Long time no see bloggers....

After a HUGE hiatus, I return with a new job in hand and a lack of free time. Cooking has been to a minimum, besides the Pad Thai my boyfriend has been making and the steamer I've been using to make BBQ Pork Buns and Shu Mai and the such. I recently found a recipe for soup-filled dumplings, so that'll be up soon. :D

Also, if you're looking to get in touch with myself, I know have the Twitter and Facebook up and fully functional!
 Domesticity Rules @ Twitter
Domesticity Rules @ Facebook

Frozen hot chocolate

Sorry for the lack of deliciousness. Job hunting and the new dog have taken most of my time. I have so many new recipes and things that I want to blog about, but this will have to be the start....

For anyone who knows me, they obviously know that the summer and I don't mix. If you realize I live in Florida, you're probably tilting your head right about now. I love winter! I love the snow, I love the bitter cold temperatures, I love sledding, and most of all, I love hot chocolate. What I don't love is when it's over 100 degrees out and I'm drinking a beverage that's only a few degrees cooler than that, ick. So frozen hot chocolate on a hot summer day? Yes please.

Ingredients

• 1 qt fat-free half & half
• 1 box (3.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding and pie filling (4-serving size)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract
• Garnish: whipped cream and ground cinnamon

Insructions:

1. Have ready a 13 x 9-in. baking pan and eight glass 8-oz Irish coffee mugs or other 8-oz mugs.

2. Whisk half & half, pudding mix and cinnamon in a large bowl 2 minutes. Pour into baking pan; cover and freeze at least 3 hours, or until frozen hard.

3. About 20 minutes before serving: Beat cream, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl with mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted. Refrigerate until ready to use.

4. Put coffee mugs in freezer. Remove mixture from freezer; leave at room temperature 15 minutes, or until it can be cut into large cubes. Place in food processor; pulse until smooth, scraping down sides occasionally. Divide among chilled mugs. Top with whipped cream; sprinkle with cinnamon and serve.

So, next time you're dying of the heat (and if you live in Florida, I guarantee that this week is already almost up to 90 degrees), try this recipe out and I promise you won't be disappointed. Thanks to Woman's Day Kitchen! The full recipe can be viewed here.

Panna Cotta

Being lactose intolerant, you'd expect me to steer clear of anything that even has the slightest trace of milk, but this isn't the case at all. I love any type of  milk-type item besides milk itself and ice cream. Macaroni and cheese is a nostalgic favorite, and tembleque is my favorite Spanish dessert. Which leads me into this recipe I found for Chocolate Panna Cotta. Now, I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but luckily, the chocolate is pretty much used for just aesthetics. The recipe is extremely easy to follow and the ingredients don't really call for much, they're all things that are easily picked up a local grocer.

The Panna Cotta recipe calls for:
1.5 cups whole milk
4 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
4.5 cups heavy cream
good quality cocoa powder, 2 to 4 tablespoons
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
chocolate and white chocolate bars, for garnish

See? Nice and easy. I have yet to make this recipe myself, but as soon as I have the time or ability, you can be sure that I'll most likely eat everything I made by myself. ;)

The full recipe can be viewed at The Italian Dish

I love Girl Scout cookies

Since a little girl, I have always begged my parents to buy Girl Scout cookies from the little girls selling them out front of grocery stores. Now as an adult, I beg my boyfriend to buy them, so not much has changed. Not too long ago, I came across Baking Bits and discovered that they have recipes for all my favorite Girl Scout cookies.

I'm not positive how these recipes taste (I'll assume they're amazing and I'll be sure to update when I get the chance to make them myself.) but I wanted to share them with you since I know I've had trouble trying to find a recipe for these for a long time!

Samoas

Do-si-dos

Tagalongs

Thin Mints

Lemon Drop Coolers


I hope you all enjoy the links and just keep in mind that there's only 96 days until the next Girl Scout cookie season begins!!

Yumbots!

If there's one thing I love more than cupcakes, it's adorable cupcake molds. Thanks to Yumbots, we no longer have to worry about plain, old, boring cupcake molds! Now the only bad thing about these is that it only makes 4 cupcakes, unless you decide to buy more than one set. So good idea if you have a nerdy boyfriend at home much like my own or kids who enjoy robots. Not so much a good idea if you're having a big get together or the class requires your kid to make 27 cupcakes.

