Recipe | Wine Gummies

I'm a new Pinterest user, technically. I signed up a few months ago, but boy am I regretful about not using it earlier! There are so many visually appealing recipes and DIYs. That's how I found this recipe! It's a simple enough recipe, but I made a change here or there to really perfect it and keep as much alcohol content in the fruit snacks as possible ;)

It's technically not considered day drinking, right?

The original recipe suggested everything be combined in a saucepan. I tried that the first time, and could barely taste the alcohol with a Pinot Noir. Also I wasn't too enthused about a huge saucepan completely covered in sticky gelatin. I looked up a few YouTube videos, and found a culinary chef who put the gummy mixture in a glass measuring cup and heat it in a pot of simmering water to avoid burning it. I tried this, and the wine flavor was extremely pronounced in that batch! (aka we barely reduced the alcohol content ;D ).

If you use molds, which I did the 5th time making these, the measuring cup can directly pour your mixture into the molds, and be one less sticky mess to clean! Also if you have foam form, it isn't bad, but not visually pretty to give people so just skim it off the top.

Gummy love

The Ingredients        (source: Thrive Style)         4 tablespoons gelatin         1 cup wine         (I suggest Pinot Noir or Riesling)         1 teaspoon sugar         2-4 tablespoons maple syrup Note: The amount of maple syrup used is dependent on how sweet you want your gummies.

The Instructions Combine gelatin and wine in a glass measuring cup, and let sit for 5 minutes to activate the gelatin. Put glass measuring cup in pot of simmering water and stir slowly until gelatin mixture is smooth. Once smooth, add in the remaining ingredients and stir. When everything is dissolved, pour your mixture into a 8x8 pan for square cut gummies or molds if being given as a gift. Let cool completely (approx. 3-4 hours). You can pop them in the fridge for the cool down to speed up the process.

If you want to bring them to a party or to work (I won't tell!), don't worry about them melting. The longer you wait, the firmer the gummy gets. They might sweat after you take them out of the fridge, so be sure to let them dry. Now go and spread the joy!


ATTENTION ALL WINE GUMMY ENTHUSIASTS
EDIT: (3/13/2015) Have any of you tried sugar coating your wine gummies? I have, and failed. The sugar melted and turned into a huge sugary puddle. The gummy was still intact, just sticky. From the my extensive research (hands on and via the internet), I think I may have an answer as to why wine gummies cannot be sugar coated like lemon drops. The real culprit is how you make the gummies. To retain as much alcohol content in the wine gummies, you cook the gelatin mixture at low heat, however the excess water content reacts to the sugar when you coat it. If you don't mind sacrificing the alcohol content, simmer/boil your mixture for 10 minutes (even longer if you're worried just remember to continually stir). It'll be hot, so let it cool a bit before pouring into your molds, and then you're good to go! I hope this helps you. It's not very scientific. Just a blogger making a huge mess and a ton of candy in her kitchen :)

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Recipe | Screw Redbull, I'll give you wings.

Football season has started.  Although the flurry of drafting picks has passed, the manfriend is highly invested in watching his players' games as he is participating in  four  leagues (he's currently in 1st (x2) and 3rd (x2)!).  It has become a Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night ritual of watching football. I could sulk about the half a week I lose the manfriend to 200 pound, sweaty men piling up on top of each other or I could have some fun with it.

I chose the latter.

I decided to make the ultimate football night finger food, chicken wings. I've always wanted to make wings, and the manfriend said he made them before. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember the specifics of what he did, so we winged it.

(HA! get it? the pun? Ah, these are the moments I live for)

This recipe would have taken less than an hour if it weren't for the fact that we're an Asian household and BBQ sauce is optional in life. But I was too determined and too hungry (and craving it like a pregnant woman) to be stopped from achieving my dream of wings for Sunday night football. We threw some soy sauce into a pot, dumped some sugar in there, and basically kept taste testing the sauce and adjusting it.

These babies look so good...

Wish I had more...good thing I bought two bags of chicken wings!

