Red Velvet Cupcakes - #FoodieExtravaganza

I have not participated in Foodie Extravaganza in aeons but I had to join for this very special one. Today we are celebrating the arrival of Lauren's gorgeous baby girl! Lauren started this group many years ago and it was an absolute pleasure to bake something to celebrate her and her precious little one! Congrats, Lauren!!! Scroll down to see what the other ladies are bringing to this virtual baby shower.

I chose these red velvet cupcakes because I had been eyeing them a couple weeks ago. Deb from Smitten Kitchen promised more chocolate flavour than you'd typically have in a traditional red velvet cake. I am typically not interested in red velvet but I am glad that I tried this. Definitely more flavourful than others that I have tried. And while delicious and moist and all things good, I think I will stick to chocolate. I am too much of a chocoholic to be satisfied by a hint. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Yield ~ 9 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/2  cup oil 

3/4 cup sugar 

1 egg

2 tablespoons red food colouring

1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

7 tablespoons buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon vinegar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers. 

Whisk cake flour, cocoa powder, and salt. 

In another bowl, beat oil and sugar until well blended. Next, beat in the egg. 

Add the red food colouring and vanilla and beat well. 

Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl. 

Alternate adding the flour and the buttermilk in two batches.

Scrape the bowl again. 

Place baking soda in a small dish then stir in the vinegar. Add immediately to the batter with the mixer running on low. Mix for 10 seconds.

Scoop batter into prepared cupcake pan. 

Bake 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. 

Cool and frost as desired. 

Notes

• I used a lot less oil than the original recipe and was happy with how the cupcakes turned out. You can check out the original recipe and decide for yourself. 
• I used liquid food colouring. Check out the original recipe for the amounts needed for a gel colour. You would still need to dissolve it in water to avoid moisture loss. 
• I did not use the traditional cream cheese frosting. This is a simple butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk frosting. Oh, and a splash of rum. It needed a little something!

• Classic Carol Chicken Salad from Palatable Pastime
• Cobb Dip from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Coconut Filled Tartlets - East Indian from Sneha's Recipe
• Melon Prosciutto Chevre Salad with Mint Dressing from Food Lust People Love
• Pink and Blue Sandwich Cake Cookies from Our Good Life 
• Red Velvet Cupcakes from Passion Kneaded
• Toasted Sesame Seed Crackers from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Tortilla Taco Cups from Magical Ingredients

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? 

Simple Chocolate Cake - #FoodieExtravaganza

It would take one of my most favourite things in the world to bring me out of Foodie Extravaganza hibernation - CHOCOLATE. This month we are celebrating chocolate! I don't even know how long it has been since I have participated. Too long. Not my intention at all but life happens, apparently.

As I type this (late Sunday night), I am listening to news reports about Hurricane Matthew. Up until last night, Matthew had us in its sight and was making a beeline towards us. Now, it has shifted slightly east and is heading towards Haiti instead. Bittersweet news. We are of course ecstatic that we won't have a category 4 hurricane passing directly over us but poor, poor Haiti. They can't handle such a major hurricane either. Matthew is still several hours away (roughly 415km away moving at 8km/h) but the outer bands are already causing major flooding in Kingston. Even though it seems we won't get a direct hit, Matthew is huge so we will still be heavily impacted.

I live on a flood-prone street so with talks of Matthew bringing over 25 inches of rain, we are gearing up to be very very wet. Cupboards, closets and drawers have been unpacked. Chairs and other knickknacks will be put on top of tables so the water doesn't push them over. The roof could go. The beloved mango tree could fall onto the house. Cars will be flooded.

But as Matthew rages out there, I will be calming my nerves with this chocolate cake. This is an extremely simple chocolate cake that I have baked several times over the years - I mainly make it as cupcakes when I want a small batch. I love it because it's egg free (can be vegan if you use non-dairy milk) so it makes dividing the ingredients very easy. It's also very moist. Once I used yogurt instead of milk + vinegar and it was even more moist.  In this case, I made a simple one layer cake. Instead of the usual vanilla, I used a little almond extract. A little coffee perks things up and if you're feeling fancy, splash in some rum too. Frost it or not. I didn't here but there's a batch of frosting in my freezer so I may just have to practise my piping while Matthew rages. Chocolate frosting is amazing. The one in my fridge is vanilla. It will work just as well too. OK, not just as well. Nothing works just as well as chocolate. Forgive me for saying that.

