03 Jul
Pistachio Gelato
Posted as Frozen Desserts | 4 Comments
Important Announcement: July is National Ice Cream Month. As if I needed an actual excuse to eat more ice cream, I am embracing the holiday and bringing you a new ice cream recipe each Friday during the month of July to celebrate. And lucky for us, July has not four, but five Fridays this year. Woohoo! I also needed a good excuse to use my ice cream maker more often. Ironically, I used it more over the winter than I have so far this summer. I am kick-starting the month of ice cream with a Pistachio gelato. I’ve had this recipe in the back of my head for some time, for it was either after I received my ice cream maker or I found out I was no longer allergic to nuts that my Chief Culinary Consultant suggested I make pistachio ice cream. I never forgot, but just never got around to it. Me being lazy about ice cream? Totally ridiculous, and I needed to right this wrong.
02 Jul
Stained Glass Jello – Red, White & Blue for the 4th of July
Posted as Appetizers/Snacks, Brownies & Bars, Holidays | 19 Comments
Are you still looking for that perfect something to bring to the 4th of July cookout on Saturday? Well, look no further. This Jello is fun, festive, easy to transport and eat, a sure-fire kid pleaser, and will make the adults wax nostalgic about the good ol’ days of Jello Jigglers. This impressive-looking Jello dessert couldn’t be easier to make and is a simple variation of the classic “rainbow Jello” layered dessert. You know, the one with all the colors of the rainbow with layers of white in between? I knew you’d remember 
01 Jul
Roasted Shrimp and Orzo
Posted as Salads, Seafood | 6 Comments
Drum roll please… the very first seafood post here on Brown Eyed Baker! You may remember that back in February I found out that I had “outgrown” all of the food allergies I was diagnosed with five years earlier. One of those allergies was all members of the seafood and shellfish families. Since finding out I was no longer allergic, I began exploring all of the possibilities that seafood had to offer. I started with baked shrimp scampi, then tried salmon, enjoyed some cheesy crab dips, and am now even head over heels for sushi (okay, I admit, I only tried the raw stuff once – not bad! – but am in love with shrimp tempura rolls). In looking for some new ideas for dinner I turned to my cookbook stash and found this gem.
30 Jun
No-Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Cookies
Posted as Chocolate, Cookies | 25 Comments
Perfect for those moments when you are desperately craving something sweet and chocolatey, but don’t have a lot of time (or patience) to make a full-blown batch of cookies. I must really live under a rock sometimes (I know, I said this when I made the coconut macaroons, but I swear it’s true!) because although I had heard of no-bake cookies from my time spent surfing food blogs, I had never had them before! Well, now I might be in trouble. These mounds of sugary, peanut buttery, chocolate goodness are incredibly addicting. They take only minutes to make and if you’re really desperate and don’t want to wait for them to set, you can eat the mixture straight from the bowl – no raw eggs to worry about! These mark my third installment of cookies that you all voted for me to make in the poll I held following the cookbook giveaway. Thanks to everyone for helping to broaden my cookie horizons!
29 Jun
Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls
Posted as Breakfast, Pastries, Rolls/Biscuits | 31 Comments
If you have a big soft spot in your heart for ooey gooey breakfast pastries, then you will no doubt fall in love with these at first bite. And if you don’t have that big soft spot, take one bite of these and I guarantee you will be a convert. Cream cheese is rolled into the pastry dough (much like laminated dough) and creates a soft and flaky dough. That, combined with the incredible filling, makes for the most flavorful cinnamon rolls that I have ever tasted. While these require you to set aside some time and involve multiple steps, they are not difficult and without a doubt absolutely worth it. If you have overnight guests and they wake up to these fresh from the oven, you will score some serious points and may have to start turning house guests away. Everyone will want to stay over!
26 Jun
Almond Macarons Filled with Nutella
Posted as Cookies | 13 Comments
So to recap, last week I made the fabulous Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons, as they raked in the most votes in my readers’ choice poll where I asked which cookie you all would like to see me make. I’m so glad I made them – they tasted fabulous, looked great, and everyone who tried one was blown away. Even better, I loved the comments from those of you who ran off to try them after seeing them here. Thanks so much for coming back and letting me know that you tried them! The only pickle with the poll seemed to be a matter of spelling: macaroon vs. macaron. As a result, I promised to make Macarons this week, and here they are!
