts for awhile. And then I recently realized that I actually have 4 varieties of nuts, right now, in my kitchen. So it was nut butter time!

As I've mentioned quite a few times before--making homemade nut butters is unbelievably easy and so entirely customizable. You can add pretty much anything you want to it--honey, chocolate, vanilla, etc. Or you could add nothing and just let it be an ultra healthy nut butter! This is the same. I've given you the amounts of nuts and the varieties that I used but you can completely mix it up to suit your own needs! And your end result is a delicious, healthy, natural (and no-stir!) nut butter!

For my multi-nut butter I had almonds and peanuts as the predominant nuts (peanuts have a good amount of oil so that way I wouldn't need to add oil during the process. And almonds are ultra good for you!) and then walnuts (which I don't love but are some of the healthier nuts) and pecans (which taste oh so good but are prob. the least healthy nuts). And then I just added a smidgen bit of salt and honey. And now I have a delicious, creamy (of all the nut butters I've made this one doesn't get as thick and hard in the refrigerator-which I looove) thing to spread on my pancakes, toast, or to bake with!

Get on board and get your food processor ready!

Easy Balsamic Vinaigrette

I have been dying to make my own salad dressing and I finally did it!

And it's healthy! And delicious! And makes you want to eat salad!

As it turns out it's super easy to make a vinaigrette that is tailored to your own tastes. You just need a particular ratio of oil to vinegar/balsamic and then season however you prefer! When I made this dressing I didn't actually need to season it as I had bottles of flavored/infused olive oil and balsamic that I received in the gift exchange with Michael's family. (His cousin lives in Pennsylvania and there's a store there-called the Lavendar Rabbit-where he bought the oils and balsamics. I happen to love salad with apples and garlic-y kind of flavors and, luckily, there was a bottle of Parmesan Garlic Rosemary olive oil and a Red Apple Balsamic! Yum! In the future, since my delicious flavored options are now gone, I'm sure I'll be using some garlic powder and things of that nature to spice it up.

So, like I was saying...easy. You just whisk together the ingredients and then pour it into whatever bottle you wish to serve/store the dressing in. And-as long as you don't add any perishable items (such as Parmesan cheese)-you can even store it at room temperature for a month or so. The oil and vinegar will separate so you just need to shake well before drizzling over your favorite salad. Making healthy eating delicious!

Whole Wheat Puff Pastry

Forgive these pictures. I normally try to wait to make and photograph food until the light is good but one night I came home from work and decided I AM MAKING WHOLE WHEAT PUFF PASTRY TONIGHT, LIGHT BE DAMNED!

So....I did. Thusly the lighting in these photos is meh. But stick with me because homemade puff pastry is awesome, but now...not only can you make it preservative-free, you can also make it WITH WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR! I mean...I'm not gonna say it's healthy. There's a lot of butter. But ya know...it's better.

Don't be intimidated by the idea of making homemade puff pastry. It's slightly time intensive but only because you have to chill the dough a bunch of times-so you can do other stuff while the dough chills. You can do laundry, make other food, clean, watch TV....ya know...productive stuff.

But the actual work put in is crazy simple. The hardest part is using your muscles to roll out the dough. Which isn't hard. If my wimpy arms can do it, so can yours!

Then, once you've made your puff pastry, you divide it into thirds--or fourths (because a package of puff pastry is generally about 1 lb. and these recipe yields 3-4 lbs.--this will make it easier to use when you're making recipes that call for the storebought stuff) and then stick it in the refrigerator or freezer. Hooray! And when you bake up the pastry it's wonderfully flaky and buttery (although, sure, less flaky than with white flour) and has this awesome earthy, almost nutty, quality from the whole wheat flour. It's awesome. 

You'll see!

1 Hour Dried Oregano

Fun fact: oregano is a bully!

That's right-A BULLY! I have a planter that has basil, chives, parsley, and oregano. Over the course of a couple weeks the oregano started taking over the planter-getting all up in the other herbs' business (except the basil, the oregano couldn't mess with that tree!) The unfortunately part is...I haven't used any of it. It's just this big bully plant that I don't even use.

Correction....that I didn't use.

Less than 24 hours after reading about this super easy way to dry oregano I had done it.

Because, you see, the only time I really use oregano is in pasta sauce, or maybe on garlic bread or some such. Not super often. And the bummer about herbs is they tend to um...die....eventually. And-sadly-summer is ending. So drying the oregano means it will LAST, and then I can use it when I need it!

Woot!

Now let me tell you how this whole process went for moi:

• I snipped off some oregano branches and laid them on our table. Michael commented how pretty they looked and that he'd like to own a table with glass where you see herbs inside. Um....ok.
• Let it all sit overnight.
• Woke up and preheat the oven to 170F degrees (turns out that is a quick preheat). I only have smallish baking sheets and a lot of oregano...so I did the whole baking for an hour thing in a few batches.
• Crumble the leaves. And...um...yeah. That's it. Done! If you're cool you store the dried oregano in some sort of jar or some such. If you're lame like me then you put it in a ziploc bag which makes you think about how potheads always claim their drugs are oregano...and you hope nobody sees this bag and thinks you have a secret drug habit. But you're reassured that people would be much more likely to believe that Kayle would have dried oregano than...ya know.

