splurge

Red Velvet Cupcakes Plus 10 Red Velvet Recipes With a Twist

And another one bites the dust. As in years. As in last week was my birthday.

It was a whirlwind week, filled with workin’ the day job, my once-a-week teaching gig and hitting SLC’s Grand America hotel for my second foray attending the Altitude Design Summit, or more fondly know as “Alt”. I met some incredible bloggers, soaked in generously-shared knowledge, worked my Twitter and Instagram accounts to the bone and gawked admirably at the uber-fashionable fashionistas attending. Stay tuned for some Alt highlights and what I learned in my next post.

And then Saturday arrived, my BIG day. It was my birthday.

This wasn’t an ordinary birthday, it was one of those “milestones” that we all dread, and no I’m not talking the big 30. Sneaking into the crevices of my well-worn brain was a phrase I’d heard the day before from Alt’s keynote speaker Gretchen Rubin, author of the NY Times Bestseller The Happiness Project, “The days are long, the years are short.” Yep, that’s pretty much life in a nutshell.

Birthdays are a good life-check. As in, it’s time to live your life. And so that’s what I’m going to do. Live my life, la vida loca. Bring it old man time, I’ll show you!

My Smudge and my man hatched a plan to surprise me on my bday morning, and that they did.

continue to the recipe… about Red Velvet Cupcakes Plus 10 Red Velvet Recipes With a Twist

Homemade Irish Cream

The day called for a strong cup of coffee with a little something extra.

I should have been cooking the recipe for stufffed mushrooms that I had bought all of the ingredients for and had now been sitting in the refrigerator for the past week and a half. I should have been sifting through my props, setting up my backgrounds and taking photos of that well-intended-but-now-imaginary recipe. I should have been creating my next post. And the other four I had planned to tackle over my Christmas vacation.

But I couldn’t.

It was like I was frozen—in a completely-opposite, turned-around, frenetic and scattered sort of way. That way when you know you have so many different agendas on your to-do list that you just. can’t. focus.

So what did I do? Oh, I decided that I should de-clutter the closeted cupboards in my laundry room/office. FOR TWO DAYS. Um, why? No, not because anyone else but me sees inside them nor was I looking for something I couldn’t find.

Or was I?

After an insanely intense 9-month period that included working at a full-time job, teaching as an adjunct professor one night a week, creating another start-up business, working on freelance gigs (including my first paid photo shoot), launching the blog, launching the magazine and still trying to be a semi-present mom, wife, daughter and friend, I now realize I was just plain burnt. Burnt out. Rubber on the road. Done.

I thought I could do it all. Afterall, I always had.

continue to the recipe… about Homemade Irish Cream

Pumpkin Soup with Crispy Sage Plus 5 Seasonal Spins on Pumpkin Soup

Before we get to this beyond delicious recipe, I want to thank so many of you for your lovely words of anticipation for the launch date of FoodieCrush magazine’s deubut issue. I am beyond excited to share it with you, and all of the fab food bloggers featured within it. We’re hard at work—sleep, what’s sleep?—putting the final touches on the pages and the prettiness to the pictures.

I’ll be announcing the launch via e-mail to my subscriber list so please sign up at the top right of this page (so that’s what that subscribe dealio is all about) for the blue-light special alert of when we go live baby.

And now, back to the soup. I won’t waste a lot of time on why we had the soup, not that the big birthday wasn’t speeeecial, but because for me, the night got hijacked by the soup. Sorry babe, maybe next year.

This soup isn’t about pumpkin puree, or extra veggies to make it sweeter, or crunchy bits to make it more manly. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

It’s just that this soup is so killer. And so simple. Like 7 ingredients. Plus a slurp of cheese. Done and done.

A few weeks ago, some friends helped us celebrate my man’s belated birthday dinner at Park City’s Canyons Resort and their award-winning restaurant, The Farm. The menu meets and delivers on the hyper hot trend of farm to table, with all ingredients sourced within 50 miles for max freshness and keeping it local, local, local. And man, this place does deliver.continue to the recipe… about Pumpkin Soup with Crispy Sage Plus 5 Seasonal Spins on Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Hazelnut Browned Butter and a Magazine Sneak Peek

So happy for the weekend, and wow. Just wow. This fall has been a gorgeous one. There’s almost nothing I love more than fall light–how does it actually warm you to the bones? It always inspires me to get my nesting on/in/done.

But fall is nearly in my rear view mirror, with the forecast of a winter storm set for Saturday. And while I watch those snowflakes fly, I’ll be working at my computer getting my little dream of launching Foodie Crush magazine all stitched together.

sneak peek photo > Britt Chudleigh

We’re in the midst of editing, layouts and photo editing for the debut issue of Foodie Crush magazine, an idea that’s been percolating in my brain for 2 years, that I finally threw myself into just a few short months ago.

