Cute Kitchen Accessories

Good food is easy to make, but it's much more fun with a cute accessory or two!

Snow White's Poison Apple

Being the huge Disney fanatic that I am, I've always appreciated Walt's classics. Something that not many people seem to realize is that Snow White was the original Disney princess... not Cinderella. The movie was realized all the way back in 1937. That's before many of our parents were even born, yet the movie has stood the tests of time and is seen as one of the best animations in Disney history. 

One of the most noteworthy and recognizable symbols from the movie is the poison apple which Snow White stupidly takes a bite of and falls into a coma. This recipe may not be poisonous, but it IS pretty darn addicting...

"This is no ordinary apple! It's a magic wishing apple." - Evil Queen



What you'll need:
1 red baking apple
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup raisins or cranberries
2 tbsp of butter + 1 tbsp per apple
1 tbsp light cream
160 grams white chocolate chips
1/4 cup apple juice

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Core apple, but not all the way through: use a knife to make the initial cuts, and then scoop out most of the core with a spoon.
3. In a small bowl, combine sugar, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and any optional ingredients.
4. Fill apple with oatmeal raisin mixture, and top with a pat of butter.
5. Place in baking pan, and pour apple juice around the apple. Bake until tender (about 30 minutes).
6. Meanwhile, make white chocolate sauce: Melt 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat. Add light cream and white chocolate chips. Do not overheat! Stir continuously until mixture is smooth.
7. Remove from heat, and allow to sit until cool enough to touch. You should be able to shape the cooled ganache with your hands.
8. Shape white chocolate over stuffed apples that have been allowed to cool slightly. Use a knife or spoon to make a skull face, as pictured.
9. Enjoy cold, or warm in microwave for a toasty treat with ice cream.

I may have diverted from the queen's original recipe just a bit... but caldrons are really hard to come by nowadays. You understand, right? Once you make these bad boys a few times, they become incredibly easy. Start practicing so you can give out this semi healthy treat for Halloween!

Krabby Patties

Are you ready?! I'm ready, I'm ready for some delicious Krabby Patties straight from The Krusty Krab. Sure you might say, don't you mean a hamburger? No... I mean a Krabby Patty. There's a difference, gosh darn it. For this recipe I'm going to channel episode "Jellyfish Hunter" of Spongebob Squarepants where The Krusty Krab features Krabby Patties with jellyfish jelly. As you can see in the video below, they will make you bust out in a lovely dance from pure bliss.

Unfortunately it is vey painful and time consuming to milk jellyfish for their jelly... so maybe just pick your favorite kind from the grocery store. Personally, I like grape.

What you'll need:
1/2 of a large onion
Oil, for frying
3-4 tbsp water
2-3 tbsp grape jelly
1 egg
1/2 cup bell peppers, minced
2 tbsp cilantro, freshly chopped
1 pound ground chicken, turkey, or beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
6 mini sesame buns
6 cheese slices
6 tomato slices
Lettuce (at least three large leaves)
Pickles, for garnish
Condiments - ketchup, mayo, mustard (optional)

Instructions:
1. Chop onions into long, thin slices. Fry slices over low heat, until soft and translucent.
2. Stir in water and jelly. Mix very well until jelly combines with water.
3. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions have caramelized and most of the water has evaporated.
4. Meanwhile, make burgers by combining egg, meat, cilantro, and bell peppers. Add breadcrumbs until mixture is dry enough to shape.
5. Divide mixture into rounds and flatten into 6 patties.
6. Grill burgers on each side until cooked through. Transfer to prepared plate.
7. Layer each burger as follows:
Bottom bun
Your choice of ketchup, mayo, or mustard (or all three!)
Patty
Cheese slice
Pickles
Lettuce
Caramelized onions
Tomato slice
Top bun
8. Serve, and enjoy the taste of natural jelly.

