A Mexican Weekend

Mexico. I’ve never been but it seems like a wonderful place. While satisfying my recipe obsession, I came across this cinnamon, vanilla beverage. The element which originally sparked my attention was the rice additive. The flavor of white rice is simply delicious and the thought of it in the form of a cool fresh drink was irresistible. As you might’ve guessed, I was delightfully surprised by the outcome. The drink was unique and tasty to be sure.

Going along with this theme, I declared a Mexican weekend. Sunday morning Jessie and I prepared a batch of horchata with sweet, donut-like “churros” as a side. My goodness. Yum. We ate the entire plate for breakfast!

I hope you had a lovely weekend, spending time with family and friends.

Neapolitan Valentine Treat

 

Today I’d like to share with you a recipe I found on this blog. This is a perfect, delicious shortcake cookie for a Valentine Treat… Enjoy!

What You’ll Need:

– 1 cup of unsalted butter
– 1/2 cup of sugar
– 1 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
– 1/2 teaspoon of Almond Extract
– 1/4 teaspoon of salt
– 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
– Pink or Red food coloring
– 2 1/2 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder
– 1 large egg
– 1 tablespoon of water

Add sugar and butter to a bowl and cream well with a mixer… Then add vanilla extract and almond extract. Mix. Now add the flour and salt, mix on low.

The dough should be a bit crumbly so knead it together to ensure that it doesn’t fall apart. Then separate into three equally divided balls of dough

Place one of the balls of dough in a bowl and add the cocoa powder, use a mixer to blend these together to make the brown colored dough, or you can also knead the cocoa powder and dough together to make this mixture.

Add another portion of dough to a bowl and add a few drops of pink food coloring, blend together with a mixer and you have your pink colored dough!

Take each color of dough and place it between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap and roll it to a thickness of about 3/8 inch

Use  a ruler and sharp knife to cut the dough into 3/4 inch wide strips and refrigerate for about 20 minutes. While the dough is refrigerating whisk together the egg and water .

Lay a large piece of wax paper out and spread egg and water mixture on a small strip of the wax paper before placing a strip of brown dough on it. Then repeat with pink and white strips using the egg mixture as a “glue”… continue process till you have a large striped dough pattern. Finally take a heart cookie cutter and cut  hearts out of the pattern.

Pre-Heat oven to 350 degrees and cook for 8-10 minutes and you have yourself a very tasty Valentine treat!

I’m Lovin’…Winter

Winter is one of those seasons which can either drive you crazy because of the cold weather or it can make you excited. Right now winter is on the excitement side for me… I love how I can come home to a cozy couch where I can snuggle up and read a good book with a cup of hot cocoa.

1: Books: When snuggled up on the couch a good book is the perfect therapy for an exhausted mind. (Books from Ashleigh T)

2: Hot Cocoa is one of my favorite hot drinks to sip during the winter, it always helps to warm me up! (Hot Chocolate from synapse)

3: Scarves, the snuggly loop ones are my favorite! (buy it here from Etsy)

4: Boots! A winter outfit is never complete without a pair of boots. (Winter Boots from Alicia DeCosta)

5: Hand lotion is essential when it gets so dry here in this winter season of Tianjin (Twilight Woods Hand Lotion,  Japanese Cherry Blossom Hand Lotion from Bath and Body Works)

 

Want a S’more?


This week me and the girls decided to have a midnight snack of S’mores over our gas stove!  (Don’t worry I googled whether that was safe or not and I got a thumbs up:) So we popped open the bag of marshmallows and roasted away… We made the most delicious creation of S’mores! I’m sure to have another one …or two… or three very soon! Have you had any yummy midnight snacks lately?