I kind of can’t believe its actually happening.

continue to the recipe… about Pumpkin Gnocchi with Hazelnut Browned Butter and a Magazine Sneak Peek

Baked Apple Cups

Our neighbor has an apple tree. My daughter covets that tree. Patiently waiting. Waiting since spring, when I cut down our apricot tree that I don’t think she’s yet forgiven me for.

So now that the apples have finally ripened for harvest, we nonchalantly wandered over to check out the tree, and borrow a few apples. Yes mom, she said we could.

What to do with them apples? My Smudge’s request has been apple pie—again with the pie! When will this girl’s pie obsession be satiated? Um, maybe when I bake her a pie?

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.

But with no time to make a full blown crust, I pulled a puff pastry from the freezer and baked up an alternative that put her pleadings on the back burner, for now…

4 from 16 votes

Baked Apple Cups

Fun and creative treat that can be whipped up in just 30 minutes.

Ingredients

1 1/2 sheets frozen puff pastry
2 T melted butter
2 tsp sugar
3 apples cored and thinly sliced
2 T plus 1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp zested lemon rind

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thaw puff pastry dough and cut into six pieces, discarding remaining two pieces. Brush with melted butter and place into greased 6 X 1 cup muffin tins. Sprinkle pastry with refined sugar. Combine remaining ingredients reserving 1 tsp brown sugar. Divide between tins and sprinkle with remaining brown sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until pastry is golden. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Recipe Notes

adapted from Donna Hay's The Instant Cook

How about a few more apples that don’t fall far from the tree? Enjoy.

photo > Inspiring the Every Day

Michael shares his tidy parcels of goodness with his moist (thanks to the buttermilk) caramel-ey (thanks to the cream and sugar) and sinfully salty (thanks to the fleur de sal) Cinnamon Apple Cake, laced with salted caramel in Inspiring the Every Day‘s individual desserts. I’ll take two.

photo > Cookin’ Canuck

Dara, our favorite Cookin’ Canuck, has given her own spin to a recipe originating from Pam Anderson of Three Many Cooks, and created Apple Upside-Down Biscuits with Gala apples and complimentary nutmeg, cinnamon—plus the pièce_de_résistance, ice cream!

photo > From My Lemony Kitchen

Lisa’s secret to a crunchy, but light as air fritter is rice flour, which makes My Lemony Kitchen‘s Apple Fritters with Ice Cream a better than good, gluten-free dessert. And don’t forget the extra sweet topper of a piece of really good chocolate. Just for that extra gooey factor.

photo >Tiny Tea Room

Amy has a secret I too share, save yourself the headache and forget trying to make puff pastry from scratch. Tiny Tea Room‘s nuggets of Apple Almond Snail Pastries combine almond cream and an apple filling for the perfect pop-in-in-your-mouth dessert.

On another note, I am so excited to share with all of you the amazing talents that are contributing to the debut issue of FoodieCrush magazine. When will November 15 get here already? If you’re interested in advertising and partnership opportunities, contact me at heidi at foodiecrush dot com.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, please subscribe to foodiecrush and follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest

Market Street Grill Fried Calamari and Plate to Pixel Food Photography Workshop

What do you get when you take Utah’s gorgeous summer light, a room of aspiring food photographers itching to master their cameras plus an even more enlightening photography and food styling instructor?

For 13 lucky students it all added up to Tartelette’s Helene Dujardin‘s SLC Food Photography Workshop at the base of Utah’s Big Cottonwood Canyon—Market Street Grill Cottonwood.

FoodieCrush Magazine presents the SLC Plate to Pixel Food Photography Workshop

Jim of Fab Frugal Food, Sandra of Everyday Southwest and Radhika of Just Homemade wonder which one was shot with natural light and which with strobe? Only the photographer knows.

Market Street Grill Cottonwood

Helene lines up her shot—and scores

from left > Becky of Vintage Mixer, Maria of Two Peas and Their Pod, Annalise of Completely Delicious, Kelley of Mountain Mama Cooks

Looks like Dara of Cookin’ Canuck ‘s food photo bible has been put to the test

The click-clack of computer keyboards and scribbling in notepads was swift and constant as attendees copiously took notes—getting hands-on answers from Helene herself to the questions every aspiring food photographer wants to know:

what ISO & F-stop do you shoot in? (she shoots mostly on Aperature priority but also manual in her studio since she knows the lighting conditions intimately. Do what feels right and you do best, nobody will be the wiser when they look at the shot so long as its exposed correctly)
how do you use fill cards and what the heck are they? (white foam core to reflect and bounce light into your subject, black to absorb light and take it away)
how do you style your pics to make them look so yummy? (hold back a few items/ingredients from the recipe to use as props in the shot, like a squeezed lemon or a couple of berries and sugar to tell a story through your propping and storyboards)
do you shoot with lights and if so what studio lighting kit do you use? (not much but when she does, it’s this one).

