Huli Huli Chicken

pictured with Cilantro Coconut Rice!

When Bob and I were in Maui on our honeymoon in 2007, we drove the famous Road to Hana. This winding, sometimes precarious road is peppered with waterfalls and some of the most amazing flowers and plants we have ever seen. We felt like we were in some alternate universe. The colors are so vibrant, and the sheer size of the trees and plant leaves was humbling - it's truly a magical place. This journey was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Along the way, we stopped at a tiny road-side barbeque that served Hawaiian chicken - right in the people's front yard! They had a small tent set up with a few tables and that's where we ate. And it was soooo delicious!

When I saw Elly post this Huli Huli Chicken, I was taken right back to Hawaii. I was so excited to try to recapitulate this dish at home. When we had our good friends Jenny and Jeff over for dinner several weeks ago, I decided it would be Hawaiian night - a fruity salad, Cilantro Coconut Rice, and this Huli Huli Chicken. I was so happy with how it turned out, which was very similar to the chicken we had on the side of the road in Maui. This is one of the many, many times where having a leave-in digital meat thermometer makes cooking meat a breeze; it totally takes the guess-work out of the equation. We will definitely be having this again!

Bob and I on the Road to Hana

The amazing flowers

A whole cluster of those flowers

Only in Hawaii???

Huli Huli Chicken

Serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
2/3 cup pineapple tidbits/chunks
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 knobs ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces (or 4 bone-in, skin-on leg quarters or 8 - 12 thighs)
2 - 4 teaspoons Canola oil

Directions:

Preheat the broiler.

1. Add the soy sauce through the Worcestershire sauce to a food processor and pulse until smooth.

2. Rub the chicken with the canola oil and then broil skin side up, about 6″ from the element, for 8 minutes.

3. Flip and broil for another 8 minutes.

4. Brush the chicken with the glaze mixture and broil for an additional 16 minutes or so, flipping and basting every 4 minutes or until a digital meat thermometer registers between 165 - 180F (depending on what you're comfortable with).

Paired with Cilantro Coconut Rice, this makes a great tropical meal!

Source: Adapted from Elly Says Opa!

Dark Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies

My good friend Melissa told me about these Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies she discovered from her coworker. Her description alone was enough - I had to make them. Bob and my dad both love chocolate-covered cherries, so I knew these cookies would go over well with them. I was surprised by how much I liked them - they are fantastic!!! The cookie part itself is so good, I would be happy with those alone, but the cherry-chocolate glaze is amazing, and I actually enjoyed the maraschino cherry (which I typically don't eat).

I used dark chocolate cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate for the glaze to make these Dark Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies, but you can certainly use semisweet or even milk chocolate. I made these cookies for Christmas so I decorated half of them with Christmas sprinkles, but these cookies would be great for Valentine's Day. They would look so cute with some heart-shaped sprinkles!

Dark Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies

Yield: about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened dark or regular cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 (10-ounce) jar maraschino cherries, drained, reserve juice
6-ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips (milk chocolate would work too)
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and soda, blending well; set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar on low speed until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Gradually add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture; beat until smooth and well blended.

3. With hands, shape dough into 1-inch balls; place on ungreased baking sheet. Press down center of dough with thumb. Drain maraschino cherries well, reserving juice. Place a cherry in the center indention of each cookie.

4. In small saucepan, combine chocolate pieces and sweetened condensed milk; heat on low until chocolate is melted. Stir in 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of the reserved cherry juice. If frosting seems too thick to spoon over cookies, thin with a little more cherry juice.

5. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the topping over each cherry, spreading to cover cherry.

6. Bake cookies for 10 minutes, or until done. Remove to wire rack to cool. Store in airtight container.

Source: Adapted from About.com

I made these with Christmas sprinkles, but they would be perfect with Valentine's Day sprinkles or with multi-colored sprinkles for anytime!

Samoa Bars

Samoas/Caramel DeLites are my favorite Girl Scout cookie, tied with Thin Mints that is. When I saw this recipe on Baking Bites (quite a long time ago!), I was so excited and quickly bookmarked it. As usual, I took my time getting to this recipe but finally decided it was time. I thought these bar cookies were great! They really do taste like Samoas! I love the combination of the toasted coconut and caramel - I could eat that by itself!

