Stonewall Kitchen -- Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut's Mix

For Christmas I was lucky to get a lot of Stonewall Kitchen Products.  I always looked at their products as something I always wanted but I felt bad spending the money!!  Well I was wrong, there products are worth every penny and are delicious!!!

 

Now the box says to use a doughnut pan, I did not have one, so I used a mini muffin pan and they turned out so delicious.

The package comes with two mixes, and you need to add butter, eggs, and milk.  Not bad, you get something so delicious with ingredients you normally have at home.

After mixing them together, with the dough I had enough for one mini muffin tray, and another little container.

After they are baked in the oven, you dip them in melted butter, and than the special topping mixture.  I am not sure what is in this sugar mix but it is so good!!  I would love to be able to replicate it.

The finished product--These were so good!  Treat yourself to the mix for $8.95 and enjoy a delicious breakfast!!!

Enjoy!!

Eataly state of mind!

If you are in Manhattan you need to stop at Eatley.

My mom called me on Tuesday morning and said I just read about this Italian Grocery Store filled with a ton of restaurants that you have to go to, on 23rd and 5th!!  I am so happy that we went!  It was an amazing two hours of our time, I wish we had a car to take a ton of groceries home in, but we could only buy what we could carry!

When you walk in Chocolate and Tea to the right

Italian Desserts

Standing Pizza Restaurant

Cheese!!!

Cheese and Meat counter

Where they make fresh cheese!

Gorgeous looking fresh vegetables

Fancy Italian Sodas

Unique baking trays

Silverware

Fresh pasta

Fresh beet pasta in the far back

Fresh seafood, up front is sea urchin



Fresh sea food



Rhubarb soda--how unique

Fresh mozzarella with this delicious fancy salt

This pizza was so good!!

Oxtail pasta

so much pasta...

Fresh seafood...clams...

cured meats

This is what I bought:  fennel tea..who knew, honey, fancy salt, vanilla mints, measuring spoons, and...

and these little spatula knives...

Now I could talk about Eataly forever...but this place is truly amazing..now I wish I had a slice of pizza right now with a big ball of fresh mozzarella cheese...i am starving..

Below is where my mom heard of Eataly from:

http://www.themarthablog.com/2011/02/eataly-a-unique-food-lovers-paradise.html

Now visit the Eataly's web-site and plan a trip on an empty stomach for eating, and than go shopping!!  bring strong bags to carry your goods home in!

http://eatalyny.com/#1

ENJOY!!

New York State of Mind--and a huge side of Martha Stewart

I consider myself extremely lucky that I was able to get tickets for the Martha Stewart Puzzle show!!!!  I love Martha and I love PUZZLES!!!! 

Mr. P was very luck to be invited by me to attend (I like to think so), we made the trip a little getaway with getting a hotel room for one night!!!  It made being in New York so enjoyable, not having to worry about finding a clean bathroom!!!

I have to say I loved our night getaway, last year I went away for seven weeks in the whole year, and this year we are scaling down, finishing our house, and trying to pay of our debt!  So this one night away was reasonable, and an excellent mini vacation.

We got into town on Monday night (Mr. P had to work).  We took NJ transit as it was 60 dollars, vs the Amtrak price of two tickets of $400.00 (to me that is a plane ticket to some place warm)

We checked into the hotel (Hilton Garden Inn-Chelsea), and than went right out to walk to dinner.  It was supposed to snow/ice that night in Philly, but New York was perfect!  It was chilly and windy but it felt great to be outside, and get back to walking, oh how I miss walking!

Dinner was at the Tipsy Parson, read this review:  http://newyork.timeout.com/restaurants-bars/58322/tipsy-parson
I will post photos later, I want to get straight to Martha!!!

Outside where you wait in line!!

Joey Kola--Comedian/Warm up guy!

New Shows by Martha on the Hallmark Channel!!

Do you see her...this was after the show...i love martha!!!  I want to be martha!!!!

The show audience was filled with puzzle lovers and little Rubik's cube geniuses, it was so amazing..it aired on Tuesday...here are clips of the show:  

http://www.marthastewart.com/show/the-martha-stewart-show/the-puzzle-show

We got such great giveaways!!!  Did I say it was amazing!  I kept saying before we went up, I wonder if we would get a wooden puzzle??  AND WE DID!!! A gift certificate to get a free 75 piece wooden puzzle from elms!!!  

http://www.elmspuzzles.com/

Has anyone ever done an Elm's puzzle???

We won other great stuff, I will share in another post!!

Now onto some great photos of the set:



The Greenhouse

 

The kitchen--Will Shortz is there before the show in a Crossword Puzzle shirt!



Martha with a giant Dot to Dot of herself

She took three questions from the audience

I just love MARTHA!!!!

Valentine's Day Dessert Swap

This Valentine's Day was filled with spending a lot of time with loved ones, and of course my special someone Mr. P!

On Saturday, after cooking for 8 hours the guests arrived for the Dessert Swap!  I figured everyone wanted to try the desserts, so soup for dinner would be filling but not too filling.

The Menu:
Appetizers:
Cucumber Sandwiches
Shrimp Cocktail
Mini Hotbox
Cream of mushroom soup (even better two days later),
Toscana Soup (like Olive Garden)
Beef and Bean Casserole
Corn Bread
Beer Bread

And for the best meal of the day, everyone brought such great desserts:

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Strawberry Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles

Vegan Scones

We had craft time, which was great, we made Heart Wreaths!!!!

It was a great time and I had such a great time with my great friends :)

Pink Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

I was on Food Buzz the other day which I was just introduced too...I guess I was living under a rock..and stumbled upon this wonderful recipe:

http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2011/02/01/red-velvet-cheesecake-brownies/

After reading, I realized that I have never made brownies from scratch and should give this recipe a whirl!

I bought a food scale to use for weight watchers..but I used it for better use, measuring out the chocolate!

I used pink food coloring, I don't think you can see a difference! Except for on my finger!



I did a swirl vs. the recipes 8 dollops!!  This was the only pan I had available to use!

Beautiful!

Baked--I did 50 minutes in the oven

Remember to enter my giveaway!!!