Edited to add: It's Wednesday and we are safe. No flooding here. In fact, it rained for no more than 10 minutes n Monday. Communities on the eastern end of the island had some flooding but for the most part, we are good. Extremely grateful for Matthew changing its course. But heartbroken for Haiti, Cuba and now the Bahamas.

Be sure to check out all the other chocolate recipes below. Lots of good stuff and it isn't all desserts. Thanks for hosting, Kathleen!

Simple Chocolate Cake

(adapted from Lauren's Latest)

Ingredients

1 cup milk plus 1 teaspoon vinegar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup oil (I've used canola and melted coconut oils)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour an 8 inch baking pan.

Mix milk and vinegar and set aside until curdled. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder. In a separate container mix together oil, sugar, and vanilla. Alternate adding the dry ingredients with the milk. Mix until combined.

Pour into the prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.


Foodie Extravaganza is a monthly food fest, where a group of bloggers all create and share a recipe around one of the monthly food 'holidays' as detailed in The Nibble. This month Kathleen from Fearlessly Creative Mammas is hosting and since chocolate day is October 28th, Chocolate is our theme. There are actually two other days that incorporate chocolate in October, the 14th is Chocolate Covered Insect Day and the 18th is Chocolate Cupcake day. We didn't want to get to specific though, so we will just say chocolate. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out HERE. Now, check out these great chocolate submissions!

• Holy Mole Pork Stew from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Triple Chocolate and Cream Trifle from Fearlessly Creative Mammas
• 2 Kiss Cupcakes from Sneha's Recipe
• Chocolate Lovers Dream Cake from Cookin and Craftin
• Kahlua Chocolate Cake from Making Miracles
• Queen Anne Squares from Tara's Multicultural Table
• Hot Fudge Cheesecake Brownies from Cookaholic Wife
• Nutty Chocolate Fudge from Basic N Delicious
• Chocolate Blintzes from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Slow Cooker Chicken Mole from Caroline's Cooking
• Simple Chocolate Cake from Passion Kneaded
• Chocolate Rugelach from Hardly a Goddess
• Crispy Chocolate Surprise Balls from G'Gina's Kitchenette
• Marshmallow Turtle Bars from Food Lust People Love
• Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins from Not Too Shabby Gabby

Naked Ladies with Their Legs Crossed - Foodie Extravaganza

Do not, I repeat, do not do a Google image search for "naked ladies with their legs crossed" if your safe search filter is off. In fact, I don't even think the safe search search filter will help you. Just do yourself a favour and add "recipe" to the search terms. I may or may not have done such a search. Let's talk about these particular naked ladies and not the ones that Google showed me.

I came across this recipe in a 2007 Cook's Country magazine.  It's nearly impossible to see such a title and walk away. I had to find out what it was about. It turns out that the magazine made a call for long lost recipes and this is one of the recipes that they received. These naked ladies (maybe I should stop typing that, the Google hits are not going to be pretty) are basically potato crullers with a German heritage. They were particularly popular on Shrove Tuesday (Fastnacht) when people tried to use up all the fat and sugar before Lent began. In fact, potato donuts are called fasnacht by the Pennsylvania Dutch.

All the Google hits seem to point back to the Cook's Country recipe so I couldn't find more information about the specific shape of these crullers. Most of the potato crullers I found were shaped like circular crullers. Other potato donuts had traditional donut shapes. However, I did find one that had a slit in the center and then the dough was pulled through that slit. My best guess is that these ladies are related to those.

When I first saved this recipe, I had no intention of making them. I simply do not fry. Well, that's not true, I make an exception for breadfruit. I'm not some health nut* avoiding fried foods. Far from it. Fried food is up there with ice cream and chocolate on my favourite foods list. I just don't have the patience for frying. My oil is never hot enough and whenever I get it to the right temperature, I get distracted, leave the kitchen and suddenly things are burning.

The recipe was just going to languish in my collection until Kathleen chose potato as the theme for this month's Foodie Extravaganza. I did a search of my collection and the ladies popped up. I went back and forth between this and another dish for weeks. But there was no way that I could seriously pass up sharing the naked ladies. I knew that there would never be a perfect time to make them again.

