food Archives - Popcorn and Pandas

Homemade Apple Butter

After our recent trip to Fishkill Farms, I knew that this was going to be the perfect opportunity to finally make homemade apple butter this season. With fresh organic apples from the farm and a recipe from Skinnytaste, I decided to spend a Sunday afternoon making this delicious spread that reminds me of my childhood days. I was nervous with how it was going to turn out, but I have to say, it was pretty spot on!

Ingredients:

6 large apples, peeled, cored, finely chopped (honeycrisp, gala, ambrosia) – *I used a couple extra apples and the apple type was whatever we found at the farm
1/3 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, not packed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg – *For all the spices, I had an Apple Pie spice that I used instead which had these ingredients

Directions:

Place the apples in a slow cooker. Top with sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg and mix well. Cover and cook high 5 hours, or low 10 hours, stirring once halfway, until the apples are tender and dark brown.

Uncover and puree with an immersion blender. *(I do not own an immersion blender, so I actually had to spoon it out and blend it in my regular blender…not really recommended, as it’s hot and this is a difficult procedure! However, it got the job done.) Cook on high uncovered 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Spoon into jars or containers, cover and refrigerate.

Makes 2 cups.

Nico has been enjoying peanut butter and apple butter sandwiches for lunch as I did as a child, and he absolutely loves it! I have enjoyed some on toast as well. If you have other great ideas for how to enjoy apple butter, please share!

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween last night. My boys dressed up as Curious George (Nico) and the Man in the Yellow Hat (hubby). Luca was a skeleton (with a pumpkin hat), and I was a panda (naturally). We enjoyed our neighborhood Halloween Parade, which was fabulous, and then took off for some Trick or Treating. Nico had his first candy this year, and had no idea what to do with a lollipop. It was a pretty funny experience to say the least. We let him have a few pieces…and then my husband and I had a few too many pieces…and now I need to GET IT ALL OUT OF MY HOUSE!

21 Day Fix Round 2 starts tomorrow as well as my Thankful for Fitness Challenge Group, and it’s healthy eating and living from here on out so that I am going into the holidays feeling happy, healthy, and strong.

Who’s with me?

Happy Sunday!

XO,

Gina

Insta-Snaps from New Hampshire

We spent Memorial Day Weekend up in New Hampshire near the Wolfeboro area and Lake Winniepesaukee. While it was rainy and cold a lot of the time, we did manage to get some sunshine and some great hikes in. We stayed on Lower Beech Pond overlooking the water in a fantastic lake house with good friends. We drank wine, cooked delicious meals together, played games, explored the town of Wolfeboro, and took in some stunning views. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen a lot of these, but here are a few snaps from our trip.

Nico reading a story at the lake house with my bestie, Erin

Penny Candy Shop in Wolfeboro, NH

Yes, I think I will have some wine this vacation! Oops!

Snuggling my baby at Camp Beech in Tuftonboro, NH

Taking a break for lunch on the Italian Trail on Mt. Shaw…that one’s for you Pops!

My two happy guys!

Mountain Selfie on the top of Mt. Shaw

So proud of Nico on his 1st hike ever! He was a champ in his Beco Gemini Carrier.

Cairn aka Rock Tower

On the top of the White Ledge Loop Trail in the White Mountain National Forest

Standing on the top!

Continuing on the trail loop

Such a stunning view!

Some other places we visited that aren’t photographed here:

1. El Centenario: Delicious Mexican fare – We loved the fresh homemade chips and salsa, chile relleno, and chicken enchiladas they had to offer. The staff was very friendly, and we would definitely go back here.

2. Downtown Grille: We came here for coffee and enjoyed their lattes so much, we came back again on the way to drop our friends off at the airport! I enjoyed both the Blueberry Cobbler latte and the Milky Way. Yum! If we go back, I would like to try their breakfast as well.

3. Sandy Martin Art Gallery: We had a lovely conversation with owner and artist, Sandy. She is an extremely talented artist in multiple mediums including oil paints, watercolors, photography, & more. She loves music and hosts parties within the gallery featuring local musicians on the in-house piano and guitar. She also knows all the town gossip and Jimmy’s Fallon’s whereabouts when he comes to town. Definitely a nice stop in!

4. Sprout’s: Featuring lots of children’s toys, clothing, and gifts.

5. Details: Great little boutique stop for gifts and accessories. Also have an adorable dress selection. I walked away with a dainty little flower crown that I love!

