Tasty Tools Round Up: Muffin Pans!

For April, we highlighted the mighty muffin pan! They come in so many different sizes and varying shapes that it was time for us to give them some limelight for Tasty Tools! Thanks to all that participated and if you missed this month, come join us for May where we're highlighting hand and stand mixers!

Libby of The Allergic Kid
Orange Glazed Citrus Muffins

Shauna of Little Miss Foodie Two Shoes
Moist Honey Bran Muffins

Tracey of Tangled Noodle
Good Heavens! Cupcakes

Jennifer of Savor the Thyme
Strawberry Muffins

Aalia of One of a Grind
Macos (Muffin Tacos!)

Shawna of Daily Deliciousness
Cheese Muffins

Jessica of My Baking Heart
Yippee Ki-Yay Cherry Cupcakes

Roxanne of Taste, Tales and Tours
Jalapeno Cheese Muffins

B of My Clean Eating
Egg Muffins

Jenn of Jenn and Food, Perfect Together
Garden Harvest Muffins

Nancy of Gaga in the Kitchen
Crustless Quiche

Hilary of This Girl's Food
Lemon Blueberry Mufins

Amber of Mrs. D Loves to Eat!
Sun Dried Tomato& Goat Cheese Biscuit Puffs

Miri of Peppermill
Instant Handvo (Savory Lentil Cakes)

Marie of The Stepford Kitchen
Toffee Topped Brownie Bites

Karen of Loves To Eat Weblog
Mini Brownie Bites

Jen of Beantown Baker
Creme Brulee Cupcakes

Jen of Beantown Baker
Fauxtess Cupcakes

Jen of Beantown Baker
Goat Cheese & Sun Dried Tomato Appetizers

Almond Toffee Cheesecake Bars

A week or so ago, my friends at See's Candy sent me a wonderful box of Victoria's Toffee and asked if I could create something delicious using it. With so many options, I looked to others for inspiration and ideas. I've had cheesecake on the brain lately (primarily due to the Daring Kitchen's recent baking challenge) so I took my cravings for cheesecake and incorporated Victoria's toffee somehow...

See's Victoria Toffee

Since 1921, See's has made this famous old-fashioned toffee from a secret recipe that combines real butter, sugar, and plump whole almonds on the inside, and See's creamy milk chocolate and chopped almonds on the outside.

So what happens when you combine cheesecake and toffee? Well in this case, Almond Toffee Cheesecake Bars! I had some amaretti cookies left over from the Chocolate Amaretti Torte I made not too long ago which needed to get used up. Considering Victoria's Toffee was chock full of almonds inside and out, I figured a cheesecake crust made with amaretti cookies would work nicely. For the cheesecake filling, a simple mixture of egg, sugar, cream cheese and a splash of vanilla would carry the chopped toffee bits without being too overly sweet.

Almond Toffee Cheesecake Bars
original Joelen recipe

Almond Cookie Crust:
Butter cooking spray
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 amaretti or almond cookies
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake Filling:
1 brick (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 oz toffee bar (or Heath toffee bits)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Line an 8x8 in baking dish with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.

Place the sugar, cinnamon, and cookies in a food processor and pulse until you have a consistent mixture. Add the melted butter to the crumbs and process again until it's all incorporated.

Pour the crumb mixture in the prepared baking dish and bake in the preheated oven for 10-12
minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.



While the almond cookie crust is baking, rinse out your food processor and add the cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla. Process until fully combined. Pour the cream cheese mixture into the cooled almond cookie crust.

Going back to your food processor, place your toffee candy and process to a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle this processed toffee mixture over the top of the cheesecake filling.


Bake in the 325 degree oven for 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool to room temp, then refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours before serving.

Fennel Potato Leek Soup

One ingredient I haven't quite understood is fennel. It's an herb that has a slight taste of licorice and can be seen as a popular ingredient on trendy restaurant menus. I'm not exactly sure if I like it enough to call it one of my grocery produce staples but I'm still open to working with it in various ways. I came across this recipe From The French Kitchen and since the weather has been a bit cooler lately, it was a perfect night for soup...

