The past few weeks have been a cooking blur! Between celebrations, events, and preparing for Food Blog Forum {Which is this weekend! Squeee!!!} it's been one recipe after another. I might as well just set up a cot in the kitchen.
Some food highlights I haven't had time to share:
1. My Kentucky Derby party was a success. Truth be told, I still spent far more time in front of the oven than I hoped to despite having made almost everything ahead of time. In the end it was all worth it to see my guests holding frosty juleps, full plates, and happy faces!
I created a Mint Julep Bar where everyone could DTOJ. {Design Their Own Julep} By far, the most popular flavor was the Peach-Basil.
The foods I heard the most about were the Beer Mac & Cheese and the Chicken & Waffle Bites with Peach-Horseradish Maple Syrup. {Sadly, I failed to get good pictures of pretty much everything.}
But what was most raved about were the Maple Cupcakes with Candied Bacon. In fact, a few days later I started seeing a friend go candied bacon-crazy on one of her Pinterest boards... I think I may have started something!
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| Maple Cupcakes with Candied Bacon & some with Candied Pecans |
And {after a few Juleps!} people started to have a lot of fun taking pics in front of the "photo booth" backdrop I painted just for the event.
There was fun for the whole family, too! Look at these precious girls in their Derby hats, and fur baby Parker joining in the festivities. Pure adorableness!
P.S. Do I not have the cutest friends ever??
2. Brunch Week went off without a hitch thanks to the hard work and organizational skills of Christine from Cook the Story and Terri from Love & Confections. I have never seen so many amazing recipes in one place!
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| My Brunch Week recipes: Pineapple-Basil Tea, Caramelized Onion & Bacon Croque Monsieur, Dark Chocolate-Orange & Walnut Banana Bread |
Our sponsors really outdid themselves with the prizes they donated for the giveaway and I'm still enjoying some of the goodies that they sent to us for participating! {See today's recipe!}
3. For Mother's Day, I hosted a little luncheon at my place. We went with Italian, and I made a tasty salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette, Chicken Sausage Lasagna, Garlic Bread, and Rosemary-Bacon Focaccia.
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| My mama opening her gift. |
My Mom bought a cake from a local spot that is known for Cuban pastries and other assorted sweets. The cake is called "Chaja", and it was the first time I'd ever tried it. It's an Uruguayan sponge cake layered with peach filling & dulce de leche, with a creamy frosting and topped with crumbled baked meringues. Though I'm not much of a peach person, I was surprised at how much I liked it.
4. These. I made them for a private event and decided to add the toppers last minute. So glad I did!
5. All of this celebration-related eating has been blissfully wonderful, but the guilt caught up to me today and I decided to eat a salad for lunch. Except it topped it off with these ridiculously addictive Vanilla-Cayenne Candied Walnuts and basically turned my "healthy" salad into a dessert.
Leave it to me.
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And the road to perpetual stretch pants- wearing? Paved with salads-turned-desserts, I'm pretty sure.
I had some leftover California Walnuts that had been sent to me before Brunch Week, and I don't know why I thought to change up my normal candied walnut routine, but I'm sure glad I did.
Sweet vanilla & brown sugar, spicy cayenne pepper, and crunchy walnuts form an addictive substance when combined. That mild heat from the cayenne wakes up your taste buds and keeps you reaching for "just one more". You know exactly what I mean.
Snack on these alone, add them to granola, top your "healthy" salad with them... I doubt you'll have any trouble coming up with ways to use them up.
Vanilla-Cayenne Candied Walnuts
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
⅛ teaspoon {more or less depending on your spice tolerance} cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts
Special equipment: Parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, silicone spatula
1. Combine brown sugar and water in a small non-stick pan and set over medium-high heat. Stir once {using a silicone spatula is helpful since the mixture becomes very sticky}, and bring to a simmer.
2. Sprinkle with cayenne and stir. Allow to boil for 4-5 minutes until the bubbles slow down a bit and the mixture looks more syrupy and less watery.
3. Add vanilla extract and walnuts. Stir, tossing to coat all of the walnuts.
4. Continue to cook for 1-2 more minutes until most of the mixture is stuck to the walnuts and not to the pan.
5. Spread walnuts out onto parchment or a silicone baking mat to cool, separating the large pieces so that they don't fuse together. Cool until "dry", about 6-8 minutes.
Snack away!
*I'm sure there is a more technical way of doing this using temperatures and candy thermometers, but that's not my style. I've made these multiple times using this method & they always turn out great. Just a warning to those of you who are more "exact"! 🙂
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