6. Jake’s Seafood: Enjoyed steamers, haddock, chowder, and lots of other yummy seafood here! Outdoor seating is nice as well.

7. Castle in the Clouds: A beautiful stop with a beautiful view. It was rainy and we were hungry, so we didn’t end up doing the tour, but we did have some lunch (I had a lobster roll…drool!) at the Carriage House.

We had such a great time on our trip, despite the inclement weather. I’m glad we were able to get two great days of hiking in, but I think next summer if we go back to New England, we will try for the 4th of July weekend again so it will be warm enough to jump in that lake!

Hope you are all having a great week!

XO,

Gina

Chicken Mole Poblano

Latin food is one of my favorite genres to both cook and eat, and this dish is on the top of my list. I originally got this chicken mole poblano recipe from Top Chef Season 5 contestant, Carla Hall, when she was featured in Health Magazine. I made it a few years ago and loved it, so I decided it was time to break this recipe out again this past week. I’m not going to lie though, Carla would have been disappointed with the amount of “love” I put into this dish. In the beginning of the week, I couldn’t wait to make it, and then reality set in. I got home from work late, I was tired due to lack of sleep the night before, and the last thing I wanted to do was try to make a recipe I hadn’t done in three years. I had planned on creating this post, but then I was in such a funk that I scrapped taking photos and glumly resumed my wifely/motherly duties with a sour look on my face. I had promised my husband (and he was super excited) to make this delicious meal, but I just didn’t feel like it! However, I knew it was the right thing to do to by making it. You know those days when you really just don’t want to go to the gym or work out? But then you do anyway…and you feel SO much better afterward??? Well, this is how cooking this meal went. I really was not in the mood to cook in the beginning, and was super cranky about it (sorry dear husband). But as I got into it, I started getting excited (more than likely because I was going to get to eat it)…and then after it was done, I was extremely proud of how it turned out. I then rushed to grab the camera and take a photo of the final product. I got back on board with doing a blog post about it, and wished I hadn’t been such a grouch in the beginning. It’s amazing how making a little meal can uplift your spirits and shift your mood. I’m still blaming certain mood swings on the hormones. 😉

As for this recipe, I think you will also find it delicious. And it’s even better when you make it with a little love. As usual, I made a few changes to my own liking (especially with the chicken – I tend to prefer white meat over dark), but for the most part, the sauce is the same.

Hope you enjoy!

What you need:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1.5 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

.5 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 (4 oz) can diced green chiles

1 teaspoon tahini (I omitted this, because I couldn’t find it at the store)

3 oz dark chocolate chopped

1 tablespoon cilantro chopped

Carla used an already cooked rotisserie chicken, divided into 6 pieces and warmed – I used uncooked chicken breasts instead covered in cumin and cinnamon to taste and white cooking wine

1/2 avocado, pitted and sliced

1 tomato, diced

How to Make it Happen:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place uncooked chicken breasts covered in cumin, cinnamon, and white wine into a baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake the chicken for approximately 35 minutes (will depend on thickness of the chicken and how your oven cooks, so make sure to check it early to avoid overcooking!)

While the chicken is baking, heat oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes or until translucent. Add garlic, and cook for 1 minute. Stir in cumin, cinnamon, sale, and pepper; cook for 1 minute.

Add canned diced tomatoes and chiles to saucepan, and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in tahini and chocolate until melted. Stir in chopped cilantro. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Put sauce in a blender or food processor until smooth. Spoon as much sauce as you like over the chicken. Serve with avocado and tomato.

I also decided to serve it with some black beans and rice, which really completed the meal for me. The cheese on top of the beans is cotija.

Happy to say, we blended everything all together to serve to our little guy as well, and he happily ate it as well!

Hope you are all having a great week!

