Author Archives: thepetitecroissant

Guest Post: Homemade Reese’s Cups

Posted in Dessert, Gluten Free by

I’ve decided to occasionally have guest posts (occasionally should be read as whenever a friend volunteers). Here is my first, written by the amazing Sarah Layton.

Sarah Layton is an avid baker and meal-maker when the time, ingredients, and cravings all meet at the right time. She lives in Washington, DC, and can be stalked at @saraholinger.

I went camping a couple weekends ago and had leftover s’more supplies. After a quick, mouthwatering Google search for a recipe to use up dark chocolate, I chose to forgo ridiculous brownie/cake concoctions and decided to try my hand at candies. Still looking for something to do with those marshmallows…

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My Favorite Meal of the Week – Grilled Cheese Bar

Posted in Dinner, Entertaining, Vegetarian by

In my opinion, the all-American meal is a grilled cheese with a cup of tomato soup. Not sure why, it just is. It’s also the best comfort food! For the birthday party I threw back in June, I was trying to do really fresh, all-American food because the guest of honor had just returned from a month long stint in the Middle East. And so of course I had to serve grilled cheeses. The hard part is that these are obviously best when hot. So I set up all of the ingredients, and then let people make their own on a little George Foreman Grill. I also had a pot of tomato soup warming on the stove, that people could ladle into small cups to eat with the sandwiches.

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Peach Cake with Peach Cream Cheese Frosting and Burnt Sugar Shards

Posted in Cake, Dessert, Fruit, Summer by

As you know by now, I recently threw a birthday party and went slightly overboard with dessert (think two cakes as well as cupcakes). This was one of the cakes that I made – and if I say so myself, by far the best one. Sometimes fruit cakes tend to lose the flavor of the fruit they’re supposed to embody, but this one absolutely does not. You can taste the peach in both the cake and the frosting, and the cake is even topped with a few peaches that you cook down. I highly recommend this cake for a summer birthday or party.

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My Favorite Meal of the Week – Watermelon, Feta, and Mint Salad on a Stick

Posted in Appetizers, Dinner, Fruit, Gluten Free, Healthy, Summer, Vegetarian by

In the summers, I live for watermelon. When I can, I eat half a mini-watermelon every day. I literally cut it in half, and then sit with the half I’m going to eat, using a melon baller to scoop out bites (which immediately go into my mouth, no need to get a bowl dirty). It’s so refreshing and is the perfect palate cleanser after dinner. But sometimes, I need to class it up, and you know, serve it to people. Recently, I’ve started serving a watermelon, feta, and mint salad. The first time I did it as a traditional salad for a dinner party. The second time, I did mini ones on toothpicks for a birthday party. Both were delicious.

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Salted Caramel Brownies

Posted in Bars, Dessert by

So if you’re looking for a dessert that will present super well, don’t make these. BUT if you’re looking for something that is just ridiculously good, and will melt in your mouth (and in your hands), then this is the dish you should make. These salted caramel brownies are amazing, while also a tad messy. But sometimes a little mess is good, well really only when it comes to food, otherwise I tend to avoid messes. The type-A part of me doesn’t deal well!

A few weeks ago I decided to go a little over the top for the dessert course of a dinner we were throwing. When I say over the top, I mean I had as many kinds of cookies as we did people. Oops. Blame it on needing blog material. So while these may not have been the prettiest item on the plate (that went to the awesome strawberry lemonade bars), they were definitely one of the items everyone kept coming back to.

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My Favorite Meal of the Week – Chicken Tikka Masala

Posted in Dinner, Gluten Free by

So if you saw my post last Wednesday, you’ll know I love the restaurant Rasika here in DC. And I’ve now tried to replicate the two dishes I always order there – palak chaat and chicken tikka masala. And as amazing as I thought my palak chaat was, this was to die for!! I’ve also learned in the process of making this dish that it is semi unhealthy (sometimes it is better to be ignorant). But, hey, every once in a while this dish is worth it. So amazing!

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Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Posted in Dessert, Fruit, Gluten Free, Pies/Tarts/Crumbles, Summer by

Last year I did a post on the basic pie and crumble/crisp/cobbler recipe. But I just realized, I never actually told you how to make my favorite – the strawberry rhubarb cobbler (not that there’s much to know, pretty simple). As you know, I love anything with strawberry and rhubarb (see here). And in the summer, when you can find rhubarb, I just can’t get enough of this cobbler. So, go buy some rhubarb today before the season ends (mid-spring through the end of July).

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My Favorite Meal of the Week – Palak Chaat

Posted in Dinner, Gluten Free, Vegetarian by

Many of you may be looking at the title of this post wondering what it is. Well, it just so happens to be one of my favorite things to order at a particularly good (read: fancy, not greasy take out) Indian restaurant in DC, Rasika. The first time I went to this restaurant was for Dave’s birthday a couple years ago. And in typical Dave fashion, he researched the restaurant in advance on Yelp so that he showed up knowing exactly what to order. One of the dishes he ordered was the Palak Chaat. And I have to say, when he ordered this dish, I was skeptical. It was lightly fried spinach with a yogurt date sauce, which really just didn’t sound that good.

Oh dear god, was I wrong. I can’t even explain it, but this dish is seriously amazing. The spinach is so light and crunchy and all of the flavors are just unreal. The point of this whole story is that I love this dish so much that I wanted to at least try to recreate it at home. I went into the process knowing that I would never make something as delicious as the salad at Rasika, but I at least had to try. And I wasn’t disappointed. I read a couple of different recipes and combined them to come up with the following recipe. Also if you like Indian food, watch out for next week’s post – chicken tikka masala – my other favorite dish at Rasika.

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Cake Decorating 101

Posted in Cake, Dessert by

There’s just something so fun about decorating a cake. Perhaps it’s because it really just feels like a middle school art class. But here’s the thing, people don’t actually love cake as much as they do other desserts. So I now try to hold off on making them unless it’s for a special occasion. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t go over the top with decorations every chance I get. There’s really no rules to cake decorating besides having fun with it. Simple is great, and so is over the top. So below I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite techniques I’ve done. Note: for the pictures of my creations, a lot of them are from my pre-blog days, so I apologize for the quality of the photos!

1. Straws – I got this idea originally from Pinterest and I’ve done it in two different ways in the last year. For the first, I used two straws to create a mini bunting strand that said happy birthday. Very easy, but very effective. For the frosting itself, I just did a messy layer. To get this messy layer, use a knife with a rounded edge and sort of move it in swooping motions. The less perfect, the better.

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My Favorite Meal of the Week – Short Ribs

Posted in Dinner by

So I know it probably seems like I have a lot of favorite foods, but the following recipe is one of those things that I LOVE to order at restaurants. But until this spring, I had never tackled making it myself (and by myself, I mean Dave did all the work and I assisted). The dish I am referring to is short ribs.

I love short ribs (sorry to my vegetarian readers). But seriously, the way the meat just melts in your mouth, it’s amazing. And I was kind of afraid that when we made them ourselves they would’t live up to the excellent quality of Blue Duck Tavern (an awesome restaurant in DC), but our version was absolutely just as good.

I think the trick is buying excellent meat. We got ours from a butcher at Eastern Market, and I definitely recommend trying to go to a local butcher and not just your generic grocery store. But just a warning, these are not easy to make. There’s a reason they are delicious, they’ve been cooked for hours. So only tackle this recipe if you’re willing to log some hours in the kitchen. But seriously, do it. It’s worth it. You’ll not only savor every bite, but you’ll seriously impress your guests. I promise!!

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