Today is our two year wedding anniversary! My husband, Patrick, always makes me smile and laugh and I love him more every day! Here’s to many more great years ahead of us!! xoxo
xoxo, Food Marriage
Winnie the Pooh Cake Pops
May 18, 2013 by · 1 Comment
A few weeks ago, I got my first paid cake pop job!! Up until this point, I had just been making cake pops for friends, family, or fun occasions. But after a friend of the family saw my Football Cake Pops at my nephew’s first birthday party, she asked if I would be willing to make some cake pops for her niece’s first birthday. Of course I said yes!!
The little girl’s name was Gabby and her birthday party was Winnie the Pooh themed. When I heard this, I was SO excited because Winnie the Pooh was my favorite Disney character growing up (and still is my favorite today)! When I was a toddler, I used to watch a Winne the Pooh VHS tape (yes, VHS tape!!) over and OVER and OVER again. It was the only thing I would watch. I watched it so many times I still could probably quote the whole movie today!
Having this inspiration behind me, I did some research on how to shape and decorate Winnie the Pooh cake pops, and of course the Queen of Cake Pops, Bakerella, came up in my search! Her cake pops are impeccable and mine could never in a million years measure up to hers, but she did have a great guide for “Winnie the Pooh and Hunny, too” cake pops that I could follow to shape the Pooh Bear heads and the honey pots.
I also tried using an edible ink pen for the first time ever while making these cake pops! Unfortunately, the brand I purchased at the craft store was a Wilton brand edible ink pen. It was TERRIBLE! I managed to draw Pooh Bear’s smiles on, but had a lot of trouble writing “HUNNY” on the pots. The ink seemed to not want to take to the hard candy coating. I was able to sloppily write on about five of them, but it proved to be difficult and not great-looking so I gave up. Luckily, the plain honey pots were still cute. I did reach out to a girl I went to high school with that also makes GORGEOUS cake pops. She recommended purchasing an Americolor edible ink pens, which the company calls Americolor Gourmet Writers. Apparently they are difficult to find in stores, so you must purchase online. I will definitely be doing this for the next set of cake pops I make!!
After I made my pops, I created a fun display to put them in. I got a “photo box” from a craft store, lined the bottom with foam, and then covered the foam with Easter grass!! (That was my great deal find…I went shopping around Easter when paper Easter grass was on sale. I bought lots of extra grass to in almost every color for future projects…now just need to find a place to store the extra grass). I got a square scrapbook paper page with a Winnie the Pooh Print and backed it on cardboard to serve as a backdrop. I then decorated it and the box with Winnie the Pooh Stickers, Birthday Stickers, and glittery green alphabet stickers to spell out “Happy Birthday Gabby!”
When the friend of the family stopped by my house to pick up the finished product, she almost cried! She loved the whole presentation so much!! She later told me they were the hit of the party!!! I am so happy I could contribute to this Gabby’s First Birthday milestone and make it a memorable one!!!
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix
- Ingredients required for the cake (listed on cake mix box)
- 1 cup vanilla frosting (feel free to use a store-bought kind)
- 1 (14 oz) bag of yellow-colored and vanilla flavored candy melts.
- 1 (14 oz) bag of purple-colored and vanilla flavored candy melts.
- Black nonpareils
- Black rainbow chip sprinkles
- Lollipop sticks
Instructions
- Bake your cake according to the directions on the box.
- Allow your cake to cool completely.
- Crumble your cake up (You can use your mixer to break it up).
- Add in 1 cup of frosting and mix well (this will give it a sticky texture).
- Roll your cake into about about 2″ – 2.5″ size balls.
- Take about 9 of the balls and shape them into a Winnie the Pooh head. Insert Candy or sunflower seeds for the ears, or just pinch up the dough a bit. Keep the remaining balls as a round shape.
- Once everything is shaped, place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to firm up slightly.
- Melt a small amount of the chocolate candy melts. Dip each end of a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate and the press the stick about 3/4 of the way into the ball. Do this with each ball (I did about half of my footballs with regular-sized lollipop sticks and then the other half with slightly longer lollipop sticks. This allowed me to display them all at different graduated heights in the display).
- Once you have sticks in all your balls, place back into the refrigerator for another 10 minutes or so. This will ensure that the sticks stay in your balls.