XO,

Gina

Hester Street Fair

IMG_0054_Layers_v1 — Guilty Jean Jewelry

I’m so happy I finally made it down to the Hester Street Fair this past Saturday to see my favorite ladies from Guilty Jean Jewelry. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I certainly liked what I found. A small, highly curated, outdoor market, the Hester Street Fair, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, is full of unique jewelry, vintage clothing, pop up shops, and delicious food. I browsed each artist’s collection and sampled a few of the different dining options. I scored fabulous bracelets from both Guilty Jean as well as Stella and Sparkle Jewelry that I have already donned this week. I enjoyed the margarita pizza from Ludlow, and a Red Velvet Cream Cheese Ice Cream Sandwich (I’m not joking; this actually exists) from Melt Bakery. I’m drooling just thinking back to how amazing it tasted. Overall, I would say this was a trip worth making! Their summertime night market runs every Saturday through the end of August from 12pm-10pm and features live music and fabulous DJs…because who doesn’t love dancing while shopping? If you don’t make it there before the end of August, the fair will still be running through the end of October every Saturday with daytime hours. I definitely recommend checking it out!

IMG_0061_Layers_v1 — Proud owners, designers, and hand-crafters of Guilty Jean

It’s been a bit of a crazy week here…personally, I heard some horrible news about an old high school friend and hometown neighbor of mine, so that has been a bit rough. Work has been crazy as our new employee started yesterday, and I’ve been busy training while still trying to get my work done. We met our third and final pediatrician yesterday, and I think we have come to a conclusion about a doc for our little guy. I hit the 37 week mark (FULL TERM!) yesterday which is a major milestone! We completed the nursery over the weekend, my hospital bag is packed, and we are ready to go when Little Monkey is! So things have been a bit nuts, and my head is spinning a little, but trying to keep my sanity as much as possible.

Hope you all are having a good week so far!

XO,

Gina

Homemade Pesto Sauce

Our garden has been a hit this year! Especially for fresh, homemade pasta sauces. This was my first venture at making my own pesto sauce, and I have to say, it turned out pretty darn good! Not to mention, it was super easy to make. Thanks Mom!

What you need:

2 cups fresh basil leaves

3 or 4 garlic cloves

olive oil – I don’t really measure…enough so that the mixture ends up like a sauce and not chunky

1/4 pine nuts

1/2 cup Romano cheese

blender or food processor

1/2 cup heavy cream (if you want to make pesto cream sauce)

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How to make it happen:

Put about half of the basil leaves in a blender or food processor with the olive oil to grind up. Once it’s smooth, add the other ingredients (except the cream) and remaining basil and olive oil to grind up. Make sure it is all well blended and smooth.

You can either freeze or use fresh.

Transfer the sauce to a small pot to heat it up. If you want to make pesto cream sauce, you can whisk in the heavy cream right before turning off the heat.

Boil up your favorite type of pasta, and top it with this delicious sauce! Once the pasta is boiled, I drain it and then coat it with a layer of the sauce so that it doesn’t dry out and stick together. Serve it up in bowls, and then top with as much added sauce as you like. I also add some extra grated Romano cheese to the top, because I’m a cheese fanatic.

Delish!

Hope you enjoy, and would love to hear if any of you try this recipe out.

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Happy Monday. Have a great week everyone!

XO,

Gina

Friday Favorites

1. Favorite Summer Drink – The Smoothie

I have been downing one of these almost daily. They are super refreshing and hydrating for my prego body, not to mention tasty. I love to mix it up with different fruits including watermelon, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, pineapples, and more.

strawberry-smoothie-187x300 — Photo from KristenHadeed.com

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2. Favorite Recipe – Beer Can Chicken

My husband made this receipe from Bon Appetit Magazine last week, and it was absolutely delicious! In the middle of cooking, the chicken actually ended up falling over on the grill, and he was convinced it turned out burned and terrible, but I beg to differ! It was juicy and flavorful, and I would definitely request we have this again!

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3. Favorite Wedding Hairstyle – Beautiful Top Bun w/ Headpiece

My beautiful cousin, Alex, adorned this stunning hairstyle on her wedding day last December courtesy of Creations-a-la-Nikki. I love how super-chic and classy her look is, captured by the wonderful photographer Abby Grace.

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4. Favorite Blogger – Keiko Lynn

I have been following Keiko’s blog for awhile now. I absolutely love her retro-yet-modern, punkish-yet-feminine chic style. Her blog is definitely one of those that I go to for inspiration. And her make-up tutorials are phenomenal!

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5. Favorite Funny Video – Dad Life

This video actually reminds me more of my own Dad, than of my husband, but who knows, it could only be a matter of time once Zack starts rockin’ the Dad Life style as well! Haha.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOKuSQIJlog]

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Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. We are headed down to Maryland for one last quick trip (before we hibernate in NY until the baby gets here) for my sister-in-law’s baby shower for my future little nephew! We are so excited our boys will be born right around the same time. It reminds me of growing up with my cousin, Marisa, and I hope our boys create the same type of long-lasting friendship that we did throughout the years.

