My brother is getting married in a couple of weeks and I volunteered to make the "mints" for the tables. These aren't actually mints, although you can add mint flavoring to them if you want. My brother's fiance is partial to almond flavoring so I enlisted Miss Chocoholic's help and we spend all afternoon one weekend cranking out about six hundred of these little guys.
The ingredients are simple...a bag of powdered sugar and a box of cream cheese. Mix it all together with whatever flavoring you desire and you can add food coloring if you like. You almost have to just get in there with your hands and actually dump this out on the counter and knead it like dough. It takes a little bit of work to get the "dough" ready to use.
Grab a paper plate and pour it full of regular sugar. You will also need a cookie sheet (or six) covered with wax paper and whatever rubber molds you want to use. I used a rose, a heart and a butterfly.
You take a marble-sized pinch of the dough, roll it in sugar and press it into the mold. Then you pop it out onto the cookie sheet to let it dry.
Once they were dry, we stacked them in layers in a tupperware container and put them in the freezer.
It was the perfect project for an April sixth snowstorm. I wondered if the outside wedding would really happen in a few weeks especially since we had a snowstorm again the next weekend.
Not looking too good for an outside wedding! Thank God it is melted now!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Cream cheese mints
My little wine collection
The blueberry wine is finally done! I get so excited when I bottle wine and stash it downstairs in my "wine cellar" which is slang for "under the bar in the basement." The blueberry wine was sweetened with molasses, brown sugar and honey and you can definitely taste all three. I know this because there was just a liiiittttle bit that wouldn't fit into the bottles!
I pulled all of the bottles out of the "wine cellar" to take some pictures and brag a little. I love how they run the gammit of jewel-toned colors, from yellow to pinks to dark reds. I have blueberry, strawberry, crabapple and white peach. Now if I can just keep Kevin (and myself!) out of them for awhile!
Moscato and Malvasia
I have been promising to do an article on moscato so here it is, finally! Moscatos and malvasias are the ultimate girly wines. I haven't met a chick yet who doesn't love them. If you are not a big wine drinker, but you would like to start getting into more wine, moscato is the perfect wine to cut your eye teeth on.
Moscato is a sparkling, white, dessert wine and while it doesn't have as much fizz as a champagne, it is a quite a bit sweeter than champagne. The taste always reminds me of fig newton bars mixed with pear. Moscato is made from the Muscat grape and typically comes from Italy although muscat grapes are also grown in Spain, Chile, Australia and other countries and those countries produce their own versions of wine from them. Asti Spumante also comes from the muscat grape and is similiar to moscato with the exception of a little more fizz. My favorite high end moscato wine is the Bartenura brand. They make both a moscato and a malvasia. St. Supery also makes a great moscato. A bottle of this wine will run anywhere from twenty dollars to six dollars a bottle. The Barefoot brand of moscato is the lower end and that brand also has a good flavor. You can pick up a bottle of that for about five or six dollars. Try some moscato with some bleu cheese and put those taste buds to work!
Malvasia wine is another dessert wine that tastes a lot like moscato. Sometimes this wine is white and other times it is a blush color. Bartenura makes the rose-colored malvasia. Malvasia wine comes from the malvasia grape that originated in Greece in the fourteenth century and was then called "malmsey" wine. The grapes were brought to Europe and the word was changed to "malvasia" which was the name of an Italian wine port city. In some cases, the grape is dried before they make the wine, which just makes the wine sweeter. I found a great malvasia at the liquor store for $6.99 a bottle called "Le Duca."
Sweeter wines seem to be gaining popularity these days. I have never been a person who really enjoys a super dry glass of wine. I can appreciate the taste and the flavors but it is hard for me to really sit down and drink a whole bottle of merlot unless I am planning on sleeping very late the next morning! The nice thing about moscatos and malvasias are that they have a low alchohol content so if you are looking for a light party sipping wine, these are perfect.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Rachel's Bakery and Schaeffer's cheese
I woke up with a toothache this morning. After stumbled around the bathroom, I crawled shivering back into bed and curled myself around an industrial-sized bottle of advil. As I lay there hurting, I reminded myself that I would rather have a baby or do my taxes then have a toothache. At least you have something to show for it afterward.
