Bakers Royale

Lemon Drop Jell-O Shots ~ Get your tailgate on with these fun jello shots re-envisioned into lemon wedges.  Good food, good fun, and . . . some darn good Jell-o shots to add to your tailgate party or Sunday football potluck gatherings.

Lemon Drop Jello-O Shots

Lemon Drop Jell-O Shots

Pre-season has started and with that comes the ever popular football potluck and sometimes tailgate parties amongst my group of friends. I’m not a football die-hard; in fact I don’t even watch football. I hardly know the teams and I certainly don’t know the stats. What I do know is, aside from the company the food is always good at our Sunday gatherings.

I must admit, I don’t get to them like I once did since having Cole. But Matt and I will definitely be at the annual kick off.

That being said, I will be bringing these fun Lemon Drop Jell-O Shots. I debuted these a few years back and it’s been tradition that I bring them every year for kick off. Which is fine by me since they are incredibly easy to make and are always a huge hit. » Read the rest of this entry «

Strawberry Fruit Cups ~ Fruit filled strawberry cups for your Labor Day picnic or BBQ.

Strawberry Fruit Cups

I know seriously, what is with me and fruit? Matt keeps saying it all looks nice, but doesn’t it all taste the same?

Hmmm . . . I say pretty food makes everything better? Although I don’t know if this is so much pretty, as it is fun and unique. Since my friends got such a kick out of them, I thought I would share these fun little Strawberry Fruit Cups.

Besides,  I have this thing about saving fruit salad from the depths of a boring glass bowl. Why? I’m not really sure other than, like Cole, my 3-year-old son, we love to play with food, especially fruit.  

No recipe, just a few notes:

• Use the largest strawberries you can find.
• Your filling, your preference. My fruit cups have chopped cherries, nectarines and a very interesting (and very good) fruit hybrid called a Mango Nectarine.  
• Hull your strawberries, then use a grapefruit knife and carve a hole in the center, then fill it with your preferred fruit.
• Cut the bottoms flat to stand your Strawberry Fruit Cups upright.
• A few other fun fruit presentation ideas you may like, include my Fruit Pops and Fruit Salad Ice Cream Cone.

Crisp Poached Pears Stuffed with Chevre & Haroseth served over a Pomegranate Molasses Sauce ~ Sweet and savory with a dash of tart—your tastebuds will be wondering where has this lovely dish been.

Crisp Poached Pear Stuffed with Chevre & Haroseth

 This is my first submission for the Paper Chef challenge. The challenge provides the participants a set of ingredients and that’s it. No recipe, just your baking hands and some creativity.

This month’s ingredients included:  dried dates, cranberries, flour, candied orange peel.

My first thoughts of course went in the way of date bars and muffins. Wanting to stretch myself as a baker I pitched all that aside and went with what you see here.

Let me say, I’m quite happy with the end result. The pairing of sweet and savory is perfectly tuned between the chevre and haroseth while the pear provides a nice fruity and textural break between the two. But what I love most in this recipe is the pomegranate molasses sauce. The subtle tartness of the sauce ties it all together for a perfect bite that hits almost all your tasting thrills in harmony. » Read the rest of this entry «