Fennel Potato Leek Soup
recipe adapted from here

2 large leeks, white part only, cleaned, trimmed & thinly sliced
1 small bulb fresh fennel, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 small yukon gold potatoes, finely diced
6 c. chicken broth
garlic salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
finely diced bacon, fried

Place the leek, fennel, onion, garlic and oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Saute until softened, then add potatoes and broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Allow to cook on stove top covered for about 30-45 minutes. Turn off heat and allow soup to cool slightly.

Once cooled, place in a food processor and process until smooth. You can also use an immersion blender to puree in your dutch oven if you prefer.

To serve, garnish with crisped bacon and fennel frond.

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Chocolate Cream Tart

This week's Tuesday With Dorie baking challenge is a chocolate lover's dream! Kim of Scrumptious Photography chose this week's recipe, Chocolate Cream Tart. It's absolutely heavenly and perfect for those chocolate cravings.


This tart was a breeze to make and involved making a chocolate custard by whisking egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a sauce pan. The next step was to slowly introduce some warm milk into the egg yolk mixture and bring to a boil to thicken. After it reaches the right temp and consistency, chocolate is added and stirred until melted.

This chocolate custard was then chilled until ready to assemble the tart.
The chocolate shortbread crust that the custard sits on came together easily in my food processor. With only a combination of flour, unsweetened cocoa, confectioner's sugar, salt, cold butter, and egg yolk, the food processor did all the work! Once the tart dough came together, I placed it in a pan and froze for half an hour before baking.


To assemble the tart, it was just a matter of filling the chocolate shortbread crust with the chocolate custard and topping it with a homemade whipped cream. I also topped it with some caramel toffee sprinkles...


I did make some adaptations to the recipe including:
- For the chocolate custard, I substituted half of the milk with chocolate eclair flavored coffee creamer (because I ran out of milk - oops!).
- I baked my tart dough in a springform pan since I don't have my tart pans anymore.
- Topped the tart with caramel toffee sprinkles for additional flavor and texture.

Be sure to check out how the chocolate cream tart came out for my fellow Tuesdays With Dorie bakers!

Roasted Duck Risotto

It's my day off and tonight I wanted to make something special for dinner. My husband has been working every day for the last couple of weeks as a result of a new job. He's been doing great as a newly licensed leasing agent and I'm so proud of what he's done in such little time. To celebrate a few recent successes, I made the following for dinner...

Roasted Duck Risotto
original Joelen recipe

1 tablespoon cooking oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1/2 cup dry white wine
5 1/2 cups homemade duck stock, warmed
1/2 cup frozen spring peas
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over moderate heat. Add the onions and garlic. Cook until softened. Add the arborio rice and stir until it begins to toast slightly.

Add the wine and the 1/2 teaspoon salt to the rice. Cook, stirring frequently, until all of the wine has been absorbed.

Add about 1/2 cup of the warm stock and italian seasoning and cook, stirring frequently, until it has been absorbed. The rice and broth should bubble gently; adjust the heat as needed. Continue cooking the rice, adding broth 1/2 cup at a time and allowing the rice to absorb it before adding the next 1/2 cup. Cook the rice in this way until tender, 25 to 30 minutes in all. The broth that hasn't been absorbed should be thickened by the starch from the rice. You may not need to use all the liquid, or you may need more broth or some water.

Stir in the frozen peas and the Parmesan and heat through. Serve the risotto with additional Parmesan.

To make my duck stock, I took all the bones and carcass of a roasted duck...
... and boiled it with whole garlic cloves, chopped onion, poultry seasoning and water for a few hours until a rich, deep stock has come together. I then strained the pot from all the big pieces and remove any remaining meat from the bones which I added into the strained stock. What you have after it's all said in done is a flavorful duck stock with delicious bits of duck, perfect for risotto!

Foodie Freebie Friday: Jesse Steele Aprons

It's the start of another week and time for another Foodie Freebie Friday! This week I'm spending a lot of time in the kitchen and to protect myself while cooking and baking, I generally wear an apron. One line of aprons I like are Jessie Steele's.

