How to: Root Cellar Cake

Well, I never saw the day coming where I'd be making a Root Cellar cake. Sure, I've made a lot of random cakes in my day - a Gangster Sloth, a 'fermented' Wolf Head, and the ultimate nerd cake collab for a Nerdy 30 party, but a root cellar? Nope, didn't see that one coming!

If you're not familiar with root cellars, they're essentially cellars that are built directly into the ground or out of the side of a hill/cliff for storing your veggies. They're pretty standard in the area I'm from, in particular, down over the ridge in Elliston, where the town actually holds the title of being the 'Root Cellar Capital of the World'! So again, never thought I'd be making one out of cake and buttercream! However, when my Elliston-born biffle was celebrating a milestone birthday, giving me no theme to go on, it just somehow seemed right!

Belgian Milk Chocolate Dipped Sour Cream & Onion Ruffles

There's nothing like the celebration of a biffle's birthday to really play around with your indulgent daydreams!! A couple of weeks back, one of my closest friends celebrated a milestone birthday and, since we both share an undying love for sour cream and onion Ruffles, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring one of those daydreams into fruition. And since they are basically a gift to humanity, I thought maybe I would share them with all of you. YOU'RE WELCOME! :) So without further ado, I bring you Belgian Milk Chocolate Dipped Sour Cream and Onion Ruffles!!

A Pizza Battle of Epic Proportions!!

Pizza is one of those foods loved the world over. No matter where you are on this planet, no matter what your taste, there is a pizza out there for you. And if you say you don't like pizza... well, the sooner you stop lying to yourself and everyone around you, the better! ;)

In just over a month, Las Vegas will once again become ground zero for pizza genius. Pizza professionals from around the world will get together at the International Pizza Expo to do all things pizza. In light of this, I've been inspired by the folks at Vegas.com to come up with a pizza using only a Las Vegas resort  as my muse! Piece of cake pizza!

After discussing my pizza plans with my husband, to a response of... 'maybe you should pick another hotel?', things quickly escalated into an epic pizza showdown.

Queue music, 'cause there's about to be a Pizza War!

Snowballs

Favourite traditional foods and snacks vary across the province just as much as the accents and sayings, but one 'cookie' you'll find commonplace in every Newfoundland community, is the snowball. I don't know what it is about snowballs but people love them! And let me tell you, you'd be hard-pressed not to find snowballs in someones house during Christmas... that is of course unless they've already polished them off or haven't gotten around to making them yet ;)

These snowballs are amazingly delicious and total crowd pleasers. Every time I've made them I've received nothing but compliments on how good they taste and everyone always asks for the recipe. Once upon a time I didn't like coconut. To think what I was missing out on!

Behind the Scenes at Roots, Rants & Roars 2015!

For me - someone who spends the majority of their time staring at pictures of food, taking pictures of food (yes I'm one of those), pinning recipes (like there's no tomorrow), and wasting hours browsing Munchies and the Food Network - having the opportunity to spend a weekend volunteering at the Roots, Rants & Roars Festival with the creme de la creme of Newfoundland chefs was exciting, to say the least!

Not only did I get to taste the majority of the food served up over the weekend, but I was front and centre to all the action. I was a server for 'The Feast'; therefore, I was in the kitchen, up close and personal with all the chefs, chatting it up and watching them in their zone! Their energy and focus was impressive and seeing them working the line and plating their creations was about as good as it gets. Forget the fact I had never served before and was serving 7 courses to roughly 350 guests, I was in my glee!

How to: 3D Wolf Head Cake

From time to time I like to make cakes. They started out pretty simple in the beginning - I recall spelling out names in smarties as decoration - but in recent years, they've gotten significantly more complicated and just a little more intense! My latest creation was a 3D wolf head to celebrate a friend's 30th birthday. The reasoning behind the wolf head is quite bizarre to be honest, but it was a great excuse for me to play around with some 3D cake making and rice krispie work. And since I was documenting the stages as I went along as friends asked for updates, I thought why not share the process on my blog for my own future reference or in case anyone else out there is ever tasked with making a wolf cake!

Summer Food Bucket List

I really feel the Newfoundland food scene has come alive over the past few years! While food has always been a very prominent part of our culture, it seems lately we've really kicked it up a notch. We have the top ranking restaurant in Canada, local chefs winning national competitions left, right and centre, and our restaurant scene is exploding with new and exciting menus, straight across the province! We have a developing food truck scene, easier access to local produce, and a growing number of events focused specifically on celebrating our food and culture. In short, if there was ever a time to be a foodie in Newfoundland, that time would be right now. 

