AshleyNewell.me: food

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Portuguese Baking Class with Jeremiah Bakes

Once upon a time, I was watching The Great American Baking Show and I noticed that there was a lovely baker from Sacramento on the show. What's one to do other than open the Instagram and immediately start following JeremiahBakes? I, obviously, did not see another alternative. (You know my history with Instagram stalking?) Over the last year or so, Jeremiah and I would chat on Instagram and we met up for coffee. I was thrilled when he invited me to join his baking class!

I have a complex relationship with baking. Me and cooking are cool. We're friends. I can go in the kitchen and whip up some food and 95% of the time, it's a success. Me and baking are frenemies. Sometimes I can bake just fine and sometimes I do the exact same thing and my baked good turns out horrible. This is why I was super excited to learn from Jeremiah!

Jeremiah hosts his baking classes in his home in Sacramento and he was a lovely set up where you can watch from the barstools at the counter as he demonstrates recipes. There's also a hands on part where you help make the desserts. In the class I attended, I got to learn to make: Pastéis de nata - custard tarts, Bolo de bolacha - Maria cookie and coffee buttercream cake, and Tarte de amêndoa - almond tart.

I've always loved the idea of learning about the food of a different culture from a person of that culture. It was so interesting to learn about Portuguese baking from Jeremiah! He told me how many of the recipes were developed by nuns with leftover egg yolks since they used egg whites to starch the laundry. I also learned about how Japanese cuisine was influenced by Portuguese traders in the 16th century. The Portuguese Tarts also influenced Chinese Egg Tarts.

In the class, I go some great tips on how to shape the puff pastry into tart cups and got to shape my own. I learned how to make buttercream. Get this Jeremiah even taught me how to use a piping bag and I even piped an entire cake all by myself! That's quite the feat for me! He also taught me tips on how to decorate a cake without buttercream and fondant which are things that I'm not great at. It's always nice to be taught alternatives so I don't have to force myself to do something I don't enjoy.

It was such a lovely day and I learned a lot. I got to take a box full of delicious treats home to my family. My absolute favorite part was standing in the kitchen enjoying fresh from the oven custard tarts with a little sprinkle of cinnamon. Jeremiah was almost giddy when taking a bite. After probably making them hundreds of times, his joy still filled the room and that's why you bake.

You can find a listing of Jeremiah's classes on this website.

Connect with me on social media:

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

3 Raw Honey Recipes to Fight Allergies With Sola Bee Farms

This year the seasonal allergies seem to be especially bad. My friends and I have been complaining about it for weeks. I have tried so many different things to help allergies. One of the things that has been working for me is adding raw local honey to my diet, my favorite is Sola Bee Farms. Today, I'm sharing 3 each recipes to help add more raw honey to your diet.

*** This post is a collaboration with Sola Bee Farm. They provided product that I love and I'm providing the recipes and photos.***

I've written a post about Sola Bee Farm before. I absolutely love their products, their commitment to sustainability and helping bees, and of course the amazing people! The taste of the honey is amazing and it's a great bonus that it helps your allergies! Just keep in mind that it is better to keep the raw honey in its raw state when you are trying to relieve your allergy symptoms. If I don't feel like making recipes, I will just eat a spoonful of their honey to help with my allergies. However, making some fun recipes is a great way to eat more honey too!

Acai Smoothie Bowl

An acai smoothie bowl is a fun and delicious breakfast or snack. My kids love this and it's nice to get all that extra fruit into them. Plus with the weather getting so warm, this is a nice way to cool off. I can find frozen acai packets in my local grocery stores. The most inexpensive place I've found is Trader Joe's. Another weird tip, I have a freezer bag of frozen bananas. When bananas start to get old and I don't think they'll be used, I will break them in half and freeze them for recipes.

Ingredients:

1 packet frozen acai puree
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 a frozen banana
A splash of milk of your choice (I use unsweetened Almond) or water or juice
1 TBSP of Sola Bee Farms Honey
Toppings of your choice (fruit, nuts, granola, chia seeds, etc...)

