JuBella.com – Get Your Creative Dose

Who doesn’t love Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa! She’s such a gem and I can always count on her recipes, especially when it comes to desserts! In this video she’s making Profiteroles, which are basically pastry dough balls filled with cream and even sometimes ice cream that’s drizzled with chocolate or caramel or a raspberry sauce! Yum!

PS: I also love how Ina’s always feeding her husband! he’s always so cheerful to eat. I guess I would be too if I were married to Ina! I am always begging…ahem, I mean asking my husband to taste test my experimental recipes (hey, who else is going to give e proper feedback..the seven year old?)….sometimes good, and sometimes bad, but he’s a trooper for playing along.

Hi Guys! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Ours was pretty good. We finally got our downstairs painting completed..woo hoo!

Ok, on to other news. You know, it’s quite funny, we really do not celebrate most holidays traditionally, but I must say that the artist in me cannot help but to be attracted to holiday colors and packaging and décor. I mean really, how can one not have the slightest urge to make something sweet and heart shaped, or dye eggs even if you do not celebrate Easter, etc.? So, let us just say that we tend to bake around what I have affectionately coined as “Love Day”, as we do often, yet we use the ready available red white and pink and a dash of chocolate. I mean, if we baked and crafted with such colors and said I love you on any other day, does that make one less celebratory of the original holiday? Who knows, but what I do know is that I whipped up some pretty yummy red velvet cake pops this weekend! I was rather lazy and did not bake the cake from scratch..totally boxed it up this time around. I would love to make some carrot cake pops or maybe some chocolate ones dipped in ganache…yum! While dipping them some of them fell of the stick(tip: do not make them too big & make sure your chocolate is not too cool.)…but no worries..I just covered them in chocolate and decorated them to look like little chocolates. I also used a heart shaped cookie cutter and poured the melted candy chips over it to make make mini heart shaped cakes!

These little cake gems are so easy to make and can offer the creative imagination so many sweet ideas when it comes to decorating them. Above is a video that pretty much sums up the cake pop process. The first time that I ever heard of a cake pop was through Bakerella…Isn’t she amazing! Anyhow, I hope this video inspires you; and if you have kids then they are going to love them and you for making them, whether it’s “Love Day”/ “Valentines Day” or not! They would make the perfect little treat for a kids birthday party don’t you think?

So, what do you get when you combine 3 slices of honey wheat bread, 2 tablespoons of sugar, vanilla almond milk, and a handful of blueberries? You get the most comforting, quick, and easy dessert ever! I consider bread pudding the “poor womans’ dessert…lol, because you really don’t need much to make them and they are beyond delicious. Especially when served warm with ice cream or tea! Don’t you just love how the blueberries pop…such a sweet dessert it is!

Hi everybody! Hoping your week is off to a great beginning! I know that for me that Mondays can be a bit of a drag. In fact, there are many days when I want to enjoy something sweet after dinner, yet I do not have the energy to bake anything. So I though I would start a section called “Sweet & Easy”, which will consist of very simple items that you can buy from the grocery store and turn into a delightful and elegant dessert. First up is a simple fruit & granola parfait. I made this one last night using: low-fat vanilla yogurt, fresh blue berries & diced strawberries(which I sprinkled with a bit of sugar, as the blueberries can be a little tart.), crushed Nature Valley granola bars, whip cream, and a mint leaf to garnish. Simply layer your yogurt, granola and fruit and then top it off with whip cream, a bit of fruit and your mint leaf. It’s so good and dare I say…good for you. You can try this with pound cake, crushed ginger snaps, or even lady fingers..the sky is the limit when it comes to parfaits! I am cannot wait to try a decadent chocolate parfait of some sort next time!

Good morning everybody! Trusting that everyone had a creative weekend? It’s a holiday(labor day) here in the Sates so I get an extra day to spend with the family. Last weekend I finally got around to fixing some homemade jam! I will probably never by store bought jams & preserves again…because this homemade jam in which I combined fresh strawberries with fresh blueberries was pure delight! It’s fresh, not too sweet, natural, and you know exactly what is going into it. My favorite part about “jamming” is that the combinations are endless when it comes to getting creative with your fruit blends and spices! I really want to make peach-apricot next, and then pear(my grandmother use to make pear preserves and it is so good). Anyhow, I made this jam in a matter of minutes and then we all enjoyed it on non other than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! If you really want to make some quick jam, then you might want to try buying the Freezer Jam/fruit pectin in your canning section of your market.

A few days after the little one wanted to make some ice cream, so we added in a bit of the strawberry jam into the ice cream before freezing to make strawberry ice cream and it was fantastic! Usually homemade ice cream calls for heavy cream, but I opted to use a non-fat yogurt(you could use soy if you like) and rice milk and the flavor was perfect and the texture was very much like yogurt/sorbet…see…

Homemade Strawberry Jam
Makes 1-1/2 cups

Ingredients
4 C. Whole Strawberries (if you want to make the one pictured, use 2 C. blueberries & 2 C. Strawberries)
1 C. Natural Cane Sugar
1-2 Tbsp. Fresh Lemon Juice(optional)

Directions:

Chill a small plate or bowl in the freezer or over ice water.

In a 10 or 12-inch wide skillet, bring fruit, sugar, and lemon juice to boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly and skimming foam as necessary. Cook about 8-10 minutes, until mixture begins to look syrupy and thickens slightly.

Spoon ½ teaspoon of the hot fruit onto the cold plate and let it rest for 30 seconds. Tip plate to one side; jam should be a soft gel that moves slightly. If mixture is thin and runs down side of plate, the gel is too soft. Return skillet to heat and cook jam 1 to 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and repeat test.

Cool jam to room temperature before serving. Because a minimum amount of sugar is used, the jam needs to be refrigerated to prevent mold from forming. Refrigerate 2-3 weeks.

For longer storage, freeze or process hot jam in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.**

Option: If jars are sterilized (heated in boiling water for 10 minutes) it’s possible to use the inverted method to preserve jam: Pour hot jam into hot sterile jar leaving 1/8 inch head space. Wipe rim and apply prepared lid and ring. Screw ring on firmly. Invert jar and leave for 5 minutes. Turn jar right side up and let cool 12-24 hours. The heat from the jam will destroy mold spores. This method is not foolproof, so if you are preparing a lot of jam, process the jam in a boiling water canner. ~Recipe by Marjorie Braker

Looking forward to a week of creative bliss!

I am a sucker for desserts, and I have become heavily interested in pretty photos of food, cooking and baking creatively lately, and taking pictures of the finished product brings me such great creative satisfaction; plus it’s a great way to keep track of some of your favorite recipes and the ones that were hits with your family. Serving up creative dishes does not have to be enjoyed only at a nice restaurant..so take some time and serve yourself and your family with the 5 star treatment…you deserve it! So not too long ago the hubby and I stayed at the Hyatt in downtown Atlanta, and we ordered room service for dessert much too late than needed(but hey, the little one was with the grands, and that only happens once in a blue moon for us). We had
the best roasted banana bread pudding, and ever since, I have had it in the back of my mind to try to make it. So I gave it a try recently and it came out wonderfully & photographed nicely and the taste was divine. Enjoy!

Roasted Banana Bread Pudding

1 loaf of whole wheat, Italian, or French bread
3 eggs
1 ½ C. Sugar
1 qt. Milk, half & half, or almond milk
1 ½ tbsp. Butter Nut Vanilla or Regular Vanilla Extract
½ tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp. Cinnamon
½ tsp Ginger
3 tbsp. Dark Rum or Rum Flavor

Cube the loaf of bread, put it in a bowl with the milk and set to the side. ( Let sit for at least 30 minutes if possible, but not necessary). Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, rum, and spices. Combine with bread mixture.
Turn out into a lightly greased 10X12 or 9X13 inch baking dish (I used a non-stick souffle dish here) and bake at 325 degrees until edges are golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out nearly clean. Cool and serve with sweet rum sauce below and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Sweet Rum Sauce
3 C. Powdered Sugar
2 Tbsp. Rum Flavor
1/3 C. Vanilla

Stir all ingredients together in a small bowl until you reach a semi-thick sauce, resembling syrup. Add more vanilla or powdered sugar if needed.