With that in mind, and summer spreading her hand ;) I'm excited to share my own personal summer foodie dreams as part of Eventbrite's Summer Food Bucket List project! If you've never heard of Eventbrite, they're a fabulous resource for finding events happening in your area or other places you plan to visit! And for the event planners out there, they offer free event management tools to share, promote and track your event progress! Be sure to check them out.

Let's get to that list, shall we? 

Homemade Vanilla Marshmallows

Not to sound stunned or anything, but I never really thought you could make marshmallows at home. I guess I always just thought they were one of those magical confections concocted in a factory somewhere. I mean, there's nothing natural in there, so how could you make them at home? Well, as it turns out you CAN make them at home and they taste 100 times better than any store-bought variety. So far I've only made them around the holidays to enjoy with hot chocolate or on its own, but I'm dying to try them on a campfire, wedged between a couple celebration cookies!! Yum!!

Copycat PK's Pizza Fingers

I can picture it now, lunch time at my old elementary school. Dozens of kids would swarm to the main entrance to find delivery guys from the local restaurants arriving with bags of take-out. Believe me when I say, there was nothing more exciting than waiting for your name to be called. Now, it was pretty rare for me to get in on this action, as my mom usually packed my lunch, but on the wonderful occasions that I did, there was only one thing I would request - pizza fingers and fries from PK's!

Roughly two decades later, I'm still smitten with pizza fingers. So smitten that I just had to try my best to replicate the recipe at home. My first few attempts, while tasty, weren't quite right. They were baked (because I didn't own a deep frier) and leaked a lot as they cooked. However, as soon as I got a deep frier for Christmas, I was able to test them the way they were intended. I'll be honest, when I took that first bite of my legit deep fried pizza finger, my 8 year old self lost it. I had succeeded!

My Year in Food 2014

So despite my efforts, it seems I've waited til the very last day in January to share my year in food. To be honest, I'm not sure what happened to January, but I am sure of two things: #1 The Steve Miller Band totally nailed it in Fly Like an Eagle, cuz let me tell you, 'Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future...' and #2, I have been all kinds of slack with my blog these past couple of months!

Nevertheless, I have still been running around seizing foodie adventures and enjoying lots of delicious foods, a.k.a. stuffing my face and loving every minute of it! Overall, 2014 was pretty great - we spent loads of time with family and friends, vacationed in London, experienced some new dishes and enjoyed some foodie firsts - just what a good 'Year in Food' needs.

For 2015, I wish for the same. I'd also like to carry forward a few of my foodie resolutions from last year including my plan to cook more often without a recipe (so far, so good!). I'd also like to retry my Nan's bread recipe - I want to master it! Or at least succeed with it... lol. And finally, a resolution I always have - to get out to more restaurants I've had my eye on (Chinched, I'm looking at you!).

But for now, I would like to share my 2014 Year in Food. If you enjoy this, I encourage you to check out My Year in Food 2013 and My Year in Food 2012 for many more drool-worthy moments ;)

The Ultimate Fun Foodie-Friendly Gift List Take 3

                                             Santa Claus is Coming to Town - California Raisins

With Christmas day exactly 5 weeks and 6 days from today, it's time for the third installment of The Ultimately Foodie-Friendly Gift Guide!! As in previous years, I have searched the internet for weird and wacky and wonderful items that any foodie/non-foodie would appreciate. And as always, I've included one of my favourite Christmas songs for you to rock out to while scrolling. So without further ado, click play on the masterfully selected California Raisins - Santa Claus is Coming to Town and enjoy your perusing!

Please note, for anyone shopping in St. John's, I've spied many of these gifts in the following stores: Living Planet/Johnny Ruth, Freak Lunchbox and Living Rooms.

Kitchen Armour

Nobody should enter the kitchen without the proper attire. Here are a few places to start!

The Walking Dead Apron

Breaking Bad Apron

They See Me Rollin' Apron

Betty-Lou's Blueberry Roly-Poly

There are a million ways to use blueberries in the kitchen. Whether you add them to your cereal, pop them in your yogurt, bake them into muffins, or throw them into a delectable dessert, they're completely versatile and let's not forget absolutely Delicious!! One of my favourite ways to eat fresh blueberries is to bake up a batch of blueberry squares, I could literally eat the full tray myself. Unfortunately... or fortunately (I haven't quite decided yet), I've discovered another irresistible blueberry dessert I could also polish off myself: my mother-in-law's Blueberry Roly-Poly. This is my father-in-law's favourite blueberry recipe, and is always his main request come blueberry season. I completely understand why! I'm hooked.

London Vacation with all them Foodie Highlights!

That first week back after vacation is always the hardest. You've just finished a slice of that rich and famous lifestyle and the taste is still lingering as you return to your everyday routine. You post some pictures to your social media, share the stories of your trip with friends and family, and start easing yourself ever-so-gingerly back into reality. 

