Halloween Jello Shots

Halloween offers a plethora of creative food ideas - it's super easy to make pumpkin, spider and witch cookies or cakes.  But if you want to really stand out at your next Halloween party, make jello shots and watch Adult face light up!

Because it is Halloween, these shots need to be a little spooky, weird really, AND they have to taste good.  I came up with a number of ideas, bounced them off of Dave and together we refined the ideas to two.  From there it was just a matter of how to execute.  Making a clear gelatin with a floating heart was the most fun.  I never use actual box Jell-O in my shots, as much prefer to create my own flavors and control the sweetness.

The names of these spooky gelatin shots help to set the tone, make a fun sign so everyone understands what they are.  The party I attended was quite dark, so vulnerable guest had no idea there was a 'heart' in the middle of one of the shots...I couldn't have planned that better.  It really freaked people out - an unexpected, Fat and Happy Halloween spook!

Tips and Techniques: Each recipe below makes about 15 - 20 jello shots.  You can pick up the jello shot cups at most liquor stores. Click to see my other tasty jello shot recipes.

Black Raspberry Vanilla Jello Shots
or
A Zombie ripped my heart out and put it in Jello

Soak about 15-20 cherries in Cinnamon schnapps, vodka or rum

In a pan over medium heat add:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar (if you prefer a sweeter taste, use 1/2 cup)

heat until dissolved - sprinkle one envelope of gelatin. Once the gelatin is dissolved (you may have to help this by stirring.)

Add:
1/2 cup Black Raspberry water
1/2 cup Vanilla vodka

Stir and strain into a pouring device.  Pour into plastic shot cups*.  Add a liquor soaked cherry. Chill.

*worth the extra step:  If you want the 'hearts' to appear like they are floating, fill each cup to a quarter a half of the cup and then place in the fridge.  Once that sets firm, add a soaked cherry and top with the rest of the jello liquid.
Chill for 3 hours. Enjoy!


Hot Cinnamon Jello Shots
or
Hot Worms are Eating my Spicy dead Jello

In a pan over medium heat add:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar (if you prefer a sweeter taste, use 1/2 cup)
Heat until dissolved
Sprinkle one envelope of gelatin, once the gelatin is dissolved (you may have to help this by stirring), Add:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup hot Cinnamon schapps

Stir and strain into a pouring device.  Pour into plastic shot cups (if you don't have the little plastic cups, pour into a pan and you can cut this into squares after it sets.)  Let the shots set slightly in the refrigerator, and then add a gummy worm to each.
Chill for 3 hours. Enjoy!

Orange Balsamic Wild Rice Salad

Chicago has the highest sales tax in the country- seriously ridiculous. However, the trade off is all the amazing, cool free shows, fireworks and concerts through the year. Last week was the showing of Psycho in the middle of Grant Park; thousands of people bring blankets, a picnic and bottles of wine to watch the big screen outside with the city lights in the background. Super fun experience!

With 30-some people in our group, the only way to go is a potluck picnic. My contribution was an Orange Wild Rice Salad. Wild rice is so nutty, flavorful and nutritious (technically not a rice, but a water seed), yet rarely used!
I love it and am hoping my Mom reads this and sends me more from the great state of Minnesota (hint, hint).

The salad was a huge hit; but not actually planning to post this recipe I didn't write down the ingredients until days later. So just remember it's a salad and the ingredient listing below will get you close. Have fun with it- if you like different nuts, change it! If you want to add a spoon of muster for a little snap, do it. Do whatever works for you. And since there isn't any mayo in this it's a great salad for hot days. Toss it together the day before (wait to add the nuts so they don't get soggy) and your picnic day is set to be easy, simple and fat and happy!


Orange Balsamic Wild Rice Salad

3-4 cups of cooked wild rice
Since wild rice takes about 45 minutes of simmering, make the wild rice according to the package first. When finished, set aside to cool.

While that is simmering, toast:
1 cup mixture of sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans. Set aside

Then sautee just to soften, do not not cook more than a few minutes:

1 tbls olive oil
1 tbls butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup each, chopped orange and yellow pepper
1 small shallot, sliced
1 tbls dried thyme

Set aside to cool.


Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette:

Whisk together:

1 cup orange juice
zest of 1 orange
1-2 Tbls of lemon juice
1/4- 1/2 cup of Pomegranate balsamic (plain balsamic is fine)
2 Tbls honey
salt and fresh ground pepper

While continuing to whisk, drizzle in, to emulsify the dressing:
1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil (I used a walnut olive oil for even more nutty flavor!)

Add to the vinaigrette:

2 Tbls finely diced shallots
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 Tbls chopped mint
2 Tbls chopped fresh oregano
2 Tbls chopped fresh thyme
1 orange, segmented
1/2 chopped dried cherries

Combine the wild rice, the sauteed onion mixture, the toasted nuts and the vinaigrette.
Serve immediately or let sit up to one day for the flavors to meld.

Grilled Fruit with Butter Rum Sauce

Celebrating summer on the Chicago beach- does it get any better? A lot of sun, volleyball, potluck and grilling. Don't forget the sangria! (For today's sangria, I took my classic red version and made a few tweaks including substituting white wine for the red.)  It was the classic summer day that you don't want to end.

My contribution to this summer party was dessert. It needed to be somewhat light, but I wanted to utilize the grill as well. Grilled fruit seemed a given- but also a little plain, a twist was needed. Skewering the fruit onto cinnamon sticks was step one. Slathering the fruit with a caramel rum butter sauce topped it off. This is so good! Clearly you can use whatever fruit you want, I went with pineapples, plum and peaches which paired nicely with the rum.

I can see this butter rum sauce will have other applications as well; you'll see it again on this blog. Right now I'm thinking how good it would be to soften a grilled pine nut or pound cake topped off with a scoop of homemade ice cream. Mmmmhhh, I'm drooling at the thought- and that is fat and happy.

Grilled Fruit with Hot Butter Rum Sauce

Place ingredients in a sauce pan, and simmer:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup rum
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

While the butter caramel rum sauce is simmering, clean and skewer fruit onto cinnamon sticks. I used  small sticks which only hold about two or three pieces of fruit, but you can get longer ones if you prefer. Use a metal skewer to start the hole in the fruit if you are having a hard time pushing the cinnamon stick through.

Simmer the sauce about 10 minutes to meld all the flavors.  Brush the fruit with the rum sauce and place on the grill over medium heat for a few minutes per side. You're goal is to soften the fruit, impart a smoky flavor and get those great grill marks. Brush more rum sauce on as your grilling. Serve remaining rum sauce on the side.

**I did list this dessert recipe under the healthy category - if you went easy on the sauce, this is relatively healthy. But if you're like me, you'll douse the fruit with the rum caramel sauce because this sauce is so fricken' good!

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Lemonade on crack. That's the best way to describe this Lemon Blueberry Bread. It's moist, delicious and lemony. I've used this bread as a dessert and a breakfast bread, it's that good.

I'll admit, this recipe does have more steps than a basic banana or zucchini, but it's worth it. The key notes here are to line the bottom of your pan with parchment paper and also spray the pan. The blueberries tend to get stuck to the sides and bottom so you need to really plan ahead or you will end up a loaf that looks like a crew of mice attacked it.

Make this bread today; it freezes quite well so do make extra and you can have a fork full of lemonade at a moments notice. Prepare to pucker up, you're fat and happy!

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Cream:
1 cups butter
2 cups sugar

Add eggs, beat until smooth:
3 eggs

Add:
3/4 scant cup buttermilk

Mix in sifted dry ingredients:
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

fold in;
2 Tbls lemon zest
4 Tbls lemon juice
8 oz frozen blueberries

Line the bottom of loaf pans with parchment paper and grease the pans as well (the blueberries will have a tendency to stick to the bottom). Fill the pans 3/4 full, bake for about 1 hour or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cool the loafs for 10 minutes and then remove from pans. Place on a cookie rack with parchment under. Pour the icing over the top (recipe below)- try not to eat the icing with by the spoonfuls!

Lemon Icing
8 oz powdered sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 1/2 Tbls lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice

Make the icing right as the loafs come out of the oven. Melt butter over low heat, whisk all ingredients together until all lumps are gone.

Olive Tapenade

Seems like everybody makes tapenade these days- it's so popular you can buy it in jars in most stores. But why do that when you can make your own, fresh, in minutes?

Use a good, toasted, crusty bread to help diminish the saltiness of the tapenade. Do not use canned olives! Make the effort to pick up good deli olives. Use this as an appetizer, or on picnic sandwiches for a fat and happy surprise flavor booster!


