Goat's Milk Caramels

One of the blogs I religiously follow had a post a while back about a company that makes delicious salted caramels from goat's milk (here's a link: bigpicturefarm).  I immediately thought, "Yes!" and "I can totally make that!".  Then I forgot about it for a while.  Strike one.

About two months ago upon remembering my plan to make these, I headed to my favorite goat cheese stand at my UWS farmer's market.  They were a little snotty when telling me that they can't sell Goat's milk.  Strike two.

Now two weeks ago in an effort to save money for a baby and start eating healthier food that I'm making myself (wasn't the point of this blog to start making food for myself?- god I fail at everything) I found myself in Trader Joe's.  Who knew they sold goat's milk?  This was happening- I could already taste them.

As a caramel making novice- I underestimated the usefulness of a candy thermometer.  I don't have one, my soft chewy caramels turned out to be Werther's hard candies.  Delicious hard candies- but I don't have grandparents to give these to and they were NOT what I was hoping for.  Strike three.

This weekend I found myself with no friends in town, a sprinkling of snow and weather outside in the teens.  I figured I'd give these suckers another shot.  Still no candy thermometer, but I was judging by gut feeling now.  It's silly how often I tell myself that gut feeling is more useful that fact.  BUT in this case- my gut feeling paid off! Holy fuck are these caramels GOOD.

    They say four time's a charm...?

I'm pretty sure I met the man I'm going to marry yesterday.  The perfect Governors Island date.  Momma, I want nothing more in the world than to call you and tell you about it.

Update 8/19- Well, that didn't amount to anything.  I have to find a balance between immediately falling in love with someone and immediately knowing that I wouldn't like them.  Give people a second chance to impress me or disappoint me.
Either way- Momma I'd still wanna talk to you.

How much I love my sister. Part 1.

Birthdays were always a big thing in my family.  You'd get to choose birthday dinner.  You'd get your favorite cake.  You'd get presents.  You'd get all the family and most likely all your friends over for the festivities.  Momma would decorate the dining room with so many streamers and balloons and there usually involved some sort of birthday crown/tiara.  Birthdays were fun.  They were events.
Vanessa just turned 31 this past weekend and with the shit year we've had I really wanted to make this one start out on the right foot.  So I planned a birthday event.  She chose my momma's sauce for birthday dinner.  (which I can't show- recipe is top secret.  Only Ness and I know it now) She wanted my vanilla cake and lots of my buttercream frosting.
I'm not really sure how it happened, but her birthday took on a rainbow theme and I fuckin ran with it!  Starting with tie-dye cupcakes :)  

Since she wanted an overload of buttercream- I filled the centers with a little extra frosting!

A decent amount of frosting on top and we're ready for more rainbow color

 
I seriously can't explain how delicious these were.  And not only because I'm currently on a diet and allowed myself to eat one.  They were just all around splendid.

I'll follow up with the final outcome of the dining room decorations.  I handmade 15 rainbow colored poufs!! 

Eating my emotions

I really did think this blog would be a good thing for me.  I'm seriously starting to question that.  

There's nothing like cooking a family size meal for one to make you realize that you are alone.  My single serving taken out of my Le Creuset dish gave me a serious case of the sads.  

Add to that fact that this was my best take at mac n cheese to date and all I wanted to do was brag to my daddy that this was waaayyy better than his.  But I can't do that.  I might have still said it out loud.  I've been talking to myself a lot lately.  Don't tell anyone.  

Anyways- enough of this depressing shit and onto the deliciousness...

Truffle Mac n Cheese

This mac n cheese is seriously so good it'll make you want to touch yourself.  I wouldn't advise that while you're cooking though.  That could get messy.  And supremely unsanitary. 

White Cheddar, Asiago and Locatelli.  Get into it people.  

Truffle Oil.  Purchased at my hometown wine and cheese festival.  Yeah Catskill- you fancy!

Butter, flour, milk- Roux it up.  Melt in your shredded cheese and you get this.   Just retarded cheese sauce that I had to contain myself to not keep spooning it straight into my mouth. 

The end result is- If I am going to eat my feelings, I'm probably okay with that as long as it's Truffle Mac n Cheese.  

 

I need a hobby...

I don't know what the fuck I'm doing here. 
I don't cook for myself.  Like, hardly ever.  It's not that I can't cook, it's just that I'm really lazy.  I usually like to lay around and wait for food to show up at my door.  It's super expensive convenient.
But here I am- creating a damn food blog!? Really Ashley?  I'm not sure I've thought this thing through.
 
See, the thing is- I need something to do with my time.  I don't know what I do with it from when I get out of work until I go to bed at night.  It literally just vanishes and I'm still sitting on my bed staring at my wall.  It's not healthy.  But ya know what is healthy?  Making your own food and feeling like you've accomplished something for the day (hopefully this goes better than boxes of failed hobbies underneath my bed). 
So here I go...!

Goat Cheese, Arugula & Sun Dried Tomato Panini

I'm finally going to use the panini press my sister gave me for Christmas last year (Hey Nessie! Sorry it's taken me ~9 months.  Love you!).  There are a couple of things I assume you're going to learn about me very quickly (I'm not quite sure who "you" are- but I'll just go with it) and one of them is how much I love Goat Cheese and Arugula.  And it's double the love when they're together.  Just come on.

Fresh bread, organic baby arugula and peppered goat cheese.  Good.  

Add some sun dried tomatoes and throw that shit on the panini press.  Presto- you've got a delicious dinner.  

Haha! Well- mine doesn't look all that pretty... but trust me.  It was fucking gooood.  

Tonight's meal brought to you by... 

Cheers Daddy!