Fast forward just over a month back, and your trip feels like it was a year ago! That's where I am today. The last five weeks have been a blur of getting back into the routine of work (a particularly busy time at work, I might add), plus squeezing in a few final road trips before the inevitable end of summer.

Before I forget all of the fabulous tasty bits and highlights from our trip, I wanted to share them in a quick recap. There was so much awesome to see and eat, I could've spent the entire summer in London and still not have experienced it all.

Fried Cod Tongues with Scrunchions

I sometimes wonder, if I didn't grow up eating cod tongues, would I dare try them today? I honestly have my doubts, but I'm glad I did because cod tongues are now what I reference each time I come across a new and odd sounding food. I always think, well... if I like cod tongues, then maybe *insert odd sounding food here* will be good too?

Anywho, since I like to keep all my favourite recipes together on this blog, and since the food fishery is now officially open for the next 3 weeks, I thought I would share this quick and easy recipe for fried tongues. If you've never tried them, they're highly delicious - be adventurous!

Baked Brie with Figs & Honey

Don't you love it when you walk into the grocery store for 1 thing and come out with 1 cartload? Yeah me neither, well at least my bank account doesn't like it, I'm usually pretty smitten with all my new goodies. In any case, that happened to me a couple of weeks back as I popped into Sobey's for a few last minute ingredients for supper, when all of a sudden I spied FRESH FIGS!! You don't even understand how excited I was... well actually in my mind I was freaking out, while on the exterior I was playing it cool, as to not draw attention to the rare and limited find!

Needless to say, my few items turned into my few items plus 6 precious little figs, crusty bread, double-creme brie and pure happiness. So again, I must reiterate, if you are a fig fan like me, please run, not walk to your nearest grocery store and scour those refrigerated produce racks, they won't be in season forever!

Strawberry and Cake Kebobs

In contrast to my last post, where I shared a hearty and comforting chowder for those chilly evenings, I now bring to you a light and airy treat perfect for those hot summer days. Strawberry and Cake kebobs combine tasty bites of strawberries, and fluffy, oh-so-tasty bits of angel food cake with your favourite topping. You don't even need the topping if you don't want it, but come off it, who wouldn't want a drizzling of chocolate or caramel or honey, even?

Now I can't take full credit for these beauties, as I spied them on Pinterest several months back, but I just had to try them for myself! They require very little effort to make, and to be honest as I was chopping my store-bought cake and strawberries, and taking all the shortcuts, I felt as though I was hosting my own episode of Nigella Express! Such a simple but delicious treat.

Fish Chowder

I was wondering about the timeliness of this post, as Fish Chowder is more of a wintery/cold, dreary-day type meal, but then I looked at the forecast for the coming week, and remembered where I live, and decided I was good to go. After all, I got married in August (typically one of the better months in Newfoundland) only to face rain, drizzle, wind and 5 degree temperatures... so really this hearty and oh-so-satisfying, soul-warming chowder is great any time of year.

It's also really easy, and pretty quick to make.

Quick & Easy Homemade Pizza Crust

I'll be honest, any time the word yeast pops up in a recipe, I immediately move on. In my mind, yeast translates to waiting around, and if you lack patience - which I always do when I'm hungry - 'waiting around' isn't an option.

Lucky for me, the hubby has a bit more patience, and decided to whip up this crust one night for supper. I was shocked at how easy it was to make, anddddd the fact that it only takes 20 minutes. I mean really, it'll take you that long to prep the toppings! For this recipe recap, I topped our pizza with pesto, chicken, mini heirloom tomatoes, artichokes, shallots and mozzarella - but the possibilities are endless. Definitely one of the best tasting crusts I've had. Apparently, 'yeast' isn't such a bad word after-all!

FYI this is yet another delicious recipe, courtesy of the Looneyspoons!

My Food Infatuation Turns 2!

Photo Credit

Yesterday My Food Infatuation turned 2! And there has been quite a bit of blogging happening over the last 730 or so days! To date I've had nearly 90,000 views on over 130 posts, and I've been very busy on social media. In addition to my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, I've created my first two YouTube videos and a Google+ account. Still really enjoying the blogging-life and looking forward to keeping it going for a third year!

Once again, thanks to all my followers and supporters. Keep the comments and shares coming, and stay tuned for lots of new recipes and foodie fun! ;)

xo,
Food Diva

Fee, Fie, Faux, Fried Chicken

If you're looking for a crowd-pleasing recipe, your search stops here - Fee Fi Faux Fried Chicken is wicked! There's a bit of work involved, and you will have to get your hands dirty, but that's half the fun! Definitely adding this recipe to my favourites. Serve this Looneyspoons recipe up with some corn-on-the-cob and homemade scalloped potatoes (The Greater Scalloped Potater) and you'll be loving life.