Anyway. You get the idea. It's a simple process. And pretty darned cool. True story.

Almond Peanut Butter

I'm like a walking advertisement for making homemade nut butters. I always tell people about it and they look at me like I'm crazy (or they'll even ask "...isn't there butter in peanut butter?"....*sigh*). But seriously, I cannot emphasize this enough:

MAKING HOMEMADE NUT BUTTERS IS REALLY REALLY RIDICULOUSLY EASY. 

LIKE...I MEAN IT.

Allow me to break down the entire process:

Throw nuts in food processor (or powerful blender).

Process.

...that's it.

The only time it might get a smidge more complicated than that (which is still insanely easy) is if 1. You decide to add in other stuff like chocolate, honey, salt, etc. Which involves--throwing those things in with the nuts. Again...that's it. OR 2. If you're using a drier nut (such as almonds) you may need to pour in a little oil (olive oil, peanut oil, canola, coconut, etc.) That's all. I'm not kidding when I say ANYONE can make this.

Now, although this nut butter has almonds in it-it is paired with the very oily peanuts which means this is a super duper easy one. I just put the nuts in there, let them go, then I had tasty tassssty almond peanut butter!

Enough about how easy it is to MAKE this almond peanut butter, let's talk about how easy it is to LOOOVE to eat it! Before I moved to NYC I had never had a nut butter other than peanut butter-heck, I didn't even know they existed! One day someone mentioned how almond butter was healthier and I tried it and was like "Eh it's good but not as good as my good 'ole pb!"

As I've already mentioned, almond butter did grow on me. However, it could never replace peanut butter in my heart. But now...I DON'T HAVE TO CHOOSE! I get all the best flavors of almond and peanut butters in one place, and the health benefits of the almonds get in there too.

Really....I can't think of a better thing to spread on my toast. Or waffles (speaking of which, keep an eye out for a particularly special waffle recipe next week!). Oooh or maybe bake in cookies??

Endless possibilities. :)

Homemade Ranch Dressing

I'm such an annoying lady sometimes. I know it. I just can't leave poor Michael in peace. All he wants is to eat his pizza rolls and spaghetti-o's, and I can't stop trying to take food he likes and make it from scratch.

But liiike....a girl's gotta try, right?

I really don't give the boy enough credit. He actually eats, probably, healthier than me. He's much better about eating his veggies. And he's a total champ at eating salads. Sometimes...when at a restaurant...he'll even order one...AS HIS MEAL *gasp* I can't even fathom that. A salad...for a meal? Does not compute in Kayle's brain.

Anyway, since we tend to have little side salads fairly frequently around our lil home, I was really excited about the idea of tackling a homemade ranch dressing recipe for Michael (I don't mind ranch but I'm more of an Italian/oil based dressing gal myself).

and I did.

Was it a success?

Sort of. Maybe. 

On the first attempt of making this recipe, it was entirely too garlicky for Michael's tastes (so I've adjusted the garlic/scallion amounts below) and seemed to be missing something. I researched ranch dressing a bit and determined we needed dill. So I added that and it definitely helped. So Michael kind of likes it. But not as much as storebought. BUT I haven't attempted it with less garlic yet. I'll keep ya posted on that.

Anyway, all that said...

I like garlic.

I actually like this dressing better than the kind you buy. And you don't have to stress about what you're putting on your salad and whether or not that's negating any healthiness you're getting (which...if you're me...is the entire reason you're eating the green things in the first place). You should def. give it a shot, and maybe customize it a bit to your taste! PLUS hey it's a new year, and I'm sure many of us have resolutions for healthiness or some such, am I right?

What sort of storebought recipes do you want to/like to try to recreate/replace with homemade?

Salted Caramel Sauce

I don't even know who I am anymore. 

I don't like caramel. I don't hate it but it's like eh...

or so I thought.

Turns out I freaking love caramel--salted caramel specifically, and especially if it is THIS salted caramel sauce. Where all other caramel seemed blah and so-so, this caramel is an explosion of heavenly rich and buttery and CARAMELIZED flavor! It's like...I never really had caramel before. We're starting over, caramel and I, turning over a new leaf and beginning a bigger. better, more amazing relationship.

I was definitely intimidated by the idea of making homemade caramel sauce, but was pleasantly surprised by what an easy time I had making this recipe! For one thing--this is the simplest recipe for caramel I've ever seen in terms of ingredients (gotta love a short ingredient list full of real things...like sugar...cream...butter), and really, once you're in it you just need to stay by the caramel on the stove and don't leave it and don't look away from it. Just follow the directions and be attentive, and make sure you already have all your ingredients ready. And use a saucepan that is deep enough that it doesn't splatter and burn you. Those are pretty much the rules of thumb and you should be good (that said um...I may have just gotten lucky...and everyone says this is really tricky so if at first you don't succeed, don't be discouraged! Just keep on trying! Get back on that caramel horse!) It's totally worth any and all effort. I meant to take step by step photos for you guys but....well...I was nervous to stray from the stove. If I ever get the courage and take those photos I will put them on here, I swear!