I am so glad that I did! Rolling them out was not as troublesome as I thought it would be (the dough is a bit sticky - make sure the surface is well floured). I grabbed my thermometer and made sure my oil's temperature was correct and set a timer so that if I left the kitchen, there'd be a timer summoning me back in. All so very worth it. I used nutmeg instead of cinnamon and loved the taste of nutmeg in the dough. It was so hard to not eat them all before taking pictures for this post. Those are the only three that survived, actually. I can definitely say that I will be heating up some oil to fry these again. If you love donuts, you will love these.

Be sure to scroll down to check out how everyone else used potatoes this month!

*My apologies to anyone avoiding fried foods but doesn't consider themselves a health nut.

Naked Ladies with Their Legs Crossed

Recipe by: Kelly   Adapted from: Cook's Country

Yield: 12

Ingredients 1/2 cup mashed potatoes, unseasoned 1 egg 2 tablespoons milk 1 cup sugar, divided 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg  Oil for deep frying

Directions Beat the mashed potato, egg, milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Add the potato mixture and stir to form a moist and sticky dough.  On a heavily floured surface, roll the dough out to 14" x 9" x 1/4". Cut the dough in half to make two 9" x 7" rectangles. Cut each rectangle into six 7" x 1.5" strips.  Make a slit in each strip for the legs and twist to form crossed legs. Refrigerate until ready to fry.  Heat oil in a pot large enough to fit the strips. Oil should be heated to 350F. Carefully lower each strip into the oil - do not crowd the pot. Fry until crisp and brown on both sides - about two minutes per side.  Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain for about 30 seconds then toss with the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar.  Best eaten immediately.

Notes Do not use mash potatoes that contain any other ingredients - no milk, salt or butter. Ensure that there are no lumps. I used a russet potato. The crullers can be refrigerated up to 24 hours before frying. I actually refrigerated the dough before rolling it out. That made it much easier to roll out.  The original recipe calls for rolling out to 18" x 14" x 1/4".  There's no way there was enough dough to do this. I would have needed to roll it about 1/8" thick. Maybe you will fare better.  Check your oil's temperature periodically. Maintain between 325F and 350 F. You could toss the crullers in cinnamon sugar or a glaze, if that's your preference.

 

Foodie Extravaganza is where bloggers come together and celebrate food holidays. Did you know there is at least one food assigned to each day of the year to celebrate that food? Kathleen from Fearlessly Creative Mammas is our host this month and since she is from Idaho, she picked potatoes. All of the recipes will feature potatoes in one form or another. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of the month. If you are a blogger and you're interested in joining in the fun, visit us at our Facebook Foodie Extravaganza page. You can also visit our past party submissions on our Pinterest Foodie Extravaganza board . We hope you will enjoy the recipes we are sharing this month. The potato is so versatile that we've come up with a huge variety of recipes for you to try.  

• Bloody Mary Potato Salad from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Chicken and Mashed Potato Waffles from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Chipotle and Lime Roasted Fingerling Potatoes from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Copycat Chicken & Gnocchi Soup from Pantry Friendly Cooking 
• Bloody Mary Potato Salad from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Horseradish Potato Au Gratin from From Gate to Plate
• Japanese Moon Gazing Potatoes from Ninja Baker
• Jersey Royals with Mint from Food Lust People Love
• Latvian Spiced Dill French Fries from Fearlessly Creative Mammas
• Llapingachos (Ecuadorian Stuffed Potato Patties) from Tara's Multicultural Table
• Loaded Pierogi from Cooking With Carlee
• Naked Ladies with their Legs Crossed from Passion Kneaded
• Potato Gnocchi with Wild Mushrooms from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Potato Rolled Tacos from Foodie and Wine
• Roasted Purple Potatoes with Rosemary and Thyme from Our Good Life
• Shredded Potato Crusted Chicken from The Freshman Cook
• Slow Cooker Loaded Potato Soup from Making Miracles
• Sweet Potato Spiced Swirl Bread from Baking in Pyjamas
• Tortilla Espanola (Spanish Omelet) from Cali's Cuisine

Oat and Dulce de Leche Swirl Ice Cream - Foodie Extravaganza

It was 4 am. I crept down to the kitchen to get some water. Soon, I found myself standing at the counter eating spoonfuls of the ice cream that I had made 5 hours earlier. The water forgotten, I smiled. The ice cream was good - really good. I was also smiling as it brought back memories of times not too long ago when 4 am bowls of ice cream were a regular thing. In fact, it wasn't limited to 4 am. Breakfast, painful lunch meetings, pre-dinner, post-dinner - I was always eating ice cream.

