For those who may be counting calories, this vanilla bean fruit salad clocks in at only 65 calories for one serving! A serving is one cup of fruit, this recipe makes two servings.
Using a butter knife, scrape the seeds from the inside of the vanilla bean. Place them in the bowl with the fruit.
Stir well.
Place in the fridge for at least an hour. A day is a good amount of time, it allows the natural juices from the fruit to come out and mix with the bean.
I think that if I were ever in a situation where I had to pick one thing to eat for the rest of my life, I’d say wings. Hot, sticky buffalo wings slathered with chunky blue cheese dressing. No celery.
But wings of all sorts are tasty too. We made these sticky teriyaki wings back for the Super Bowl and they were a hit. I could definitely go for them again. Soon. As in this weekend soon. Or tomorrow soon. Or now soon.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and place a cooling rack on top.
Place the chicken wings on top of the cooling rack. Place in the oven and bake for 35 minutes. In a bowl, combine vinegar, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Stir well.
Pour the vinegar mixture into a sauce pan and head over medium high. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook over low heat for approximately 15 minutes until thickened.
Remove wings from oven and, using a pastry brush, brush with sauce. Flip and brush other side with sauce, then return to the oven for 10 more minutes.
Remove and brush and flip again, then return to the oven and bake for 10 more minutes until cooked through. Remove and coat with any remaining sauce then sprinkle with sesame seeds for garnish.
There’s an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie has incredible writer’s block. Funny, since she’s a fake writer and a terrible fake writer at that. However, I can sympathize. She actually wrote “Men as socks”. I would prefer to compare myself to actual people, admirable people worth looking up to. Amazing women writers who pave the way for the next generation of female writers. Women who write about things that are important, meaningful, life-changing.
What was I talking about? Right, Carrie Bradshaw and how much she sucks. Anyway, I can at least relate to her writer’s block. Because while this granola is fantastic in every sense, I can’t think of a thing to say about it. Nothing witty or funny or even deep and meaningful. Nothing. Just this granola rocks, I love it. I want to eat it every morning for breakfast without yogurt, just by itself. Coffee granules really add to everything they are mixed into, walnuts are my favorite, granola rocks. The end.
Curd is a really awful word for something that is incredibly delicious. In fact, curd is probably one of my favorite treats. When I was in high school, my mom made lemon tarts. Crispy, flaky shells filled with silky lemon curd. We took a trip to Disney World during my junior year and stopped by the French patisserie in EPCOT. Of course, they had lemon tarts and we ordered one, plus a half dozen other treats. And while it was good, it was nowhere near my mom’s lemon tart. Seriously, that woman makes my favorite things. If the world were to end tomorrow, I would want to eat my mom’s lemon tarts as my last meal. But I would probably avoid using the word curd because it sounds ghastly.
Recently, I came into possession of a large number of grapefruits. I knew they would go bad before I would eat them all. Consider me the world’s slowest eater of grapefruit. I wasn’t sure what to do with all of them, short of giving them away. So I figured why not test my hand at grapefruit curd. It had to be at least half as good as its lemony twin, right? And yes, it was… it may have even been better. I spooned some into a tart shell. And over top of vanilla ice cream. And maybe directly into my mouth… Sweet and sour at the same time, silky smooth. Grapefruit curd is my new favorite dessert.
Place a stainless steel bowl over top a saucepan of simmering water. In the bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and grapefruit juice until blended.
Cook, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens, about ten minutes. Remove from heat and pour through a strainer to remove any lumps.
Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until butter has melted. Cover immediately and let cool. Mixture will thicken as it cools. This will keep in the refrigerator for a week.
Biscoff is certainly a yummy treat. And lately, even though I find myself wanting savory, real foods over junk foods (who’d have thought?!), I can still get down with anything Biscoff. I think it is the buttery flavor of it that gets me but who can really pin it down?
In this rendition, I took Biscoff and combined it with a classic American buttercream. Then, I piped it out onto a light, moist coffee cupcake. I figure it was a fun play on coffee and butter cookies.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 cups in standard-size muffin pan with cupcake liners.
In a bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt.
Beat butter and sugar in large bowl about 2 minutes or until light colored and smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
On low speed, add flour mixture, alternating with brewed coffee. Divide batter among prepared liners, ⅓ cup in each.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until firm to the touch. Let cupcakes cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan to rack and cool completely.
In the bowl of your mixer, combine butter, powdered sugar and Biscoff and whip until well combined. Add cream a tablespoon at a time until the icing reaches your desired consistency.
Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe onto the cupcakes.