Confession time- I am 21 years old and I still watch Spongebob on a regular basis. I'll give you a moment to judge me........ okay, done? Great. These Krabby Patties taste exactly how I imagine them to taste based off of the show. Sometimes I even cook them for my niece in an attempt to convert her to my Spongebob cult. I think it's working. 

Tiana's Kickin' Gumbo

One of my all time favorite movies- and please don't judge me- is Disney's The Princess and the Frog. I seriously have watched this movie (easily) a hundred times, and chances are I'll watch it again next week. Maybe it's because Tiana is incredibly relatable to me- both our dad's died and inspired us to work hard and follow our dreams... or maybe it's because of the movie's food.

The premise of the film revolves around Tiana's dream of opening a restaurant in her father's honor. On the way, the audience is enticed by cartoon renderings of beignets, sandwiches, and of course gumbo. After all, how can you have a film set in New Orleans without gumbo?! I don't even like spicy food, but somehow Tiana made me crave good ol' fashioned gumbo. This is a simple take on Tiana's signature dish.

What you'll need:
1 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 onion, chopped
2 ribs celery
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
4 bay leaves
2 quarts chicken stock
1 lb shrimp
1 package mild Italian sausage
1 package cut okra
1 lb crushed, canned tomatoes
Essence
Tabasco

Instructions:
1. Cook sausage in a covered pan until cooked through and golden brown on the outside. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
2. In a small saucepan, add two parts water to one part rice over high heat. Once the water reaches a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover, untouched, about 20 minutes.
3. In a large pot, melt butter and whisk in flour until smooth. Cook over medium heat until roux is the color of peanut butter.
4. Add chopped veggies, garlic, bay leaves, and essence. Cook about 5 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
5. Add chicken stock and stir to combine. Add crushed tomatoes.
6. Add sausage and taste. Adjust seasoning if necessary, and don’t forget the Tabasco sauce!
7. Add peeled and deveined shrimp, cook until pink (about 8-10 minutes).
8. Serve over rice! Ta da!

This gumbo is seriously "the bees knees" as Tiana would say. It's perfect for anyone who needs to spice up their life... or their taste buds! Like I said, I really don't like spicy food, yet I'm in love with this recipe. I think you will be too! Try it out and channel your inner Tiana!

The Chronicles of Turkish Delight

When I was a kid, there were two different kinds of people- those who liked Harry Potter and those who liked The Chronicles of Narnia. Although I belonged more to the former, I have to admit that the food in The Chronicles of Narnia looks really, REALLY good. One of the most famous treats from the series is Turkish delight. Shoot, there's even an entire chapter dedicated to it! In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Edmund and the White Witch share a bite together...

"It is dull, Son of Adam, to drink without eating," said the White Witch presently. "What would you like best to eat?"

"Turkish Delight, please, your Majesty," said Edmund.

The White Witch let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious.

Believe it or not, Turkish delight is actually a real dessert that has been around since the 1700's. There are about a million ways to make Turkish Delight, but I thought we'd go for a simple, microwavable version!

What you'll need:
2 1/2 cups of cold water
3/4 cup cornstarch, plus 1/2 cup for dusting candy squares
3 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tbsp. pure lemon extract
2 drops red or pink liquid food coloring
Cooking spray, or cooking oil (light taste, like canola) for greasing pan
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Instructions:
1. Pour the water into a 4-quart glass bowl. Whisk in the 3/4 cup cornstarch 1/4 cup at a time until dissolved.
2. Microwave mixture for 2 minutes; whisk smooth.
3. Add sugar and corn syrup. Heat for 5 minutes in microwave.
4. Heat for an additional 5 minutes and whisk in lemon juice and food coloring.5. Grease the 8x8 or loaf pan with cooking spray or oil and pour in candy batter. Let candy set up at room temperature until firm enough to handle. This may take several hours - mine set up in about two.
6. Cut candy with a sharp knife or scissors into even squares. You can do this in the pan or turn the block of candy out on a cutting board dusted with cornstarch.
7. In a bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup cornstarch and 1/2 cup powdered sugar.