I cut back when I had a health "issue". Reducing saturated fat was one of the many things suggested to ease trigeminal neuralgia pain.Honestly, I don't know if it made a difference. But I was in too much pain to not try it. After surgery, the hospitality director visited to see how I was doing. She asked if there was anything that I needed. I immediately said chocolate ice cream. My friends and family laughed. But I was serious. I had given up chocolate about two months before surgery in another effort to reduce pain. I NEEDED chocolate ice cream. How else were we going to know if the surgery was successful?

July is National Ice Cream month. This is the one food holiday that I've been celebrating for years. The Farm Store down the street always has a sign up every July - there's no forgetting what July is all about. So considering my obsession with ice cream, I was more than excited when Camilla chose ice cream as this month's Foodie Extravaganza theme.

I actually had a brownie chunk ice cream planned until one night I was eating toasted oats and I wondered how that would work in ice cream. I was a bit hesitant at first. I love toasted oats and I love baking with oats. But once my oats get wet, I shudder and walk away. I just cannot do wet oats. I'm looking at you, porridge! If the oats got soggy in the ice cream, I'd be heartbroken. I remembered sprinkling sugar over my toasted oats once and when it melted, I had a great crunch. I found an oat praline recipe from David Lebovitz' Perfect Scoop which was exactly what I wanted.

It's pretty hot in South Florida right now - mid nineties - so this no churn ice cream melted quite quickly! But what better way to spend a 95 F day? Ice cream is still pretty awesome on 5 F days too, though.

Oat & Dulce de Leche Swirl Ice cream

Recipe by: Kelly   Adapted : Oat Praline from Perfect Scoop.

Yield:  ~4 cups (or what I call one serving)

Ingredients Oat Praline 1/2 cup old fashioned oats 1/3 cup sugar pinch of salt Ice Cream Base 1/2 cup condensed milk  1/4 cup yogurt 1 tablespoon rum pinch of salt  1 1/4 cup heavy cream, chilled 1/2 cup dulce de leche

Directions Praline: Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a rimmed baking pan with foil and spread oats on the pan in a tin layer.  Bake until toasted and fragrant. It will take about 7 - 10 minutes. Be sure to pay attention to it! Burnt oats are not as tasty.   Place sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the sugar has melted and is amber coloured. Do not walk away from it! You can gently swirl the pan but do not stir.  As soon as the sugar is amber coloured, add the toasted oats to the pan. Stir quickly to coat the oats completely. Return the mixture to the foil-covered baking pan. Spread out as thinly as you can and sprinkle with salt. Allow to cool completely.  Break into chunks and try not to eat all of it. The size depends on your ice cream chunk-size preference.  Ice Cream: In a large bowl, mix together condensed milk, yogurt. rum and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream to stiff peaks. Gently fold small portions at a time into the condensed milk mixture. Next, fold in the oat praline pieces. Then gently swirl in the dulce de leche.  Place in a covered-freezer safe container and freeze for at least 6 hours.

Notes After attempting to melt sugar (because let's be honest, I'm rarely ever successful), I usually immediately fill the pan with water and return it to the fire. The hot water will quickly dissolve any remaining sugar and make it so much easier to clean. I wish I knew this when I was ten and got hardened sugar stuck in my mother's pot and melted a spatula. Story for another time. If you don't use condensed milk in your tea and coffee, the rest of the condensed milk can be used to make the dulce de leche. Bake in a foil-covered baking dish at 425 F. The dish should be placed in a water bath. It will take about an hour or so for it to caramelize. You could also do it in a water bath on the stove top or in a slow cooker. Be sure to check the water bath often. You don't want it to dry out.

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. This month - Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla is hosting - she invited bloggers to come up with creative ice cream creations.

So during this first full month of summer, it's all about ice cream. But that can include gelato, semi-freddo, and even popsicles. Go wild!

We hope you all enjoy our delicious frozen creations this month and come back to see what we bring for you next month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out HERE.

Here's the Scoop!