- Melt down your purple candy melts. Dip each round cake pop into the melted candy so it is covered completely. Do not tap off excess candy for these. Immediately remove and place upside down on was paper. The excess candy will drip down to form the lip of the honey pot and a flat top!
- Melt down your yellow candy melts and dip in each Pooh Bear head. You may want to tap it on the side of your dish to eliminated any excess candy. Place each of these cake pops standing up in a styrofoam block until the candy hardens.
- Once your purple honey pots have hardened, take each one individually and turn right side up. Using a spoon, drizzle some of the melted yellow candy melt on top to create the "honey" spilling out of the pot. Once you do that, you can place each of these upright in a styrofoam block until hardened.
- Once all of the pops are hardened, it's time to decorate! Write the word "HUNNY" on all of the pots using an edible ink pen.
- To decorate Pooh's face, you can use black nonpareils for the eyes and a black rainbow chip sprinkles for the nose. Then, draw on a great big smile and some eyebrows with the edible ink pen!
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xoxo, Food Marriage
Recipe: Grilled Pineapple Salsa
May 16, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
It’s finally time to share my Grilled Pineapple Salsa Recipe! I made it last week for a Cinco de Mayo themed potluck at work. We had the potluck on Nueva de Mayo and I meant to post the recipe that night on Food Marriage, but clearly there was bigger news that needed to be shared with Chef Robert Irvine in town. (You can read those stories here and here).
Our Cinco de Mayo themed potulck was probably one of the best potlucks we have had at work in a long time. Usually our potlucks consist of strangely paired together dishes, but this time it was so well-coordinated. We had my grilled pineapple salsa, a traditional salsa, chili dip, chicken tacos with salsa verde, beef tacos with chipotle, sopapilla for dessert, and more!
My recipe for grilled pineapple salsa was adapted from an insert that I found in a recent Food Network magazine, “50 Salsas & Guacamoles.” When reading through all the recipes, the pineapple one jumped out at me. It was fresh, delicious, and made me think of summer!! One coworker even said that they would never try a trendy salsa that anyone else made with fruit in it because they imagined it would not be good, but they would definitely take a big scoop of mine and enjoy it because they know that I would make it good!! What a compliment!!
Ingredients
- 1 whole pineapple
- 2 large tomatoes
- Half of a medium-sized white onion
- 1 jalapeño pepper
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 lime
Instructions
- Peel, core, and slice your pineapple into large strips.
- Heat an indoor grill pan and grill each slice of pineapple for about 3 minutes on each side until slightly browned.
- Dice your grilled pineapple, tomatoes, and half of a white onion and mix together.
- Remove the seeds from your jalapeño pepper and then dice into very small pieces. Add to your mixture.
- Coarsely chop your cilantro and add to the rest of the ingredients.
- Put one clove of fresh garlic into a garlic press and add into your salsa.
- Mix all ingredients until they are well mixed.
- Squeeze the juice from one lime over all of the ingredients and mix again.
- Chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours (or overnight if you wish).
- Since all of the ingredients are very fresh, you may notice a lot of extra liquid in your bowl. Drain any excess liquid before serving (I just poured everything into a strainer and then put the salsa into a new serving dish)
- Serve with your favorite tortilla chips!
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Recipe Adapted from Food Network Magazine’s May 2013 Insert, “50 Salsas & Guacamoles”
xoxo, Food Marriage
Robert Irvine transforms Edibles into the new Hurley’s American Grille!
May 14, 2013 by · 2 Comments
If you read my blog post from Thursday, May 9 you already know the backstory on what Robert Irvine and Restaurant Impossible were doing here at the restaurant Edibles in Horsham this past weekend The crew arrived Thursday evening, and then the makeover of the restaurant and filming of the show began on Friday morning. I didn’t get a chance to stop by on Friday after work (I was actually visiting my mom and dropping off an early mothers’ day present). But I did stop by a couple times on Saturday!!
Robert Irvine’s Lexus
I got to the shopping center at about 11:30am on Saturday morning and the first thing I saw was Robert Irvine’s Lexus…you know the one he always drives in with at the beginning of every Restaurant Impossible episode on Food Network! I knew it was his because it was the only car parked right in front of the restaurant (the rest of the area was blocked off) and also because a woman who was there earlier in the morning said she saw him get out of it. Of course I had to snap a picture!
A small crowd gathered in Horsham to watch the excitement of Restaurant Impossible!