Meet Claire & Helena Steele
from Jessie Steele fine hostess aprons...

These two ladies have redesigned the vintage apron to be cool again! Jessie Steele's vintage-inspired, hostess and kitchen aprons prove true the old adage that beauty and style are timeless. Influenced by the romantic visions of a bygone era, and designed in vibrant colors, flirty patterns and figure flattering shapes, these fine quality, retro-chic cooking aprons make the perfect fashion accessory in or out of the kitchen.

From hobby to new business venture…
Helena had collected 20th Century vintage aprons for years. She has about 50 to date. She has searched vintage stores all over the country for them. We both felt that people were nesting more and spending more time with their families, and cooking / entertaining plays a major role. We thought, "why not look cute while you do it?" And the aprons on the market at that time were utilitarian mainly, and non-flattering. So we decided to bring back the hostess apron, a lost American tradition.

The response has been overwhelming and by our first trade show we knew we had a winner. Some people were shocked as the stigma of the apron was still a bit negative at the time, but we felt that there were women out there who enjoyed this portion of their lives and we wanted them to look great!

The original…
Their company was named after Helena’s mother and Claire’s grandmother, Jessie Steele. Her philosophy for creating a really warm welcoming environment was very inspiring. She always made you feel welcome in her home. She was a forward thinking woman who was sophisticated in her world view. She looked on people and situations without judgment, and she had great understanding of human nature which she passed on to us through stories every time we came over for tea and cake.

Mother and daughter team...
Helena shared her vision with Claire, her daughter, a former model and fashion expert. Helena proposed that they bring their talents together to create vintage aprons that would both reflect the retro whimsy of the 1940's and 50's and meet the challenging needs of today's woman. Claire enthusiastically agreed, and Jessie Steele fine hostess aprons was conceived.

Updating an American taboo…
We wanted to update these great aprons that Helena had collected, but keep their 40's and 50's vintage aesthetic. After spending over a year researching and developing our plans, exploring a wide variety of fabrics and prints, designing their own textiles and finessing cuts and styles, we began manufacturing the line of vintage kitchen aprons. We have added a contemporary twist to the old fashioned hostess apron by updated the prints and silhouette to fit today's woman. -- Vintage Shopping Guide

So this week, I'd love to have a lucky reader win their choice of one of these aprons! The following aprons are called "Sweethearts" (red), "Leopard" (brown), "Pink Poppy Fields" (pink), and "Cafe Toile" (white/black). Read on to find out how you can win one of these!

Some guidelines:
- Giveaway is only for those who live in the United States. My apologies to my international readers!
- You must have a valid email address so that you can be contacted if you win.


To enter the giveaway, leave a comment answering:
- What was the messiest experience you had in the kitchen either cooking or baking? What did you make?

Deadline: Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 12 midnight CST.

One Winner will be randomly chosen by Random.Org's Interger Generator based on the number of your comment and will be announced on May 1, 2009. Good luck!

Chick Flicks: Steel Magnolias

One thing I like to do on my spare time (which doesn't come very often!) is watching movies. When my husband is around, movies we watch are usually something violent, action packed or involves Sylvester Stallone or Clint Eastwood. Sometimes those movies just don't appeal to me and I'd prefer ones that are more commonly known as "chick flicks." You know the type... movies that touch on women's issues, tug at your heart strings and well, make you cry.


Thankfully I have some girlfriends who enjoy those kinds of movies every now and then, so today I invited them over for a Chick Flick Sunday. We watched the classic movie, Steel Magnolias. It's a great movie starring Dolly Parton, Julia Roberts, Sally Fields, Darryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis and Shirley MacClaine. This movie is one that involves weddings, pregnancy, motherhood, mother/daughter relationships and the strong friendships between a group of southern women.

As you may know, I can't have guests over without anything tasty prepared! For this girlfriend gathering, I had a few eats where some were inspired by southern cuisine including (with links to recipes!)...

Chicken N' Waffles Bites
Bacon, Tomato & Dill Dip
BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

Kettle Chips

Cupcake Truffles