Bored and bruised

New recipe for the week; Cocoa Kiss Cookies.  Delicious crumbly cookie with chopped pecans and a whole Hershey kiss inside, topped with powdered sugar.  Totally melt in your mouth good!

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup finely chopped pecans
About 54 Hershey kisses milk chocolate
Powdered sugar

1.  Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl until creamy.  Stir together flour and cocoa; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended.  Add pecans; beat until well blended.  Refrigerate dough about 1 hour or until firm enough to handle.

2.  Heat oven to 375 Fahrenheit.  Remove wrappers from chocolate pieces.  Mold scant tablespoon of dough around each chocolate piece, covering completely.  Shape into balls.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

3.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set.  Cool about 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.  Roll in powdered sugar.  Roll in sugar again just before serving, if desired.

Yeah...so I really need to get me some protection today for training because I can't seem to leave any of my muay thai classes without adding another bruise.  My thigh is bruised from not properly blocking a leg kick, my shin is bruised from kicking Rob (one my sparring partners) in the knee, my ribs are sore from doing ab conditioning, and last night I bruised my ankle on the punching bag.  It hurts but it also makes me feel tough because I can say I got it hurt from fighting instead of just being a klutz.

Totally getting take out today in little Vietnam.  I've been craving some brothy noodle soup every time I drive through there to practice.  It's complete torture having to drive past awesome Asian food!

Flogging Molly - Cruel Mistress - Fan Video

Seven Nation Army

So I finally found someone to go to the Winter Park Farmer's Market with after months of wanting to go since I saw Samantha Brown's Great Weekends:  Orlando.  My sister-in-lawish Tammy went with me and we had a lot of fun since neither of us get to out much.  I had never been to a farmer's market before and was really pleased to see all the locally grown produce and all the stands with homemade pastries, seasonings, salsas, honey, jam and so much more.  Everything we sampled was delicious!  Tammy bought a jar of bee pollen for $10 and we both bought homemade salsa for $4.50 each by Loco Miguel's Salsa. 
After a stroll through the market we went up and down a nearby street called Park Avenue that had a beautiful historic feel with plenty of boutiques and restaurants to choose from.  We ended up eating at this Turkish restaurant called Bosphorous (I had to eat here since I had never had Turkish food).  Inside the restaurant there were hookahs everywhere which made me giggle!  The food was basically lamb and chicken served different ways and the meal came with cooked beets and cabbage, salsa, grilled jalapeno, rice topped with tomato and yogurt sauces and julienne carrots with a sweet sauce.  It was awesome but pricey..I recommend only eating at lunch on Park Avenue if you are poor like me. I also felt the need to visit this cafe that had Italian sodas listed on a menu outside (since I'd never had one of those either).  It was made with sprite, cream, and a flavored syrup(I got hazelnut) and it was surprisingly good to me since I don't like sprite.  I wish I could remember all the places we went too because there was a really neat gift shop we went into that sold incense, rock collections, jewelry, and Hindu art that I loved.  Tammy bought some stones for her collection and I bought some cannabis incense for shits and giggles.  The lady even told me of an awesome Indian restaurant to visit that I will post about when I go there. 

We came to my apartment and jumped into after all of that since it was like 95 degrees outside with super humidity!  Even though pool wasn't that cool but refreshing after having my shirt stick to me with sweat for the past five hours.  Tammy and I ended our girls day with cocktails at the apartment and we ate our lunch leftovers while watching 'A Beautiful Mind.' Yeah I like girl days...

Love Song

So today I made napoleons...yeah..very messy, would recommend to more experienced cooks.  My Napoleon isn't neatly layered like it's supposed to be.  I don't think  I had enough pastry so the chocolate filling was so much it slid all over the plate.  Glad I didn't make this for a family dinner.  Anyways if you want to take a swing at it(the dessert was awesome despite the sloppiness) here's the recipe:
1 package (17 1/4 oz) frozen puff pastry sheets
Chocolate Filling (recipe follows)
Vanilla Glaze (recipe follows)
Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows)

1.  Thaw folded pastry sheets as package directs.  Heat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.  Gently unfold sheets.  On lightly floured surface, roll each sheet to 15x12-inch rectangle; trim to even edges.  Place on large ungreased baking sheets; prick each sheet thoroughly with fork.  Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.  Cool completely on baking sheets.

2.  Prepare Chocolate Filling.

3.  Cut one rectangle lengthwise into 3 equal pieces.  Place one piece on serving plate; spread with one fourth of the Chocolate Filling.  Top with second piece of pastry; spread with one fourth of the filling.  Place remaining piece on top; set aside.  Repeat with remaining pastry and filling.

4.  Prepare Vanilla Glaze; spread onto top of each pastry.  Prepare Chocolate Glaze; drizzle over Vanilla Glaze in decorative design.  Refrigerate at least 1 hour or until filling is set.  Carefully cut each pastry into 6 pieces.  Cover; refrigerate leftovers.

Chocolate Filling:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups (1pint) cold whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.  Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in small bowl; let stand 1 minute to soften.  Add boiling water; stir until gelatin is completely dissolved and mixture is clear.  Cool slightly.

2.  Stir together sugar and cocoa in large bowl.  Add whipping cream and vanilla; beat at medium speed of mixer, scraping bottom of bowl occasionally, until stiff.  Add gelatin mixture; beat until well blended.  Refrigerate to spreading consistency, if necessary.

Vanilla Glaze:  Combine 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon light corn syrup, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 to 2 tablespoons hot water in small bowl; beat to spreading consistency.  (Add additional water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, if necessary.)
Should look like this but, you know, with puff pastry and chocolate filling.

Chocolate Glaze:  Melt 1/4 cup butter or margarine in small saucepan.  Remove from heat; stir in 1/3 cup cocoa until smooth.  Cool slightly.

KiTTiE - Paperdoll (music video)

I will write something tomorrow but until then here is the song I named my blog after:

Broken English

So this morning I thought I'd put up some pictures.  Their worth a thousand words right? (cliche)

This is my hubby Sam.  Playing instruments(guitar, piano, violin)is one of his many talents and the one I find very sexy about him.

This is our child, Spooge.  He's a Mali Uromastyx lizard, a species that lives in the deserts of Mali apparently.  This is his look of 'Mom where the fuck is my food?!'  Spooge is a vegetarian, I feed him bok choy and any other vegetable with vitamin D in it along with some Repti-calcium sprinkled on top.  Most people fill their cages with sand but it makes my lizard sick from all the bacteria that multiplies in it so the vet recommended shredded newspaper instead which has been a huge success and he can still bury himself if he wants.  I love my little lizard dude!  One day I'll have to put up a video clip of him being crazy.

Yeah, sorry to make you crane your neck but I think this is a cool structure in front of an art museum in Boca Raton, FL.  We went here while visiting Sammie's grandma.  I think she was out bowling that day and she's 90!  Hope I can do shit like that when I'm that age.

Something Sam and I try to do every year is go see ICE! at Gaylord Palms Resort during the winter season.  It is so cool what they do with ice and they keep it, unless my memory fails me, 9 degrees Fahrenheit in there!  Which is why I wearing this lame parka, at least it's my favorite color blue...Here's a pic of one my fave sculptures there:

To know how big it is I'm 5'5 and can walk through the gingerbread house.

A neat place to go if you ever travel to Chattanooga, TN is Rock City.  If you can't read the sign, This is Sam in front a rock formation there called 'mushroom rock.'

Don't how interesting this all was but until next time here is the song/video of the day. see below

peaches