I called in to work in pain and went to see my dentist that afternoon. Even though the pain was half-way managable with advil, I was still feeling pretty sorry for myself and down in the dumps as I schlumped out of the dentist's office and over to the pharmacy for some antibiotics. My dentist had told me the tooth had to come out and the only thing I hate worse then dental work is...well, I guess I can't think of anything worse. As I pulled into the pharmacy in Nisswa, I noticed a new, little bakery called Rachel's Bakery. That perked me up. I had read a newspaper article in the Brainerd Dispatch about how good their breads were and since I am not in Nisswa every day since Miss Chocoholic isn't going to school there anymore, I don't always see the new stores.
After throwing the prescription in the jeep and with my mood considerably lightened, I made my way into the bakery. The shop was quaint and cozy and the owner was extremely personable. He was full of suggestions and conversation and seemed like he was high on life. I told him I had seen the article in the paper and he suggested a few breads that I would like. I walked out with an onion dill loaf, a caraway rye loaf, a date-filled cookie and a pear-ginger tea bread that looked like a tiny, cute loaf of banana bread. I devoured the cookie and the tea bread on my way home and couldn't wait to dig into the actual bread. Here is their website: http://rachelsbakerymn.com/ Super nice, friendly people who seem passionate about what they do and very flavorful bread!
I figured what the heck, I have to have a tooth extracted, I should treat myself. So I stopped at Schaefer's Grocery store on the way home and got some honey ham, horseradish-chive havarti, bleu cheese, bleu cheese-stuffed green olives, a chunk of scallion-rosemary cheese and a chunk of garlic, chive and dill cheese. Unlike most of the grocery stores around here, Schaefer's has a good selection of gourmet cheeses. Here is their website: http://schaefersfoods.com/ The checkout boy laughed at me for spending six dollars for a chunk of cheese. "Six dollars for cheese?" he said to the checkout girl, She said to him, "It's probably better than the Kraft stuff you eat!" I just stood there and let them have their laughs and I pitied them. They will never understand the ecstasy of smooth, creamy, salty, quality cheese sliding down your throat. What would they say if they knew I spend twenty dollars a pound for sottocenre cheese when we go to Ely? Some things are just worth it.
I grabbed a bottle of moscato and brought it all home. The afternoon was beautiful so I sliced up the cheese and the bread, poured myself a glass of moscato and took it all out on the deck.
Each thing separately was extraordinary, but putting it together was a symphony in the mouth. Whoever thought of stuffing green olives with bleu cheese? They should be given a genius award. The salty acidity of the olives offset the pungency of the bleu cheese perfectly. Then you wash it all down with a gulp of sweet moscato and the sweetness of the wine enhances the saltiness of the cheese and the olives. The onion dill bread was the best bread I have had in a long time. It was the perfect consistency and the subtle onion flavors went well with the earthiness of the rosemary cheese. I put a hunk of the havarti on the bread and topped it off with the honey ham. You don't even need any kind of mayo or dressing when your lunch ingredients are this high quality. The moscato went well with everything. It is a great cheese wine. I'd take a bite of cheese, then a drink of wine, then a bite of cheese, and so on until the plate was empty.
As I sat watching the squirrels in the backyard in a sleepy, dairy-induced stupor, I thought how bad can a tooth extraction be? It's so easy to forget about pain after a cheese picnic fit for a godess. Cheese, bread and wine will cheer this godess up anyday!
Minnesota State Chip
My brother and his fiance came over the other night for supper and we were sitting around eating mango salsa and "hint of lime" chips. My brother pulled out a chip, looked at me weird and said, "Maybe I shouldn't eat this one!"