I hung out for a couple of hours (I know…crazy). There was a small crowd of spectators while I was there – I would say about 15 – 20 people or so at the most. I didn’t get to see too much initially. The restaurant had the doors and the windows covered so no one could see inside and we had to stand a certain distance away from the front door, but even still, I was able to get pretty close!
Carpenters carrying in wood.
Carpenters were sawing wood on tables in the parking lot, but then it started to rain a bit so they had to move inside their tents. The carpenters did a lot of running back and forth carrying wood from outside into the restaurant. As soon as they would get inside, they would close the doors really fast to keep the big reveal a secret.
My first sighting of Chef Robert Irvine of Restaurant Impossible!
AND THEN, one time when the door was open, I heard Robert’s voice carry outside (obviously yelling something, haha). I stayed a little longer, not sure what I was waiting for as all the excitement was going on inside the building and not outside. But FINALLY, the moment I was waiting for, Chef Robert Irvine stepped outside. He came out, coffee cup in hand, yelling something like “My time, my time!”
Chef Robert Irvine checking on the carpenters in the tents.
He did a quick walk across the parking lot to check on something in one of the tents, walked back toward the building, yelled something else at someone and pointed at them (another moment caught on my camera!) And then as soon as he came out, Robert went right back in and I didn’t get to see him again.
Uh oh! Yelling at someone!! haha
After my Robert Irvine sighting, I decided to head home. I knew the restaurant would be opening at 7pm that night, but because I was not able to get a reservation, I wasn’t planning on heading back over again. However, a friend from work texted me that she was there at about 8pm, so I decided to go back to check it out!
Edibles name is changed to Hurley’s American Grille!
When I arrived, I was excited to see that the name had been changed from “Edibles” to “Hurley’s American Grille” and they had a brand new sign on the outside of the building. Very nice!!
Sure I consent to be on TV!! HAHA
While we weren’t allowed inside the restaurant without a reservation, we were allowed to hang out right by the door and even peek in the windows! From what it looked like, the inside of the restaurant looked like it had been remodeled with an airplane theme. (Very fitting considering the old Willow Grove Air Force Base, which is currently home to the Horsham National Guard, is right across the street). There were helicopter blades on the ceiling, and framed pictures of airplanes and helicopters. The walls looked like they had some type of textured metal on them and the furniture looked really neat! We even got to see some of the camera crew walking around inside the restaurant interviewing some of the people while they were dining. I can’t wait to see all of this on the show!!!
Peeking in the windows! Camera crew interviewing the diners!
Overall, this weekend was a fun experience. I got to talk to a lot of new people in the community that share a love of restaurants, food, and Food Network Chefs! I got to speak to a production assistant who shared lots of interesting information…like for example most of the crew on the show is local to the Philadelphia area because that is where their production company is based out of! Another reason why a lot of the restaurants they re-do are in this general area of the country. I also learned that the next spot they are traveling to next is Bensalem, PA about 15 minutes down the road!
Loving all of the excitement!
By far, the most exciting part of the weekend was having a fun story to report on AND seeing Chef Robert Irvine and getting his picture. AND I can’t wait to check out the new Hurley’s American Grille sometime soon! I have high hopes for a great experience and delicious food! I will definitely let you know my thoughts once I try it out!
PS. my apologies for some of the poor-quality pictures…I didn’t have my camera with me and just used my phone! I won’t make that mistake again when we have a celebrity in town!
xoxo, Food Marriage
Happy Mother’s Day
May 12, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
Happy Mothers’ Day to all of the moms out there!! To help celebrate the day with family, I made these fun candy-dipped Oreos! They are fast, require no baking, and are so easy anyone can do it! All I did was take a package of pink-colored, vanilla-flavored candy wafers, melted them down, and then dipped the Oreos halfway into the candy. I also saved three cookies to write “MOM” on them to top off the display!!
Here’s how to do it yourself!
Ingredients
- 1 box Oreo cookies
- 1 (14 oz) bag microwavable candy wafers in the color of your choice.
Instructions
- Melt the candy according to the instructions on the packaging.
- Dip each Oreo cookie halfway into the melted candy.
- Remove the Oreo from the candy and carefully place onto a wax-paper covered cookie sheet.
- Place entire tray of cookies into the refrigerator for about 5 - 10 minutes to harden.
- Remove from refrigerator and enjoy!
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xoxo, Food Marriage
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