Directions:

1. Break up your acai packet and place in food processor with frozen strawberries and banana. If you have a really nice blender, you can use that. If you have a cheap blender like me, use your food processor. It works great for this!
2. Add enough liquid so you can mix all the ingredients together. Blend/pulse until your desire consistency. We like ours thick.
3. Pour into bowl and top with toppings of your choice.

Yogurt Parfait

A yogurt parfait is such a classic treat! Using Greek Yogurt amps up the protein. This is the perfect way to use up fruit before it goes bad because your kids can't see if your blueberries are starting to wrinkle or that you cut brown spots off the banana.

Ingredients:

1 container PLAIN Greek Yogurt

1 TBSP Sola Bee Farm Honey

1/2 cup of fruit of your choice

Directions:

1. Find a pretty cup or jar and layer yogurt, honey, and fruit.

Optional: for crunch, top with nuts or granola

Asian Chicken Salad

This is my take on LaBou's Chinese Chicken Salad. You can leave off the chicken to make this vegetarian or add tofu or chickpeas. You can also leave off the nuts to make this nut free. I like to make a big batch, keeping the salad, chicken, nuts, and dressing in separate containers until I'm ready to serve. Then I just put a bit of each on a plate and I'm ready for lunch.

Ingredients:

Dressing:

1 1/2 TBSP Sola Bee Farms Honey

1/4 cup of Low Sodium Soy Sauce

2 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar

2 TBSP Olive Oil

Directions: Combine all ingredients and stir or shake.

Salad:

Lettuce Mix of Your Choice

2 stalks of Celery, cut into bite sized pieces

Shredded Rotisserie Chicken

Honey Roasted Peanuts

Directions: In a bowl or plate, add salad, chicken, celery and top with peanuts. Dress to your liking and enjoy!

I hope you enjoy these recipes using raw honey! Be sure to check out my friends at Sola Bee Farms! And I REALLY hope that if you need relief from seasonal allergies that these help you! What's your favorite way to use raw honey?

Connect with me on social media:

Friday, April 20, 2018

Date Your Spouse: Chef's Dinner at Zocalo Sacramento

Hi friends! I hope you're doing well! I have to tell you that "research" for the Date Your Spouse series has been super fun! We are really pushing ourselves out of our usual routine and it's a been a great time! This next date is a location we've been to before but an event we had never attended.

Every month, usually on the first Monday, Zocalo Midtown offers a Chef's Dinner event. (For May, they are having the dinner on April 30 to kick off a week of Cinco de Mayo celebrations.) The Chef's Dinner is a 3 course meal where each course is paired with a drink all for only $30 a person! The drink is usually a cocktail, wine, or beer. This is a steal! Usually an entree alone would cost over half that amount not to mention drinks! (I was given tickets to this event for review. As always, all the opinions are mine and 100% honest.)

Zocalo transforms their restaurant for the Chef's Dinner. They block off about half their restaurant for the event. (The other half is for regular dinner service.) They set beautiful tables with place settings and floral arrangements. Menu cards are printed out for each guest. It's really nice attention to detail. The restaurant itself is already beautiful and always decorated tastefully but they go a step beyond for the Chef's Dinner.

We got to attend the April 1 dinner and the theme was SPRING! Oh how I love spring menus! I love the fresh vegetables and how we start to see fruit again! This menu was phenomenal! They even started us with an extra little bite and champagne bellini in addition to the 3 courses. We were also served chips, salsa, and the house bean dip.

This menu featured an asparagus salad which was so delicious! We got big but tender stalks of asparagus that was perfectly grilled, topped with arugula salad on top of a poblano puree. I loved every single bite of this dish! This was paired with a Heretic Lager since Heretic Brewery was their partner for this month's dinner.

The main course was a lamb in red chile broth with beans, rice, and tortillas. This was paired with Heretic Evil Twin which is a red IPA. The lamb was great! It was really flavorful. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the green rice at Zocalo, it's one of my favorite things about the restaurant. Their hot tortillas that are a hybrid of corn and flour tortilla are TO DIE FOR. Needless to say, I cleaned my plate.

