The Campfire Colada

June 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Campfire Colada!

I have some really exciting news!  I was recently selected by BACARDI® Mixers to host a summertime cocktail party.  As if that wasn’t enough, the drink mixologists at BACARDI® also created a drink recipe based on my own personal interests.  Ummm…wow!  I couldn’t wait to pick up the phone and call my friends and neighbors about this party.  Needless to say, the party was a blast!  Along with plenty of BACARDI® frozen drinks, I had a plate of s’mores ingredients out for everyone to snack on.  (Have you ever added a piece of fresh pineapple to a s’more?  Neither had we until that evening, but it was oddly amazing!)  And the best part about this party was how easy it was to pull together.  I picked up several cans of BACARDI® Frozen Mixers, ice, a pineapple, some coffee, and the necessary ingredients for s’mores.  Party done!  (The folks at BACARDI® Mixers were nice enough to send along party packs for my friends, too.  So everyone got drink muddlers, visors, recipe booklets, and of course BACARDI® Mixers.)

The Campfire Colada: a frozen drink with Bacardi Mixer's Pina Colada and coffee (yes, coffee!) #summer #bacardimixers99 One of my favorite ways to end a hot summer day is to sit back with a couple close friends and enjoy a cocktail.  We occasionally have frozen drinks, but they often seemed like a lot of work to make.  BACARDI® Mixers solved that problem, and I can personally say that I am excited about many upcoming summer nights with frozen drinks on the deck!

The Campfire Colada: a frozen drink with Bacardi Mixer's Pina Colada and coffee (yes, coffee!) #summer #bacardimixers99 In honor of Spiced, the BACARDI® mixologists created the “Campfire Colada.”  (On a side note, how exactly does one become a mixologist for BACARDI® Mixers?  Talk about a dream job!)  The Campfire Colada featured a blend of coconut, pineapple, and coffee…yes, coffee.  When I first saw the recipe, I was a bit surprised.  I was wondering how the strong coffee would work with the fruity pineapple and coconut flavors.  But it was delicious!  Those mixologists know what they are doing!  BACARDI® Mixers’ Pina Colada Mix contains real fruit juice, which certainly contributed to the deliciousness of this drink.  Pina Colada was the primary flavor, but the Campfire Colada finished with a nice hint of coffee.  Trust me when I say you’ll want to try this one out!

The Campfire Colada: a frozen drink with Bacardi Mixer's Pina Colada and coffee (yes, coffee!) #summer #bacardimixers99 The Campfire Colada is part of BACARDI® Mixers’ “99 Days and 99 Drinks” summer-long series.  If you ‘Like’  BACARDI® Mixers on Facebook, you can follow along and see a new cocktail posted each day.  I just went through the drink recipes that have already been posted, and they all sound very delicious and very tempting.  I’m definitely going to need to keep a stash of BACARDI® Mixers in my freezer this summer!  Oh, and if you share your ideas + photos on the BACARDI® Mixers Facebook page, the mixologists might create a personalized recipe for you, too.

The Campfire Colada: a frozen drink with Bacardi Mixer's Pina Colada and coffee (yes, coffee!) #summer #bacardimixers99

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The Campfire Colada

Yield: Serves 6-8

Ingredients

  • 1 can frozen BACARDI® Mixers Piña Colada Mix
  • 2 cups BACARDI® Anejo Rum
  • ½ cup espresso or strong coffee
  • 5 cups of ice
  • ¼ cup coffee beans for garnish

Instructions

  1. Combine all ingredients in blender and mix on high for about 30 seconds.
  2. Pour into chilled cocktail or martini glasses.
  3. Garnish with 3 coffee beans placed in center of glass.
http://spicedblog.com/the-campfire-colada.html

Bacardi Pina Colada #bacardimixers99

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As always, please drink responsibly.

BACARDI® Mixers is a premium line of non-alcoholic mixers available in 10 fl. oz cans in the frozen juice aisle. With seven easy-to-make flavors to choose from – including Strawberry Daiquiri, Margarita, and Piña Colada – there are endless ways to make your next party come together instantly! By providing cocktail recipes, party tips and food pairings year-round, we continue to give new reasons to blend every day. Find yours at www.facebook.com/bacardimixers

ENJOY RESPONSIBLY. ©2013 THE COCA-COLA COMPANY.