Chocolate Decadence Ice Cream by A Day in the Life on the Farm
Chocolate Malted Whopper Ice Cream by My Daylights
Crushed Pineapple Ice Cream by Food Lust People Love
Custard Cream & Strawberry Swirl No Churn Ice Cream by Baking in Pyjamas
Éma’a (Syrian Ice Cream) by Tara's Multicultural Table
Fruity Fruit Popsicles by The Freshman Cook
Lemon Basil Ice Cream by Our Good Life
Lemongrass Ginger Coconut Ice Cream by The Joyful Foodie
Maple Bacon Ice Cream by Cooking With Carlee
No-Churn Chopped Macaron Vanilla Bean Ice Cream by Rhubarb and Honey
No Churn Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream by Fearlessly Creative Mammas
No Churn Reese's Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream by NinjaBaker.com
Oat and Dulce de Leche Swirl Ice Cream by Passion Kneaded
Peach Cobbler Ice Cream by Cherishing a Sweet Life
Rhubarb Ice Cream by From Gate to Plate
Root Beer Barrel Ice Cream by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
Tahini and Lemon Curd Ice Cream by Sew You Think You Can Cook
The Bees' Knees Semifreddo by Culinary Adventures with Camilla



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Ginger Coconut Macaroons - Foodie Extravaganza

Lately, I've been trying to make more things that remind me of home. It's, however, not that easy to find something that fits into each group's theme. For Foodie Extravaganza this month, we're celebrating eggs. That should be easy, right? Not quite.I wanted a dish that used eggs as an integral part. But I couldn't think of anything Jamaican that did. I thought I'd have to go with our neighbour to the north (Cuba) and make a flan. I was ready to start being when I came across a macaroons recipe. Flan went out the window.

Let's be clear. There's nothing remotely Jamaican about macaroons. Nothing. But macaroons are my mother's favourite cookie and a cookie that I need to master before I see her next. She loves all things coconut so I could always distract her with another coconut item (it was a coconut cheesecake the last time). But I really want to get better at cookies, in general. I added ginger because my favourite coconut treat is a simple mixture of ginger, coconut and caramelized brown sugar (drops). If I were stranded on a deserted island, I'd probably figure out how to make coconut sugar and so I could make drops.

Be sure to scroll down to see how others are celebrating National Egg Month.

Ginger Coconut Macaroons

Yield: ~ 12 cookies

Ingredients
2 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups shredded coconut
2 teaspoons grated ginger

Directions
Heat oven to 325 F. Line a cookie sheet Ruth parchment or a baking mat.

Beat egg whites, sugar and salt until foamy and the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the coconut and grated ginger.

Drop rounded tablespoons onto the cookie sheet.

Bake 17-20 minutes or until set and lightly browned. Immediately remove from cookie sheets.

Notes
I like a lot of ginger and two teaspoons was not enough for me. It was just mild. Feel free to use more!

:

• Baked Eggs and Candied Bacon by Our Good Life
• Egg Drop Soup by Food Lust People Love
• Eggs in a Cloud by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Eggs in Purgatory by Cooking with Carlee
• Ginger Coconut Macaroons by Passion Kneaded
• Gyeran Bbang (Korean Egg Bread) by Tara's Multicultural Table
• Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole by Fearlessly Creative Mammas
• Ham, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Braid by Making Miracles
• Southwestern Breakfast Bowl by The Freshman Cook
• Tiramisu Gelato by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake with Malted Chocolate Cloud Frosting by Baking in Pyjamas

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. This month we celebrate National Egg Day on June 3rd by serving up egg dishes of all kinds.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to participate in the next Foodie Extravaganza, just go to our Facebook page to join. We would love to have you!

Follow our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest board for past events and more deliciousness!

Spicy Pear Grilled Cheese - Foodie Extravaganza

The grilled cheese sandwich. That classic sandwich that somehow, I had never had before. Sure, I've tossed bread and cheese into a toaster oven or slapped some cheese between slices of toasted bread. However, I have it on good authority, that those were not grilled cheese sandwiches. A little history note - while J Kenji Lopez-Alt insists that a grilled cheese must be a closed sandwich, the earliest ones may have actually been open-faced.

Now, I must admit that when Laura chose grilled cheese for this month's Foodie Extravaganza, my brain froze for more than a second. It's a grilled cheese sandwich. How many ways can one make it? Clearly, the answer to that is several. I'm been craving spicy food lately so I immediately decided on pepper Jack cheese. Sriracha "naturally" followed. Pear joined the party for a lovely sweet contrast.