The dessert was a strawberry shortcake done "dulce de leche" style paired with a Fresca Sting which was like a spicy strawberry margarita. Personally, I do not prefer "soaked" cakes. The texture is not my jam. I did eat the drier parts of the cake and I really enjoyed it. I ate all the strawberries and whipped cream. Other people around me LOVED the cake!

Overall, the whole experience was amazing! The value was incredible! I could easily spend well over $60 on an evening of food and drinks and not even get dessert or appetizers. This dinner is probably one of the best values in Sacramento! Plus it is a lovely event full of happy people and delicious food! I will definitely be returning to the monthly Chef's Dinner!

I think a Chef's Dinner is probably a date that suits me best. What kinds of dates suit you? Do you have a date idea for me? Please leave me a comment and let me know!

Connect with me on social media:

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

My First Live TV Cooking Demo

Hi friends! Today, I wanted to share about the first time I had a live TV cooking demo which was on March 12. I was on Studio40 Live making an apple crumble with Pazazz Apples for a healthy St. Patrick's Day treat. This was my absolute first time demoing anything on the TV! I haven't even done a food demo since I did Pampered Chef probably 15 years ago and that was just in people's kitchens with their friends.

I was asked by Pazazz Apples to make their recipe on air. (You can find the recipe HERE.) Though I've never done this before nor had I ever even dreamt of doing it, I figured I should push myself and just do it! Over the last year, I've really tried to push myself out of my comfort zone. I'm told that only when we are uncomfortable do we grow.

You can view the video on the Fox40 site HERE. Please note that I was extremely nervous! I tossed and turned all night hoping that I would do a good job. I was not at all prepared for the questions Lori asked me. For some reason, I thought that I would just talk about the recipe but of course (duh) she wanted to have a conversation with me because that's way better TV. Lori was so nice and helped me out so much in the segment.

A couple things I learned:
1. Simplify! I did all the prep work the night before and tried to make the recipe as few steps as possible. At one point I was scared that I wouldn't have enough to do in the 3-4 minutes but I was wrong.

2. It goes SO fast! The whole show just flew by! The show is 30 minutes long and it literally feels like 5 minutes when you are watching it from the set.

3. Wear what makes your comfortable. I was going to try to wear a fancy outfit with shape wear and nice shoes but I ended up in a t-shirt, skirt, and flip flops. I'm so glad I didn't wear fussy clothes or uncomfortable shoes when I already had so much to stress about.

I found fake plastic fruit in a bowl and was apparently really excited about it!

Completed Apple Crumble

Basket of apples

How have you pushed yourself lately? Do you have tips on how to be less nervous on TV? Let me know!

Connect with me on social media:

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Date Your Spouse 2: Palladio in Folsom

You guys, I have a life hack for you. If you go on a date during the day while your kids are at school, you don't have to pay for a sitter. Also, you won't have to deal with crowds and lines and most likely, your meals will cost less. In this blog post, I wanted to show you how to have a fun date at the Palladio in Folsom.

This post is in partnership with The Palladio. As always, all opinions are 100% honest and my own. Thank you for supporting companies who support my work!

Quick confession, my kids have been off school for the ENTIRE month of February since they attend year round school. Luckily, my sister in law was able to watch them for me so hubby and I could go on a day date. I feel like day dates are so underrated. Not only can you save money but there's just something special about being out during the day together! It's like when you were single. LOL, who remembers way back when you didn't have bags under your eyes?

First, we started our day at Palladio by getting hubby a smoothie at Pure Life Juice Company so he could have lots of energy while I shopped... Listen, we were at a shopping center and part of marriage and dating is doing a balance of what each person likes. We popped into H&M (where he shopped too) and Charlotte Russe. Then, I got a few things from Torrid and Apricot Lane.

Pure Life Juice Company

Jewelry at Apricot Lane and SHOPPING!

Next, we headed off to lunch! We had lunch at Grist Beer Hall which will soon be celebrating their 1 year anniversary. They have 50 taps and they ALL rotate so you never know what you'll find. They have everything from sours to stouts. My hubby went with a sour called 1 Ton Of... Blackcurrant from the brand To Øl which is imported from Denmark. Grist also has local beers on tap such as Fort Rock, New Glory, Bike Dog, and more. I also like that they have cider because I'm a cider kind of girl.