Happy Friday!

XO,

Gina

Easter Celebrations

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! The hubby and I went down to Maryland to spend Easter with the family, and as you can see from these photos, there were a lot of sweets involved. Yes, my Mom even made us Easter Baskets. Never too old for Peeps right? We also celebrated my Granny’s 92nd Birthday and my Uncle’s 58th since we were all together. We feasted on BBQ chicken, filet mignon, potatoes, baked beans, salad, spinach artichoke dip, pasta salad, deviled eggs, and more. I was stuffed to the brim before having to drive back to the Big Apple. And what a drive that was. 6 1/2 grueling hours of traffic. Much different than our 4 hour drive down. Feeling pretty exhausted today, and can’t wait to get some and catch up on some Zzz’s.

It was great seeing some friends and family this weekend, and I also had time for a photo shoot featuring Guilty Jean jewelry. I cannot wait to share these! Stay tuned this week.

XO,

Gina

#44 Eat a Mangosteen

Saturday March 9, 2013

Have you ever heard of a mangosteen? Being a lover of all things fruit, this item made it to my great adventures list as something I just had to try. I had heard that it was the best fruit in the entire world, and it was super expensive and rare in the United States. This fruit comes from a tropical evergreen tree mostly found in Southeast Asia and in some South American countries. I hadn’t “googled” the fruit in awhile, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect it to look like or taste like when my husband brought a bunch home for us to eat on Saturday. He had been out exploring in Chinatown after his class, and stumbled across this rare fruit at a decent price (although still not cheap!) I think $8 a pound. When mangosteens first arrived in the US, they were sold for $43 a pound! So I’m thinking relatively here. Of course I had to photograph the little buggers, which kind of look like acorns from the outside. The edible inside part tasted sweet and tangy, juicy, and fibrous. The flavors were a bit like a type of small orange, and nothing like a mango. There wasn’t much meat on the fruit, and although it was indeed tasty, there is no way I am claiming this as the best fruit in the world. That being said, I am excited that I was able to try such a rare find in the U.S. I would definitely eat it again, although maybe next time I would wait to travel to Southeast Asia instead of paying $8 a pound.

Have you ever tried a mangosteen? If so, what did you think?

Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

XO,

Gina

Pizza With Pears

Happy Friday everyone!

Sorry for my lack of posting this week. I have been out sick most of the week, and haven’t felt much up to blogging (or anything else really.) Been trying to work from home a bit, but mostly been watching endless episodes of Top Chef and Project Runway, and I’m finally caught up with my DVR.

I did make it into the office yesterday and for our 2nd week of our Race to the Oscars event. I saw Zero Dark Thirty. WOW. Amazing. Intense. Well done Kathryn Bigelow. If you haven’t seen this film already, it’s definitely a must see.

Anywho, back to pizza with pears!

While scouring through my recipe books for something new and interesting to cook, I came across a delicious looking recipe for pizza with pears. I credit this original recipe to Maxine Clark from her book Pizza Calzone & Focaccia.

Of course, due to time constraints and the inability to find all the ingredients in my local grocery store, I tweaked this recipe a bit–which is very typical of me anyway.

So here we have Pear, Pecorino, and Fontina Pizza with Honey and Sage

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough – original recipe has you making homemade dough, but I opted for a quicker, easier version and went with Pillsbury Pizza Crust (it’s no NY pizza, but not bad!)

2 tbsps. extra virgin olive oil, plus some extra to drizzle

4 oz. Fontina cheese cubed (original recipe called for Tallegio, but could not find in my local store – this was a great substitute!)

1 very ripe pear, cored and thinly sliced

12-15 small sage leaves

1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1 tbsp. of honey (or more depending on how sweet you would like)

sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Pre-heat the oven at 425 degrees F. Open the pizza dough package and spread it thinly onto a pizza pan. Pre-heat the dough according to directions on the Pillsbury package.

Rub the pizza crust with the olive oil and scatter over the Fontina. Arrange the pears over this, then the sage and the pecorino. Drizzle with honey, then season with salt and pepper. Finally, drizzle on a little more olive oil.

Bake until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is golden.

Eat & Enjoy!