There are so many colorful variations of this wonderful cookie and its fillings, but for my first try out of the gate I decided to go the simple route with a basic almond macaron recipe and, thanks to the suggestion of Stephanie, filling the cookie sandwiches with Nutella.
25 Jun
Cookies & Cream Oreo Look-Alike Cake
Posted as Cakes, Chocolate | 24 Comments
My grandpap’s favorite cookies, by a long shot, are Oreos. As far back as I can remember, any time we visited my grandparents, there would be a glass fishbowl-style cookie jar full of Oreo cookies sitting on the kitchen counter. We were always offered one (or a few, if my grandma and mom weren’t looking) and it didn’t take us long to realize that they were his favorite snack. This past Father’s Day we celebrated my grandpap’s 83rd birthday with a cookout. My mom asked if I could make a cake for the occasion and I immediately figured I would incorporate Oreos into the dessert. The result is a two-layer chocolate cake filled with a cream cheese/whipped cream mixture that has chopped Oreos folded in, and topped with a chocolate ganache. I skipped a traditional full icing in order to make the cake actually look like an Oreo cookie.
19 Jun
Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons
Posted as Cookies | 35 Comments
The votes are in! Thanks to everyone who took part in my poll, as well as in the giveaway. It was a lot of fun to see which cookie everyone wanted to see me bake and blog about here, and it was a nail biter. No Bake cookies almost pulled off the victory, but the winner, by a hair, was the Macaroon. I was excited about all the cookies since I hadn’t made any of them before, but I was especially excited about the macaroon because I had never even eaten one before. How crazy is that? I must have lived under a rock for many, many years. First the Chinese food, and now this.
I’m sure that I’ll be making up for lost time because these coconut macaroons are ridiculously good and insanely addicting. I tested them both plain and then dipped in the chocolate. (I wouldn’t be a good food blogger if I didn’t do thorough taste-testings, right?) I honestly could go either way, they are truly fabulous. I thought they were fantastic plain, straight from the oven, and of course I love chocolate, so I thought they were great dipped in chocolate as well. You really can’t go wrong here. In fact, I’m thinking of adding these to my holiday baking list.
18 Jun
Italian Supreme Calzones
Posted as Italian Cuisine, Pizza | 13 Comments
When I visit my Chief Culinary Consultant we often grab a “take and bake” pizza from Safeway that is absolutely delicious. It’s a supreme pizza that includes Italian sausage, pepperoni, peppers, onions, and black olives. There may be even more on there that I can’t remember, but it’s by far the best pre-made pizza I have ever had (which is surprising because I usually don’t like olives at all, but I enjoy the whole of this pizza). I remembered that I had pizza dough in the freezer from awhile back, but I wasn’t feeling an actual pizza (shocking, I know); I wanted something different. It then occurred to me that I still hadn’t made calzones, so that solved my dilemma, calzones it was!
For the longest time I wondered about the difference between calzones and stromboli, and finally I learned the answer: while calzones are pockets of pizza dough filled with meat, cheese and vegetables, stromboli are made with Italian bread dough and can contain the same types of ingredients but are rolled into an oblong loaf and sliced to serve (much like a pepperoni bread).
17 Jun
Seven-Layer Bars
Posted as Brownies & Bars | 17 Comments
Seven-Layer Bars, also known as Magic Bars, have a graham cracker-crumb base and are topped with a combination of nuts, chocolate chips, and coconut, and held together by sweetened condensed milk. In other words: Sweet. Rich. Delicious. Grab a tall glass of milk and get your oven ready!
My mom had an evening meeting and was asked to bring dessert, so she asked if I’d like to make something for her. I never turn down an opportunity to bake, so I immediately said yes and thought about what I could make that would be a crowd-pleaser. When I have free reign over a dish, I often turn to My 100 list to see what I still have left to cross off and if any of the remaining items would work well. And so when I ran down my list, I thought that Seven-Layer Bars would be a great dessert to share with others.