Samoa Bars

Yield: 30 bar cookies

Ingredients:

Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened), toasted
12 ounces good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
10 ounces dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are fine) (I needed about 2 ounces more for drizzling the bars)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

1. Make the crust: Lightly grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. The dough does not need to come together.

2. Pour crumbly dough into prepapred pan and press into an even layer. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.

3. Make the topping: Place the unwrapped caramels in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3 - 4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.

4. Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer. Let topping set until cooled.

5. When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter (I used a large pizza chopper) .

6. Once bars are cut, melt chocolate in a small bowl by heating on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the bottom of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper.

7. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a sandwich/storage bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish. Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container. These bars also freeze well.

Note: For an easier finish, you can simply drizzle chocolate on top of the bars before slicing. You will not need as much chocolate as noted above, and you will not exactly get the Samoas look, but the results will still be delicious.

Source: Adapted from Baking Bites

Red Velvet Brownies with Cheesecake Swirl and Giveaway Winner!!!

And the Giveaway winner is . . .

Congratulations Natalie!!! You have won a $75 gift certificate to CSN Stores! Please email me at mtmbakesblog AT gmail.com to claim your prize. Thank you to CSN Stores for sponsoring this giveaway!

Now I must tell you about these brownies. I made them the night before having our good friends Jenny and Jeff, and their baby Andrew, over for dinner (you may remember them from the Monkey Cookies!) I had these in the oven for about 10 minutes when our power went out!! I was really annoyed thinking they were probably ruined. Not knowing how long it would be before power was restored, I moved the brownies to the very cold garage. After about an hour, the power came back and I put the brownies back in the oven until done. I have no idea how this affected them, but they did turn out very tall! These were really good brownies, definitely more cake-like than fudgey, but I can't say whether that's due to how I baked them. I loved the cheesecake swirl on top. These are definitely festive and would be perfect for Valentine's Day!

After deciding to make these brownies, I saw a similar recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies on Baking Bites that looks fantastic as well!

Red Velvet Brownies with Cheesecake Swirl

Ingredients:

For the brownies:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 (1-ounce) bottle red food coloring (I used about 1/2 container of Wilton icing gel)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon white vinegar

For the cream cheese swirl:
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 large egg yolk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

1. Line a 9 x 9-inch square baking dish with two pieces of aluminum foil, folding ends over the edges. Spray with cooking spray.

2. Combine the chocolate and butter in a large, microwave safe bowl. Cook 30 seconds at a time until melted, stirring well after each time. Whisk in the sugar.

3. One at a time, add the eggs, whisking well between each addition. Stir in the flour, food coloring, baking powder, salt, buttermilk, vanilla, and vinegar. Combine well, then pour into the prepared baking dish.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk. Drop spoonfuls over the brownie batter, then use a table knife to swirl into the batter.

5. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Source: Adapted from Pink Parsley

All I Wanted for Christmas...Giveaway!

Happy New Year! I took a small blogging break for the holidays, but it certainly wasn't a break from cooking and baking! I've updated the sidebar with some healthier recipes for the start of a new year!

I hope everyone had a very happy Holidays! Is there anything in particular that was on your list this holiday season and you didn't get? Or maybe you just thought of something you accidentally left off your list? Perhaps you've been pining after a kitchen item that's a tad out of your budget? I know that always happens to me. You are in luck - CSN Stores has offered to give one lucky person a $75 gift certificate! I've done a giveaway from CSN in the past, as well as a product review. They have over 200 stores, selling practically everything ranging from modern furniture to cookware, my personal favorite. I think this is fantastic because you can use it to get $75 worth of merchandise (from any one of their stores!), or you can choose to purchase a more expensive item and consider it $75 off your total!

There are several ways to enter (you do NOT have to have a blog to enter!):

1) Leave a comment stating what you plan to buy with the gift certificate.

2) Blog about this giveaway and leave a separate comment with a link to your post.

