Cream fondant filling
A rich, very dairy-tasting fondant cream good for filling chocolates. It can also be flavored with various extracts, although dairy will still be a dominant flavor. I haven't thought of too many other ways to use this yet, other than in candymaking.
Christmas chocolates
This year for Christmas I decided I wanted to make candy, in particular filled chocolates, for gifts. We made candy one year for Christmas for my grandparents, and I remembered having fun with it. Besides, ever since making the caramel sauce I'd been salivating over the idea of making my own salty caramel-filled chocolates. Most of the ones you buy from the store are really just dipped chewy caramels. They're good, but I prefer chocolates filled with soft caramel that oozes out when you bite into it.
Stir-fried Pork with Basil
One of my favorite Thai dishes, and definitely the easiest to make. It's also very quick to make, provided you have a source for the basil and peppers. In restaurants this is usually called Pad Ga-Prao*, or some more or less phonetic version of that.
Salmon Pizza
Inspired by a dish from a friend's wedding. Nothing is quite as awesome as "opening up a few things and slapping them together" .
Holly Leaf Apple Spice Cupcakes
I made this recipe a couple of times last winter, and although I'm almost sure I made some changes, I can't seem to find them. Ah, well. At any rate, these cupcakes won an LPL baking contest, so there's that!
Basic Scones
I'm not really sure what an authentic scone is supposed to taste like, but I like this recipe because it produces similar scones to those of the coffee shop (note: not Starbucks, and not at all like Starbuck's scones) where I worked in college. They're more of a sweet biscuit than a muffin in both taste and texture, and they're always well-received. You can make these in single-serving large scones, or cut them smaller for snack-sized scones
Further fun with Fondant
So these are lotus flowers made with Jasmine flavored fondant.
I basically took the usual marshmallow fondant recipe, and substituted half of the "water" in the microwaving stage for extract.
It was pretty wow!
And then with the extra fondant I made "truffles". Just dipped round balls of fondant into melted chocolate. Also delicious!
Asian-style Pulled Pork
This recipe is normally an on the stove for hours recipe but I decided since I now own a slow cooker (and have for like 6 months) I would actually try using it. I think that the 'modified crock pot recipe' still needs some work but I'm going to go ahead and post the recipe anyways.
Sauteed Zucchini with Carrots
Currently my favorite way to eat zucchini. The way I like it best, it takes about 15 minutes to cook, but it can take as little as 5 minutes in the pan. I like a 50/50 mix of the veggies, but you could do whatever you wanted (although if what you wanted was just carrots, I'd do something else).