Grist calls their menu "locally curated artisan food." They have starters, small plates, salads, main dishes, desserts, and a kids menu. I'm gonna admit that mistakes were made on my part. LOL! I really wanted to try the Crispy Poutine. (My first mistake was not adding the pork belly. WHY? If there's an option for pork, you should say yes!) The poutine comes with a stout gravy which is such a great tie into the beer hall. It was delicious!

For our main dishes, hubby got the Lemon Pesto Chicken Sandwich and I got the Marinated Skirt Steak. (Mistake 2 was I should have gotten salad or soup as a side since poutine is a french fry dish but I didn't think to ask for a different side.) I had to have some of hubby's sandwich, you know, for research. The chicken sandwich was so delicious! The brightness of the lemon was a lovely addition to this sandwich which also had balsamic onions, Havarti cheese, and bacon. My steak was absolutely delicious! It was tender and well seasoned. The fries were crispy and super fluffy inside! It was an excellent meal!

Then, we headed over to Barnes and Noble to browse. We love book stores! We used to go hang out in book stores all the time until the book stores around us closed. We chat about the titles we see. We tell each other about why we are picking out specific books. Personally, I love grabbing a big stack of magazines and sit down with a cup of coffee at a book store. The staff at Barnes and Noble was so sweet! They even tried to make me a pretty latte even though they don't do latte art there. We really enjoyed our time there!

After the book store, we made our way over the Pretty Sweet for dessert. You HAD to know that dessert was coming. Pretty Sweet is a GORGEOUS shop. The decor is very modern and their desserts look super gourmet! We shared a Lemon Meringue Tart which was a lovely treat! We also got some beautiful macarons to take home.

Last, Dustin went to go pick up the kids and I headed into Charming Charlie by myself. My sister in law needed to get ready for work and I wanted my Instagram photographer to take some pictures of us. I found ALL the fun things at Charming Charlie! That store makes my heart sing and the one at the Palladio is HUGE! I could spend all day in there. If you haven't been, it's all sorted by color and that makes my heart so happy.

Going to the Palladio was a great way to spend a day date! They have other more "date" type of places to go to as well like their Palladio Luxe Cinema is AMAZING and you can eat while watching a movie (but we are trying to get out of the dinner and a movie rut, remember?) They have Color Me Mine where you can paint your own pottery and Painted where you can do a paint (canvases) and sip. There's also a spa at the Palladio if you can take your date into some pampering. Lots of great date options!

Do you go on day dates? Where do you go? Let me know! I'm always looking for new ideas!

Monday, February 12, 2018

Walmart Grocery Pick-Up Service

Hi friends! Today, I've decided to write a post about the Walmart Grocery Pick-Up Service. I wrote a post about Amazon Prime Now/Sprouts delivery that went really well but I've noticed that every time I go into the app, the minimum order amount seems to be going up. I think it's now a minimum of $50 to get Sprouts delivered. It's $100 for Raley's to deliver or do pick up without a fee. I wanted to showcase a lower cost option. The minimum for Walmart is $30. (This is NOT a sponsored post.)

You first start out by picking out your groceries online. You can select a 1 hour window to pick up your groceries. You can also get things beyond groceries such as personal care, health, pet items, etc... but the whole store is not available for this specific service. The store I was ordering from has a full grocery section. The ones that offer this service probably all do. There were a lot of things that I'd never purchased at Walmart before so that was exciting!

When your order is ready to be picked up, they send you an email. You can also opt to get text messages too. They also provided a diagram telling you where you should pick up. At my location, there were plenty of spots and they were out of the way from the rest of the parking lot which was really nice. When you get to the parking lot, you can either call or check in on their Walmart Grocery App. I got the app since I think I will be using this service a lot. A person comes out with your groceries in crates and will bag them in your own reusable if you want. You also have the option to buy buys if you don't have any.

