Caramel Crispy Thingys

Hello people!  Has something ever looked just so good that you just HAD to try it!? Well, that's what happened with these "Spiderweb Florentines" that I saw in a cookbook.  They looked so pretty that I wanted to try them out!  Here's the picture I saw in the magazine:

Pretty cool lookin' huh?? Yup!  So I decided to try them out!

Here's the recipe for starters: 

1/2 cup pecans, toasted

2 Tablespoons old-fashioned rolled oats

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons honey

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Pulse together pecans and oats in a food processor until finely ground.  

2. Melt butter in a small saucepan, then add sugars and honey and cook, stirring, until sugars are melted and mixture is simmering.

3. Remove from heat and stir in pecan mixture, flour, salt, and cinnamon.  Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until firm.  (About 30min.)

4. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and then place dough in amounts of 1 teaspoon on the parchment paper.  Leaving about 3 inches between each teaspoon.  THIS IS CRUCIAL!  

5. Bake at 350 degrees farenheight  for about 8 minutes; until golden.  

6. Allow to cool on wax paper for a few minutes after taking out of the oven.

7.  When all of the dough has been baked, melt chocolate in a saucepan and then pour into a re-sealable baggie.  Cut a small corner off of the baggie and make designs on your crisps using the baggie!  

8. Allow to cool and enjoy!

So after reading the recipe and seeing the lovely picture it seemed to be great!  So scooped out some dough onto the pan and popped them into the oven.... 

Not so pretty huh?? Welll... they all sort of multiplied in size and spread out... So tried again... This time spacing them out correctly and adding less dough (the original called for 2 teaspoons)!

They turned out WAY better!  Thank goodness!! 

They tasted pretty good too! Although they were VERY sweet; I think these would be best as a decorative piece on top of ice cream or some other kind of dessert.  They were almost too much to eat plain and were basically just caramel with chocolate.  

I had fun making these and it was quite the adventure!  Try them yourself, just remember to leave a BUNCH of room between each one on the pan!

Good luck! 

Questions? comments? Let me know! 

Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes

Good Morning people! Summer is BACK! Well, at least for a few days...
So usually I'm a routine-type person; I eat the same thing practically every morning for breakfast (soy milk with Bran cereal and a banana) and usually the same exact thing for lunch everyday as well (Tuna and Natural Cheetos with a greek yogurt), just in case you were wondering, Ha!  I know, it may sound boring to you; but dinner is my mix-up time! This morning however, I was craving something different.  So I decided to try a new recipe!

I originally found this recipe through Pinterest but did not use the whole recipe and tweaked it a bit.  Here is the original recipe that I found, note that their pictures look way better too!  
http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2012/06/25/sour-cream-cinnamon-roll-pancakes-with/ 

Here are the ingredients/directions if you want to try and make them yourself!

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

4 tablespoons of melted butter
1/4 cup of firmly packed dark brown sugar 

2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1. Combine all of the ingredients for the filling in a bowl and mix well.

2. After mixing, pour into a sealable plastic baggie and allow to sit a cool a bit while mixing up the pancake batter.

Pancakes

1 cup of all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 cup of sour cream
1/4 cup of milk
4 tablespoons of melted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Combine all ingredients for the pancakes in order of the list.

2. Mix very well together.

3. Heat a griddle or non-stick pan on the stove and begin to cook like you would regular pancakes.

4.  Before flipping the pancakes, cut one of the corners of off your cinnamon filling bag and swirl on top of the pancake.  

5.  When you flip over the pancake, the cinnamon filling will cook and harden a bit.

6. Finish cooking thoroughly and enjoy!

Mine definitely did not turn out as pretty as hoped.  But it was the first try and a test!  The flavor of these pancakes were really good, although they were very, very rich!! They were almost too buttery/sugary for me and I could only handle two.  The original recipe calls for a glaze on top, but I couldn't imagine putting anything else sweet on top of these pancakes.  

They were very good overall! I would probably make them again, or I would make the cinnamon glaze and put that into my regular pancake recipe next time I make it.

As for tomorrow's breakfast... Well, I'm sure you can guess what it's going to be! 