The Ingredients        (source: winged it)    The Wings         1 bag chicken wings         5 cups oil            (or more depending on your pot)    The Sauce         ½ cup BBQ sauce of your choosing         OR         ½ cup soy sauce         4 tablespoons sugar         corn starch (to thicken soy sauce)

The Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees and heat oil in a pot for frying. When oil is hot enough, put chicken wings in one at a time to avoid lowering the oil's temperature. Once the wings looked golden brown, set them aside on a plate with a paper towel. Heat soy sauce and sugar in a small pot. Add corn starch to water, then add it to the sauce pot. Turn off heat when sauce has thickened. Line wings on a lined baking tray and brush sauce on. Flip wings over, and coat other side. Bake for 10 minutes and then enjoy!

Linking up with Miz Helen & Lamberts Lately.

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Recipe | Say goodbye to your diet

These are the main players to create this ridiculously good, almost illegally good banana pudding.

That's right. Only FIVE ingredients.

After you've had a taste of this, every time after you'll want to just throw everything together as soon as possible, because you can't stand the anticipation. But before you go throwing things together like a mad woman, remember to have the water and condensed milk ready or else the pudding will congeal before you get to mix it!

These are the culprits of the fluffy pudding: vanilla pudding made with condensed milk and whipped cream.

Ah, this clutz of a chef may have walked away for too long before she remembered the whipped cream so the whipped cream you see here is over-whipped. I guess you can use this as a "don't do this" example. Luckily for this recipe, it doesn't matter as much nor does it affect the texture too much.

Meet their love child: on the most wanted list (according to my thighs)

Ok, in retrospect, I should have made this loop endlessly, because if you were kind enough to read everything before this, this might have stopped playing. It's a GIF of my assembly process. Please reload, and forgive your terrible blogger. She will learn, she promises.

Ahh...the final product. The dessert to end all cravings. One dessert to rule them all.

Warning: For some reason, every time I make this recipe, I make more than the specified 9 x 13 baking pan. I usually have enough for two pans. I think my pudding to everything else ratio is off, but just in case you have the same problem as me, buy more than 4 bananas (I used 5), and have more than one box of Nilla wafers on hand (you can snack while you work without worry now ;D ).

The Ingredients        (source: Amateur Gourmet)      2/3 cup instant vanilla pudding mix      1 ½ cup water         (you can use less if you want)      1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk      3 cups heavy cream      1 box Nilla wafers      4 bananas         (the browner, the better!)

The Instructions Whisk the instant vanilla pudding mix, water, and sweetened condensed milk together. Let sit for 15 minutes. Put heavy cream in a mixing bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Fold whipped cream into pudding mixture slowly. Arrange Nilla wafers along the bottom of your dish. Slice up the brown bananas and arrange on top of Nilla wafers. Top with pudding mixture. Shake it a bit to ensure the pudding gets into all the cracks and crevices. Repeat steps 4-6 again. Crush some Nilla wafers until they’re a powder and sprinkle over the finished pudding. Enjoy!

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Recipe | Grown up Rice Krispy Treats

This post was only made possible by my all time favorite food blogger, the one and only Deb Perlman of Smitten Kitchen. She is like the mother I never had for all my baking/food related needs.

Don't get me wrong. I love my mother more than the world, and I owe that woman everything. But she could not bake to save us from an impending alien invasion. If it were up to her baking a simple batch of chocolate chip cookies (that's not from scratch) to save us, we might as well start waving white flags now.

You never know, the aliens might be nice like E.T. :)

I remember when I first started baking/cooking, I didn't know that 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of milk were two different measurements (don't worry, I got that sorted out already). I also didn't know the sheets of lasagna pasta had to be cooked first, before baked in layers. My cooking/baking expertise has come a long way through much trial and error, and am extremely proud (and excited) to show you guys!

The Ingredients        (source: Smitten Kitchen)      Batter:      4 ounces unsalted butter,      plus extra for the pan      1 10 ounce bag of marshmallows      ¼ teaspoon of coarse salt      6 cups Rice Krispies cereal      (about half a 12-ounce box)

The Instructions Butter (or coat with non-stick spray) an 8-inch square cake pan with 2-inch sides. In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat.It will melt, foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom (they're the best part). Don’t take your eyes off the pot because the period between the butter taking on color and the point where it burns is less than a minute. Once the butter becomes a nutty color, turn off the stove and stir in the marshmallows. The residual heat from the melted butter should be enough to melt them, but if not, turn it back on low until the marshmallows are smooth. Remove the pot from the stove and stir in the salt and cereal together. Quickly spread into prepared pan. I use a piece of parchment paper to press it firmly and evenly into the edges and corners. Let cool, and cut into squares :)

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