Reviewing shots while shooting tethered with Lightroom

Sasha of SashaTenorio and Radhika of Just Homemade soaking it all in

from left > Maria of Two Peas and Their Pod, Deborah of Taste and Tell, Misty of Sticks in the Mud , Lindsey of Cafe Johnsonia, Annelise of Completely Delicious and Shirley of Munchkins Are Us

Lightroom tips and tricks

Shooting from above? Shoot straight down. On the ground. Kinda like a rock…rock…rock…rock lobster.

Through a thoughtful presentation showcasing step by step examples of her own photo work plus the photo tips and styling tricks that have taken her from amateur foodie photog blogger to a sought after commercial entity, Helene brought her book Plate to Pixel to life for the studious crew.

When working with long tendrils of pasta, do the twist

The essentials: good lenses, clamps, reflectors, Plate to Pixel bible and pretty food

from left > Deborah of Taste and Tell, Becky of Vintage Mixer, Winter of The Redd Party, Annalise of Completely Delicious, Kelley of Mountain Mama Cooks , and Misty of Sticks In the Mud

Market Street Grill’s Fresh Atlantic Salmon and creamy caesar dressed salad

After a tasty lunch it was time to roll up the sleeves and get to work—to get to the guts of the day, where the real teaching went into full metal jacket action.

As the photographers maneuvered their way through sets of 4-Layer Decadent Chocolate Cake to Fried Calamari to Cajun Fettucini, Helene shadowed each photographer and assisted in creating their own photos. She answered questions about composition, exposure and anything that came to the minds of these insatiable picture takers.

Radihka shoots Cajun Fettucine

Dara of Cookin’ Canuck and Aggie of Aggie’s Kitchen get coaching from Helene

Deborah of Taste and Tell takes on the 4 Layer Chocolate Cake

There was a bun in the oven, but whose was it?

Helene coaches lighting techniques—bounce and reflect

In addition to a gift certificate donated by Koo de Ker Boutique, some of the the su-weet swag in our goodie bags included Chocolat Artisnal Chocolates, Sweet Tooth Fairy Cake Bites, Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals makeup and a custom print and notebook to keep track of all those tips.

Sandra, Deborah and Misty work the reflectors; goodies from the goodie bags

Radhika of Just Homemade, was FoodieCrush’s contest winner and flew in from Houston TX to attend the conference. For just one day. Yes, she wanted it THAT bad!

and that bun in the oven is Maria’s soon to be pea

Wow. It was a seriously big day for everyone that attended, inspiring so many ideas, images and notebooks full of tips. Thank you Helene for letting FoodieCrush be a part of it, we loooove photography and influencing aspiring photographers in hopes to see more of it in the pages of our upcoming magazine and the blog.

To see more pics from the day, check out our facebook workshop album.

Huge thanks to Market Street Grill for hosting the event. And to give you a taste of the deliciousness we experienced, enjoy their recipe for Market Street Fried Calamari.

5 from 1 vote

All photos > foodiecrush

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Top 5 Doughnut Recipes for National Doughnut Day

It’s a Fry-day. It’s a holey-day. Hellz yeah, it’s National Doughnut Day!

photo > Sian Kennedy via Bon Appétit

Dunkers and sinkers, no matter what you call them or where you live, we all love them .

Far from the beyond-overexposed Krispy Kreme franchises (they lost all appeal when I found them “fresh baked” in my local grocery store) we’ve rounded up our top 5 make-at-home ringer recipes.

photo > Butterfly Food

If the photos aren’t enough to compel you to try these light and airy hole-challenged treasures, their unusual source just might. Straight from a…mystery novel—love unusual inspirations—Easy Raised Donuts from Ash’s food blog Butterfly Foodie are beyond tempting with with strawberry glaze, sprinkles or toasted coconut.

photo > Lara Ferroni

What better expert to feature on this holey-est of days than from the doyenne of doughnuts herself, Lara Ferroni, author of Doughnuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home. Her Baked Chocolate Cake Doughnuts are tender, chocolatey and baked—saving calories from frying so you can add just a couple more to your plate.

photo > Tartlette

Healthy doughnuts? Er, well, maybe! Offseting the effects of the Fry Baby and solving Helene’s banana-overload conundrum, Tartlette‘s Banana Doughnuts with Dried Banana “Streusel”deliver a healthy dose of potassium rich bananas—mixed right into the batter—and when glazed and decadently topped with another dose of dried bananas, deliver a delicious contrast in textures.

