Daring Bakers Challenge - Italian Panna Cotta & Florentine Cookies

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies. 

What a wonderful dessert! Panna Cotta is so easy to make. I cannot believe we had never heard of or even tried this before!  It has a pudding texture and was a hit in my home! My youngest nephew, he's 11 even had a dish. He loved it, and he is a picky one! It isn't too often that others get to taste what comes out of Aunt B's Kitchen. ;)

The Florentines were very sweet and crispy. Who new they were my husband's favorite cookie. I am a newbie when it comes to trying products in the kitchen. I had to learn the hard way that you cannot replace wax paper for parchment paper especially when it comes to these cookies... I had to try! But now that I have used the parchment paper, I LOVE IT! It is now one of my new favorite things!! I'm not kidding!

I will definitely be making these desserts again!! I am so pleased with my first bakers challenge accomplishment!

Shrimp Tempura & Green Beans - TAKE 2

 I used frozen Jumbo Shrimp, I had to rinse them for 20 minutes under cold water till they were thawed.

 While Shrimp was being rinsed I started on my batter. It said to mix it with chop sticks so okay I tried that.

 However I did use a whisk a little and finished up with the sticks again.

 After the Shrimp were rinsed I patted them dry as I could till the moisture seemed to be all out.

 Dipped them boys in the Tempura batter and started frying them in the deep fryer!

The finished product.

Dip the shrimp in sweet and sour sauce. A great finger food!

What's that smell?

It is a YUMMY delicious smell! It isn't a birthday cake scented Scentsy candle... It is Valentine cupcakes for my valentines referring to the kids, hubby, anyone who so happens to come over while cupcakes are around...lol! Have a dozen baked so far and cooling and more batter to go! Ugh! 

What do you do with left over batter? If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment! Do you ever have leftover batter? If your like me I try to use it all up with nothing left over even if it means being up past midnight to get the job done. What do you do?

The Daring Cooks February 2011 Challenge: Cold Soba Salad/Tempura Shrimp

The February 2011 Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and/or Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com.

This is my first challenge at the Daring Cooks and out of two recipes you could do both recipes or one of the recipes given.

So what exactly is Soba? It's a type of Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour,  Tempura is seafood or vegetables that have been dipped in batter and deep-fried.

I chose the Tempura Shrimp. It was awesome! We love fried shrimp and I was so nervous about making it. I don’t know what I was so worked up over, it was so easy and it turned out great! I think I needed the reassurance from the finished products looks, down to what my family of taste testers had to say. According to all of them and the one that matters, my valentine of 17 years the Tempura Shrimp was a hit!!

I hope you all have a very wonderful and fulfilling Valentines Day.

Happy Valentines Day!

Hesitating..

Yes I have been hesitant to start my first challenge. Then we were hit with a blizzard and it is pressuring me at the last minute to get this challenge under my belt.