I made two versions with two different breads - one is this "English Muffin" bread. However, the main difference is that I buttered the inside of my second sandwich with a butter-sriracha mix for more heat. It made the sandwich a wee bit greasy but extra delicious. You can skip the butter-sriracha. However, I would recommend drizzling some sriracha over your pears for an extra kick, if you really like it spicy. If your pears aren't very sweet, you could even drizzle a little honey for more of the sweet and spicy contrast.


I really really enjoyed my first grilled cheese and can't wait to make more. Looking for inspiration for your own grilled cheese sandwiches? It's Grilled Cheese Month, after all. If so, check out the list below. There are lots of drool-worthy sandwiches to suit everyone's taste.

Spicy Pear Grilled Cheese

Recipe by: Kelly

Yield: 1 sandwich

Ingredients 2 slices of bread 1/2-1 tablespoon butter, optional 1 teaspoon sriracha, optional 2 oz cheese (I used an ounce of Pepper Jack plus a four cheese mix) 1/4 pear, thinly sliced 2 teaspoons mayonnaise 1 teaspoon sriracha

Directions Heat a pan over medium-low heat. If buttering the inside of the sandwich, mix together 1/2 - 1 tablespoon of butter (depends on the size of your bread) and a teaspoon of sriracha. Spread this evenly over the insides of both slices of bread.  Top with half the cheese, pear slices, then the rest of the cheese. Top sandwich with the second slice of bread.  Mix together mayonnaise and sriracha. Evenly spread half of the mixture over the top of the sandwich. Carefully lift the sandwich, invert and place mayo-sriracha side down in the heated pan. Spread the remaining half of the mayo-siracha on the remaining bare side.  Cook until the underside is toasted. Turn and cook on the other side until it is also toasted and the cheese has melted.  Eat immediately.

Notes Drizzle extra sriracha and honey inside your sandwich, if desired.  I loved the mayo-sriracha combination but you could use all butter in your sandwich.

• Bacon Apple Mascarpone Grilled Cheese from Lauren at Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Caramelized Onion Bacon Grilled Cheese from Rebekah at Making Miracles
• Chicken Bacon and Avocado Grilled Cheese from Jacklyn at Mrs. Penguin
• Chicken Cordon Bleu Grilled Cheese from Marissa at Rae Gun Ramblings
• Crusty Griddle Baked Quesadillas with Poblano Rajas from Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm
• French Toast Grilled Cheese with Balsamic Berry Compote from Joy at The Joyful Foodie
• Grilled Cheese in the Garden from Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Grilled Cheese with Caramelized Onions and Spinach from Tara at Tara's Multicultural Table
• Ham, Apple and Sharp Cheddar Grilled Cheese from Carlee at Cooking With Carlee
• Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese from Lauren at From Gate to Plate
• Muffuletta Grilled Cheese from Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Open Faced Italian Grilled Cheese from Kathleen at Fearlessly Creative Mammas
• Southern Grilled Cheese from Teri at The Freshman Cook
• Spicy Pear Grilled Cheese from Kelly at Passion Kneaded

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. This month we celebrate National Grilled Cheese Month by serving up sandwiches.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday. If you are a blogger and would like to participate in the next Foodie Extravaganza, just go to our Facebook page to join. We would love to have you!

Follow our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest board for past events and more deliciousness!

Whoopie Pies with Peanut Filling - Foodie Extravaganza

Do whoopie pies count as cookies? I found this recipe in Taste of Home's Ultimate Cookie Collection. Cookie collection. If they do indeed count as cookies, I can add them to the much-too-short list of cookies that I can successfully bake - Alton Brown's chewy chocolate chip cookies, these chocolate lava cookies, and biscotti/mandelbrot. However, if you consider them to be little cake sandwiches, then it's back to the drawing board for me. 

Waiting for filling

March is National Peanut Month and peanuts are the ingredient of choice for this month's Foodie Extravaganza. Chocolate and peanut butter is a classic combination. However, it's not one that I truly love. In fact, while I love peanuts, I am pretty nonchalant about peanut butter. I thought I'd explore chocolate plus peanuts where peanuts were also adding texture to the soft cakes. Great decision. One not so good decision was when I used spicy peanuts. I love spicy food. And I've been trying to figure out how to approach the cayenne + chocolate combination. This, however, was not it. I simply chose the wrong brand of spicy peanuts. They were much too savoury (from the addition of dried tomatoes, etc.) for this application. I will have to make my own spicy peanuts to try again. Or I could just stop hesitating and add cayenne to my chocolate batters. One day.