photo > Sips and Spoonfuls

Doughnuts. And Dubai? Sukaina’s recipe for Nutella Doughnuts at Sips & Spoonfuls is proof enough that doughnuts hold international appeal, especially when combined with flavor of the month Nutella. Create her version with the hole or stuffed with a hazelly-Nutella center.

photo > Cherry Tea Cakes

And finally, riding the bacon wave that is almost ridden out, Jana from Cherry Tea Cakes takes a homemade riff on the popular donut I first saw at this downtown L.A. diner. Maple Bacon Donuts are the sort of flavor combo not found often enough : savory, sweet, salty—toppings that when combined with the gooeyness of the moist doughnut cake make angels sing. Dig in, pour a big glass of milk and remember to leave room for the pound of bacon topping.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, please subscribe to foodiecrush and follow me on twitter.

Weekend Waffles

photo > foodiecrush

My daughter has two current food obsessions: waffles and pie. So after being awakened at 7:30 am on my only day to sleep in, thanks to the ravenous requests of Ali and her hungry little girlfriend, I dutifully filled their breakfast request for waffles. No, we weren’t going to pull the Eggos from the freezer. Not on a weekend. No way.

I recently put my cheapie waffle maker into the giveaway and upgraded to a mid-level Waring waffle maker and its made a big difference in producing a crispy waffle instead of a steamed buttermilk-ey imposter. So now all I needed was a great recipe.

photo > Sugarcrafter

So on to the hunt for a basic buttermilk waffle recipe—after all I was trying to please two seven year olds. And bingo! I couldn’t have found one more appealing than Tracy’s version of Buttermilk Belgian Waffles from Sugarcrafter.

I’m not kidding when I tell you that the batter alone was like eating cake! I was wrestling the two girls for the scraper and licking the bowl like it was cookie dough. WIth the combination of both baking powder and baking soda, the batter was frothy and light and after folding in the whipped egg whites it was all over but for the eating. I didn’t have enough buttermilk on hand so substituted 3/4 cup of non-fat milk but I’m sure it only helped in the crisping the waffle’s goodness.

photo > Notes from My Food Diary

Pecan Oatmeal Waffles from Eliza at Notes from My Food Diary brings together heart-healthy oats, the toasted crunch of pecans, a bit of sourness from buttermilk and the surprise hit of pumpkin pie spice. Flavor explosion loveliness. And then she tops it all of with raspberry curd, but suggests blackberry as a perfect alternative.

photo > Add a Pinch

They’re every kids favorite, an easy addition to any waffle recipe and they usually disappear in minutes with no chance of weekday leftovers. But Robyn’s version of Add a Pinch‘s Chocolate Chip Waffles makes enough for a hungry, early-morning crowd and if you parcel out just right, a much better alternative Eggos. How could a day go wrong when it starts off with chunks of chocolate?

photo > Manifest Vegan

If it tastes good as a muffin, surely it will be just as tasty as a waffle. This vegan and gluten-free Lemon Poppyseed Waffle recipe from Allyson at Manifest Vegan uses a combo of potato and tapioca starch with sorghum and brown rice flour to replicate a crispy waffle with a lovely accent of citrusy lemon and hopping poppyseeds.

photo > Seven Spoons

Given this was just Tara’s second time making waffles, her novice waffling skills certainly didn’t show. Her recipe for Banana Bread Yeasted Waffles from Seven Spoons is an original alternative to standard banana bread when you find yourself with a couple of past due bananas on the counter. But don’t procrastinate in the prep for these babies, thanks to the yeast they need to rest overnight before baking up crisp on the outside, soft on the inside come morning.

photo > Waffleizer

And just in case you want more than just breakfast waffles, check out this totally fun blog from Waffleizer where you’ll find everything waffled from Waffled Macaroni and Cheese to Waffled Croque Madame.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, please subscribe to foodiecrush and follow me on twitter.

splurge

Red Velvet Cupcakes Plus 10 Red Velvet Recipes With a Twist

Homemade Irish Cream

Pumpkin Soup with Crispy Sage Plus 5 Seasonal Spins on Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Hazelnut Browned Butter and a Magazine Sneak Peek

Baked Apple Cups

Baked Apple Cups

Ingredients

Instructions

Recipe Notes

Market Street Grill Fried Calamari and Plate to Pixel Food Photography Workshop

Top 5 Doughnut Recipes for National Doughnut Day

Weekend Waffles

Follow @foodiecrush on Instagram

5 Quick and Healthy No-Sweat Simple Meals