©2013 BACARDI AND THE BAT DEVICE ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF BACARDI & COMPANY LIMITED. BACARDI U.S.A., INC., CORAL GABLES, FL. NON-ALCOHOLIC MIXERS.

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by BACARDI® Mixers via Glam Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of BACARDI® Mixers.

French Herb Bread + a King Arthur Flour {Giveaway}

June 14, 2013 by 16 Comments

French Herb Bread. Perfect for delicious sandwiches! #bread Bread.  There is something so rewarding about creating fresh loaves of bread from just a few basic ingredients.  This must be how prehistoric men and women felt when they realized how to let bread rise and then bake it.  Ok, maybe not.  Instead of a fire, I used a gas oven.  And instead of grinding my own wheat, I used King Arthur’s amazing flour.  So maybe my story has no actual connection to prehistoric man whatsoever.  Either way, I do still love to bake fresh bread at home!  The famous Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) once noted that “All sorrows are less with bread.”  I couldn’t agree with Miguel more.  I know my sorrows are less whenever I have a fresh loaf of this French Herb Bread in the kitchen!

A couple months ago, I was invited to attend Blog & Bake™.  This event, hosted by King Arthur Flour, brings bloggers together to learn more about King Arthur Flour and Vermont in general.  The experience was amazing!  (Check out my previous post about Blog & Bake + recipe for Homemade White Sandwich Bread.)  If you’ve ever used King Arthur flour, then you know how amazing their products are.  I swear by King Arthur whenever I bake!

French Herb Bread. Perfect for delicious sandwiches! #bread You may be familiar with “The Baking Sheet,” King Arthur Flour’s subscription newsletter.  This thing is loaded with amazing recipes, tips, and photographs.  It truly is a baker’s resource for well…everything!  King Arthur now offers The Baking Sheet in digital format, which is especially awesome because it provides access to back issues and all recipes since 1990.  Seriously, that’s a lot of recipes.  I’m pretty sure you could bake for 365 days straight and still not make your way through 23 years of King Arthur recipes!  I am excited to announce that I have partnered with King Arthur Flour to give away a digital copy of The Baking Sheet.  That’s right…if you win, it’s kinda like discovering a lost pirate’s chest full of baking gold.  So make sure to enter below for a chance to win!

French Herb Bread. Perfect for delicious sandwiches! #bread This French Herb Bread is an amazingly simple recipe that yields an excellent, tasty sandwich-style loaf of bread.  One of the best things about this bread is its relatively short proofing period.  In fact, you could wake up one morning craving this bread and have it ready for lunch!  If you’ve never experimented with bread baking before, then I encourage you to try this recipe out.  Your sandwiches will never taste the same thanks to the plentiful herbs de Provence sprinkled throughout.  Enjoy!  And don’t forget de Cervantes’ quote: “All sorrows are less with bread.”

Oh, and here’s another opportunity to win: The good folks at King Arthur Flour are running a Baking Adventure Sweepstakes with tons of prizes…including the Grand Prize of a 2-night trip to Norwich, VT to visit King Arthur and take several classes in their Baking Education Center.  Talk about a dream opportunity!  Click here to enter this contest…maybe you’ll win the grand prize!

King Arthur Flour Baking Adventure Sweepstakes

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French Herb Bread + The Baking Sheet Giveaway

Yield: 4 mini-loaves or 1 large loaf

Ingredients

  • 1 ¼ cups lukewarm water
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk
  • ¼ cup potato flour or ½ cup dried potato flakes
  • 2 tablespoons herbes de Provence
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast

Instructions

  1. Combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of a countertop mixer, and mix on medium speed for 6-7 minutes. (Note: You can also mix this dough by hand, but you will need to knead it a bit longer.)
  2. Once mixed, cover the bowl and place in a warm location for 1 hour.
  3. If making 4 mini-loaves, then divide the dough into 4 pieces, shape into logs, and place in lightly greased mini loaf pans. If making 1 large loaf, shape the entire piece of dough into a log and place in a lightly greased 9" x 5" loaf pan.
  4. Cover the bread pans and place in a warm located to rise until the dough has risen about ½" over the rims of the mini loaf pans, or 1" over the rim of the larger pan. This will take approximately 30-60 minutes depending on the warmth of the location.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  6. Bake mini-loaves for 30-35 minutes and full loaves for 35-40 minutes. (If necessary, you can place a piece of aluminum foil lightly over the bread if the top appears to be browning too quickly.)
  7. Remove the bread and allow it to fully cool on a rack before slicing.