Also, side note: in these photos the sauce looks pretty thin, and it was--it was still pretty fresh. It will definitely thicken up as it cools (especially if/when you refrigerate it) so do not be worried about that at all. I worried about it at first, I was all "Uh...what did I do wrong?" and then a day later I was like "Yay! I did nothing wrong!"

I've used this salted caramel sauce in tons of things already (which you will be seeing on here) and I cannot wait to use it in more stuff (that I had previously always dismissed because uh...I didn't like caramel...supposedly?)! Honestly though, guys, I have to tell you...

I just ate this stuff with a spoon/my finger. Because...holy cannoli it is good. And addictive. And just like...when you taste it...you make a sound. You know the kind of sound I mean. Like just...mmmm so good! You know how I feel about the addition of salt with the sweet and this is the perfect marriage of those flavors. HOWEVER-if you're a crazy person (jk no judgsies here) and don't want the salt up in your caramel, go ahead and omit it. But you shouldn't. You should use the salt. Preferably something awesome like fleur de sel that is delicate and dissolves instantly. Because then you just have smooth smooth caramel and sweet sweet, almost burnt, just PERFECT flavor.

You know you want it.

Homemade Puff Pastry

Ughhh you GUYS! I cannot believe I haven't shared this with you yet! "bad food blogger, bad!"

Um...you may have noticed I've developed a borderline unhealthy addiction to spinach & brie puff pastries. Liiiike...poor Michael jokes that I "supposedly" make them but he wouldn't know because they're uhhh...gone...by the time he gets home. And we're talkin' about me making double batches...8 puffs....oops. 

#sorryimnotsorry

Anywho, since I've been using so much puff pastry, I really wanted to tackle making the stuff from scratch. But I was intimidated. But I told myself "KAYLE! You've gotta buck up and take on this challenge!" So I did. And surprisingly, not that difficult. Yes, there are some steps. But they're pretty simple (especially since I've provided you with a step by step photo guide ;P) and I've already made the homemade puff pastry twice.

I will share with you one downside to these: you end up with blocks of dough instead of the sheets you buy, so when you go to roll out the dough um...it's hard. Like...really hard. I get a goooood work out trying to roll that chunk of dough into a thin sheet. But it's do-able and I always get through it. And if me and my tiny, weak, arms can do it-SO CAN YOU!

Homemade Chocolate Magic Shell

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I know.

I should have a picture of this magic shell doing it's crackly thing on top of some ice cream. I'm doing a major food blogger fail right now by not giving you all a photo of that. But um...I needed to share this recipe with you now, and as of this moment, I don't have a picture of that. Someday I will. And perhaps then I will update this post and show you. But trust me, this is the real deal. It is chocolatey goodness that hardens into a magical little shell as soon as it comes into contact with the wonderful coolness of your favorite frozen treat.

I just happened to use this for popsicles (recipes to come...one of which will be on Wednesday. Hence why I needed to share this recipe today). You guys are gonna be all in disbelief and think I'm lying, but seriously: homemade magic shell is sort of idiot proof. It's just chocolate and oil. The end.

And if you don't use it all right away-just store it at room temp. Now, in my case, it hardened up again on some chillier days, but no big: I just re-melted it. DUHN DUH DUH DUNNN.

Ta daaa. Magic. 

Homemade Nutella (Chocolate Hazelnut Butter)

They said it couldn't be done.

They said I was crazy.

BUT I DID IT!

buahahahaaaaaa!

I made homemade Nutella with only 2 ingredients:
hazelnuts.
chocolate.

There are a lot of homemade Nutella recipes out there, and to be fair-most of them are actually probably closer to the store-bought. But I really just wanted a simple, healthier, chocolate hazelnut version. I asked various people about if I couldn't just make it the way I make any other chocolate nut butter, but I was told it wouldn't work, I needed to use cocoa powder, etc.

Well ta-da! I did it! I just took some roasted, skinned, hazelnuts and processed them. Then I threw in some dark chocolate chips and a dash of salt. Process until smooth, refrigerate, and done! YUM.

You know those Nutella commercials where the mom is spreading it on toast and talking about how it's a healthier option for her kids (you know, the kind of stuff that got them sued)? Well...this is actually pretty healthy (I mean..dark chocolate is kindaaaa healthy). And I spread it on whole wheat toast and ate it for breakfast. Just like those kids in the commercial.

Oddly enough, I had been meaning to try this for awhile but one day, while babysitting, I made myself a toasted Nutella and peanut butter sandwich...and it was just so good I knew I needed to make some for myself ASAP.

More good news=in addition to being able to just eat this on toast, with a spoon, etc. you can even use it in (some) recipes. I have a few coming to the blog soon :)

In summary, this is a spread full of amazing hazelnut-chocolate flavor, you're gonna love it, and to all who doubted me: nananananaaaa.

hehehehe.