Happy Eating!

Green Belly

EW! A green belly!? I bet that's what you're thinking... You're thinking that either this is going to be a blog about someone getting sick from something they ate, or that someone has some terrible disease.  Actually, quite the opposite! I found this restaurant out in West Omaha; the name just happens to be Green Belly!  There's actually more meaning to the name than what your probably think.  Everything in the restaurant is said to be completely fresh and natural ingredients! The tables are even recycled! Crazy huh?? I thought they looked kind of cool, and I was excited to try their food!
I went one day for lunch; I was happy to find a restaurant that sold healthy foods!  I ordered a chicken pesto sandwich... Which seemed like it would be good; But then I was shocked that one of my choices for a side was either a bag of sun chips or potato chips... Wha?!!?  I just thought a "fresh" restaurant could do better than Subway sides... I also got a drink with my meal and decided on the usual; Diet Coke (which isn't really that healthy for you)!

I sat down at the table to enjoy my sandwich and was a little surprised to find out that the food wasn't all that impressive.  It tasted just like a typical sandwich that I could have made at home in about 10 minutes.  My guest diner that came along also was not very impressed.  As the meal continued and we began to take a few sips of our sodas I thought to myself, "man, this tastes watered down..." Sometimes though, it's just the diet pops that seem that way.  But as I kept drinking I asked my guest diner if hers tasted the same way... She replied, "I thought the same thing!!!"  SO, needless to say, they even tried to make the soda healthy by (we're guessing) watering it down... This did not please me one bit.

Maybe I just didn't order the right items here??? Or maybe it was just a bad day; but neither my guest diner or I was impressed and I don't think I will be returning to Green Belly.  I feel like their "green" and "healthy" ideas were good, but the outcome was jumbled and not up to par.
Let me know if you have tried Green Belly and had a different experience!  I would love to hear from you to see what your take on this restaurant is!  Here is the website link if you would like to check Green Belly out:

http://www.thegreenbelly.com/Greenbelly_Site/Greenbelly.html

Happy Eating!

Vivace: Contemporary Italian

                                     
I love trying new restaurants... It's one of my favorite things to do - especially when the food is great!  I was able to try this new place over the weekend and absolutely loved it!  If you're near the old market in Omaha sometime I would definitely recommend stopping by after a nice stroll around downtown.  I actually went on a Saturday after I visited the farmers market (which is really great as well)!  Here's a little more information about Vivace!

                                       

So from the outside Vivace doesn't look like that big of a restaurant. But looks can be deceiving!  This restaurant could probably seat about 100 people inside and then (as you can see) another 15ish outside.
I'm not going to lie, but when I first entered Vivace I was expecting the "typical" American-Italian food that we normally think about eating.... pizza, spaghetti, alfredo... etc.  They did have all of these things on the menu, but they were usually a bit spiced up from what you would consider a typical pizza.  I realized after dining here that Italian food is probably way more complex than we consider it to be.  It is nothing like Valentino's or Fazolis, surprise surprise.
I ordered a basil pesto with grilled chicken on top; which was amazing!! They serve complimentary garlic bread at each table at the beginning of the meal with some small chopped herbs and veggies to go on top, which was delicious!  With my meal and the garlic bread; I was fully full by the time I walked out of there!
I did not take any pictures while I was inside the restaurant because I thought that may have been a little awkward... It was a nicer restaurant haha.
In the money department, it was actually rather cheap, for the quality of food that we were served!  My bill ended up being about $15.00; With a soda and the meal; for quality food and service I would say that this is about right!  The restaurant was super clean and the waitress was fantastic!  I have to say, I would much rather go to this restaurant than Olive Garden just because they offered really unique dishes loaded with flavor!
I would say steer away from bringing your children to this restaurant.  It is a little nicer and I would reserve it just for adults.  I can also imagine that the atmosphere of downtown at night is mainly for adults anyways; maybe make it a date night or a "girls night out" restaurant!
I would give this restaurant 10 out of 10 meatballs.  I will definitely be going back sometime!
Here's their website if you want to check them out!

http://www.vivaceomaha.com/

Questions or comment?? Feel free to leave them!