S'mores Cups!

Hello everyone! I know it's been quite awhile since I've last posted, but I'm here now! I've been really busy lately with school, but appear to be on top of things at the moment (we'll see how long it lasts)!

Speaking of school it has started! And at least for me, school is one of the first signs of fall. And sadly, the start of fall is the end of summer. So, my friend found this wonderful recipe for us to send the summer off while welcoming in the fall. Here is my new favorite play on s'mores, and you don't even need an oven!

My friend made this one, that's why it's so perfect

A great thing about summer is s'mores, of course

And a wonderful thing about the fall is mugs (especially if it's filled with a chai latte)

These are the best of both worlds. And it's layered. All the components of a rock star dessert.

My single serving, quick, easy, perfect little cup of bliss.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1/4 cup chopped chocolate (dark, milk, whatever makes your muffin rise)
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 3 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• a handful of mini marshmallows

Process

In a mug, mix together graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. You can buy graham cracker crumbs, but I prefer to crush two to three graham crackers with a hard object (in a baggie to prevent mess!). Use a spoon to flatten the mixture for the bottom layer. In a small bowl, mix together chocolate and milk. Microwave for thirty seconds, and stir until completely melted. Add baking powder and flour to the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Pour it over the graham cracker layer, and microwave for a minute and thirty seconds. Top with mini marshmallows and microwave for another fifteen seconds. Enjoy!

HOW TO: Perfectly Creamed Butter and Sugar

It's always in recipes, I feel. Butter, sugar, together in a "coarse meal." But here are a couple tips on how to perfectly cream butter and sugar every time.

• Always have butter at room temperature.

If your butter is soft, your life is gonna be sooo much easier. Try taking it out of the fridge 20 beforehand, or I like to heat it up in the wrapper for 20 seconds in the microwave. No more, no less.

• Cut the butter into chunks

If the butter is in smaller pieces, it will be much easier to combine with the sugar

• Start Slow, then Speed Up

I've found the way to get the creamiest possible mixture you could ever dream of. Start your mixer at a slow speed, letting all the sugar stick to it. Slowly increase your speed, letting the mixture be combine for a while on each level until you feel it needs to be faster. The key: take your time on each level and don't go too fast.



I hoped this was helpful! Maybe I'll do some more in the future. As for my trip to New Orleans. It got canceled because of the snow. Just kidding! Almost though, we got out just in time, and I took so many pictures, it took two devices to take them all. I can't wait to show you!
             -Rhode Island Red

New Orleans!

I'm going to New Orleans!!
I will take a bunch of pictures, I promise. And I will try to do some more mini series stuff, because New York was just kinda sad. I'm sorry.

See you soon!!
-Rhode Island Red

P.S. I'm sorry I there was no recipe's for valentine's day. I still have to finish a post for lemon poppy seed muffins, and i have a LOT of homework. I'll try to get lots of stuff up soon though!

Easy Banana Bread!

          Instead of making banana chocolate chip muffins for breakfast this week, I decided to switch it up a little. Last time I did that, I ended up with weird textured muffin that was not made from my original recipe. Not very good. So this time I opted out of muffins completely. This recipe was from the Hershey's website, and it's very, very easy. It takes very little prep time, but it does have to bake for an hour. But trust me, well worth the wait. I made this recipe twice, one the way the recipe originally said, one with altered ingredients.

This was my first batch. It was a little too salty, so I halved the salt.

I also substituted plum puree for shortening to make it healthier.

I still used white flour, but you could swap in whole wheat flour.

Mini chocolate chips are really fun to use. Sometimes they're just more fun than regular chocolate chips.

This recipe is so simple, and the ingredients are pretty flexible. It's definitely a go-to recipe. Bake it the night before, and have delicious, super fast breakfast for at least a week.

Easy Banana Bread 

• 1/2 cup butter, shortening or 1/4 cup plum puree
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed banana (about 2 bananas)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups flour (white or whole wheat)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of a loaf pan. Combine butter/shortening/plum puree, eggs, mashed banana, salt, baking soda, baking powder, flour, and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 60 to 65 minutes. Let cool. Dump over on to plate, loosen the sides with a knife if you have to, and wrap in plastic. Enjoy!

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