For my order, there was also a list of substitutions that were emailed to me. I was pleasantly surprised with Walmart in this sense. For the items that needed substitutes, they gave me the same amount if not more. For example, I ordered a Rice Krispie Treats 8 pack for $1.98. They were out of stock so they replaced it with a 40 piece and gave me the $1.98 price! I have had issues with other services trying to give me less product like ONE half gallon of milk instead of a full gallon. I appreciate that Walmart is willing to give me the same if not more! This is important to me! Also, when I go there, the lady loading my groceries asked me if I was ok with all the substitutions so I could have turned them down at that point.

Now, onto produce. This is where I'm always weary. I know that a box of cereal will be fine no matter where I order it from but produce, who knows? I ordered some loose produce and some packaged. We have no complaints about any of the items. Everything showed up in tact. Everything tastes great. You cannot make any requests though. You buy the produce by the pound, each, or package. There's no place to make a comment like "we like green bananas."

I also ordered other items like some candy for Valentine's Day. I liked the option of buying holiday stuff since the kids would see it if I took them to the store. This way, it's a surprise. I also bought things like dried pasta, pasta sauce, bread, yogurt, etc... I didn't photograph all of it because it was a HUGE haul and would have taken me forever to stage. Everything was good and showed up in tact.

Overall, I will order from Walmart again. When my kids are on break, it is almost impossible for me to go to the store and remember everything on my list. This is a great option! I also like that the minimum is $30. If you are sick and just need some medicine and soup, you can do this without having to pay an extra fee for the service. If you'd like to receive $10 off your first order, please email me and I will send you a referral. Or leave a comment with your email address and I will not post it publicly. (If you do this, I also get $10 off an order. Thank you for any support you show my blog!)

Connect with me on social media:

Monday, January 8, 2018

EASY Instant Pot Beef Tips Recipe

Raise your hand if you got an Instant Pot for Christmas! I've actually had one for a few years (my first Instant Pot post) but this Christmas, I got an 8 quart Instant Pot! Oh my goodness! It's been such a huge upgrade. We have a family of 5 and my boys are big eaters so this gift has been life changing! Today, I'm sharing a recipe with you that my WHOLE family including the picky eaters like.

I've been making Beef Tips in the oven for years based on the No Peek Beef Tips recipe from Mommy's Kitchen that my friend Angie shared with me. My family really enjoys the beef tips especially over egg noodles! Over the years, I've adapted the recipe just a little. My only issue with these before tips is the consistency of the meat. Sometimes it would be tender, sometimes it would be tough, other times it would be dry and stringy. I felt like I was doing the same thing every time but it was a crapshoot what the beef texture would be like.

One day, I had purchased some stew meat but it was too tired to make stew. It was already passed 5pm so my usual oven method of slow cooked beef tips would not work. I asked my hubby if I should try making the beef tips in the Instant Pot. I scoured the internet and didn't find ANY recipes for Instant Pot Beef tips. I thought maybe it was a dumb idea since no one had done it before. But Dustin told me that if I didn't try it, I'd never know if it would be great. FRIENDS, you should never doubt yourself if in your heart you know something might work. And in this case, if it didn't, I'd just be out a few ingredients and we'd have peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. But that didn't happen! They were the BEST darn beef tips I'd ever made and everyone raved about how tender the meat was!

Instant Pot Beef Tips:
1-2 pounds Stew Meat
1 can Light or Heart Healthy Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 packet reduced sodium Brown Gravy Mix
1 packet Onion Soup mix
1 cup Ginger Ale
1 drizzle oil

Directions:
1. Turn your Instant Pot on Saute Mode. Add your preferred oil to the pan. Brown stew meat. Turn off Instant Pot.
2. Add all other ingredients. Stir until meat is coated.
3. Close lid and set Instant Pot to manual (or meat) for 9 minutes.
4. After 9 minutes, let Instant Pot naturally release. If you're in a hurry, slowly release pressure after letting the meat rest for 10 minutes. This helps the meat from becoming tough and dry.
5. Serve over egg noodle, rice, or mashed potatoes.

Now, I'm not saying this is the healthiest recipe but I did try to make some healthier substitutions. This is a stick to your ribs comfort meal that is perfect for winter and fall. We have it about once a month during the colder months and it's always a huge hit!

What are you making in your Instant Pot? Let me know! I'd love to try some new recipes!

Connect with me on social media: