Join Twitter Chats With Kristina Vanni and Pompeian Olive Oils

I received Pompeian products in exchange for writing this post. All opinions are my own.

I'm always a little surprised by how much olive oil my family and I use in our cooking. It's a lot, and I always enjoy it's flavor and how healthy it is for us.

Pompeian Olive Oil is one I have used in the kitchen for a long time, and use it frequently to cook with, and sauté foods. It's also perfect for salads and my favorite vinaigrette.

I wanted to share with you that award-winning cook Kristina Vanni will be hosting Twitter Chats to answer your questions about recipes, cooking tips, salad dressings, and more.

Just use the hashtag #AskPompeian and the @PompeianOils Twitter handle to ask Kristina any questions about Pompeian Olive Oil and it's other products. She will be hosting 3pm - 5pm on July 12, 19, and 26.

You can also check out Kristina's fabulous food blog, Better Recipes here. It's filled with delicious recipes and cooking tips, and she has wonderful summer cooking and entertaining ideas.

2-Bite Coconut Cupcakes

These coconut cupcakes are so moist and delicious. They are actually super easy to make too, because they start with a boxed mix.

With the addition of sweetened condensed milk and coconut in the batter, these little gems will go quickly.

My grandchildren loved the fact that they were the perfect size for them, and of course I was so pleased that they liked them so much.

And they make a great presentation if you want to take them to a potluck or barbeque this summer.

Recipe for 2-Bite Coconut Cupcakes

Makes 48 mini cupcakes

Ingredients:

For cupcakes:

2 cups flaked coconut, divided
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 box white cake mix
water, eggs, vegetable oil called for on cake box mix

For coconut cream frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1-3 tablespoons milk
1 cup coconut, toasted

Directions:
 

• 1 Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place mini paper baking cups in mini cupcake pan.                        
• 2 In medium bowl, stir 2 cups coconut and the condensed milk; set aside.
• 3 Make cake batter as directed on box. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (two-thirds full). Top each with about 1/2 heaping teaspoonful coconut mixture.
• 4 Bake as directed on box of mix. Cool in pans 5 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack.                           
• 5 In medium bowl, beat powdered sugar, butter and salt with spoon or with electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Beat in coconut extract and 1 tablespoon of the milk. Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. Immediately frost cupcakes. Sprinkle tops of cupcakes into toasted coconut. Store loosely covered.   

 

         

                                                                        

                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                          

                                                                        

                                                                        

                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Apple Fruit Galette

I can see that making fruit galettes could easily become my passion. What I love about them is that they are rustic looking, taste so delicious, and look like they are much more difficult to make than they really are.

I discovered this recipe for the delicious crust from one of my favorite magazines, Cottage Living. Unfortunately, the magazine folded a few years ago, but I have held onto every old issue, and recently ran across the recipe.

I guarantee you will adore this apple galette, and it could become your go-to dessert for a delicious dessert at home, or to bring to a picnic, or to someone you really like.

There is no worrying about making a perfect pie crust with a galette, and you can use differ kinds of fruit, or a combination.

It totally impressed my family, and there wasn't a crumb left over.


Recipe for Apple Fruit Galette

Ingredients:

For pastry crust:

 2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk
3 tablespoons ice-cold milk

1 egg
2 tablespoons water


Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk together egg yolk and milk, pour into flour mixture, stirring just until dough starts to form a ball.
Press together with lightly floured hands, and form into a flat round. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

For fruit filling:

2 pounds apples (4-5) Golden Delicious, Pink Lady, Granny Smith
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Peel and core apples; cut each in to 8 wedges. In a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons butter. When butter is foamy, add apples and stir frequently until they are slightly softened, about 10 minutes.
Sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg over apples. Stir into fruit, and continue cooking about 5 minutes, until liquid is syrupy and bubbling.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into an approximate
10-inch round. Place on a large, lightly greased baking sheet. Scoop fruit mixture into center of round.
Fold about 1 inch of dough all the way around to form a rim. Combine egg and water, brush outside of tart with the egg wash.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on pan 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Can be served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Makes about 6 servings.

Enjoy!!

Summer Movie Snacks with Zours® Candies

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions expressed are my own.

Summer nights in my family are often spent inside avoiding the 100+ degree weather. Thankfully for us we are huge movie fans and can always have a great time as a family watching movies. One of the tastiest parts of movie night is the movie snacks. Popcorn at a movie night is a base to the snacking. We like to add candies to contrast with the salty flavor of the popcorn. My son is my constant shopping companion and likes to help me picked out the movie candies for the night.

Over the 4th of July weekend we decided to head to Walmart for supplies for the holiday and our movie night. While we were at Walmart we spotted several demos happening. Of course my son wanted to stop and try all the fun items we saw. Our favorite demo was the Zours® Candies display. My son and I love them! They are super sour followed by the sweetness you expect from a Mike and Ike candy. We bought the only 4 boxes of Zours® left in the store. I asked the demo worker and she said they sold out fast. She told me how fun her day had been watching the faces people would make when they sampled the Zours® candies. My son and I watched for a while and giggled at the #ZoursFace that people were making.

While I shopped my son discussed his favorite flavors and which ones he would eat first. He told me I can have all the green ones since I like green apples so much. The flavors are sour lemon, sour green apple, sour watermelon, sour blue raspberry, and sour cherry. My favorite is the sour apple and my son's favorite changes based which one he is eating at the moment since they are all sourly delicious.

Our summer movie night started with popping the popcorn while we made Zours® Sour Bite Appetizers. I put one of each of the flavors of Zours® on a toothpick for one big bite of sour. I love sour candies and the flavor of the candies in one bite is so sour my face gets the craziest look on it. We had a blast eating a Zours® then popcorn, the sour and salty combo is a perfect movie snack combo.

My son and I enjoying Zours® and popcorn during our summer movie night 

Next time you are in your Walmart I suggest buying Zours® candies to share with your family. It is a sour and silly way to have fun. My son had me take a ton of pictures of all the silly Zours® faces he made so he could see his own reaction. We checked the candy aisle in our store to see the Zours® display was sold out but thankfully we were able to find a few boxes at the demo display.

We would love to see your #ZoursFace when you try the Zours® candies. Here was our best Zours® face. #CollectiveBias

Summer Fruit Galette

I'm going to be honest and tell you that this is the very first fruit galette I've ever made.

I have wanted to try making one for years, but just never got around to it. With all the gorgeous summer fruit in the markets now, I decided to give it a try.

Blackberries and raspberries are the fruits I used, and I just love the way it turned out. The one tip I have is to thoroughly let the galette cool before cutting into it. That way all the fruit mixture has thickened, and will be firmly set. This doesn't have the firmness of a regular pie shell, so I think this is important.

And I really treasure a recipe that is fairly easy to make, but is impressive enough to serve at a dinner, or to bring to someone else's home. This is definitely one of those recipes.

Recipe for Summer Fruit Galette

Ingredients for pastry crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk
3 tablespoons ice-cold milk


Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk together egg yolk and milk, pour into flour mixture, stirring just until dough starts to form a ball.
Press together with lightly floured hands, and form into a flat round. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.


Ingredients for fruit filling:

2 cups fresh blackberries
1 cup fresh raspberries
1/3 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling on top
3 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons of butter, cut into pieces
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine blackberries, raspberries, 1/3 cup sugar, and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl.
Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into an approximate
10-inch round. Place on a large, lightly greased baking sheet. Scoop berry mixture into center of round, top with butter.
Fold about 1 inch of dough all the way around to form a rim. Combine egg and milk, brush outside of tart with the egg wash. Sprinkle all over with 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on pan 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Can be served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream,

Makes 6-8 servings.


Enjoy!!