Whoopie Pies with Peanut Filling

Recipe by: Kelster   Adapted from: Taste of Home and Cook's Country

Yield: ~15 pies (30 mini cakes plus filling)

Filling Ingredients 3/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons flour 1.5 tablespoons cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup milk (I used almond milk) 1 teaspoon vanilla 3/4 cup butter, room temperature 1/3 cup peanuts (chopped or crushed) Cake Ingredients 1/4 cup cocoa 1/4 cup hot water 1/4 cup butter, room temperature 3/4 cup sugar 1 egg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda pinch of salt 1 1/3 cup flour 1/4 cup buttermilk

Directions Filling.  Whisk together sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt in a small saucepan. Add milk to the saucepan and whisk until smooth. Place pan on medium-high heat. Stir continuously until the mixture boils and becomes very thick. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. You can refrigerate it to speed up the cooling.  When boiled milk mixture is cooled, place in a mixing bowl, add vanilla and whisk together for 30 seconds or until combined. Beat in the butter one tablespoon at a time until mixed in. Then beat the mixture on medium-high speed until it becomes light and fluffy. This could take about 7 minutes. Set aside to set at room temperature. It will thicken a bit more as it sits.  Cakes Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two half sheet pans or cover with parchment paper. Thoroughly mix together cocoa powder and hot water. Set aside to cool.  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, beating until fully combined. Mix in the cocoa mixture. Add the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Then alternate adding the flour with the buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Drop tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Make sure that they are at least 2 inches apart as they will spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cakes are firm to the touch, switching and rotating pans halfway through baking. Cool completely.  You can fill cakes in different ways. Spread some filling on one cake, add some of the peanuts. Top with another cake spread with some filling. Or you could spread filling on a cake, sandwich with another cake, then roll the sandwich in crushed peanuts.

Notes Filling needs time to cool and set. It should be made before the cakes. Some of your cakes might be a bit smaller than others. Be sure to pair matching cakes together before filling. Aesthetically, I would have preferred bigger peanut pieces my but my Rocket made quick work of the peanuts.

Welcome to the March Foodie Extravaganza!  
  Where we all share delicious recipes with the same main ingredient.  

This month the ingredient is Peanuts!  We have a great variety of yummy recipes from main dishes to desserts to share with you.  If you would like to participate in the next Foodie Extravaganza, just go to the Facebook page to join.  We would love to have you!

• Peanut and Candy Popcorn Ball from We Like to Learn as We Go
• Kung Pao Chicken from Fearlessly Creative Mammas 
• Peanut Almond Polvoron from The Joyful Foodie 
• Cold Spicy Peanut Noodles from Culinary Adventure with Camilla 
• Oatmeal Peanut Butter Scones from Baking in Pyjamas 
• Reese's Cheesecake Brownies from Making Miracles 
• Peanut Crunch Pull Apart Bread from Mrs. Penguin 
• Spicy Georgia Sugared Peanuts from Food Lust People Love 
• Chocolate Caramel Peanut Clusters from The Freshman Cook 
• A Peanutty Treat from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Peanut Whoopie Pies from Passion Kneaded

Enjoy!

Cherry Danishes - Foodie Extravaganza

If this is your first time joining us, the Foodie Extravaganza is a monthly party hosted by bloggers who love food! Each month we incorporate one main ingredient into recipes to share with you and this month that ingredient is a Valentine's Day classic - cherries! Be sure to check out all the dishes below.

 Two years ago, I found a Kitchen Bucket List on Saveur and proceeded to use it to create my own. I had over a 100 items listed and most of them had already been crossed off. Looking back, I know there are several more items that I could add to that list. I can't wait to update it and share my progress soon. There was one item still on that list that I really wanted to make but actively avoided - Danishes.

I knew they weren't particularly difficult. But laminating dough can be hit or miss for me. The first time that I made puff pastry, I had wonderfully flaky layers. Then I tried sourdough croissants. They were buttery and delicious but not particularly flaky. I decided to try Danishes for this month's Foodie Extravaganza because it was the easiest thing on my list of possibilities. Well, it was the second easiest. Easiest was the slow cooker cherry cobbler that's cooking right now. I'm not sure how I came to the conclusion that something with laminated dough was easiest. But I think the simple list of ingredients factored greatly into that calculation. That and the fact that I could break it up over a few days.