I didn't even know you could make such an awesome dessert in the microwave! It sure beats having to slave over the oven for a full blown cake. The best part about this recipe is that it makes about fifty pieces of candy- more than enough to keep you satisfied for a long while!
 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Delicious

I'm not the type of person who usually cries while reading or watching a sad story. My mother on the other hand, rates sad movies or chick flicks by the amount of tissues she went through. Being a chick who doesn't tend to cry at movies is bad for two reasons 1) people think you're some sort of psychopath and 2) when you DO cry at a movie it is intense.

One of the very few movies/books I've felt that emotionally connected to is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. The story stars a nine year old boy named Oskar whose father died in the 9/11 attacks. While mourning his loss, Oskar finds a key that belonged to he father and adventures out to discover what it opens. I made the terrible mistake of watching the movie (before reading the book) while on a six hour flight from San Francisco to Orlando.

Between the absolutely gut wrenching, tear jerking moments there are glimmers of hope, vitality, naïvety, and love from Oskar. One of my favorite moments is when he first begins his key adventure and packs himself a basket full of essentials to take. “I put together a special field kit with some of the things I was going to need, like a Magnum flashlight, ChapStick, some fig newtons, plastic bags for important evidence and litter, my cell phone…” I find it absolutely endearing (and hilarious) that a nine year old believed that he could sustain himself on fig newtons alone.

On that note, I thought we'd make some.

What you'll need:

Fig Spread-
1 cup of dried figs
⅓ cup sugar
1½ cups water
Dough-
115g room temperature butter
½ cup white sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla essence
1½ cups plain flour

Instructions:

1. In a medium saucepan, place in the dried figs and cover with water. Let soak overnight.
2. The next day, pour in the sugar, bring to a simmer. 

3. Let it simmer until the the fig has become soft and breaks apart into a goopy paste.
4. Mix together the dough ingredients, wrap and chill for one hour.
5. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, and cut strips 5cm thick.
6. Scoop a tsp of fig paste onto one end of the dough strip and roll.
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes until starting to golden around the edges.

These fig newtons are so ooey gooey and delicious! Now you can cry your eyes out and enjoy a scrumptious treat while watching an incredibly powerful movie. Can you say "comfort food"?

LOTR: Lembas Bread

If you’ve ever tried to watch all three Lord of the Rings movies back to back, you know that you need to be prepared with some serious snacks to make it through. And if the famous elven lembas bread can sustain Frodo and Sam through the wastelands of Mordor, then it should be able to keep you going through all 9.3 hours of the movies. 11.4 if you do the extended editions. Might want to make a second batch for that.

What you'll need:

3 eggs

1 cups honey

3 kumquats, whole (can substitute orange zest and a bit of juice if desired)

2 teaspoon orange flower or rose water (optional)

3 ounces chopped almonds or macadamia nuts (fruits of the Mallorn tree)

¼ cup melted butter

2 ¼ cup flour (barley flour of you want to be really accurate)

½ teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1. Put the eggs, butter, honey, kumquats, rose or orange flower water, and nuts in a food processor or blender. 

2. Blend on high for 2-4 minutes. 

3. Add 1 cup of the flour. 

4. Blend for a minute or two. 

5. Put mixture into a bowl and add the remaining flour and the salt. Whisk or stir until well blended. 

6. Bake a small amount of dough at a time on a pizzelle or iron about 15 seconds or until lightly brown, for a flat bread like texture. 

7. Wrap in a leaf and tie with a string!

They say one bite is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man, but feel free to come back for seconds! ...trust me, you'll want to! This stuff is slightly fluffy, but still fulfilling. I think it would be a great addition to a cup of soup or chile! This is by far one of my most requested recipes, because hey, who doesn't like The Lord of the Rings?! It's simple enough that LOTR fans of all ages can help make it, but also delicious enough that everyone will enjoy the finished product.