Notes

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Note: I doubled this recipe to create 2 large loaves.

http://spicedblog.com/french-herb-bread.html

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Peanut Butter + Brownie Chunk Milkshake

June 11, 2013 by 16 Comments

PERFECT FOR FATHER'S DAY! Peanut Butter + Brownie Chunk Milkshake #FathersDay #milkshake #chocolate #brownie #peanutbutter Father’s Day is just around the corner, and while I do not have any kids, I do have a couple children of the furry variety.  So I started to wonder…what if Maximus (Furry Kid #1) were to make me a Father’s Day meal?  What would it be?  I’m guessing it might be Banana Pupcakes.  (As a side note, I did make these for the dogs last summer.  They were cupcakes with ground dog food as a primary ingredient.  They smelled umm…interesting.)  But back to Father’s Day.  Ethel (Furry Kid #2) would probably become alpha-dog in the kitchen, which means that peanut butter would be involved somehow.  Both of my 4-legged children absolutely love ice cream, especially on a hot summer day.  So with that in mind, if Maximus and Ethel were to make me a Father’s Day treat, I’m nearly certain it would be this Peanut Butter + Brownie Chunk Milkshake.  Too bad they won’t get to clean the dish after this one!  (On a serious note, dogs should never ever eat chocolate.)

PERFECT FOR FATHER'S DAY! Gooey Brownies #FathersDay #chocolate #brownie Now that summer is finally here in upstate New York, I’ve been breaking out the ice cream machine pretty often.  I started with this Vermont Honey Ice Cream, and it is still one of my favorites.  But this Peanut Butter + Brownie Chunk Milkshake is seriously delicious!  It’s peanut butter and chocolate together…how can you go wrong??  To make this milkshake even more special, I…err, Maximus and Ethel…started with homemade peanut butter ice cream.  You could totally just add a cup of peanut butter and a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream in a blender and still achieve a similar effect.  Likewise, this recipe features brownies baked from scratch, and you could totally use a boxed mix instead.  (This brownie recipe is loaded with chocolate, which makes it super gooey.  Difficult to eat by themselves, but perfect for this milkshake!)

To all of the fathers out there (no matter whether your kids have 2 legs or 4), Happy Father’s Day!

Print
Peanut Butter + Brownie Chunk Milkshake

Yield: 3-4 Milkshakes

Ingredients

    For the Gooey Brownies
  • 1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp boiling water
  • 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
  • 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (recommended brand: King Arthur Flour)
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
    • For the Peanut Butter Ice Cream
  • 1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
    • For the Milkshake
  • ingredients above plus 1-1.5 cups additional milk
  • Whipped Cream (optional topping)

Instructions

    For the Gooey Brownies
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9"x13" baking pan. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, combine cocoa powder and boiling water. Whisk until well combined.
  3. Add the unsweetened chocolate and stir until chocolate is fully melted.
  4. Stir in the butter and oil, and mix until combined.
  5. Add eggs, yolks, and vanilla. Stir until well combined.
  6. Next, add the sugar and stir until combined.
  7. Add flour and salt, and gently stir until well combined.
  8. Finally, fold in the pieces of bittersweet chocolate.
  9. Pour batter into greased pan and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
  10. Cool for 2 hours on a wire rack before cutting.
    11. For the Peanut Butter Ice Cream
  11. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir until well mixed.
  12. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions.
    13. For the Milkshake
  13. Using a sharp knife, cut about 20-25 1-inch square Gooey Brownie pieces. Set aside.
  14. Scoop Peanut Butter Ice Cream into blender and add 1/2 cup milk.
  15. Blend until you reach desired consistency, adding more milk as needed.
  16. Pour milkshake into glasses, adding brownie chunks as you pour.
  17. Top with whipped cream (optional).