Olive Tapenade

1 cup olives (use a mixed variety- just use good fresh deli olives, not canned)
3/4 cup parsley
2 tbls capers
1 tbls anchovy paste
3 tbls mint
1-2 tbls lemon juice
1 tbls lemon zest
olive oil, enough to just hold it all together.

Place all the ingredients in a mini Cuisinart and pulse lightly until the tapenande is to the texture of your liking. I suggest leaving this somewhat chunky for the best results.

Castel Gandolfo Wood Fired Pizza Review

Being one of the biggest supporters for independent restaurants, when a new pizza place opened up last week in our neighborhood- we couldn't wait to give them a try. The previous the space was occupied by Iggys, it lasted less than 6 months; we frequented often because of the fabulous bartender Carlos. Carlos left before they closed....honestly he was the reason we kept going.

It's seems like a good location, on Chicago just one block from the Red line and just a handful of block off Michigan. But it seems nobody can make a go of it.

Castel Gandolfo is a city in Italy outside of Rome, it's the Pope's summer residence; so what does that have to do with this pizza place in Chicago? My concern with this pizza place is that it doesn't know what it is. I think this is a tough name for a casual pizza place. I can't find a web site for it either. The scripted logo doesn't match the decor nor the menu. Being an extremely limited menu, the most important thing to pay attention to is the freshness and quality of ingredients; unfortunately it appears they did not pay attention to this aspect.

Let me say that we did like the crust on the pizza- it was a good representation of a thin, crispy, Napoleon crust. Beyond that, disappointment ensued with every other element served - a cheap salami, dry mozzarella, hard chewy bread sticks, slim toppings, cheap olive oil and balsamic vinegar, boring sausage and a tasteless sauce; the worst part is that the totally simple antipasto platter and a small pizza with two toppings cost over $40!!! Not even including drinks because at the time they did not have liquor license yet, (but it's on its way).

This is a tough for me to write because I want to support independents- but I also believe in serving good food. The staff also needs be become more comfortable with their customers to help them feel at home, as well as help them understand what the key specialty is in their restaurant.

If you're opening a pizza joint in the most renowned pizza city in the U.S.- it better be damn good. And unfortunately this place is just not worth it. We will give them another shot at some point, after they have a few months to gain their bearings, but in the mean time you should save your money.

Shrimp Tacos with Spicy Mango Guacamole

Avocado and mango go quite well together, trust me- it's true. I've made this concoction for a few different dishes and this one is my new favorite. The sweetness of the mango cuts through the spicy and smoky grill flavor of the jalapeno for a palette pleasing effect.

It's a super simple summer grilled adaptation of guacamole (make the mango salsa just prior to grilling the shrimp)-  and a fun variation over the typical fish taco that will leave you fat and happy (and healthy too!)

Tips and Techniques:  The avocado and the mango should both be quite ripe (very soft) to ensure the best blending.


Shrimp Tacos with Spicy Mango Guacamole

Make the salsa first, set aside.  Grill the ingredients for the spicy mango guacamole next, blend and set aside.  Grill the shrimp just before assembling the tacos.


Mango Salsa
In the meantime, combine in a bowl, toss and set aside:
1/2 ripe Mango, chopped
1 can of black beans
1 roma tomato, de-seeded and chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped red onion
3 Tbls red wine vinegar
3 Tbls lime juice


Mango Guacamole
Place the three ingredients below on a skewer, and grill long enough to impart a smokey flavor and to soften the jalapeno and garlic.
1 jalapeno
3 cloves garlic
1/2 avocado (it's easier to leave in the skin while grilling, just slice in half and remove the pit)

Once this above is complete, place all the ingredients in blender, add and blend until smooth:
1/2 ripe mango, cut into chunks
juice of 1 to 2 limes
1/2 cup parsley
salt and pepper
olive oil to thin it out, if needed

Grilled Shrimp:
Drizzle 12 small shrimp with olive oil and toss with pepper. Skewer and grill (about 1-2 minutes per side).  Wrap tortillas in tinfoil and place on the grill while cooking the shrimp, this will warm the tortillas.

Assemble tacos: take a warmed tortilla and add a couple of grilled shrimp, a scoop of the mango salsa and a smear of the mango guacamole. Eat immediately while warm.

Martys Wedding