Eats

Fall, Is that you?

August 28, 2019August 28, 2019by Elise GioveLeave a Comment

Hi. So. Basiciallyyyyyy Fall is the most magical time of year (or like almost), but for real I am ready. And for someone who isn’t too fond of the cold I am rather excited to smell the crisp fall air and drink all the apple cider and Carmel vodka. Its legit the most magical fall drink I could have ever found. Go to your local orchard and get some LEGIT cider & buy Smirnoff Carmel vodka. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. (unless you drink too many) But thats not really my fault cause, um. Self control people. We’re adults here. Or.. at least trying to be. Many fall posts to come, but I’m gonna warm you up with this super sweet photo of my cat in her new Unicorn costume, because… its so darn cute. What couldn’t be more fun then 11 whole pounds of pure fluff and tie dye unicorns with iridescent wings? I honestly don’t know.

Kisses.

Dessert, Eats, Entertaining, Holiday

Boxed Cake Upgrade

April 5, 2018March 27, 2018by Elise GioveLeave a Comment

Life tip: NEVER try a new recipe before you are going to take it somewhere. Do a trial run because you are bound to learn something about bake time, too much this or that, and maybe that the recipe was an entire flop anyway.

March is the month of birthdays in this family, and my husband’s was March 24th. I needed to make something quick so I resorted to a boxed cake from the grocery. I also got a tub of chocolate frosting, because his favorite is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. [Note: One tub of frosting made 12 cupcakes. The cake mix made 16. If you don’t want to resort to naked cake or using buttercream you whip up at home, buy two tubs if you are going to frost them like I did.] Idk who made up this combo, but I really don’t get it. BUT, he loves it, so I made it.

Screen Shot 2018-03-27 at 2.52.55 PM I wanted these cakes to be semi non box like, so I used a decorating tip 1M. [Wilton brand] I know theres a million tips and names, but compare it to your collection. It looks like this.

My husband’s favorite colors are blue & purple. It’s hard to not make purple girly, so I went with a blue, green, purple sprinkle combo situation. I found this set that had the big dot sprinkles in several colors and threw those in a bowl with some nonperiels of matching colors.

[Tip: I put my tip in the bag and cut it accordingly, and then I put it in a giant glass and fold the extra part of the bag over the edges of the cup. This makes for much easier piping bag filling.] Swoop the frosting on top of your cupcake and put the sprinkles on right after. If you do all the frosting first, your sprinkles will not stick. I don’t have any tutorial for how to swoop frosting, but I’m hopefully going to get my act together and put something out for you to follow.

I hope something I said was helpful in some way and know you aren’t alone box cake makers of America. If I didn’t tell you, you’d never know.

Kisses.

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Dinner, Eats, Lunch, Uncategorized

Garden Variety. Healthy.

April 3, 2018March 27, 2018by Elise Giove1 Comment

Garden Variety. Salad.

Here are two salads I’d eat [lets be realistic here] 2x a week. Like each one, one time. Other than that I’m an Alfredo eating, popcorn popping, banana and peanut butter, cottage cheese and blueberries kinda girl. I’m a grazer, if you will. Just munching through life. Also, hating salads cause in Michigan its 10 degrees for months & I just want to eat something hot. Here’s my favorite salads anyway.

Garden Variety. Serves 1.
1 Compari Tomato
1 Baby Cucumber [I only like these because the skin isn’t hard like normal sized ones]
1/4 Orange Pepper
4 Baby Carrots
1/2 head chopped romaine lettuce
1 large handful baby spinach/spring mix [comes in a box combined at my local grocery]
Feta Crumbles [optional]
Dressing of your choice. I prefer an Italian. I REALLY prefer Olive Garden Italian. Which I can find at my local grocery. [super tight]

— I’m not about to tell you how to make a salad, cause… you know. But I chop the lettuce up pretty good & any of the other baby spinach/spring mix greens that are large & I ditch all the stems.
— Cut your veggies however, but [pictured above] is how I prefer mine. I also will sea salt my tomatoes if I don’t care about my cholesterol that day.
— Sprinkle everything all pretty & cute on top of your lettuce/baby spinach/spring mix. If you can do dairy, aren’t vegan, or lactose I’ll add some feta if I have some as well.
— I measure my dressing out according to the label and only use one serving, it’s usually 2 tablespoons for a serving. If you don’t measure it out all that added sugar in the dressing will become your whole day’s allowance if you aren’t careful.