Notes

Gooey Brownie recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2010

http://spicedblog.com/peanut-butter-brownie-chunk-milkshake.html

Chocolate + Vanilla Swirled Pudding Pops

June 10, 2013 by 4 Comments

Make Your Own Pudding Pops! #whatsyourid #summer #pudding I’ve got a lot of favorite summer desserts, but one of my absolute favorites is pudding.  (Just a couple weeks ago, I made this Southern Banana Pudding…it didn’t last long around my house!)  Earlier this week, I decided to create a recipe for pudding pops. Do you remember pudding pops?  I grew up in the 80’s, and I can still remember the commercials on tv for pudding pops!  Looking back, those must have been a permanent item on the weekly grocery list in our house.  My sister and I would always fight over the chocolate and vanilla swirl…so it should come as no surprise that I chose Chocolate + French Vanilla Pudding Pops as my first flavor to make! Make Your Own Pudding Pops! #whatsyourid #summer #pudding This pudding recipe is really simple, and doesn’t require many ingredients at all.  In addition to milk, I used International Delight coffee creamer…and wow, that was an easy way to add a ton of flavor!  The best part is you can use any of International Delight’s flavors to create different flavored pudding pops. And if you start mixing flavors like I did here, then there are literally hundreds of flavor combinations!  What about Vanilla Caramel Crème + Hazelnut?  Or maybe Irish Crème + White Chocolate Mocha?  The possibilities are endless…and delicious! Make Your Own Pudding Pops! #whatsyourid #summer #pudding I poured the pudding into plastic popsicle molds, and then I used wooden sticks instead of the plastic sticks which come with the molds.  You certainly can use the plastic sticks, but I wanted to make these a bit more authentic.  Hint: If you want to use your own sticks, just cut 4 slots in a piece of cardboard that correspond to the tops of each mold.  Then place the cardboard over the pop mold, and it will help hold the sticks in place while they are in the freezer. These pudding pops are absolutely delicious! In fact, I suspect that there will always be a batch of these in the freezer this summer. Yum! Make Your Own Pudding Pops! #whatsyourid #summer #pudding I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but International Delight has recently launched a “What’s Your I.D.?” website….and it’s full of games and prizes! Visit International Delight’s “Whats Your I.D.?” site and pin your favorite flavor for a chance to win. There are a ton of instant win prizes, and the grand prize is a trip for four to Orlando, FL…talk about a fun summer vacation for the family!!

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Chocolate + Vanilla Swirled Pudding Pops

Yield: 8-10 pops

Ingredients

    For the Vanilla Pudding
  • 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 ½ cups whole milk
  • ¼ cup "French Vanilla" International Delight Coffee Creamer
    • For the Chocolate Pudding
  • 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 ½ cups whole milk
  • ¼ cup "Cold Stone Creamery Sweet Cream" International Delight Coffee Creamer

Instructions

    For the Vanilla Pudding
  1. Combine all of the ingredients in a medium sauce pan and whisk together until smooth.
  2. Heat mixture over low-medium heat until it reaches a slow boil. (Note: Stir often so the bottom of the pudding does not burn.)
  3. Allow the mixture to boil for 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat.
  4. After pudding has cooled slightly, pour through a fine mesh strainer.
    5. For the Chocolate Pudding
  5. Combine all of the ingredients in a medium sauce pan and whisk together until smooth.
  6. Heat mixture over low-medium heat until it reaches a slow boil. (Note: Stir often so the bottom of the pudding does not burn.)
  7. Allow the mixture to boil for 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat.
  8. After pudding has cooled slightly, pour through a fine mesh strainer.
    9. To Assemble Pudding Pops
  9. Fill molds approximately half-way with vanilla or chocolate pudding.
  10. Carefully fill rest of the molds with the remaining flavor.
  11. Insert popsicle sticks (see note in post about using own wooden sticks) and freeze 5-6 hours or until solid.

Notes

To remove pudding pops from molds, place mold in a bowl of warm water for a few seconds. This will help the pops release.

http://spicedblog.com/chocolate-vanilla-swirled-pudding-pops.html

What’s Your ID? International Delight is looking for their most passionate flavor fans. Put your ID on the map to enter to win a Magical Trip, play games and discover more unexpected delight. Share your ID flavor at http://whatsyourid.com. 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.