Todd English Food Hall!

New York City: Part 2

Now, me and my mother came here before, but we had a pretty bad experience. We sat down at the restaurant part, and our waitress was new. We waited two hours for food that was good, but not great. Fortunately, we were sitting at the burger bar, and the nice men gave us absolutely divine parmesan truffle fries while we were waiting (that was four words starting with the letter W!).  This time, we got food from the little markets and stands. It was good too, and we only waited fifteen minutes! But the best part was probably the dessert. 

The nice people sitting next to us even let me take a picture of their sweets.

Above: super chocolatey hot chocolate. From left to right: checkerboard cake, carmel eclair,  and some kind of layer cake.



Here is what we got

Flavors from left to right: salted caramel, classic violet, chocolate, coffee, and raspberry.

Macarons! Sorry the pictures are kind of hazy. The raspberry was the best one, of course. The others were fine, but that one was realllly good. 

I also got this layered dessert, called Tout Chocolat, which I'm pretty sure is french for "all chocolate."

It was amazing, even if my sister stole most of it. And it even had a mini macaron on top!

Francois Payard!

Here are a couple other things we saw

This was another little stand. So many cupcakes!

this is proof that I was actually at the Plaza.

shoes made of chocolate! every girl's dream has just come true.

We also went to the Parker Meridien to see the gingerbread NYC building competition, but I couldn't take pictures. It was still cool though!

I hope you liked this post! Have a happy holiday!

Love, 

Rhode Island Red

The Art of the Brick!

New York City: Part 1

Nathan Sawaya is a sculptor. His medium: Legos! Using thousands of lego bricks, he recreates classic pieces, and designs new, intoxicatingly fun ones too. And to think, he only uses legos and glue!

here are a couple classic pieces

Mona Lisa

The Scream

Easter Island Head

Starry Night

American Gothic

Venus de Milo

Seated Buddha

The Thinker




Here are some of his own designs that I really enjoyed

I really liked these three pieces. Especially the first one. It's very...... well........ fun!

 This one is called the Swimmer. Being a swimmer myself (there's something you didn't know), I felt a certain bond with it. I got the postcard that features it.

This piece is called Yellow, and it's his most famous piece. It's a little freaky, but pretty interesting.

They have shapes for heads! This is the literal picture of a boxy head.

This was one of my favorites. It's called Disintegration, and I could go on about how it makes you think in so many different ways, but I think its best if we all just look at it and decipher the way we choose.

I forget what this one is called, but I still like it.

This is a replica of a dinosaur skeleton. It took over 80,000 bricks to create. Its pretty cool.

This one goes without saying. 

This piece is kind of like Yellow, yet much different too. I think its supposed to mean that the Statue of Liberty is kind like the heart of New York City. 

This is a sculpture created by thousands of bricks, each bearing a name of a person who has seen the exhibit.

 There's me!

I hoped you liked this post. I know it has nothing to do with food, but I will post about my excursion to the Plaza Hotel and the Todd English Food Hall!

Have a happy holiday!

Love, Rhode Island Red

A Sweet Trip to NYC!

Get ready for my first mini blog series! Now that I've chosen a more portable mean of photography (not my webcam), I will be able to show you all the spots I'm traveling to in the Big Apple. You may even see stuff not food related, but that kind of thing will only pop up occasionally. Get excited for my little tour! I hope you like it!

- Rhode Island Red

Frosted Pumpkin Bars!

         My friend was having a party, and apparently too much chocolate was being brought (what?!?!) So, I made a recipe lost in our family recipe binder, Penzey's pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting.

Aren't they scrumptious?

(i didn't feel the need for anything else said)

Pumpkin Bars

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling on top
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 stick ( 1 1/2 cup) butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 3 cups powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. grease a jellyroll pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a smallish bowl.  In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, sugar, and pumpkin. Add the dry ingredients gradually. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 20-22 minutes. Let cool completely. Make the frosting: in the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and milk. Add powdered sugar a cup at time. Frost uncut bars. sprinkle with cinnamon. cut into appropriate sized bars. Enjoy!

Christmas Time and Caramel Corn!

           I know I don't celebrate Christmas, but I still absolutely love the holiday. I love Christmas music, and holiday themed baked goods, and Christmas movies. The thought of decorating a sweet smelling evergreen with decorations that bring together the family, a morning filled with cinnamon buns and coffee cake and presents and family time. And don't forget the snow.

And with the holiday season, comes my mother's caramel corn. Caramel-Corn-Death-Camp is a symbol of the holidays, with caramel aromas and popcorny noises. I even snagged a couple pics.

check out my mother's popping device. 

For some of the corn, my mother likes to add some mix-ins. You can use anything, from nuts, dried fruits, melted chocolate ( that was the best year ever a good year), or anything else you might like.

and you can even mix in some crafts

all you'll need is scissors, pipe cleaners or ribbons, tags or labels, and some kind of packaging. This is a total DIY project, which will totally give you some credit with your teachers.

Have fun this holiday season! Leave me a comment down below if you'd like the caramel corn recipe!

P.S. i almost forgot! The Sweet Life of Rhode Island Red has been and active blog for a year now! Hooray for us!

Chocolate Owl Cake!

I'm so sorry I didn't post for november, I couldn't get my webcam to work on blogger, so i've been contemplating other ways to take pictures.

But anyway, I'm back, and my friend's birthday party is tomorrow. What better way to celebrate than with one of her favorite animals shaped in the best form possible?

So, with this time honored family recipe, the best buttercream ever, oreos and a little chocolate, 

I'm pretty sure i've made 

the absolute cutest

tastiest organism to ever hit my kitchen

not to mention this is the best cake i've ever made.

By that i mean that the frosting isn't paved with crumbs, or it doesn't look like a blob.

For this cake, i used my family's chocolate dump-it cake recipe, chocolate buttercream, and a little chocolate decor.

Chocolate Dump-It Cake

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 eggs

You will also need

• one recipe buttercream 3/4 chocolate, 1/4 vanilla
• 2 oreos
• 2 nestle toll house chocolate chunks
• yellow food coloring

                 Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. In a medium pot, stir the sugar, chocolate, butter and water over medium heat until melted/combined. When melted/combined, remove from heat and let cool slightly. Meanwhile, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a small bowl, stir together vinegar and milk. When the chocolate mixture has cooled a little bit, stir in eggs and milk mixture. Then gradually add dry ingredients. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. remove cake from pan, and let cool. 

                  Prepare frosting. On a piece of parchment paper, trace your pan. inside the shape of the pan, draw your owl as large as possible. cut out the owl, and place it over cooled cake, using a serrated knife, cut along the shape of the owl, and save a rounded piece (i used a corner) for the beak. Frost an appropriate stomach area with vanilla frosting. Dye the remainder of vanilla yellow. Frost the entire rest of the cake with chocolate buttercream. Put the remainder of the chocolate frosting in a piping bag with a small round tip.  In the center of the owl's face, place the rounded piece. Frost it yellow. with the leftover chocolate frosting, pipe V's in rows on the stomach patch to look like feathers. Set aside the cake. Twist the 2 oreos, until the 2 sides come apart with all the creme on one side. press the sides, cookie-side down, into the cake on either side of the beak. press the chocolate chunks anywhere you want on the creme. Enjoy!

*I used chocolate and dark chocolate frosting because i forgot to leave some vanilla! Don't worry!*