Raspberry. Strawberry. Blueberry. Whatever I have in my fridge.

In Michigan we can’t always get the BEST produce. BUT this is my favorite salad and the grocery occasionally has excellent strawberries in the middle of winter, if they have blueberries, I’ll also throw those in. This time, I was not so lucky.

Strawberry Pecan Salad. Serves 1.
4-5 Strawberries
Crush Pecans [heaping tablespoon or so]
Small handful of blueberries [if available]
Dried Cranberries [heaping tablespoon or so]
1/2 head chopped romaine lettuce
1 large handful baby spinach/spring mix [comes in a box combined at my local grocery]
Feta Crumbles [optional]
Dressing of your choice. I use [and will only use] Raspberry Vinaigrette from Kraft. Super fancy. I know. and I only use the 1 serving allowance because there’s a LOT of added sugar in the dressing, and this salad naturally has a lot of sugar from the fruits. I’ve heard some people use balsamic vinaigrette, but I tried it once and threw the whole thing out. But you do you.

Sorry this salad has no real measurements. It’s just how big the salad is, and how much fruit/ad ins you want.

I LOVE & live by these salads. They are actually salads I crave [which for me is absolutely wild] I hope you enjoy! Leave a comment about your favorite salad! I’d love to try some different ones & fall in love with others. Kisses.

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Dessert, Eats, Holiday

Cutouts that KEEP THEIR SHAPE

February 22, 2018February 19, 2018by Elise Giove1 Comment

Sugar Cookie Cutouts, BEFORE.

YES. REALLY. Just like those professionals that you see on instagram. [which are not, and never will be me.] I’m just here to hopefully give someone in the world some advice, tips, enjoyment, 5:00PM Tuesday/Thursday reading & whatever knowledge I can find in the world worth sharing. Today’s knowledge is cutout cookies that actually keep their shape. You’ve done it, make some adorable cut out cookie flowers, cats, leaves, dinosaurs & you put them in the oven for 8-10 minutes and they come out as, a large blob, small something, and a medium oh no. WELL, I’m here to save the day. [hopefully]. & these taste good, [super bonus]. [left, raw dough – real shapes]

Sugar Cookie Cutout Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups flour
1 cup unsalted butter [room temp]
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract

Directions:

**Preheat oven to 360 Degrees. [yes. 360. not a typo]

— Cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs & extracts. Then, add your salt & gradually mix in your flour. Take your bowl of dough & wrap in plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours. Roll out [to roughly 1/4 ” thick]& cut out.
** If you roll your cookies out in between parchment paper, [instead of on the counter with flour] this will keep the cookie’s from getting too dry. Lay your parchment on the counter, then your dough, and another layer of parchment paper between your dough and roller. A parchment sandwich if you will.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. THEY WILL NOT BE GOLDEN BROWN. [see photo example below] You might want to conduct a test to see how many minutes your oven needs. Mine needs 9 1/2 minutes. You won’t see the light brown edges like typical cookies, so make sure they are baked, but not overdone.

Let the cookies cool, and you can frost them with buttercream flowers, royal icing, or whatever your little heart desires. The most exciting part is that they will keep whatever cutout shape you make them. It took me [& my mom] about 4 recipes and trial and error to find this gem of a cutout, so… your welcome. Kisses.

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Drinks, Eats, Knowledge is Power

Margarita’s.. a global shortage.

February 15, 2018February 13, 2018by Elise GioveLeave a Comment

SO BASICALLY…. this is a PSA more than anything. If you are into fruity drinks [mostly margaritas] of the strawberry, watermelon, & pineapple variety… [pictured above when I was on Catalina Island] BEWARE. Long story short there is a shortage of Tequila in the WORLD. The agave plant [used to make tequila] takes about 7-8 years to mature before the farmers can harvest. The supply is not meeting the demand for this liquid gold [or silver if you’re me] so the farmers are harvesting early at 4 years [which makes for not so good tequila] in turn, causing even more of a problem. If you’re into really reading from sources that aren’t from a pink haired glitter queen at a desk [spreading the word] then you can read what the New York Post said about this tragedy here.

Continue reading “Margarita’s.. a global shortage.” →