The website World Wide Fred also has lots of nifty nerdy cooking trinkets that should definitely be checked out! Everything on the website is kid friendly and it appeals to everyone's kid at heart!

1/13/10 Edit:
If you're from the tri-state area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Deleware) make a trip to the Franklin Institute. They have tons of Fred stuff! Even these cupcake holders. :D

Drunken Irish Stew

To change things up a bit from all the sweet things I've blogged about, I'm going to blog about something savory that I'll end up making and eating myself until my boyfriend realizes that it's delicious and sneaks out while we're sleeping to eat the rest of it. Now I generally am not a fan of stew, probably because carrots and celery are my least favorite vegetables and that's generally what all stews have in them. But after I discovered this recipe for Drunken Irish Stew, I'm willing to put that hate behind me. I love meat and I love potatoes, so at least I know if they recipe still doesn't catch my fancy the first go, I can emit the vegetables.

The recipe isn't complicated in the slightest, but with tall the ingredients, it may get a little pricey and produce too much stew, unless you either have a large family or have some sort of gathering. But don't let this put you off, left overs are always fantastic and I can't see the alcohol in this recipe letting the food go bad very quickly. Also, this recipe probably isn't a very good one for the kids, not only cause I doubt all the alcohol gets cooked out, but most kids don't even like stews. Now, if you're a parent that has a miracle child who eats anything (I've actually experienced this a lot for some off reason) removing the alcohol from this recipe doesn't seem like it would make it inedible in the slightest.

The recipe calls for:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1-1/4 pounds stew beef, cut into 1-inch pieces
7 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup red wine
1 cup Guinness
6 cups beef stock (or broth)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1-1/2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon dried thyme
4 bay leaves
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound russet potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (peeled or unpeeled, gentleman’s choice)
1 pound baby red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (again, gentleman’s choice)
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 cups carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large yellow or white onion, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1 tablespoon water
salt and pepper, to taste

The rest of the recipe can be viewed on Crepes of Wrath

Happy Drunken Stew makings! :D

Treats on a stick

Opening this post, I would like to state that everything taste better on a stick. Corn dogs are amazing and you don't have to put your hands all over the bun, eating lollipops is more fun than just eating hard candy (I love baby bottle pops), and popsicles always taste better than water ice from a cup. Now Bakerella is inspiring all sorts of new takes on old food; throwing a stick on it! If you've never been to Bakerella's website, I suggest you do that immediately and commence drooling all over your keyboard. She has recipes for everything from Mini Maple Pancake Muffins (I love maple syrup) to Mickey/Minnie cake pops!

My mother tends to do a lot of birthday/wedding treats and favors, so I try to keep a look out and help as best I can. So when I found the "Things on a Stick Taste Better" article on Intimate Weddings, I had to post them on here as well. They link to a Poptart on a stick recipe, cheesecake on a stick recipe, pie on a stick recipe, sugar cookie on a stick recipe, and brownie pops recipe. Now, maybe I'm just a kid at heart, but I would rather eat/make something on a stick rather than something on a plate. It just seems more fun and slightly more entertaining.

In closing, if you're as amazed by Bakerella as I am, I suggest buying her book. I also suggest puttting anything you cook on a stick. :P

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Update: The recipe I linked for the pop tarts had a few issues with it and I figured I'd point it out after I had used it. Put a tablespoon of water in your filling while you're cooking it, vanilla extract works as well as almond extract and saves you the money, and when making your icing, use more milk than the recipe calls for, at least enough to make the icing thinned out. Also, putting egg wash on top of your tarts will stop the pie crusts from bubbling. This recipe is good to have up while using the other one: Bake Me More. Now, I'm not saying the recipe is bad at all, it's delicious, I'm sure the blogger might have just missed a thing or two, it's hard to keep up with exact amounts of what you're using and not forget things from time to time. :) And besides, whenever I'm cooking something for the first time, I like to look at multiple recipes so I can attempt to make my own variation or figure out what I can include/exclude.