Spanish Night @ Kevin's

This paella was beautiful! If you know me, you know that i say paella all as one. I have a friend from Spain who pronounces it paih eh ja. The safron in this was just beautiful. The color, smell and taste.

I found the bomba rice from this little wine shop in Moscow, it worked perfectly. There is also chicken, fresh lima beans, peas, green beans, etc...OMG so much flavor! The trick to cooking this is the pan though. There is a special paella pan. Most people cook it over an open fire, but since everyone these days lives in an apartment, we opted for the bbq.

Fondant Flowers take 2

These are the flowers I ended up using for the whole cake. I cut out five circles out of the rolled fondant using a biscuit cutter. I used my fingers to make them more oval shaped, which in return gave them a great texture. For the yellow and orange in the middle I used edible petal dust. I also added stamen in the middle, and I know plumeria doesn't have stamen, but I liked the way it looked.

Making fondant flowers

So this was my first attempt at making fondant flowers. I started with Gum Paste (which I liked using more than fondant, because it is more sturdy) and then switched to fondant because I ran out of gum paste because I was practicing making other flowers. The first flower I made was a rose, but I don't think i have a picture of it. The other flowers I was trying to make plumerias or hawaiian looking flowers.

Fruit Salad

For some reason people love eating things out of an edible shell. Not that you would ever want to eat the outside of a watermelon or a pineapple, but you could if you wanted to.

For this salad I cut a watermelon in half length wise. Well more like 1/3 of it off the top length wise. the rest of the watermelon I just carved out and put into an extra bowl.

Second I took a whole pineapple, and started at the top cutting all the way from one side of the top to the other leaving about a 1/2 inch of the pineapple top still attached to the rest of it. I then circled down leaving about a 1/2 of one whole side down the pineapple and layed it in the watermelon.

I cut a tooth pick in half and underneath the pineapple I pierced it with the toothpick to the watermelon so that it would hold upright.

I then began to fill it with fruit! Use whatever you want. This one I used cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries, purple grapes, doughnut peaches, apricots, and oranges.

I peeled an orange and kiwi whole and saved a whole round slice to toothpick to top and on the other side a piece of cantaloupe and watermelon that still have the rind and made some what of a flag to also toothpick to the top. This gives it a fresh feeling, like the fruit was just sliced...which it was.

Enjoy! This is great for parties at home or to take. And be creative with it. I have seen baskets, carved out shapes like hearts etc...even with the sliced fruit in the bowl!

Spinaci insalata

Yep, spinaci insalata! In other words Spinach Salad. There is this restaurant in Moscow, Idaho where I went to school and they made a salad really similar to this that I loved. It is light, refreshing, and colorful. Super simple to make and delicious.

For the Salad
8- 10 oz baby spinach
1/3 cup sliced strawberries
2oz fresh goat chevre
1/6 cup semi crushed pecans

For the Vinaigrette
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
2tlbs stone ground mustard
2tlbs honey
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk the dressing really well! It will make it nice and frothy. I like to drizzle the dressing on top really lightly. It doesn't take a lot since there is so much flavor in every thing else!

My first cake

I decided I wanted to make a cake, basically just to see if i could do it. I had an urge to do something creative with my hands. $100.oo later on supplies this is what I got.

I first started by making the flowers. Each flower I made by hand out of fondant. I added yellow and orange petal dust to the center of the fondant plumerias. I spent a little over 3 days on the flowers. I could only make about six at a time, and they take a while to dry completely. Once they are dry, they are really brittle.

Second step was obviously the cake. I made the cake the night before I rolled out the fondant to cover the cakes so they were nice and cooled down. I must have used eight cups of shredded carrots by the end. Pecans, raisins, and Homemade Cream cheese frosting!

Once the cakes were evenly iced I Covered the cakes with the rolled out fondant. This was the second hardest part. Rolling fondant and placing it over a cake without it buckling is probably one of the hardest things i have ever done!

Overall this was a great experience!

Welcome to "People Eat With Their Eyes First"

Me: "Hi Everyone, my name is Kerstin.
Everyone : "Hi Kerstin"
Me: "And I am a foodaholic."