Laminated dough recipes look long and intimidating. But they are really just a bunch of short steps that aren't particularly difficult. When I first made puff pastry, I was still avoiding any recipe that called for a rolling pin.* I had some oozing here and there but it still worked out. The big thing to remember is to keep everything cold. Stop and chill everything often. I loved working with this particular dough. After the rest in the fridge, it was wonderfully supple and easy to roll.

*I also avoided separating eggs and making caramel. I now separate eggs without giving much thought to it. But caramel is still a no-no. I actually tried to make some two Sundays ago and ended up with a crystallized mess. That led to a Food Chemistry discussion with friends (the caramel was meant to be a topping for a cheesecake for one's birthday) and now I am convinced that I need a degree in Food Science. I am searching for schools right now. Seriously. I need to be able to troubleshoot from a scientific perspective.

Cherry Danishes 

Adapted from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday

Ingredients
Dough
10.5 oz all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon instant yeast
7 tablespoons cold milk
5 tablespoons cool water
1 large egg
1 tablespoon oil

Butter Block
3/4 cup cold butter

Filling
Cherry pie filling, homemade or store-bought

Hot Glaze
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

Directions
Dough: Combine flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Add milk, water, egg and oil. Combine with a paddle on low speed for a minute. The dough will be shaggy. Mix on low speed for 30 more seconds then increase speed to medium for 15 seconds. The dough will be sticky and soft. Place in an oiled bowl and immediately refrigerate overnight or up to 2 days.

Butter block: Place the butter between two sheets of wax paper. Lightly pound and roll the butter to a 3" x 6" rectangle. Place in the refrigerator.

Laminating. Remove dough from fridge and roll to 6 1/2" x 6 1/4". Roll from center to corners and then from center to sides. This truly makes rolling a rectangle easiest for me. With a longer side facing you, place the butter block 1/4" from the left side of the dough so that there is 1/4" of dough left at the top and bottom. Fold the remaining dough over the butter.

Lift dough and lightly flour underneath. Gently roll out to a 8" x 9" rectangle.
Turn the dough so that a 9" side is facing you. Do a letter fold by folding 3 inches of dough to the right and then the uncovered 3 inches to the left.
Rest dough in the fridge for 15 - 20 minutes.

With the open seam faced away from you, roll the dough out again to 8" x 9". Do a second letter fold.  Rest for 15 minutes.

Repeat for a third letter fold and rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Roll out the final dough to 12"-14" x 9" x 1/4".

Pinwheels. Cut 2 1/2" squares. Cut notches leaving 1/2" in the center uncut. Take every other corner and fold over to the center. Place on a parchment lined sheet pan about 1/2 inch apart. Proof 2 to 2/1/2 hours until the dough is noticeably puffed.

Preheat the oven to 450 F 20 minutes before baking.
Use your finger to press an indent into the center of the each pinwheel and fill with about a teaspoon of cherry filling. 

Hot Glaze. Just before baking, make the hot glaze. Place sugar and water in a sauce pan and stir until the sugar dissolves. Lower heat and maintain a gentle simmer while the Danishes bake.

Place the pinwheels in the oven and lower the temperature to 400 F. After 6 minutes, rotate the pan and bake for another 5 - 6 minutes. Brush immediately with hot syrup.

4 Ingredient Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake Balls by Keep it Simple, Sweetie
Chocolate and Maraschino Cherry Shortbread Cookies by Making Miracles
Real Maraschino Cherries by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
Fresh Cherry Crisp by Fearlessly Creative Mammas
Chocolate Cherry Brownies by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
Breakfast Yogurt with Cherries Sauce by Brunch with Joy
Cherry Apple Crumble Tart by Food Lust People Love
Cherry Pie Bites by The Freshman Cook
Dark Cherry BBQ Sauce by The Joyful Foodie
Balsamic Cherry Brie Stuffed French Toast by Pantry Friendly Cooking
Cherry Chocolate Coconut Slices by Baking in Pyjamas
Vanilla Ice Cream with Dried Cherries and Dark Chocolate by Sew You Think You Can Cook
Chocolate Cherry Protein Smoothie by Mrs. Penguin
Cherry Danishes by Passion Kneaded
Dark Cherry-Cranberry Compote by Rhubarb and Honey
National Cherry Month by A Day in the Life on the Farm
Crock Pot Balsamic Cherry Beef Roast by Rae Gun Ramblings
Cherry Glazed Cherry Muffins by We Like to Learn as We Go