3) Post about this giveaway on Facebook and leave a separate comment with the link.

Entries must be in by 9:00 pm on Thursday, January 13.

Winner will be chosen using random.org. Note that the gift certificate can not be used towards shipping charges, but I'm sure you'll find many items on their site that have free shipping or that ship for a minimal charge. Free shipping was one of the criteria I used in choosing my product review!

Good luck!!! :)

Christmas Sugar Cookies

I couldn't resist making just one more batch of sugar cookies this year. I found the inspiration behind these cookies last year on Torie Jayne's post "a pretty pastel Christmas." The cookie idea is from hellonaomi.

As a rule, I'm a purist when it comes to Christmas - I like red and green, along with some silver and gold, but you won't find blue ornaments or a white tree in my home. I actually think both of those can be very beautiful, but it's not "Christmas-y" enough to me. These cookies are the exception. I think they are so beautiful and elegant, and it doesn't bother me that they are not traditional Christmas colors. In fact, I've seen some gorgeous pastel Christmas concepts lately that have me rethinking my stance!

I went with a different cookie dough than I've used in the past - [Not My] Granny's Sugar Cookies. My mom, sister, and future brother-in-law all agreed that this recipe is even better than the one I had been using, so I'm officially switching. It's also easier to roll out because it doesn't stick as much to the surface and rolling pin - bonus!

As with the mittens, I used the royal icing glaze recipe - thinned mixture to outline and immediately flood, then and after sufficient drying time (24 hours for me) a thicker (but still thinned from the original thick "stock") icing for the decorations on top - some white and pink sugar pearls. When the cookies were completely dry, I used a small craft paint brush to brush on edible shimmer dust - I love this look! I think it elevates these cookies from pretty to spectacular, at least in person. They are so sparkly - and those of you who know me well know how much I love sparkle! :)

For those who celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful holiday filled with family and friends!

Brown Sugar and Spice Cookies

A loooong time ago, I mentioned I was doing a product review for CSN Stores. Well it took me some time to decide on a product, mainly because they have such a large selection of kitchen products, but I finally settled on this Calphalon Stainless Steel Stock Pot.

It ended up being good timing because I dropped my only stockpot (a different brand) on my kitchen floor, and it dented! I was very upset because the lid no longer fit, so that sort of made my product choice easy - must replace the stock pot! This is a great product! It's so heavy and lives up the quality you'd expect from a brand like Calphalon. I highly doubt this pot would dent should I drop it, although I'm trying to be much more careful in the kitchen :) Thank you so much CSN!

Now to the mittens . . .

Sometime in the last year or so I saw some super cute red mitten cookies. I couldn’t wait to make them for Christmas, and I actually ordered the cookie cutter this summer!

I had planned to make these mittens with Bridget’s Brown Sugar and Spice Cookies instead of my go-to sugar cookie recipe, and seeing them on Annie's Eats reaffirmed my plan.

These mittens were a lot of fun to make – and I was assisted by one of my favorite kitchen helpers, my sister Lisa. She came up with some very creative designs for the mittens, and she’s getting to be so talented with royal icing. I think it’s so fun to make these cookies, but it’s even better to make them with someone you love. Thanks for helping, Lisa! ☺

Several people have commented that they would like to learn how to do the royal icing. I have provided links to other blogs in the past, but would anyone benefit from me doing a photo-tutorial in the future? There are a lot of great tutorials on other blogs (like Marian's, Bridget's, and Annie's!) so I don’t want to do it unless it would be useful to my readers. Please let me know!

Brown Sugar and Spice Cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 sticks butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and spices; set aside.

2. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts, and mix until well-blended.

3. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom. (The dough will be quite thick...you may need to knead in stray bits of flour from the bottom of the bowl by hand.)

4. Roll on a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 9 - 12 minutes, depending on the size of your cookie cutter.

5. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.

6. To decorate these cookies, I used a thinned royal icing glaze to outline and immediately flood (red), let that dry overnight, then used lightly thinned icing to pipe designs, plus pearl balls.

Source: Bake at 350